House on the Market!

Today our house goes on the market. The pictures were taken by a professional photographer yesterday. He even did three or four 360 degree videos. We’re excited to see how they look. It already seems like we’re living in someone else’s house! Ours has never been this de-cluttered! We’re committed to trying to keep it this way too, which is tough in a weird way. When I got up this morning, I made the bed – before my first cup of coffee! I should add that with the exception of one day, I’ve been waking up between 5:00 and 7:00. That’s not my usual waking time, though with the summer-like weather, the light is probably waking me up early too. Mostly, I think I’m just so aware of the things that need to be done.

Don't know who's living room this is!

Barbara, our realtor, has been such great help.  She has helped us with "staging" the house.  She even brought in some pictures for blank places on our walls - a result of moving furniture and removing my wall unit from the living room.  The house looks beautiful, if I don't say so myself!  Steve wondered if I still want to sell it?  I am unwavering.

By the way, I learned something else in terms of our "worldly goods".  I had this beautiful 3- piece entertainment center with display cabinets in our livingroom for the past 10 years.  It was truly a beautiful piece (to me).  I recognized immediately that our house would show better if that piece wasn't in our livingroom.  It was a bit crowded ... but 6 years ago our livingroom furniture was only four years old, and I wasn't even close to being ready to get rid of it.  It just had to fit.

Well, zip ahead to the present.  Though we never put a TV in that wall unit, it was built for the old-style televisions.  I used it as a china cabinet - storing all those extra pieces I just used for entertaining.  I wondered how much I could make off selling it?!   I put it on Craigslist twice -- the second time cutting the price in half.  Only scammers made contact with me (another story, another time).  So I called the consignment place to see if they'd be willing to sell it.  Imagine my surprise to find they wouldn't take it either!  They said they just can't sell them.  Reality check!  Just because you treasure something, and take good care of it, don't assume anybody else will value your item.  Buy and enjoy and use things for yourself, but don't expect other people to want it when you're done.  I'm okay with it, by the way.  It was just a surprise to learn!

Barbara said yesterday that she had Realtors who were already wanting to see our place. We don’t know if that means we’ll be getting calls to show it today or not. We hope not, as Steve’s got a Tek lunch, and I have to be here between 11:00 – 2:00 while I wait for the charity to come get our wall unit from the garage. We need that thing gone!

It’s going to be very interesting to see how this “selling-the-house” thing goes. I wonder what God will do. This is His next big chance to make it clear if we are not to sell. If I’ve learned one thing through this adventure so far, it’s that we must wait for learning what the next step is. Planning is done, but done very loosely. We never know what the next thing is until we get to the next thing. As a planner, this is new for me. I think I’m handling it just fine though ... at least for now.