No, we haven't forgotten you! When I last checked in, I mentioned there may be some delayed posts during the homestretch. We are multi-tasking more than either of us is comfortable with so thanks for your patience! Eventually I will go back and outline how decisions were made, etc.
On the current home-front: We finally put our precious home up for sale just last week. Remember, we have NEVER done this before and really didn't know what to expect. I hear it's a very rare thing to find couples like us anymore; having had only ONE home their entire marriage. So.... lets just say, the emotions have been heightened. Okay, at least mine and the kids. Full disclosure, I wasn't prepared for how I felt having strangers walking through our home. Especially when they weren't all leaving things "as is" or following basic obvious protocols (at least I thought they'd be obvious). Remember, my office/studio is at home so each time we had a showing, I had to leave too so that made for some additional struggles with work. One day we had 4 showings almost literally back to back.
In case you are like me and didn't fully "get it"..... during the whole process, you have to keep everything spotless like a model home and be ready to leave at a moments notice. Seems obvious, I know but we do have a lot of other things going on, right? So, those that know us are probably thinking, "How was that hard for you guys?" Yes, I know we live very "picked up" anyway 😉 but having it at THIS LEVEL was yet another job in itself with a 75 lb golden retriever and two indoor/outdoor cats! (Yes, I said two cats...okay, I am finally admitting that we now have TWO CATS...I give up! When you have to start paying their vet bills and they are eating you out of house and home, I guess they do belong to you.)
Shout out to the AMAZING photographer that our realtor hired to capture our cottage: Daniel at John Hancock Productions. Here's a sample of his work. He was super fun too which is a plus for anyone that you work with. Remember, it's October, we haven't had rain in months and it's been in the high 90's...we're lucky ANYTHING was green at all. Normally this time of year we have a golf course for a lawn....go figure, the year we are trying to sell...no rain!
On day 8 we have a contract and we thank David Nicholson with eXp Realty for his never ending patience with, let's face it, mostly me. Like I said, I have been having an out of body experience through this whole thing, and David has been a real trooper through it all. Now for the buyers inspection and appraisal.
Meanwhile at WINLEA ACRES: We are thankful for the folks that have come in to finish the tree removal and grading that had never been completed. We'd like to thank RVA Stumps for coming in and taking down the remaining trees that were far too close to the new house for comfort and grinding up the stumps. CS Flournoy then came in to finish up the land grading and repair the driveway. It's really starting to shape up! They both came in, assessed and then tackled the job, in/out. Very thankful!
Rob, Connor and a team of friends have done a lot to help on this too. Our daughter Kasey and her friends (Julie and Aly) have come to help on this as well. Like most things on this home, it's been a group effort! After 4 months of staying on top of them, even Dominion Power has finally contributed by taking down more trees at the front of the driveway to run their line before they figured out it would be easier to run the line through the woods and directly to the house that way. Oh well, MORE trees down, and in this case, we didn't have to pay for them to be cut down/towed away... take that back; we have and will continue to pay for that for a long time! LOL!
All the floor is installed, and the tile has been finished in both showers! I'm glad it's done, and it looks great, but I'm not sure I will want to install another piece of engineered plank flooring EVER AGAIN! It's important to note that while laying it, we had no power and it was 99 degrees most days..... that too had to affect my thoughts here. I realize we are going to owe my brother (my partner in crime here) should he ever decide to take on this madness for his own home so I just hope he doesn't want to take this on anytime soon!
Lighting has been a constant struggle because we needed to follow money-saving strategies so, as I mentioned before, we learned first-hand what we warn customers about. We have run into all sorts of back order issues adding pressure of... "when will it come in? will it be here in time for electrical install? will we need to reselect?" I'm happy to report that despite all the added stress and pressure, it's all working out.
The wonderful team at United Painting Company, LLC started painting this week. This weekend we will be installing the cabinets that took a week to assemble ourselves too. Again, thanks to a lot of help from our kids and all their helpful friends! I had never done this myself and it was quite a job. Not one that I enjoyed other than the time it afforded me with my children and their friends.... if I am being honest. LOVE seeing them be a part of this whole adventure (despite knowing how sad they both are to be leaving the only home they have ever known) and will forever appreciate all that they have done to help. The counter tops are scheduled to be templated next week and soon after we will need to do a walk through with the door and bath hardware folks for everything from doorknobs, towel bars, mirrors, shower enclosures and such details.
Stay tuned....