Last year things seemed to be getting away from us. We had moved into a new house in 2007 - our dream house really. 28000 square feet. 3 acres. Orchard. Garden. Multiple Shops. Views. Country living with double ovens. And don't get me wrong - I love my house. I have a downstairs master with a fireplace, my daughter has the whole upstairs to herself, my husband has a custom built shop for all his toys... But it started to seem like we were all living different lives. And there were rooms we never used. I spent so much time and money decorating the "formal" (it has no TV) living room, and we could go weeks with out going in there. We spent all our time in the kitchen, the family room and our bedrooms. I started to ask myself - did we really need all of this space? After some internal dialogue time, I started talking it out with G. Do we really need this? Is this what we want for the next 20 years? Are we missing out on family time that we will never get back? And on top of all of these questions was the fact that we were commuting about 45 minutes each way every day. So, in the mist of the worst economic downturn our generation has seen, we put our house on the market.
We have had our house on the market now for six months. Not one offer. It feels like living in limbo. And the costs associated with keeping your house show ready, especially when both parties work full time in another town? Not cheap, either monetarily or emotionally.
I've been paying someone to come in and clean for the last five months, but she is moving away, and the job will now revert to us. So I'm back to figuring out how we as a family are going to keep our house in a show ready state, while being away from the house 11-12 hours a day, eating nutritious home cooked meals, not neglecting our animals or child, and still maintaining some family and couple time.
Yikes!
I know that I am not alone. I have a wonderful partner who takes on 50 percent (or more) of the child rearing. G takes on all outdoor chores, so unless I want to garden, I don't have to worry about anything outside at all (and with three acres there can be a lot to do!)
Once we sell the house we'd like to move back to the town where we work. We want to buy a duplex that needs to be remodeled, and live in one side while we work on it, then move to the other side and renovate that. We have done lots of renovations in both houses we've owned, and G.'s dad and brother are both contractors, so we have lots of help and advice. Our goal is to have several rentals by our late 50's, so that we can use them for retirement income. But we can't get this plan started until we sell our house. It's that limbo thing again.
What about you? Do you know anyone trying to sell a house in this market? What are their coping strategies?
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