For Sale

Remember when we did all of that work to our house recently? Remember the huge kitchen makeover?

The new paint downstairs?

The beadboard {wallpaper} in the dining room, etc?

Remember how I said we were going to stay in our house for longer?

Remember how sometimes I lie by accident? Yeah, that.

No later than October 15, our house will officially be on the market.

I know.

“What the heck, Jessica? Have you totally lost the wee bit of sanity that you had left??” you may be thinking.

Why yes, yes I have.

In all honesty, with Knox’s Autism diagnosis came a new way of thinking for Trevor and I. Our little family is going through some tough stuff right now, and there are harder times to come. One place that is always going to be a refuge for our kids is our home. Right now, while we are very grateful to have a safe, sturdy house, it is not a great fit for us. Namely, we have no outdoor space for our kids. Our lot is very big, but it sits on the main corner in our neighborhood. This means lots of traffic in the front yard, and sadly, while totally gorgeous, our backyard is NOT conducive to toddler play. It’s on a very large incline and poor Knox would roll down that hill, head over feet, if he tried his clumsy run back there.

Children need room to play outside. Boys really need room to play outside. Boys with Autism DEFINITELY need room to play outside. Studies show that physical exercise reduces “stims” (those “Autistic” behaviors like hand-flapping and in Knox’s case, his “happy dance”), and we notice a big difference in Knox when he is able to run and play outside. He pays more attention and is happier, in general. He just lights up when we go out to Trevor’s parents or grandparents’ house because he gets to run and play to his heart’s content. He would stay outside all day long if we let him. I want him to have that happiness at his own home. We know it’s not long, too, before Brody is running right along with him and will be wanting space for riding bikes, climbing trees and making the trouble that boys need to make.

We are also really out of space inside our house. It’s just about 1500 square feet, so while it worked well for us as a newlywed couple, when you add two babies to the mix and all of their stuff, those square feet start shrinking before your eyes. While our improvements have made the house nicer to look at, it doesn’t really function any better for us (aside from adding that open storage in the kitchen… that was a good move). So, we are going to try our hand at selling it. Chances are, it may take a while to get what we need out of it, but we hope for the best. I’ll be listing it myself, since I’m doing residential real estate now, so it should be good practice! Also, I’ll be saving us the cost of commission which is a nice perk.

That’s why I haven’t been overly present here lately. We have been doing a bazillion (<– actual number) projects to get the house ready to show. Little things like painting all of the trim in the house, painting the oak bathroom cabinets white to match the kitchen, moving out some superfluous furniture pieces to a storage unit to make the rooms feel larger, painting our porch/steps, etc. We still have to get the yard in order with new mulch and some pretty flowers and such for the porch, and our biggest project is coming this weekend: painting the ceiling downstairs. Yeah, we’ve pretty much put that off for the five years that we’ve lived here, but now that we removed that cabinet from the kitchen, there’s a sizeable splotch on the ceiling that needs to be repainted. Since our whole downstairs is open, the ceiling is very much open as well ie: there’s no stopping point, so we have to paint the whole thing. BLAH. Why does everything have to involve painting??

Our hope is that our improvements will help the house to sell more quickly in this buyer’s market (if you’re looking for a house in the Columbia area, hit me up!! Seriously, I could use some business people!). We’re basically just looking to break even so we can cut our losses and get into our forever home. I’ll chat more about that tomorrow, but in a nutshell, we already have property (four acres!!) next-door to Trevor’s grandparents and are planning to build our long-term home on it. We’ve already met with a builder and priced things out, so we are ready to move forward!

We are praying hard that this house sells and FAST because keeping the house show-ready with two boys under three (and their messy father)? Hold me.

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