Where I'm Pouring My Blood Sweat and Tears

As I sit writing this blog, I am fondly reminded of how I felt approximately 5 years ago when I said "We're never. moving. again. ever." I think I uttered that phrase as we were in the thick of unloading boxes into our new home and I was flat out exhausted.

Well, times change, and priorities change. And houses that once seemed "so big", can seem "so small". When Steve and I bought our first house 5 years ago we were in our early (okay mid, but whatever) 20's. We didn't have kids and Steve was still in grad school. So, we bought a house that was perfect for us at the time. It was cute and charming with 2 bedrooms, a loft and a huge cathedral ceiling. We put a fence in for the dogs and called it home. I loved our house (in fact I still do love it... if we didn't have kids, I think I could live there happily for several more years). The two big things I didn't like about it were 1. because of the high ceiling, it can be tricky to heat in the winter, and 2. There is really not much space for storage. But again, it was such a cute floorplan, so cozy, a quiet neighborhood, super close to Castleton without the hassle... I could go on...

Welll, as I said, priorities change. And with this cute floorplan comes a loft with a huge railing that scares me to death every time Brett approaches it (yes, we have installed a railnet), and no big open spaces for him to play. Also, there is NO room for all of his toys... and I have a feeling that if we have to stay, we'll have to build a separate playroom just for him. So, what to do? Yep, put the house on the market.

I had been marinating on this idea for awhile now, but I kind of had to sell it to Steve, I think. See, as I said before, with me going down to part time, our income was cut by 1/3, so even though we need more space, we realisticly don't have the money to afford much more house. I know. A pickle. And we love Fishers. I mean LOVE. It is a great area to raise a family, the schools are wonderful and it is close enough to Indy but right on top of 69 for Steve's trip up to Muncie. So, yes, we want to stay in Fishers. And, you don't get quite as much house for the $$ in Fishers (well, that's on average... I've been combing through the listings and have found some that don't follow this rule).

So, about a month ago we called our realtor and talked with him about selling. We've never been on this end so we had a flood of questions for him... but it seems like even though the market is bad, they are still seeing sales in Fishers. We then set up a meeting with our mortgage broker and talked with her... we had no problems getting approved for the best rates, so that was good. And, shortly after our realtor came to our house to get an idea of what he'd be selling and go over things with us that we needed to fix up.

Then, Steve and I had to actually DO something. We made our list... it seemed daunting, but we decided to break it up piece by piece. We got an estimate for carpet/vinyl last week and started the touch up painting this past weekend. Next weekend is our bedroom. That will be a huge project, and I know it will be the death of me, but I'm trying to be positive about this. Still so much to do... I was already exhausted with our shopping/painting/assessing/light packing this weekend. Plus, we are deep into our mini marathon training which also takes up a siginificant portion of the weekend. And, we have a baby, which cuts our work in half. Luckily my parents are going to hang out with Brett next Saturday so that Steve and I can knock as much out as we can.

Last night I was literally EXHAUSTED. My feet HURT. I couldn't think anymore... I went to bed early.

Our goal is to have the house ready late April/early May. Wish us luck! Oh, and if you know someone who wants to buy a "super-cute" house in Fishers, I'd love to talk to them!