I need to give a great big shout out to my husband. Our house went on the market last week while I was in Dallas. Before I left, I made sure to put things in their place and get all of the laundry taken care of. But other than that, Todd was responsible for getting everything ready. He took “getting the house ready to sell” to a whole new level and I’m so proud of him!
I wasn’t shocked, but sometimes men have a tendency to leave things lying around or not care if something is put away or not. But when Hudson and I got home last night, I noticed that Todd had cleared out closets to make room for Hudson’s toys. So we can put Hudson’s toys away in the closet right before we show the house. He planted flowers in the planters outside our front door. Seriously. I don’t even do that. I have a black thumb. But Todd did it!
He and his parents turned our previously nasty back yard into an adorable little outdoor haven. The backyard project was something we’ve wanted to do since we moved in and now that we’re about to (hopefully) move it is getting done.
I can’t blame him for waiting to do something to the backyard. After we looked at houses in the neighborhood of our choice, we have both gotten really excited. Todd’s motivating factor is the golf course. My motivating factor is a larger living room. But whatever the motivation, we’ve found it and we’re on a mission to sell this house.
We don’t have any official news to report on our house at this point. We had a few lookers last week and there will be an open house this weekend. Frankly, I’m thrilled that we’ve had any traffic at all with just seven days on the market.
We did a lot of de-cluttering and we’ll probably do some more before we move. Between the two of us, we have a lot of books that we’re not ready to get rid of. When we got married and moved into this house we reached a compromise. I had about 10 years of Martha Stewart Weddings and InStyle Weddings magazines. Todd had about 15 years of Sports Illustrated magazines. I didn’t really want the Sports Illustrated magazines taking up the little amount of storage space that I had and he didn’t want my wedding magazines doing that either. We both went through our magazines, tore out the things we wanted, and recycled the magazines. I put all of the tear outs in a wedding inspiration binder.
Todd and I put some things in storage that we know we’ll want later, but we just needed our house to look a little bit more empty. Dumb bells on the floor and my big exercise ball weren’t exactly a home-buyer’s ideal master bedroom accessories.
It’s so hard to keep your house looking absolutely immaculate all the time. Because, honestly? We live here. Hudson and I are here all day, every day. We’re going to make messes. So I’m going to try my hardest to make sure that if someone calls and wants to show our house, we’re ready. It should only take me 10 minutes to get the house ready and get all of us out the door.
We’re in “operation: get the house sold” mode and we’ll do what it takes to make it happen.
If my husband can plant flowers in our planters outside, I can keep the house clean at all times.
What challenges have you faced to get what you really want? What sacrifices have you made to keep your partner happy?
Honestly, I don’t miss those magazines at all. They were always a pain to move and they weighed 128 pounds! (I don’t know that for sure, but it’s just a guess.)
Yay Tc!! I’m dying to move closer into town and Ryan said soon! So I’m being super patient!! I need to get rid of a ton of mags and clothes!! Yay for a new house
Good luck with selling your house! It sounds like you are so ready for it to happen. Whenever I recognize the affect of motivation on situations like this it always gets me thinking of just how much I could accomplish if I could channel my motivation towards the things I really want to other things that are more day to day. It’s inspiring, so thanks for that reminder!
It will be hard to keep things in tip top shape but SO worth it! I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for you! Reading this makes me want to get our house finished & to start looking for a new one. Thanks for the motivation & good luck keeping things looking beautiful 🙂
Any chance you might want to share how your backyard turned out? We’re always looking for ideas on how to make ours more user friendly.
Good luck selling! I passed this on to a family friend with 4 kids selling their house: the number one tip my friend who’s a realtor told me that I remember is to set an empty laundry basket in each heavy traffic room. When the Realtor calls to say you’re having a showing at “x” time, you can just throw anything laying around in the basket, then pile the baskets, the animals & baby in the car and get away during the showing. I thought it was pretty good because even if you keep everything clean, it’s hard not to be lived in with kids around 🙂
Wow! Go TC!! Hubs does all the gardening in our home too. I can’t keep a plant alive to save myself!
