Is There a Buyer Out There for Our House?

Our house is ready and waiting for just the right buyer to see it. All the surfaces in the house are neat and tidy. The dining table even has two place settings on display to welcome visitors. The boy next door is keeping the lawn looking good and a friend is dead-heading the perennials and "harvesting" the mushrooms that keep coming up, due to all the rain in recent weeks. We've now had five "showings" in the three weeks since the for sale sign went up.

I feel like the train is moving toward its destination, but still don't know when we'll get there. In the meantime, we're enjoying summer in Michigan which is always too short a season.

From the Window of the Train

In my last post, I wrote that I felt like I had gotten onto a train whose destination was sale of the house. The train has left the station and I'm looking out the window, as I did many years ago when I traveled by train between school in MA and home in OH. The towns and cities that I'm seeing rush past my window are the house showings (we've had three so far) and the decisions being made about the actual move.

I'm considering hiring a "Personal Organizer." I know! You always thought I was well organized, so why would I need one of those? I met with one this week and was impressed with the services offered. I'm thinking of using her company to pack everything that we will take to Beacon Hill at Eastgate, supervise the movers, and unpack all the boxes at the apartment on moving day. At the end of the day, our kitchen cabinets will be settled, our clothing hung in closets, the bed made, and our pictures hung and all the boxes and packing materials will have been removed.

With those jobs out of the way, we'll be able to concentrate on settling into our new home. I'm looking forward to that!

All Aboard!

Our home for the past 47 years is on the market!

The for sale sign went up last week, we've had the first showing of the house, and all the rooms in our house have been measured and photographed from various angles. I feel like I've boarded a train and it's already moving down the track. I know what the destination is, but I don't know how slowly the train will move or when it will reach its destination (sale of the house). I've never been on this ride before, so it's exciting and a bit scary at the same time. The photographs will be up on the Internet in two days, should you want to take a look.

A Very Busy Day

I'm feeling guilty for not having posted to my blog for quite a while. Now, there is more to say than you may want to spend time reading. I'll just give you the highlights and get to the details later.

This morning I attended another of the Moving Made Easy seminars that Beacon Hill at Eastgate is offering to its future residents. The presenter asked me if I thought these seminars were helpful. I replied that Moving Made EASY doesn't really describe the process of downsizing, preparing to sell the house, and planning the actual move. Perhaps, Moving Made POSSIBLE might be a better title. There is nothing easy about moving out of the house you have lived in for 47 years.

This afternoon our realtor came with papers for me, the owner of the house, to sign. Before he left, he put the for sale sign up in our front yard. Wow! Now it's really happening. For those of you who might like a peek at our house, you will be able to see some photos on line as early as Thursday of this week. In another week there will be photos of the rooms from various angles as well as a more complete description of the property. Note, it's no longer our home now. It's become "a property for sale."

This evening a young family is coming to look at my baby grand piano. They have been referred to me by their piano tuner who has already examined my Knabe while another of his customers was interested in it. I'd like the piano to go to a family who would enjoy it, and this may be the family! At least, that's my hope. I'll keep you posted. There's more to the piano story that I'll post later. This is enough for your to read today.

Thanks for reading this far!

First Visit to our Apartment

At last, the day that I had been waiting for arrived. Jeff Huegli, pictured here with two future residents of Beacon Hill at Eastgate, graciously took us through the building from top to bottom. Jeff,the President of Beacon Hill, has been overseeing every detail of the plan for our retirement community. I took lots of pictures, and will be posting more of them in the days to come.



Here's one of the dining area in our apartment. We'll have lots of light. From our third floor view, the birdwatching should be excellent next spring. It's exciting to think that a year from now we'll be living in that space, enjoying the view from those windows. But now I must get back to making our basement presentable! I'll share more photos in future blog posts.

Putting the Finishing Touches on Her Public Face

As you can see from the photo taken this morning, the facade on the front of the East Wing has been painted to give the appearance of half timbers. When the exterior of the entire building has been completed, it's going to be quite handsome. I'll feel like I'm living in a cottage in the English countryside -- except for the roof -- the builder just couldn't get a permit for thatching the roof!

I had hoped to be taken on a tour of the building this past week, but we had heavy rain for a couple of days which left the building site a muddy mess. As soon as I can, I'll get in and take some photos for a future blog post.

Making Progress on the Stuff

I do hope my readers haven't been worried about me since my last post about feeling panicky. In the past two weeks, the panic has subsided as we begin to see progress in getting the house ready to sell. Here is what we have accomplished recently:

1. We've decided to list the house for sale on June first.
2. The realtor's photographer has photographed all the rooms. [It took me three days to get all the surfaces cleared off, dusted, and stuff tucked away.]
3. We put out a LOT of paper to be recycled this week as well as an extra huge box of trash.
4. Our handyman has spruced up the exterior of our house and painted the garage walls which REALLY needed painting.
5. I've shipped some "treasures" to my daughter as birthday gifts. UPS did the packing for me.
6. I've chosen two other "treasures" to give to a fund raising auction at Olivet College.
7. After my husband spent considerable time sorting through old family papers, we've taken several boxes of them to our summer home. [Will the kids ever be interested in looking at these? If you keep documents long enough, they become historic and worthy of archiving.]

That's an impressive list, if I do say so myself. Even the basement is beginning to look slightly less cluttered. With June first as our deadline, we'll have to keep at the task of downsizing.