Sunday, April 09, 2006

It's sooner than I think

Today, my family and I went to look at a house. It belongs to some friends of mine who are retiring to Orlando to be closer to their family. I used to clean this house once a week, so I was very familiar with it, but I hadn't seen the house in 6 yers.

So I went in saying to myself - look at the space, not how clean or cluttered it is. It's still a great house! It needs some cosmetic work (not a problem for me!), a serious cleaning, and the carpet downstairs is original to the house... which was built in 1964. Dogs have lived there for a long, long time, so it smells a bit doggy, but a good scrub-down, new paint and taking up some of the carpets (hardwood underneath) should take care of that.

The owners have been working on the front yard and it looks pretty darn good. The back yard is a jungle, but backs up on a ravine so there's no one right behind it. We will have our work cut out for us back there.

So, here's the deal. The current owner is reluctant to leave. I don't blame him - I wouldn't want to retire to Orlando myself! So we will lease the house for a year, which gives him time to adjust to being in the new place and we will work on the house and the yard during that time. At the end of a year, if they're not happy there, they move back up here and we look for another house somewhere. If they stay, we buy the house here. I've done the math and it looks like it will work out for us financially either way.

Now I just have to get my current home ready to sell. I've been patching walls (from when the tornado shook us) and they are about ready to paint. Finish the woodwork and the floor in the master bedroom and that's done! Call a plumber to fix the shower in the master bath and install a new tub and surround in the other bath. Call an electrician to fix some light fixtures, and get an estimate on a new heat pump for the house. Some painting, some flooring, some serious carpet cleaning - and we're good to go. I would like to put the house on the market mid- to late- May. It will be intense work, but I know we can pull it off.

I'm so excited!!!!

1 comment:

Liane Michel said...

That's fantastic!! I'm so excited y'all!