Seems like I'm walking on this yellow brick road, and everything is falling into place at just the right time, despite the fact that I don't know how it ever will. So I keep walking the path in front of me.
Mike has said all along that he thought we needed to move close to the first week of July, so we made it our goal to have the house ready enough by June 1st to have someone look at it and help us decide how we should go about selling it. (We already decided that due to its age and the amount of upkeep, we did NOT want to keep it as a rental). Since we were only a few years shy of paying it off, we'd held off on a lot of repairs, thinking we'll just wait until it's paid off and we'll have the spare cash to make all those improvements. Now here we are, without the time, money, or energy to work on any of those repairs. So we went back and forth about how to go about selling the place as-is and still get the most money out of the house. Despite some needed repairs inside, it still holds the nicest curb appeal of all the houses on the street and claims two nice, sturdy outdoor living spaces, the front and the back porch, plus a spacious gated driveway, and a second section of the yard fenced off for storage of perhaps a camper, trailer, off-road vehicle, etc.
Anyway, June 1st came and went, and the house was no where near ready, nor had we made any decision as to whether to call a realtor or call a company that buys houses as-is. We couldn't agree on what to do, and the house wasn't ready either. But people kept asking about our move date, and Mike kept saying the first of July. Then they asked him at work when he planned to leave, and he said the same, around the fourth of July. (My dad's birthday is July 5th, so we agreed to not leave before then.)
A very close friend who is a realtor and used to live in Texas posted something on Facebook about reaching out to her for help in buying or selling a home because she still had her real estate license in Texas. So we asked her for honest advice. She did some checking around for us and hooked us up with one of her colleagues here in our area. She came and looked at the house the very next morning (the day after school got out), pointed out the main selling points (the porches), and said to fix those up a bit and then list the house as-is. We both felt very comfortable with her and trusted our friend who hooked us up with her, so we signed the papers and told her we'd have it ready in a week since we hoped to move in less than a month.
How we thought we'd have this mess ready in a week, I don't know. We all ended up getting sick or bit by a cat, which slowed everything down, but somehow, we did it. Without David being home to help both me with house things, the garage sale, and moving/organizing boxes during the day and helping Mike with the yard, the landscaping, the garage and the driveway at night, it would NOT have been possible. That kid deserves a medal of some kind. Then the day before the realtor came to take pictures (Father's Day, to be precise), I convinced both boys that the best way to honor their dad would be to finish cleaning up both porches completely so he could come home from work and not have to stress about finishing either one. They worked together and did it! Mike came home to both porches looking amazing, so we got to go out for a nice Father's Day dinner together before he and David came home and worked endlessly in the garage till way past midnight.
By noon on Monday, the realtor and her photographer came to take pictures for the house listing, and then they put the sign in the yard before they left. The listing goes live tomorrow, and we trust it to God from here to let it sell in just the right time, to just the right buyer, for just the amount we'll need to help us purchase the next home he has for us in Columbus, Indiana. I have already been praying over my porch, asking that God bring someone who will also find it to be their sanctuary, a place to spend time with Him.
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