After years (AND YEARS!) of thinking about it, Alan and I have started moving forward with the idea of building a new house. Now things are moving fast! Over the past few years we ruminated on the idea of major renovations to this house, buying another house, or building. Last summer we came across a great plot of land in the village that we really wanted, but the finances didn’t work out. This spring Alan wanted to move forward with a whole house ventilation system, which was many thousands of dollars, so I suggested we get more information about major renovation so we could do it all at once instead of having to redo the ventilation if/when we renovated. We talked to builders and finances folks and then look at some new construction a few streets over and we were sold! Almost. :) They are building an energy efficient (net zero, I think) development with solar panels and proper siting. Alan has been jonesing for a place over there for awhile now, but I have been resistant because I love our neighborhood and I don’t love how crammed together those houses will be. However, as we continued the discussions (and visited the model home a few times!), I have come around to the idea. Mostly.
We put down a refundable deposit on the lot we wanted and began designing a house with the builders. That process is fun! We also started talking to banks and were told that we could afford this endeavor (yay!) and just this week we brought in a realtor to discuss listing this house. Eeek! The realtors (they are a team of three) did their thing and came back to us with a sale price much lower than we were hoping for, but also with an eager buyer who is looking for what we have, imperfections and all! I called in another realtor (the guy who sold Popcube’s house!) to get a second opinion and his estimate was only slightly higher than theirs. We are now waiting on an official offer from that buyer… though we haven’t even signed sellers paperwork with the realtor yet! Their buyers also REALLY want to move in this summer, and the sooner the better. They have kids and want to be settled before the school year. Of course. As crazy as it sounds, we are considering it. The alternative is to do a lot of finish work (many thousands of dollars worth) to make the house “showable” and then hope, HOPE we get a higher price. Everyone agrees it won’t be much higher though, and we would run the risk of having to carry two mortgages for awhile, which we had been planning on but would rather not do.
Needless to say, there are LOTS of thoughts swirling around in our heads! We haven’t signed any contracts yet, so we could bail on all of it, or we could sell our house by June 30th, be homeless for the summer, then move into a brand new house in September… or, most likely, something somewhere in the middle.
Also starting to wrap up the year at a new job, take two college courses for that job, convince both kids that we are doing the right thing and consider their concerns, plan for a trip to California (yay!), prep for a yardsale next week, train for a 5K, eat healthy for WW, and, um…. other stuff too. :) No shortage of things to do around here!
We have one whirlwind summer coming up, but by this time next year (hopefully!) things will be settled and we’ll be loving our new house with beautiful 12″ windowsills and a family room.
