House Update

We sold our house over the weekend!
It was on the market for 13 days when we got an offer that we accepted.

Not bad in this market!

It really is a sweet story of God providing for us.
I know you would like to hear it.....

We have some friends (yes! we have friends!) that are moving back to the area.  They have been overseas and then moved to Arizona and are being transferred back to Peoria by Cat.  Anyway, when we heard they were coming back we set up a time for them to come to dinner and told them our house was going on the market.  They accepted our dinner invite and said our house was too big so they would be looking for something smaller.

Forward to last Saturday.....
I got a text from our realtor asking if the house could be shown.  We never turn down a showing so, of course, the answer was yes.  I stayed home from Abby's volleyball tourney to get everything in order and get the dog out while the house was being shown.  About an hour after the showing, I got a text saying that the people really liked the house and were going home to talk it over.  I forwarded the info to Bill and he was excited as well.  Shortly, I got a call from Bill saying that the people that saw our house were our friends and they wanted the house!  Later that night, they emailed Bill and asked if the price they were going to offer would be accepted (they didn't want to low-ball us but could only offer a certain amount).  Their offer was a good offer and we accepted with a closing date of 3/15. 

Sunday evening they came over for dinner and we enjoyed time together before walking through the house again explaining things like the water softner, other appliances and anything that we had fixed or replaced along the way.  They told us the story of how they decided to make an offer.  They went to lunch after seeing our house and kept talking about making an offer when the Mrs. finally got him to make the call to Bill.  He wanted to wait until they were done with lunch before calling and he was taking WAY too long to eat!  They are VERY excited to be moving into our home and we are excited that God will continue to use our home for His Glory! 

We have been in a whirlwind since Sunday.
I started making and receiving calls all day on Monday.
Tuesday we had our contractor ready to meet us at the new house to get us a quote to finish the basement.  Yesterday our house had an inspection.  Praise the Lord, we only have 2 GFI oulets that need to be replaced!  The inspector was just as excited about it as I was!!  I have the electrician set to come and fix them on Monday.  (I know I could probably fix it myself but I don't want any issues so I am going to have the professionals do it!)  Our realtor was in disbelief and continued to ask questions.  Apparently, the inspector is pretty hard nosed and always picks apart homes.  Again, we are thankful for the grace God has shown us in this area!

Today I met with the movers.
We are moving everything except the heavy stuff.  We don't have the equipment to move it ourselves and don't have the desire to hurt ourselves either!  They will move it all and place it in our home where we want it for a very reasonable price.  We are thrilled to have that taken care of.

Tomorrow night our house is being used for a Campus Crusade retreat so we will either be gone or hiding in our room so that the kids can enjoy their time here.  Saturday we have a mish mash of things to do.  Someone is picking up our lawnmower and we need to run over to a friends house to pick up moving boxes.  She just moved last weekend and is letting us use her boxes.  Please keep her in your prayers!  She has been cancer free for 5 years and they just found a spot that they had to biopsy and she gets the results tomorrow.  She is a sweet sweet darling gal and always has the praise of God on her lips.

Today was a down day for me.
I needed it!
I am starting to feel run down and I know that if I get sick now, I will be down for the count.  I can't have that happen right now.

Signing off for tonight,
J

Surprise!

We have had an exciting week.
We bought a new house!
Isn't it pretty?!

Abby's bedroom

Abby's bathroom
that she gets to share with our guests.

Master Bedroom

Sitting Room in Master

My sink.
Bill's is to the left of the tub.

Family Room
Love love love the built-ins!

Laundry room
To the left is a wall of closet space!
One of my favorite rooms in the house.
My current laundry room is fine but if I am doing laundry and someone comes in the back door, I get hit in the head with the door.  Not going to happen here!

Kitchen
To the right is the family room

Bill checking out the drawers

Can't wait to use my new appliances!

Dining room

It is a ranch with a full basement.
Gabby's room will be down there.
Along with a full bath, weight room, and home theatre.
We close the middle of March and will begin construction as soon as we close.  We are excited about the new house (still in the same school district), anxious about selling this one (hits the market on Monday) and tired at the thought of all that packing and keeping the house clean!  But it is a beautiful house and we got a very good deal on it.  We could not build this house for the price.  We have lawn mowing and snow removal taken care of as well.  This is the most low maintenance house we have found.  Right up our alley!! 

We are amazed at how quickly the deal came together as is our agent.  She is excited to get our house listed and thinks it will sell quickly.  We know that the odds of it selling by the time we close it pretty slim but we can still live here as we finish the basement in the new house plus make some changes to the walk in closets. 

We spent part of today looking for some new furniture.
We need a new dining room table.
We found one we really like along with a sofa table, coffee table, side tables, buffet table and desk.  We weren't looking for the extra stuff but we are thinking that a few of those items would be great additions.

Of course, with a smaller house means we have to thin out what we have so I have been cleaning like a mad woman!  Our garbage and recyle guys hate us!!  The antique bed we have will go back to my parents.  The dining table will go to a friend of the girls as she will need it for her college apartment next year.  I don't know what we will do with the large oak desk.  I am pretty sure nobody will want that!  We will eventually need to get rid of 3 dressers.  The girls will have large walk in closets so the closet system we put in will include drawers so they won't need the dressers.  Small house = smaller rooms too. 

I am looking forward to having less to keep clean!

I will keep you posted on what is going on :}

Hugs
Jeanette

Not much new in this new year

Tomorrow the girls go back to school.
Bill went back to work today.
It was our last day to sleep in.
And we did!

I finally got up and got going shortly after 8.
I have been working on cleaning the last few days and finally got it done today.  The girls helped so we could go out for a late lunch at Chili's.  It was yummy!

My schedule starts to heat back up again as well.
Thankfully, I am taking January off of work.
They miss me but I needed a break.
I don't know if I will go back in February or not.
It has become a big source of frustration for me.
We will wait and see.

I will spend my time getting things done at home.
I started my "honey do" list for myself today.
Looks like all kinds of closets need to be cleaned out and organized.
We have some ceiling cracks that need to be repaired so I am waiting on a guy to give me a quote to get that done. 

I am working thru my photo albums as well.
I got a small handheld scanner and am scanning pictures so that I have them on my computer so if anything should happen I have a back up of them.  This will be my winter project and so far I am getting a lot done.  I will need to organize them once they are in the computer but the scanning is what takes forever!

We are just starting to see the winter temps.
It has been nice while it lasted but it is January now so it is time for some snow.  The temps are certainly ripe for some snow!  The wind on Sunday and Monday were brutal!!  My tootsies have been cold all day so I know it is cold outside :}

Time for me to put on my pj's on.
Enjoy your evening!

Hugs,
Jeanette