Several of you have been to my house recently where the backyard was basically a pile o’ leaves - it’s now nice, pretty and rather relaxing thanks to mom. Actually, my mom completely changed the way my house looks while she was here this week. We packed up a lot of things in boxes and put them in the basement to be ready to move, she was at the house to have a cleaning company come over, and she helped me plant nice plants in the back yard (and more grass). She spent most of the day while I was at work packing things and cleaning furniture and cabinets, then I joined her as soon as I got home from work, and we’d work until 11pm or so.

The Realtor left a list of things to do, and as of now, the only three things on the list are paint the outside (they’re coming on Saturday), clean up some old mold stains, and clean up the desk in my office. Mom didn’t touch anything in the office, leaving it to me. Once all this is done, it’ll be ready to put on the market. I painted both bathrooms this afternoon and evening. And I still need to caulk the shower in my master bathroom, but it’s painted and clean.

Brian has been working on his as well, and the plan is to put it on the market next week - either Wednesday or Thursday. On Tuesday, I’m going down to help him with some last minute things, then we’ll be coming up to my place to live together until his (or mine) sells and we buy the new one. His was in much better shape, he has a lot less clutter than I do, and his house is much newer than mine (like by 15 years), so he has less issues

I’m really not going to like living in a house that’s actively being shown, but I guess it’s a necessary evil in order to sell it and get the new one.

The Carter Brothers Fence company put in my new fence today. It looks great. It’s the same style/height as my previous fence, but not white, and not rotting. Not only that, during their clean up, they managed to remove a good portion of the leaves near the fence, so I don’t have to do that now. I still have to remove leaves and clean up the back yard in general, but I need a strong person’s help for it - since I need to re-level the paving stones, and they’re heavy - my mom’s not going to be able to help this weekend. She will however be able to spend my money in Lowe’s landscaping department and help me design the new back yard.

In other news, a handyman who was supposed to stop by Brian’s house today didn’t, and neither of us are too pleased about it. Me especially since I rushed to be at his place by 5, and then I didn’t go out and clean the deck because I wouldn’t have been able to hear someone knocking on the door.

The first night out, we looked at 4 houses, two of which were no on sight, one that was “eh”, and one that was “wow, but damn that kitchen”. It’s both heartening and disheartening at the same time.

I wasn’t expecting to find something to buy on the first time out, but it was good to see what was available in our price range. The kitchens are all a little on the small side, and not well laid out, but the common rooms were a decent size. The master bedrooms in two of the houses were just too small for us. Most houses also have a formal living room as well as a family room and a rec room, and we’d be fine with two of the three. The dining rooms are all nice sized, and there were eat in kitchens in all of the houses (can’t they get rid of the eat in part and put more counter space and cabinets? ugh)

The house that I loved was very well laid out, with high ceilings, a library, lots of storage, and a screened in deck. But the kitchen was smaller than the ones we have now. It was in a good location too.

It’s nice to see that we can get a good amount of space and what we want in our price range, in decent neighborhoods as well. One house we said no to just because of the street it was on. There were *way* too many cars parked in the street - especially considering most had two car garages. It felt too tight, and we didn’t like it.

The one that we loved except the kitchen is on our list of “maybes”, but that’s it. I went through the listings again, and pulled out the ones with large kitchens to check with Brian before sending to the Realtor. They’re in Herndon, but south of the toll road, and in Centreville, north of 66. But the kitchen layouts look better, so we’ll see.

We won’t be ready to put in a bid until Brian’s house is at least on the market, so this weekend’s focus is on getting Brian’s house ready to sell. The realtor will be coming over on Sunday to give us a list of things to do He’ll be dropping by my house on Monday to tell me what’s wrong with mine Joy, Joy, Joy…

We met with the Realtor on Saturday, and we’re going out to look at houses tomorrow. The realtor will be stopping by Brian’s house on Sunday to let us know what we need to do to get it ready, and my house on Monday evening. We’re hoping to put Brian’s house on the market at the end of September, and mine no later than the end of October. Luckily, a house down the street from Brian sold in 6 days, with the average for his neighborhood being a little over 30 days. I haven’t seen the numbers for my neighborhood, but I’m not as optimistic. I can count about 14 “for sale” signs as I drive to my parking spot (luckily, prospective buyers won’t normally drive that route, and they’ll only see about 4). Still, 14+ in a neighborhood with 70 houses total is not a good sign.

I’ve sent in the money to the contractor to have him replace my fence, and as soon as that’s done, I’ll be doing “something” with the backyard - what I don’t know, but all the crap that was in the backyard (except the trees) is gone. I *might* plant grass and just leave a walkway with the stone I have, or I may line the fence with pretty flowers and plant grass elsewhere. I also had a lot of junk hauled out of the house by the “College Hunks hauling Junk” guys, as well as what I took to the trash last night. Mark’s completely moved out, and basically anything he left is mine or trash, so I’ve been getting rid of a lot of stuff that’s not necessary.

I’ve also started packing some of the stuff that I probably won’t need in the next 3-4 months (like my surplus of mason jars), and putting it down in the basement. I bought a lot of boxes from u-haul last night, and my books are going to start getting boxed up. I had a passing thought about selling them or donating them, but I have quite the attachment to them, and Brian said that I could keep them However, they don’t need to be out, and can be packed. I’m wondering if I should leave a few on the shelves though so that they don’t look empty when buyers come to look at the house. (I could literally pack 5-6 boxes and still have plenty on the shelves to look “full”. Good labeling will be very important on this move just in case I need to get to anything while it’s stored in the basement.

We got our first listing of potential houses last night, and there are a lot that look nice, and within our price range. Quite a few are “owned by bank” or “as-is”, which could be good or bad - I’d like to talk to the Realtor about the pros and cons of buying such a house (since we can still put an inspection contingency in the contract).

It’s a bit overwhelming, but I’d much rather have the new house and gotten rid of the old houses by the wedding. Then we can go “home” to our house, rather than still be in limbo between houses. Also, the wedding planning is a bit on the slow side at the moment, so I’ve got the time to work on the the house and do homework