We Sold Our House-Now What?

We Sold Our House-Now What?

We can finally tell you all about the sale of our house and what’s next for us!

Hello, friends!

I can’t believe it’s been almost three weeks since my last post!

Time sure goes by when you’re having fun. Of course, I wouldn’t exactly call what we’ve been up to these past few weeks…fun!

If you’ve ever moved before you’ll know exactly what I mean, and if not…well, I’ll be sharing a wee bit of our experience in today’s post.

But before I get to that I want to thank all of you AMAZING folks who have continued to stop by the blog even though we haven’t had much new content lately, and who have emailed to check up on us and send your support!

We cannot express to you in words how much it has meant to us and we will forever be grateful for your prayers and kindness!

Today’s post is going to be a wee bit long (grab your favorite beverage) but should answer most of your questions and if not please don’t hesitate to email us or leave a comment.

selling our house.

Based on everything we had researched-including talks with SEVERAL top realtors in our area, NOW was the absolute BEST time to sell!

Even so, those who have been following along for some time now can understand that this decision was definitely a bittersweet one for me.

This was my first REAL home.

I purchased this home during a very rough time in my life. (I had lost my job-A fifteen-year relationship ended and my only child went off to college)

It was my saving grace back then and in the sixteen years since this home had seen me through SO many amazing times and yes, a few bad too.

As I have mentioned before,  I fell in love with this house the moment I stepped up onto its large and incredibly welcoming front porch.

I can still recall the giddiness I felt the moment I found the old porch swing in the old shed in the backyard. It was the very first thing I took my paintbrush to and the beginning of MANY, MANY DIY projects to come.

Oh, how I LOVED that porch.

But after years and years of hard work remodeling every room in the house, Michael and I were ready for a change.

We needed a new adventure. So with the blessings of our family and the insight and support of an AMAZING realtor, we put the house on the market at the end of April.

fabulous feedback

Never, not EVER could we have imagined the incredible response we would receive when we did!!!!

Once the photos of our home went live on Facebook and several realtor sites, phone calls and texts started coming almost immediately. People starting sharing the posts and the number of positive comments virtual strangers left was mind-blowing indeed! The following few days, everywhere we went folks would come up and compliment us on how lovely our home was. It meant the world to us and truly made us feel that all the years of hard work we’d put into the house was worth it.

Of course, although we felt blessed for all the praise, the truth is LOVING our home and buying it were two different things. Then our realtor started scheduling one showing after another and the reality of our decision set in.

property predicament

As many of you know, we’ve been struggling for over two years to find the perfect piece of land to build our dream home on. But shortly before we put our house on the market, we found a property for sale. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but with such slim pickings to choose from, we thought maybe we were being a bit TOO picky. So we made an offer. Unfortunately, the seller’s realtor advised us that though the lot we wanted was for sale, it came as a packaged deal and we would have to purchase the other two larger lots as well. Two lots would have stretched our budget, but we were willing to do so, but three? There was no way! Especially since construction costs have nearly doubled if not tripled since just last year!

Although we were disappointed, we knew there were other land opportunities in the near future that were coming available so we rescinded our offer and focused on finding a home to rent in the interim.

rental rush

Even before the property predicament occurred, we knew that we’d be renting for a time during this new adventure.  Building a home takes time, and since we didn’t want to impose on family and friends, renting was the best option. With that said, the rental inventory in our area was at an all-time low. Many folks had started building at the beginning of 2020 and then found themselves having to put construction on hold due to materials or contractors not being available due to Covid. This meant they were staying in those rentals MUCH longer than expected. The remaining properties were getting snatched up by a group of traveling nurses.

With such a low inventory, EVERYWHERE, we were really starting to panic. Especially since we were blessed five days after we put the house on the market with an offer we couldn’t refuse!

Finally one day Michael got a lead on a house for rent that he was familiar with. Although he hadn’t been in it for at least two years, he remembered it being small but cozy. It also had a garage for storage which was a HUGE bonus! So he made a call to the owner. Surprisingly, the house was going to be available at the end of the month!  The only issue? We wouldn’t be able to get in to see the house for at least two weeks as the current tenants were painting. That was definitely cutting it short, but we really didn’t have a choice.

 the day we met the owner of the rental house finally came and both of us were SUPER excited. This was the beginning of a new chapter for us and we couldn’t wait to get started. I swear we literally skipped up the walkway to the front door!

Except… well…there WAS no front door. Not kidding, my friends. The only thing left of the full-length glass-paneled door was a jagged piece of glass.

This should have been the first sign to run, but before we could the owner appeared in the doorway. She was so nice and apologetic that we put our fears aside and carefully stepped inside. What we found was an absolute nightmare!

