We had the open house for our home over the weekend after it officially went on the market and . . . crickets. Only two people showed up. Our house is really cute, but it might sit for a few weeks because we are selling in an off market in the off season in an off area (our school district is the worst in the region so most people look a little further south). We aren't too worried; several other homes with our same floor plan in our area have gone on the market in the past few months. They have all sold, but it takes about a month. So we will keep things looking nice, and I will start packing up me and the kids to move to Utah in the next few weeks. The moving truck arrives November 1, so that is the latest we would be here. Here is the link to our home on Zillow if you want to see what our home looks like inside:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9812-Hawkins-Ave-Granite-Falls-WA-98252/440172664_zpid/
While the open house was taking place, the kids had a sleepover at Jared's parents' home and we went on a short 2-night cruise to Canada. One of our favorite memories since moving here was our Alaska cruise three years ago. We've always said we need to do another cruise before we move out of Washington, because it's so nice to be able to just drive down to the cruise terminal and hop on a boat. With Alice being young we've been on the lookout for short cruises, and we recently saw this 2-night cruise to Vancouver for really cheap. We figured this would be a nice bookend to our time in Washington, an opportunity to rest in the midst of moving chaos, a way to be out of the house for a few days while it sells, and a way for Jared and I to reconnect, because moving can be a tense time. It proved to be a great idea, and it checked all those boxes. We had a wonderful time. We did lots of resting and eating, spent a full day at sea, and finished up with a day exploring Vancouver together. I took some pictures on my nice camera, but I'm having trouble getting the memory card to connect to my computer, so for now I'll just share the pictures we took on our phones:
We are really in the trenches of packing and selling our house now. I pulled an extremely late night and then an all-nighter getting the house sparkly and beautifully staged the night before the photographer came to get pictures for listings. The selling market in Granite Falls is pretty slow right now, so anything we can do to improve our odds at attracting buyers is worth it. I think our home will show really well--hopefully well enough to get a buyer quickly even though we're in the off season for selling homes. I will share pictures of our house next week when our Zillow listing goes up.
I keep reminding myself that this is a good kind of stress. I would rather be up all night making our home beautiful to sell and move to Utah, than be up all night vomiting, or in active labor, or studying for finals, or any number of other reasons I've had to pull all-nighters in the past. It is starting to feel real that we will be in Utah soon, and we are getting SO excited! I can't wait to have lunches with my grandma, and for Jack to have regular play dates with his cousins, and to spend lots more time with my parents and siblings.
Things are starting to come together! Not only is our home photographed and mostly packed, but against all odds, we were able to sign a contract last night to move into a rental home we're really excited about. The landlord initially wanted to go with a renter who was willing to sign a 16-month contract, but the people he chose backed out at the last minute so offered it to us a few days later. And it's not just any rental home, but one that is (presumably) Jared's dream floor plan, and in my (presumably) dream neighborhood. We are excited at the opportunity to "test out" what we hope will be an ideal home and in an ideal neighborhood. If we are happy there then we will feel good about building or buying a home of our own there next year. And we'll have a better sense for what Jared's commute for work will be like, if there's any chance of him transferring to a clinic further south at some point, etc. Me and the kids will likely be moved to Utah by the end of October. We're rolling down a hill and the speed is picking up. Here are some fun pictures from our week:
