Moving was a lot more work than I remembered! It had been almost 14 years since we last moved though. It was also different this time because we had this house to sell. We reached out to our neighbor Rachel White to be our realtor. She and her husband Beau were great to work with and took care of all the details of selling.
At the end of June we began to get the house ready to stage. We started packing up some things we didn't need and taking out the excess furniture. The Frosts were great to let us use half of their garage for storage. We needed our garage mostly empty for the showings.
Kev spent a lot of time patching, painting holes and cleaning. I did a lot of cleaning too. The most daunting job for me was cleaning and reorganizing the pantry.
As we were cleaning we came across little treasures like this. Parker had written his name in pencil on the wall in our bedroom. He probably did this when he was four years old from the looks of his handwriting.
A photographer came and took pictures of the house on Monday June 28th. We had to have everything clean and looking good. When I went to inspect Kenna's room I saw and laughed at what she put up on her letter board. It said "Freaking Lit House For Sale"! I hope it made the potential buyers that walked through our house smile. Rachel put our house on the MLS in the afternoon on Tuesday June 29th. In an hour we already had three people scheduled to show it to that night. Our family went to dinner and just hung out while it was being showed. We had been told that the market had slowed down and we were just happy we had some showings. We also had an open house scheduled for Saturday July 3rd. Rachel contacted us later that night and told us we had two really great offers! We were happily surprised. We spent the next couple of days negotiating back and forth between the two buyers. Then our house went under contract that Thursday. We were happy with the offer and didn't need to have the open house anymore. I was relieved because keeping the house clean for showings was exhausting. It also didn't help that I was sick with a bad head cold during that whole week.
On July 30th we met at the Title Company to sign papers for our new home. Kev refers to this process as "signing our lives away"! We chose to work with our neighbor Corey Calder's mortgage company. He was great to work with and went above and beyond to help make things easier for us. He was also there with us when we signed. They even gave us the keys to our new house that day! Kev and I celebrated by getting drinks from Sodalicious. Then it was back to packing. It was crunch time by then and we had less than 24 hours to finish packing everything. I honestly don't know how we did it all in time. My bestie Brekke was sweet and brought us dinner that night. It was delicious and extra appreciated since I had packed up most of the kitchen by then.
Saturday July 31st was our moving day. It was awesome to see all the good friends and neighbors that came to help us move! We had a good turnout and some helped us make multiple trips back and forth. Luckily, our new house is only about 5 minutes away from the other one.
Kev rented this giant U-Haul for the day. We filled it three times with all our belongings. Not to mention the several trips we made with cars.
It was another emotional day for many of us. Halle was really sad that we were moving farther away from her best friend Maddi.
Kristen told me about how they were crying and saying goodbye to each other. I need to give a shout out to my awesome friend Kristen. She showed up at our house an hour before everyone else to help with last minute packing. She helped me pack up my breakables and load up cars with all the pictures and artwork that I didn't want anyone else touching. Then after everyone else left she stayed at our new house and helped us get organized. She put together the kids beds and helped them unpack their toys. It is thanks to her that the kids felt so comfortable for our first night in the new home!
Kev's parents also came and helped us that day. Sue picked up some pizza and drinks so everyone that helped could eat with us. Kristen took this lovely picture of me eating and drinking at the same time. I'm also wearing my fanny pack. It was the best place to keep my phone, scissors, tape, and Band-Aids for the day.
Kev was working hard lifting, moving, and supervising all day long. Things went well and we didn't have any furniture that was damaged.
All our old neighbors loved being able to help and also see the new house. Hayden and his friends Mason and Brodey were already having fun playing with the couch cushions in the wide open living room. I hope they feel comfortable coming here like they did to our old house. That is one of hard parts about moving is being farther away from our friends and neighbors that we love so much! We did meet a couple of our new neighbors that day as well. Our neighbor Jon showed up and helped us move in that last truck load. A cute neighbor from down the street named Janice stopped by to welcome us and brought donuts.
My Dad and Loni came by that night to bring us dinner from Panda Express. It was our first meal we ate together in the new house. It was nice of them to take care of dinner so we didn't have to worry about it. Once everyone left it was nice to relax and get somewhat settled in. We are really going to miss our old neighborhood! We lived there for almost fourteen years. It is actually the longest I've lived anywhere in my whole life. Our kids essentially grew up there. We are excited to be in our new house too! It was a process that took over a year. It's nice to finally be moved in! We are looking forward to making new friends and memories at our new house!