The inside of the house looked like one of those homes you see on fixer-upper shows. Almost every window in the house had been broken. Both doors had the glass and screens ripped out. There were holes in the walls and in both bedroom doors. And the filth…OMG, it was so gross my skin crawled.

As I turned to grab Michael and take a quick run for it, I caught a glimpse of the owner’s eyes. There were tears there and it was then she began explaining that she and her husband hadn’t seen the house since they rented it to a family of five and a German Shephard over a year ago. Because of Covid, they weren’t able to take care of any maintenance so they hired it out when needed. SHE was actually seeing the home for the FIRST time this way too!

My heart went out to her because I could see how upset she truly was.  As we stepped back outside she explained that the home had been her first after a nasty divorce. She and her sons had created so many wonderful memories in the home. So much so that she couldn’t bear to sell it when they went off to college. Her decision to rent it was an easy one, she said. Unfortunately, she realized early on that her heart was bigger than her business sense.

Needless to say, we didn’t rent that home.

A week or so later, Michael saw the landlord at the house and stopped to see how she was holding up. Not surprisingly, she said that she and her husband had decided NOT to rent the home again. They were putting it up for sale.

For us, the countdown was on. We had less than three weeks before we had to vacate our current home.

Now don’t get me wrong. If something didn’t turn up we always had our family to turn to. Although it wasn’t a possibility at this time to live with our kids,(one lives 3 hours away, the other one lives in a tiny home, and the youngest lives in an apartment). As for our parents? Well, there were a few obstacles there too!

So we just kept searching.

god’s grace

Even when we couldn’t find land or the rental turned out to be a dump, I knew…there was a reason.

Like everything that has occurred in my life…

God has a plan.

I kept repeating that to myself as each day ticked off the calendar and we continued to pack our things, even though we had nowhere to go.

Then one day our realtor called and said she might have a lead on a rental house. We were overjoyed with the possibility! The house had recently been TOTALLY gutted and was currently being remodeled from top to bottom. It had a deck and a small porch and a garage for all of Michael’s STUFF! Every detail about the home sounded perfect!

But there was a glitch. It wouldn’t be ready until August!

We needed to move EVERYTHING by the end of June!

Michael and I both felt like we were on the way up the last hump of the emotional roller coaster ride we’d been on. And then suddenly down we went again. We were exhausted. Physically, mentally and yes, even spiritually.

Worse? We were starting to question our faith.

If God truly did have a plan, why were there so many obstacles to go through to get there?

It seemed every time we turned around there was yet another obstacle to overcome.

Now we needed to find a place to live for one month and the possibility of that happening seemed totally hopeless!

Even the few apartments we heard were opening wanted a year lease.

We had just two weeks and I’m not going to lie. I  was beginning to doubt God really did have a plan.

But he did.

On June 30th, after years of investing plenty of blood, sweat, and tears, and making thousands of wonderful memories, we closed on our house.

That same day we moved into a newly refreshed apartment. I’m typing this post from my current office which is also a guest bedroom for when our kids come to stay this month! Although much smaller than our house, the apartment has everything we could possibly want or need, and the best part? We were able to rent it for just one month!!! No lease!

God DID have a plan.

He always does.

And though we miss many things about our ‘old’ home-like the front porch, and yes, all those beautiful flowers I’m sharing in today’s post. We are also very excited about what is to come.

Right now we are just enjoying the fact that we don’t have anything on our to-do list! In fact, we don’t even HAVE a to-do list!

This past holiday weekend, instead of working on one project or another as we usually did, we enjoyed some local festivals, went for a walk, and lounged in the sun.

All these things may sound ‘simple’ and normal, to most. But not to us. Truth is, we haven’t enjoyed some of the ‘simplest’ of things in a LONG time.

what’s next

Yes, as I said,  we will be moving… AGAIN at the end of the month! That part we are NOT looking forward to. But moving into a brand new house? Yes, we are looking forward to that.

Although we haven’t been inside the home yet, we have seen photos of some of the finishes and updates. I’m in love with everything I’ve seen so far!

We will also be moving to a different community too!!! It’s such a sweet community, filled with all the things we love to do! I CANNOT wait to see old friends and make new ones too!

Our plan is to rent the new house until we find the perfect property, but who knows? Maybe I’ll fall in love with this house and we’ll end up buying it instead!!!

God has a plan

And I’m going to leave it with him to decide.

WHEW!!! This post ended up being WAY longer than I expected my friends, so I’ll end things here and be back on Friday with my future plans for the blog!

Thank you again for all your support! And don’t forget if you have any additional questions about our move that I didn’t cover, please email us at palletandpantry@gmail.com or leave us a comment!