We've had quite the emotional week and it's only Tuesday! Our beloved long term home will be listed for sale this week. We've found a realtor who has great success with selling and feel comfortable with her so far. Over the last few weeks, we've spent countless hours transforming the feel of the home from a stark grey color on the walls, with marked up trim work and yellowing ceilings, into a warm shade of "Whisper Wheat" and bright, white trim. We even took the time (and a whole lot of energy) to repaint the ceilings ~ an unbelievable amount of work, stress, effort and sweat went in to those long days. Our home is 40 years old this Summer and the "popcorn" ceilings have been painted a few times. A job I hate but the end result is worth the back breaking work. Very thankful we went with a knock down ceiling texture in the cottage ~ much easier to paint if we ever want to. Now the work is done and we are ready to sell.
I've posted a few pics to show our progress. The top left is our front hall with stairs that lead up to four bedrooms and two full bathrooms, along with two linen closets. On either side of the hall is our living room with double french doors on one side and the dining room with three long windows and two french doors ~ one leads to the hall and one into the kitchen. The full back of the house is the back entrance with laundry, the kitchen, the nook and then a few steps down to the sunken family room with a wood burning fireplace. French doors lead out to the garden, with a deck, attached gazebo and grass with plenty of bushes, trees and a little raspberry patch. We are hopeful that a young family with many children will love this house as we have for 30 years. A school down the street, no traffic, four parks and a lake all make this classic subdivision a popular place to live.
So why the emotion? Even though we haven't physically lived in the house since we moved to the cottage, it still pulls on my heart strings. Both dh and I grew up in very transient homes. Never stayed at one school for very long as we were both always moving. In my family, we almost never unpacked all the boxes as we knew we'd be moving in six to twelve months again. My dad was a realtor and my mom a banker, so moving up was always a thing. When dh and I were married at twenty two, we bought our first home, an expected thing from my family but brand new to his as they always rented, hence moving around. But we bought to flip so we could move up and we did that for the first eight years of marriage, moving every two years after buying a house to gut and then resell. Worked well and our kids were so young. But we did want to settle down and this house ended up being that dream. We saw this house when my parents took us on a showhome parade one Summer day. And there it was, THE dream home at the time. However, it was not in our budget and at the time, with post secondary, jobs and the possibility of marriage, the dream was not to be. Just over ten years later, we were out one day with our kids, saw a for sale sign in the subdivision, drove down the street and around the bend and there it was, with a for sale sign on the front law. We called our realtor, viewed the house, went for a walk, viewed it again, made an offer, went home to tidy our house up and later that night, our house that had NOT been for sale, sold in just a few hours. It was meant to be! Six weeks later, we were unpacking in our new home and dreaming of filling up the bedrooms with more kids. That house has seen births and deaths, school and homeschooling, friends and fights, parties and quiet times. We grew in ourselves and in our marriage. Parenting was tested and succeeded. Kids grew, partners became part of the family and grandkids soon arrived. It was hard to leave but building our little cottage in the big woods was another dream and we couldn't be more settled here now. It's time to sell and as excited as we are, I'm sure it will be a bittersweet day when we hand the keys over to another family. I hope they have as much fun as we did living in our little Village house! Love grew here. Life was truly lived.
Have you lived in one place for long?
Or do you tend to move around in life?
~ Chy
