Where Have We Been?

 Loading up these 3 storage boxes to make our house look like this.............

This is one of the photos for the listing. Our house goes up for sale tomorrow.

It's tricky to get everything looking perfect. But we're doing our best. Especially tricky since we have 3 kids, one with tons of medical equipment and supplies. They have been great about letting most of their things be packed up into temporary storage. It's going to be an exercise in minimalist living around here. Our agent recommended removing 50% of our things. We had 4 days to do it and get our house staged for photos. It was down to the wire with painters here painting the same rooms while we scrambled to get everything picture perfect for the photographer yesterday, all in half the necessary time. The shots are fantastic! Our realtor is doing a fantastic job forcing helping us do the impossible. I know she's going to get our house sold.

An extra big thank you to Joanne and Tom for helping us move and Sheryl for helping me clean! We couldn't have done it without out you! Unfortunately there is still more to do that couldn't be seen in the photos but real quick I wanted to write this post to let you all know what's up so you don't worry about us. I guess I should add:

Why would we take on such a crazy thing? - Our house is a bedroom short on the upper levels. When we decided to have a third child I'd hoped Ainsley would be a boy who could share a room with Adrian. We kept it "a surprise" but when she was born we got a bit more than we bargained for, in addition to her being a girl. I've known for at least a year than we would likely need a single level home. Stairs are tough for a girl who doesn't walk and tough on mommy's back having to carry her. In October I happened to find this house by accident when I least expected it. I'd been casually looking for ramblers but finding none I liked especially since I love old architecture. This house is a rambler/ranch with a bedroom off the master with french doors, making it perfect for a child with a trach who needs medical care in the middle of the night (we no longer have night nurses). Even the yard is all single level, making it ideal for Ainsley and whatever level of ability she has in the future. We liked it but weren't sure the house was perfect but over the months we decided it is the best we've seen for our needs and we are ready to give up the charm of yesteryear for conveniences we really need. We'd been finishing projects to get our house sellable but weren't quite "ready".  The house has been vacant and on the market awhile and they lowered the price recently so we knew we would lose it if we didn't make an offer. Since the sale is contingent on the sale of our house we then had 5 days to get our house on the market. The timing makes it all just a bit more stressful but the new house is great and I think it will be worth it in the end.  And it's close to Steve's work which should give us more time together as a family.

Tomorrow we go with the inspector to see the new house AND our house goes on the market. It's going to be CRAZY around here for a bit. I've still got lots of tidying to do so I've gotta run.  I will post when I can.