Sunday, July 09, 2006

Under Contract

A lot can happen in 10 days. We've experienced the truth of that statement this past week. Some of you know that we decided to put our house on the market about a week ago and "see what happens." With Ben no longer working for ARMC, we didn't feel we needed to stay in our house here any longer. We decided to start the process FSBO (for sale by owner) since we weren't in a hurry - and who doesn't like to save money! A friend listed our house on MLS for a flat fee and four days later we had two offers! We knew where we'd like to move, but we had not even begun looking. The contract on our current house was finalized Wednesday and with a closing date set for August 15 we knew we had no time to spare. With the help of our agent we looked at houses on Thursday evening and Saturday morning. Thursday we a bit discouraging as we really didn't see anything that we liked, but Saturday turned out much better and when we walked into this one house, I knew we really didn't need to see any others.
So, here we are, one day after finding the house and we now have a contract on it. Also, Ben decided to change both closing dates to August 11th to take advantage of the weekend for moving. Add to this the fact that we already have plans to be gone on vacation from July 27- August 5!!! (Oh yes, and I still have two more weddings to play this month and I might be teaching a music camp during the evenings next week.)This is crazy. Everything has happened so fast that I'm not sure I'm processing it all. Basically, this leaves me 2 weeks to pack up the house before the vacation and about 4 weekdays when we return - yikes!!!
I would definitely appreciate any and all advice on moving, tips for strategic packing, any words of encouragment and of course, prayers for my sanity!
One more thing...we'll be purchasing a new fridge as the buyers are paying us to leave our current one. I'd like to hear from anyone who has a strong opinion -positive or negative - about their fridge. What do you like, what do you hate...if you were buying another one in two weeks, what would you do differently.(I have heard of a finish called "ultra satin" - the look of stainless without the hassle. Does anyone know anything about this?)
Ok. I'd better stop blogging and get packing...

5 comments:

Kelley said...

Congratulations on finding your house. I look forward to seeing it one day when you are all moved in. As far as packing (and I had a lot more time than you will) the thing that worked best for me was to pack a little each day and CLEARLY label on all sides of the boxes what it was and what room in the new house it was going to. That really helped when I had 10 people taking boxes into my new house and they could actually put them where they went. It also allowed me to find the boxes that to be unpacked ASAP and those that could wait. Also, Graham and I packed and moved the kitchen a few days prior to our big moving date. It was so nice to have the kitchen completely done (or mostly done) while the rest of the house was in a bit of shambles.

As far as a refridgerator I didn't get my dream one (money was a bit tight at the time) so here are the things I wish I had:
--BIGGER - particularly the refridgerator. We have a seperate freezer so we really only use the freezer portion for items we use a frequently. Long term storage is in the big freezer.
--A water filter on the ice maker. I don't know what it is about our water but ice that comes out of that ice machine tastes weird. We've actually turned it off and are making ice the old fashioned way. It's a pain but at least my drinks don't taste weird.
--I really like having glass shelves that come out easily. We've spilled stuff several times in the fridge and thankfully the glass shelves kept the majority of it from dripping through. Our shelves are easily removable so cleaning is quite easy.

One last thing. We bought our fridge at the Sears outlet off of Indian Trail(?). They had excellent prices and a really large selection. J & J bought their fridge, freezer, & washer and dryer there. Momma and Daddy got the same minus the fridge. If you don't mind very minor damage in exchange for a good price (I think the damage mine had was no owners manual) then you might check there. We've been very pleased.

Ldani said...

My one moving tip is to use your extra towels and linens as packing materials. It saves a little bit of space, and your hands don't get nasty from newspaper.

JM said...

I would second what Kelley said about labeling the boxes on all sides. We used some color coded labels that made figuring out what room it went to a little easier. Also, instead of writing everything on the box, we just put a number on it and made a separate list. That way, we could look at the list to figure out what box something was in and then just find the number.

What Lisa said about using towels and linens can also be done with things like t-shirts that you don't mind being wadded up and such.

Oh yeah...pack one box with the things that you will need immediately...bed linens for all beds, pillows, a set of towels, etc. That way you don't have to go find each thing in its box...it's just there easy for you to pull out and use.

Becky Alonzo said...

Hey Jen... good luck in the packing process... the good news is that you know where you're going and it's going to be a long-term move! I'm tired of moving from one place to another, leaving things scattered here and there, and nothing being even remotely "long-term". Oh well! The life of a recent graduate! My only advice for packing would be to NOT put all your books in one box, or to use lots of smaller boxes for books. Unless you want to break your back, or unless you'll have a dolly for all moving. By the way, I updated my blog just a little. I have some more to add in the coming days, but you'll just have to wait!

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