Why It Is The Way It Is

A few weeks ago I spent the day with a friend.  We picked her kids up from school and drove exactly 2 minutes.  It might have been less, I don't remember, because we were looking for a house with black shutters.  Anyhow, I remember thinking thats it?  We're here already?


I've gotten some flack for being freaked out about showings for our house and how "OMG" I make the whole situation.  To me, it is OMG.

When when we first decided to advocate for AJ to go to his current school, we started talking about moving.  That was over two years ago, when we toured the school and knew it was the right fit for AJ.  After taking our parents and showing them where the school was, and their comments being "Where are we going?" and "How much further?!" and "You can't drive this every day" we knew we weren't crazy.

We thought about it and thought about it and came up with reasons why we should wait.  We knew it would be difficult.  We knew it would be hard.  We knew AJ's school district would eventually say "No, he can't go there anymore." We even packed up boxes one summer and planned to list/move in the fall. It didn't happen.

All of that stress transfers into today's stress of actually having our house on the market.  And now I realize all of that avoidance has made it that much harder.  I have no desire to approach our home district about schooling for next year, yet that's just what we'll be doing in May because of how the timing of all of this played out.

They say selling your home/buying a home is one of the biggest stressors in life.  Um, yeah.  I totally agree.  Even though we already went through buying with this house, we have never had a house on the market and then looked for another house.  And while I hear of stories of people who have had 173 showings and have had their house on the market a whole lot longer, I don't feel that makes our situation any less of a situation.  Because I'm feeling the stress.

I have a hard time keeping our house in exact showing order.  I have a child with an agenda a mile long and two gigundo dogs.  The cat doesn't count, she's self-sufficient.  This housing market is tough.  I take the suggestions our realtor gives us and own them.  I take the feedback we get and (after fuming for a few hours because I take it personal) work on what I can.  There are some places I actually do draw the line.  No I'm not putting in new windows, did you fail to notice the new furnace, boiler, flooring, bathroom, and kitchen cabinets?!  Hint Hint!


I clean my little heart out and try to have our house look how it does on our online listing.

Hello.  My name is Heidi Schmidt.  I'm a control freak.  Nice to meet you.

The little things mean something these days.  If doing those little things will sell my house, well then heck ya, I'm down with that.  (Did I just type I'm down with that?)  Things that stress me out?  Trying to juggle two dogs, who for whatever reason love to snooze in the living room, when you want to clean your carpet.  Or your kiddo who purposely spills his apple juice 10 minutes before you have to walk out the door before a showing.

All of these things happened last night and this morning, just before our showing.  The showing I learned about yesterday.  Requested for right smack dab in the middle of the day.  AJ's sick and I'm sick.  Fantastic.  I kept AJ home and packed all of us, dogs too, in my HHR and took off.  Sadly, I left the horn at home.  Its all we needed to complete our clown car.  Seriously.

We ran errands and then I decided to drive back to the house to see if the showing had happened yet or not.  Our realtor had once mentioned that we could park close by and just watch if we wanted, instead of leaving for the full-time.  When I came back and realized no one had been here, we parked in the neighbor's drive and waited.  I saw a car pull up with the prospective buyers and left.

Fast forward through lunch in the car, dropped AJ off at therapy, enjoying a Starbucks, picking AJ up and discovering the dog had jumped the fence (backseat) and ate a yogurt, we finally made it home.  To where I anxiously ran in the house looking for a realty card.  Usually the realtor's leave one so you know they've been there (I didn't know that, did you?).  No card.  I have no idea of the showing happened or not.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrreat.

We've had several showings now, and each time my little heart thumps with all sorts of emotions.  The more we have, the more anxious I am in hopes that this showing someone will make an offer.

An offer that would make our lives easier.  I cannot fathom driving two minutes to AJ's school.  There is a huge different between 2 minutes and the current 4 hours I drive each day.  I can't even imagine how much time that would give me to do things without calculating how much time I have for insert activity here minus driving time.  I am constantly turning down appointments for both myself and AJ because of driving times.

I miss seeing picture of my baby boy on the walls.  We've been prepping to move for so long, I haven't a clue how long they've all been down to make our house look "homey yet generic".  I'm ready for a new space to call our home.  And yes I know our situation is unique and at the latest we'll be moving late summer, but my habit of wanting everything "NOW!" just like most of us is rarin' and ready to go.  I know I know I know.  But its still hard.  And stressful.  You can't please everyone, but you want so badly to please at least one person so that they'll like your home...which allows you to move on with your life.

They say its not personal. It is soooooooooooo personal.  At least to me it is.  This has been a long time coming and now, its just dragging.  Like a ball and chain.   Blech.

I'm picturing our new house with a big bow on it, with a note on the kitchen counter that says "Just a little something to completely change your life."

Love,
Your New House