The House is SOLD!

The house did go to settlement as planned last Wednesday.  I was so thankful that not only did it go off without a hitch, but I also managed to make it through without crying or otherwise making an ass out of myself in front of the buyers, which I was concerned about beforehand.  We won't talk about how much we had to pay to sell the house because it's just depressing, but as sad as I am about selling our home, it is a relief to have it over.  It is weird and sad to be here knowing it isn't our house, but I am trying hard not to think about it and just enjoy the last week we are here.  I have taken some strange comfort in the fact that the buyers are around our age and are engaged.  For whatever reason I really like the fact that this will be their first house together and they will get to have similar first memories here.  I guess whatever makes me feel better.

Since I never got around to it before, I figure this would be the perfect post to finally show off all all the work we put into the house over the last 3 1/2 years.  Please ignore the dark shadows in some of the before pics, I'm not sure what the deal with the camera was.

The front before.  


The front after.





The foyer before.


The foyer after.





The kitchen before.  Can you say 1970???  Be sure to note the lovely plaid wallpaper, the disco ball light fixture, army green counters and of course, the crafty pineapple stencils.  Not to mention there was zero counter space.








The kitchen after. By far the hardest part about leaving our first house behind is leaving my FANTASTIC kitchen. Jimmy was thrilled when he realized by putting in the island that we had in fact installed a regulation sized beer pong table! We knocked down the walls dividing the kitchen from the living room and dining room, and installed all new custom built cabinets with soft close drawers (which I did not pay extra for and thought were completely pointless, but now do not know how I will live without), granite counters, a HUGE granite composite sink, under-cabinet lighting and more. There is so much room to work and I love that everyone hangs out at the island when they come over. I am going to MISS my kitchen!









The living room before.


The living room after.  Really just fresh paint and more stylish furnishings.





The dining room before.  Could that light fixture be any uglier?


The dining room after.



The hall bath before. It was my bathroom since I refused to use the tiny master bath. The sage green honestly wouldn't have been so bad with better accessories, but that wood toilet seat made me crazy!




My bathroom after.





The guest room before.  They must have gotten an incredible deal on that hideous green paint because it was everywhere, including the cement block walls in the laundry room.


The guest room after.  A word of advice ~ DO NOT EVER paint a room red until you have purchased the bedding, curtains, or any other furnishings you might need to match.  Red can be surprisingly hard to match/compliment depending on the shade.  



The office before.


The office after.



The master bedroom before.


The master bedroom after.



The master bathroom before.  I cannot begin to describe how much I HATED this bathroom.  So much so, that if I needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would still walk down the hall to the other bathroom.  




The master bath after. It KILLS me that we only finished it about 6 months ago. It's still small, but I finally like it and now we're leaving. I have to say the pictures really don't do it justice. The tile is really pretty with decorative insets and for some reason the colors in the room just didn't come out well in the pictures.





The basement rec room before.




The basement rec room after.  It is amazing what a difference painting over the dark paneling made.  Another project I am kicking myself for putting off for so long!





The basement powder room before.  Apparently mismatching the toilet seat to the toilet was in style at one point???  And more stencils.  I did feel a little bad painting over them knowing the last owner had lovingly applied them, but they had to go.


The powder room after.  I actually borrowed a wet tile saw from a friend and tiled the bathroom myself while Jimmy was at work.  He was super impressed despite the fact me, my cell phone and the cat were all covered in grout!



The basement bedroom before.


The basement bedroom after.  This was my office until a few months ago and I really love how it turned out after I staged it to sell.



There's really no before and after to these, but since the deck was one of my favorite spots I still wanted to show off the backyard.








With everything going on my life this quote is particularly touching to me right now:

"Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong.  Sometimes it's letting go."
~Sylvia Robinson

One, Two, Three Weeks From Now

One week from today, god willing, we are scheduled to settle on our house.   This is NOT the market to sell a home in and after all the work we've put into it, it's really hard to swallow writing such a huge check to get rid of it.  I wish I could be happy about it, but it's really hard.  Adding to the stress is the fact they wanted such a quick settlement (2 weeks and 1 day after they put in their offer), we are having to rent back since there is no way we can be out by settlement, and we failed the radon test.  It has been a roller coaster of emotions and negotiations.  I am looking forward to it being done!

Two weeks from tomorrow will be my last day at my job and I am officially unemployed.  I'm thinking of bartending or cocktail waitressing once I get down there so I'll have more flexibility as far as my schedule and pay, but jobs are competitive down there, so I'm just going to have to wait and see where the journey takes me.

And three weeks from today, we will be moving out of Maryland.  This is the only place I can ever remember calling home and I really have no idea how I'm going to take it.  Leaving our family, our friends, everything that is familiar to us, the first house we bought together and all our memories is beyond bittersweet.  It is sometimes hard to remember in all this chaos and stress that this is really what I want.

BUT, the great part of my week was that Jimmy and I were down in Florida for the last 5 days and found an AMAZING place to rent.  We totally lucked out finding a place the guy was desperate to get rented quickly and gave us a $400/month discount over what he was originally asking.  No way we would be living there had he not!   So this is where Jimmy and I will be 
calling home between now and at least October 31, 2009!


Foyer



Guest Room #1 - We're leaving their furniture in there.


Guest Room #2 - We're leaving the bunk beds so we can sleep more people and still fit our desk in there.  I guess we'll have to pull straws when we're having a bunch of people in town at once.


   

The kitchen!  I'm in love with the fact that on top of an island we also have the breakfast bar where you can pull up a stool.  The granite countertops and large pantry also soften the blow of leaving the great kitchen we have now!  :)

  

The combination living room/dining room.  I think it's about the same size as what we have now, but I haven't measure yet to see how far I may be off.  All their ugly furniture, including the decorative mallards will be packed away and put in storage as soon as we get there!  The 4 panel slider at the back of the living room opens completely up onto the balcony and we can hear the ocean from the kitchen!!!  



Our master bedroom.  I finally have a bedroom big enough for a king size bed!!!  And from the bed you can see the ocean!!!  And it has his and her's walk-in closets!  I am in heaven!




 
 

What's that a toilet with it's own door AND a big tub???  I've died and gone to heaven!!!

 
 

 
 

And the very best part is the view from our over sized balcony where we can see and hear the ocean waves crashing!!!  The first place we looked at had a perfect view with no obstructions in between, but this place is so much bigger and nicer that it was worth the compromise.  


Was I really complaining about selling my house???   The last few weeks have been incredibly stressful, and I know the next few weeks aren't going to be much better, but I do have some fantastic things, including our new place, to look forward to.  We found out while we were in FL that the next shuttle launch is scheduled for my birthday, the week after we move down, and it looks like there is a good chance we will have at least one friend coming down for it!!!  We also learned from our real estate agent that there is a "Turkey Trot" on Thanksgiving Day which is a 10K (I think) run where people run through the streets carrying turkeys (why I have no idea, but that is definitely right up Jimmy's alley).

So I am exhausted and am going to get to bed, but I know there were a lot of people waiting to see pics.  And as you can see we have plenty of room for people to come visit.  Right now it looks like Lydia, Matt and Mike may win the "first to visit" award, but we'd still love to see you soon!



"Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home, sweet home
For there the heart can rest."
~Henry Van Dyke