Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best Change I Made To The Place I Live

Jim and I sold our first ever home we ever owned and moved to Costa Rica.
I wish the process was as easy as that sentence sounds, but it wasn’t. We put it up on the market with a friend (who’s incredible at finding houses, but wasn’t so great at selling them we found) and when our contract with him ended after 3 months (and maybe 5 showings), we interview three agents, picked one and then put our place back on the market. This second time was much different in so far as our agent Chasen Chess (Yes, that’s his real name. He said he was named after a restaurant or something.) was very diligent. He made sure our place had great photos, that we staged it correctly, that we priced it fairly, he put up special feature cards, had us write a letter to the potential buyer that was attached to the fliers, and he marketed it beautifully. We had more people coming to see our house than we wanted at times (it’s a pain to tidy up the house and vacuum up dog hair so many times). Things that helped that we did: pots of flowers out front and back, fresh flowers in many rooms, and closets that looked like someone with OCD had organized them. We turned down a couple offers and then finally went with one, having a round of counter offers before coming to an agreement.

After the inspection we had a list of new things we had to agree upon.

Here’s what we had fixed by professionals: Labeling of Electrical Panel (which we could have done) and new outlet installed, new water heater installed, linoleum fixed in kitchen (when I had torn it by moving the fridge once to clean behind it), and locks fixed (one that was sticking, another that broke, and one wasn’t aligned correctly).

Here’s what I fixed: Sliding door that would only open half way(I sanded down the metal track and it fixed the problem), tore off some drooping ceiling plaster and patched it up with the same texture as the rest of the ceiling so that it was seamless, patched up many a hole in the wall, sanded down a door frame (as the door has swelled during the summer and was sticking) and painted it. Also I tried to caulk the bathroom tiles with wall putty before realizing it (which is strange because I had properly caulked our tiles before). Thankfully I was able to wash all the stuff away and then do it again with all the right stuff.

Here’s what Jim and I did together: Built a screen for the window in the basement and stained the deck.

Here’s what Jim did: Soon after we moved in Jim installed all our window shades (beautiful white double cell shades at that),  replaced many light fixtures, built and installed a ceiling fan with light, took our guest bathroom’s toilet apart and repaired it, fixed many a leaky faucet, fixed the disposal, fixed garage door opener, and a door flap to keep the outside from coming in. In preparation for selling the house Jim worked (a lot), set up many of the appointments for professionals to come fix things, and he was also the vacuum master.

I must say that I wish we had done those things when we moved in, as our house was so lovely (flowers and smooth sliding doors and all) when we left. We did learn that the single mother who moved in have the walls painted and the carpets replaced when we left. She also got a radon mitigation system installed, which we paid for half of.

So we sold the place and moved into a house a few minutes away for a month. Unfortunately the padding and carpet had to be replaced, a washer/dryer combo installed, and a leaky faucet repaired improperly twice, while we were there (and not on my time schedule I might add). Ah well.

We sold, donated, and gave away much of our belongings, put some stuff and storage, and then packed up a few bags and the dogs and moved to Costa Rica. We are renters again, but it’s fun to be a five minute walk away from the beach for half of what we were paying for our mortgage. We have much less space and stuff, which is kind of freeing (when I’m not missing my food processor intensely). I like this more simplified living space and I actually have plans of eliminating even more of my belongings. (How many racer-back tank tops does one really need?)