Hubs and I have been married 1 year and 3 months, so we’re still learning a ton about each other. The biggest/hardest thing is that I like all of the counters to be cleared off (especially in the evening) and he could care less! So I’ve learned to deal with a little more mess and he’s learned to put stuff away. He LOVES video games and I probably couldn’t turn the XBox on! I’ve definitely learned to deal with his video game time as long as we have “us” time before!:)
Good luck selling your home! I’m sure everything will work out beautifully!
What a hubby! Not every guy would do that, for sure.
We’ve made huge sacrifices to send Nate back to school full time so that he can get the degree he truly wants, thus making him happier in the long run. Of course, that means I’m the sole breadwinner and we survive on one salary for about 4 years which is not easy but we make it work. There are lots of ways to live simply and save money even on one salary, and we’ve just postponed a lot of major purchases like a home and new cars until we can justify those expenses.
Good luck selling the house!
We live in a 1,100 sq ft. condo so you pretty much have to keep it sparkling clean or it will look like a trash heap.
My husbands been a huge help on our home improvement projects, so last nite while he was at the class he’s taking I spent like 2 hours after work cleaning. Exhausting but worth it.
Oh my gosh, I don’t think I could throw away my Martha collection, but good for you for managing. My fingers are crossed your place sells quickly!
That is really nice of him your husband! I hope that your house sells quickly! One of our sacrifices has been to rent a small place and to really cut back on spending so that we can buy a house sooner rather than later. My boyfriend has also been working 2 jobs, so I try to clean and run errands while he is working at night so that that there’s a bit less on his plate. It’s not easy, but I think it will be worth it in the long run!
Your husband is amazing for planting flowers and getting the house ready. I hope the house sells quickly so you won’t have to clean up nonstop for too long. I love your idea of tearing out parts of magazines you actually want. I am having the hardest time parting with my beloved wedding magazines but we just do not have room for all of them. I will have to get myself a binder too 🙂
sounds like we have the same duties right about now!! Brent did great on the flowers. I can’t do keep them alive nor do I like planting. My mom helped him! I do the inside. It gets a mess quick but I pick up quick. So hard living and trying to sell!
Isn’t it so tiring trying to sell your house and keep it clean all the time?! 🙂 it’s killing me with ours — especially with a baby!
I remember that first “move-in-together” struggles of who’s stuff gets the shelves, drawers, and closet space. Why was his stuff going into the storage space/ attic and mine getting displayed? Ha! I think every couple has to make those sacrifices and it is for the better, luckily as soon as the purging happened we were able to buy things about both of us and those help us to define our house more.
But what an awesome husband! He seems like he was so productive while you were gone!
Amazing how motivated we get when it is time to sell! We did the same things when we sold our house last summer. The absolute excitement of moving prompted us to declutter and “Martha” everything up. Our house sold in 4 days! We were NOT prepared for that, our new house was not done being built, so we lived with my father-in-law for a month. What an experience. Moving is a tremendous under taking, but SO worth it. I am so excited for you and your family.
BTW, I LOVE the blog header. LOVE. It is perfection.
Lawdy, ignore my outdated picture. WOW, if I knew how to change that, I would. HA!
I totally can sympathize with you and it’s very hard to live that way. We did it for 18 months and 113 showings before we sold! It just becomes routine to clean up everything you take out and don;t leave the house before it’s clean. We got into the habit of doing a really good cleaning every Sat morning because we knew we would probably get calls for last minute showings. Then we would just do a quick pick up every night. GL selling and I hope you don’t have to do this much longer!
Best of luck with the house selling. I remember how difficult living in a house while having it on the market was with one husband, one cat, and one dog – can’t imagine how adding one baby boy adds to the fun!
As far as the things we do to make our partners happy, right now having a baby often feels like one big compromise / negotiation session. Names, baptism, schools … for the most part I feel like those talks bring us closer together, but it is definitely an exercise in patience & putting someone else first (not something I excel at, to say the least).
PS – Love the blog redesign, by the way. Penny Lane is the best.