So we sold our house...

So, we are way, WAY overdue for an update. The summary is that in early August, we met with our realtor and told her we wanted to list on the MLS in mid-September but put it on Zillow with a make-me-move price a month or so beforehand. Todd published the listing to see what it looked like, got distracted and forgot to take it down. Around 3, he texted me, "um, can we chat?" Turns out, he had several emails from people who wanted to see the house that day. Three weeks before we were even going to put it on Zillow.

One of those emails was from a guy who said he and his family had been looking for a house since March and they wanted to check ours out. Again... that day. So we zoomed around and did the essential cleaning and decluttering and warned them that there were still projects we were in the process of completing. They looked at it on Friday afternoon and got us an offer on Monday. After some back and forth, we had a deal Tuesday evening at a price that allows us to make money—something we weren't sure would happen with this house.

Because our deal was contingent on their house selling, the closing date was set for November 3. We didn't have much unexpected crop up on the inspection except for having to drywall the garage so it had a firewall, and we came in a bit under for the appraisal, but it's been otherwise extremely smooth. It's also been great having a more casual, friendly relationship with the buyers. We know the house is going to a family that will love it and enjoy the park, pool, yard, etc., and that was important to us.

What I'm most excited about for this post and the other ones linked at the bottom, though, is some amazing pictures of the house before we start packing and get moved. My talented friend Rachel of Pixy Prints Photography came over on Saturday and gorgeously documented all our work and the work of my brother-in-law Trevor (without whose help, suffice it to say, we would not be in the position we are now).

Prepare to have your socks knocked clean off. (I'm throwing in some befores from early on and before we bought the house, just for fun.)

And just so you know...if you look through these other posts...yes, we keep a pretty clean house. No, our house isn't staged all the time. I totally wish it could look this amazing every day :)

Want to see the rest of the house? Check out the other rooms on the house tour tag:
Bedroom
Kitchen and entry
Jo's office
Upstairs and upstairs bathroom
Downstairs bathroom
Dining room
Living room

The house is set to close on 10/24, and we're going to move into a rental house for at least a year while we firm up plans to either build or buy something and have it fully renovated before we move in. Obviously, it's a little bittersweet to close this chapter of our lives. But we're excited to find out what life is like with no yardwork, no home repair budget and no worries about projects for the first time in eight years.

We are better and wiser for having bumbled into this renovation adventure, and I'm thankful I had no clue what I was getting us into, because I never would have done it. But now we get to leave something beautiful for the neighborhood and new owners. It's such a privilege to have brought this house back from being a blight on the neighborhood.

The Living Room

This was one of the first rooms we tackled because the floor and fireplace got finished before we moved in. When we bought the house, the fireplace was blocked off and had been used for a woodburning stove, which turned out to be more of a trashburning stove. The decades of ash that had evidently never been removed from the firebox actually clogged the truck-mounted vacuum of the company that came to clean it. Oops.

Anyway, it doesn't really look anything like the undefined blah situation it was 8 years ago. That thing in front of the fireplace is was a propane-fueled shop heater, because remember, I thought it would be fun to buy a house with no heating system in late November. This is right after a coat of poly went on the floor.

All photos (except the befores, which are my own quality work) are Rachel Southmayd's work: find her at Pixy Prints Photography.

 

Want to see more? Check out the other rooms on the house tour tag:
Bedroom
Kitchen and entry
Jo's office
Upstairs and upstairs bathroom
Downstairs bathroom
Outside and the "we sold the house" story
Dining room
Living room

The Dining Room

This was one of our most recent transformations, from early 2016. We were hesitant about taking down the grasscloth wallpaper that we'd both oddly grown to like, but it was the right call for the room. And the light fixture just went up in July, like a week before our buyers saw the house the first time. Took almost eight years, but I finally bested my nemesis, the hideous dining room light.

There used to be a wall there, remember?
That was dumb. So we removed it.

 

Fun fact: I picked that dresser in the following picture out of someone's trash on the way to work one morning in Bend. Because we lived in a studio and I didn't have anywhere to store it, I carted it around in my car, until it was Thanksgiving and we had to drive to the airport. Then my friend Cam agreed to take it, and he carted it around in his car for a few weeks. Nice guy. Finally, I refinished it when we moved into the Bend house. I've loved that thing ever since. And Cam is glad I live three hours away and can't pawn off my trash picks on him anymore.

 

Want to see more? Check out the other rooms on the house tour tag:
Bedroom
Kitchen and entry
Jo's office
Upstairs and upstairs bathroom
Downstairs bathroom
Outside and the "we sold the house" story
Dining room
Living room

All photos are Rachel Southmayd's work: Pixy Prints Photography

The Kitchen, Entry, Laundry + Powder Room

You can read more about the kitchen renovation project on its tag page. We survived that (barely) three years ago and have loved this kitchen ever since, though we will probably never use slate for a countertop again. Along with it, we got a half bath and functional laundry room addition, and moving the washer and dryer out of the back entry gained us a functional entry we use all the time. It was by far the most miserable project of the house and easily the worst three months of my life. But it turned out awesome, and I just don't really think much about it anymore. So, if you want to see real befores, check out this post. This is just the fun stuff.

And yes, we have a bazillion heirloom tomatoes from the second wind the pink brandywines got in early October. There are even more that I gave away and stuffed in drawers.

All photos are Rachel Southmayd's work: Pixy Prints Photography.

Want to see more? Check out the other rooms on the house tour tag:
Bedroom
Kitchen and entry
Jo's office
Upstairs and upstairs bathroom
Downstairs bathroom
Outside and the "we sold the house" story
Dining room
Living room

Downstairs Bathroom

This was another early project, because we felt like we really needed a decent bathroom before we could move into the house. The previous bathroom wasn't decent. It had carpet. That is terrible in a bathroom. And it had kind of a dumb layout, so we changed that. Originally we'd painted it pale blue, but we were both kind of over that when we moved back a couple years ago, so it got a fresh coat of white.

 

(Same angle as above)

All photos (except the awful befores) are Rachel Southmayd's work: find her at Pixy Prints Photography.

Want to see more? Check out the other rooms on the house tour tag:
Bedroom
Kitchen and entry
Jo's office
Upstairs and upstairs bathroom
Downstairs bathroom
Outside and the "we sold the house" story
Dining room
Living room

My Office

This was a winner, with the gold foil and tan wallpaper. I don't recall whether Mom helped remove the wallpaper, but she flew out and helped me hang the nautical chart wallpaper above the chair rail (that wasn't installed until a year or two later). We have always loved the floor in this room, really pretty 3.5"-wide red fir planks.

The lighting on the day we did pictures was really tricky because it was raining but then the sun came out just as we were getting into the office, but things ended up balanced out pretty nicely.

All photos (except the awful befores) are Rachel Southmayd's work: find her at Pixy Prints Photography.

Want to see more? Check out the other rooms on the house tour tag:
Bedroom
Kitchen and entry
Jo's office
Upstairs and upstairs bathroom
Downstairs bathroom
Outside and the "we sold the house" story
Dining room
Living room