I feel great! I just put the last coat of polyurethane on the living room floor (the last floor to refinish out of 4). It is truly an amazing feeling. Granted I have 3 very small projects to finish before I would like to sell the house, but nonetheless it is READY to go on the market! Whoooo Hooooo!!!!!! OMG! Praise Jesus! Alleluia! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Wednesday night my mother-in-law, Elaine, is coming over to help me stage and take pictures of the house to put up on FSBO (For Sale By Owner). I am so excited. When I have the link completed I will post it here too.
So to re-cap...last year, after Andy and I got married, we decided to get serious about this whole "moving to Chattanooga thing." Everyone was asking, "Why are you moving there? Got a job? Got a house? Going to school?" Nope. None of the above. We decided we wanted to live in an area of the country that would let us live our lives (outdoor/recreation) the way we wanted to live. Rock climbing, hiking, fishing, kayaking, cycling, camping, and running most of the year, if not all year round. We don't want to live life gutting through the bad to maybe hopefully grab a sliver of happiness in a bi-annual vacation or the occasional weekend get away. Our "playground" will literally be in our backyard.
Additionally, the winter months in Illinois have extended their stay long enough. I'll say it. I HATE Illinois winters. I hate snow. I hate being cold. I hate bitter cold wind. I hate ice. I hate scraping my car every morning. I hate having to worry about what type of car to buy in case I get caught in a severe winter storm. I am done with it and all it has to offer. I can live without the sledding. Essentially, that is the only winter "sport" I ever participated in and probably will ever participate. Granted I love to ski, but you have to travel to ski if you live in Illinois. So, if I am going to travel to ski, then I can travel a little further. The weather in the southeast is beautiful. Very mild winters and very similar summers to central Illinois. If I can grow pansies in my yard in February, by golly I am gonna do it!
I think the only 2 things I am really really going to miss about Illinois are family and friends. It is going to be really hard being far away from everyone we care about...but we have plans (insert Dr. Evil laugh here). There have been a number of our climber friends that are ALREADY making plans to transplant into Chatta-vegas (I don't know why they call it Chatta-vegas...just go with it), and maybe we have convinced some people that it is a really awesome place to retire. ;-) Something also to keep in mind, there is not an invisible force field that keeps a person from leaving Illinois or coming back into it.
I regress...back to getting serious last year about moving. Consequently, we needed to remodel the house to get it on the market. The kitchen was severely outdated and there were many other projects that needed a face-lift. So in a year, we have...
- Installed a new 6' privacy fence
- Rebuilt the front porch
- New landscaping in front and back
- Repainted the outside of the house (yes, it is aluminum siding)
- Stripped 82 year old wall paper (thanks Anita) in 3 rooms and repainted all rooms
- Remodeled the kitchen (installed a dishwasher and a garbage disposal)
- Refinished the entire first floor hardwood floors
- Installed ceramic tile in bathroom, kitchen, and back hallway
And those are just the "big" things. There were so many other smaller projects that so many people have helped us out with. We appreciate all the help, advice, and expertise. Thank you-thank you-thank you. You all have made our first year of marriage, remodeling our house, and training for an Ironman go much smoother than we thought it was going to go.
At some point I want to have a "get-to-gether"/open house party for everyone that helped us with the house. Not sure when that will be, but I will send something out in the near future...so keep your eyes peeled.
**For all you out of towners, since there is furniture in the house now and Sebastian is in TN, you are welcome to stay the night IN our house. You don't have to get a hotel room! Yeah.
Take care, Heather
No comments:
Post a Comment