Phase one of our journey to enable my wife to be a stay-at-home mom is now complete, well mostly complete anyway. We recently moved into our new home and finally closed on the sale of our old home. The gain that we received on the sale of our home will be used to payoff a nice chunk of debt, which was another strategic objective in our overall plans.
This is no small milestone. We were faced with selling our old home and buying a new one. Now I know that does not seem like anything out of the ordinary, but we found a home to buy well before we even began to fix up our old home. In fact, our contract on the new residence did not have a contingencey clause regarding the ability to sell our old residence. The thought of paying for two mortgages at once still sends shivers down my spine.
It took us about three weeks to complete all of the preparation for getting our old home ready to sell. We painted several rooms and installed new ceramic tile in the kitchen, bathrooms and closets. We painted all of the doors and trim, replaced the siding along the back and one side of the house, and power washed and painted the outside. Lastly, we re-sanded the deck and re-sodded portions of the back yard. In an effort to entice potential buyers, we removed most of our furniture (and ourselves into a rental home owned by my in-laws), only keeping what was necessary to stage the house for sale.It was a lot of work, but it proved to be a very effective plan. After being on the market for only twelve days, we were offered a contract on the house. We even received a back-up offer.
All this has been somewhat bitter-sweet. Though we love our new home and neighborhood, we are certainly going to miss our former home. The house was on a huge lot in a culdesac. Our neighbors were kind and helpful. Our neighborhood was quiet and tree laden. Everyday for the past few days my daughter, Gabriela, has asked to go back to her “white house”. We try to explain to her that we have a new larger home. A home that is big enough for her baby brother to have his own room, but she still insists that she wants to go back to her “white house.”
The journey has been pretty amazing thus far, and I have no doubts that there will be many hills and valleys along the way. But the mere fact that we were able to pull off this first phase of a seemingly insurmountable task in a matter of two months, is most certainly proof that we are on the right path for our family. I thank God for all that he has given me, and all that he has planned for me down that varied and winding path of life.