Here we go...

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Guess what??

Michael and I have talked for a while now about moving - where, what type of place, what part of town, etc. We've owned our house for 8 years now and I've been ready for a change for a little while. However, the market sucked and we didn't want to lose equity... plus we weren't sure we were even going to stay in California (which we probably won't in the long-run... Portland will be in our future eventually). Anyway, we basically decided that we would stay where we were because we bought it "cheap" and we would maybe buy an empty lot in Oregon or something. Nonetheless, we always had a few exceptions to this. We agreed that if something went up for sale in specific areas, that we would look at them.

Last week, something did. One of those areas is really our current area only across the street to the other zip code (Citrus Heights to Fair Oaks) - more specifically, the neighborhood behind Fair Oaks Park (and Fair Oaks Presbyterian... FOP). We LOVE the area in which we live because we can walk to Trader Joe's, Sac Brewing's Oasis, and (my favorite) Taka's Sushi.

Soooo.... I was driving home and cut through this neighborhood (which I sometimes do) when I noticed a for sale sign pointing down one of the streets. I decided to take a detour and see what I could find. Turns out it was for a huge house out of our price range BUT on my way, I glanced down a small, dead-end side street, and saw another sign. This one was for a house that shared a side fence with the park and FOP. There were no flyers left so I went home and looked it up.

I got excited right away! It was well within our price range, on just over a quarter acre (.27) and had a great kitchen space (mandatory). I called Michael and told him what I'd found and we decided to go to the open house that was going to be held on this past Sunday.

That day, if you recall, was windier than all git-out so we drove over (we normally would have walked - it's only .6 miles from our current house). When we got there, it had just opened and we were the first ones so we had the place to ourselves. I was really surprised at how big the master bedroom is and how well the house is laid out. It was built in 1968, during a time when entertaining was popular so they tended to design houses with nice flow (unlike the subsequent decades where they started cordoning things off again - thank goodness the new houses are back to more open space).

The only bummer is that the house never really left 1968. The carpet is livable (less than 10 years old?), but it needs new windows and aesthetic remodeling. At first this freaked me out - we put so much work into our current house I wasn't sure I wanted to start over! But, Michael informed me that the house was extremely solid, hardly any settling over the past 40 years, so the work really was just the fun stuff. Colors, textures, materials, etc. I love that kind of work.

After hanging out for a while, I asked Michael what he thought. Normally, he's the kind of guy who says, "Why don't we go get a cup of coffee or a bite to eat." So when he said, "I think we should make an offer," right in front of the realtor, I almost fell over right there in the family room (I would have hit my head on the 1968 laminate kitchen counter with the barely noticeable, but cute, little geometric pattern on it)!

Anyway, we made the offer. Then waited. The owner countered and we accepted it so now we're in escrow. STRESS! Our house is listed, but we're busting our asses to get it "showable" which means we can't look like we actually live here. We have to be plastic people who don't brush their teeth, use hair products, dress ourselves, or cook.

The process of selling is what is stressing me out the most. The thought of all those strangers stomping through my house. Getting my pretty 1-yr-old carpet dirty with their apathetic feet. But, even more than that, I'm worried it will take a long time to sell in this market. (Anyone know anyone who would want to buy a beautiful, updated, 2-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom, 1300sf townhouse with a small yard?)