Speed Bump

Selling a house is brutal. This was my first experience selling and I don't want to have to do it again for a long, long time. It is so incredibly hard not to take things personally when your home has been a labor of love. As I said before, we thought this was going to be our forever home (until the reality of Missouri public schools really set in for us) and we treated it as such. So much of what we did to improve the house amounted to intangibles when it came time to sell - things that didn't translate to the bottom line when it was all said and done. Everyone commented on the 'lovely house' but never acknowledged the labor and cost that went into making it that way. I just wish we could have shown before and after pictures, then maybe buyers would have recognized the value. Before. After. So different! Plus this project made a huge difference. In the end, we are moving on and I won't waste one more ounce of energy on the issue. It's done, ...

Today is a big day in the Maniger household. Our house is under contract (after 80 some days on the market and 50 showings) and the inspection is today. AND, we are closing on our new house - today! Big.Time. We planned to sell our house first, purchase second. But life doesn't always go as planned. I haven't posted much about the selling/buying process here on Speed Bump, I think because it was just too nerve wracking and I had to keep it all inside. It has been exhausting to show the house that many times with two toddlers under foot. Keeping it clean has been a daily battle. Staying out of our house nearly every weekend with two small ones that still take daily naps has been grinding (we napped at Ryan's parents' many weekends and are so grateful for that option). We feel a little beat up from the process, but really glad to be done (fingers crossed about the inspection!). You know it's bad when you hear your 3 year-old telling your 1 year-old to not get an...

Where are we going?? We have no idea at this point. Eventually, west, over to the Kansas side. I'm excited but also really nervous (and a little sad, we love our home). It is a brand new adventure, a new chapter in our family story and for now, the page is blank -  ready and waiting to be filled. We have some ideas, some tentative plans - I will share those here for sure. But for now, we're taking one step at a time. The house is ready, the sign is up, and it's really happening.

This is just cool. And it has me thinking as we contemplate our move about how much space we need, how we want to use that space...it's easy to think you need a lot of space to live well.