More on our home...

Well we're taking baby steps with this house selling business. First we put the sign in the window (tough work). Then last weekend while Scott and two of his friends were busy watching March Madness I cleaned the house and took pictures plus did the virtual tour of our house. I probably could've slaved longer and cleaned up bookshelves a little more or purchased more plants...but the type of home we're selling is different and the potential buyer we're selling to is a little less picky about those sort of things. So I figured as long as it's decluttered and the pictures are bright then we're good to go. We've received a couple calls just from the sign being in the window. We're putting the flyers out today and we launched the virtual tour on a new website:

http://www.stewartvillehomeforsale.com/

After we have the flyers out for a bit our next plan of action is to send postcards with pictures and information on the house to the local community. After that we'll post flyers around town and Rochester and maybe put a couple ads in the paper and hold an open house. The good news? We're not in a rush so it's pretty smooth sailing so far. Here are the flyers I made up for the house (click images to see larger)




We've really enjoyed living in this house. Of course it's not perfect but it suits us very well. Who wouldn't want a master suite? The community is great, very quiet and some of the most helpful neighbors I've ever met! It'll be sad to leave but for the future it's the best. We would like a yard for kids to play in and a more active community with other families.

Big News!

No I'm not pregnant.

We've "officially" put our house on the market!!!! For those of you that don't know... it's a manufactured home so it's not like your normal house. Therefore we're deciding to sell it FSBO. Selling our house is more like selling a boat...there's a lot less paper work and legal stuff with homes like this. So although we're not completely "ready" to move quite yet we figured it didn't hurt to put a sign in the window. We'll slowly take some pics and get some flyers out there and of course do several virtual and video tours. We plan on probably doing a postcard mailing in the area too. It's a buyer's market which makes us a little nervous BUT we're in a good situation. See, we purchased our home in Illinois and moved it here. Homes in Illinois are A LOT less. So even if we price it lower than the appraised value here, we'll still be quite a bit ahead. Also, we are surrounded by new homes so that should definitely help. Anyway, it's exciting. We're still debating whether we want to live in a small town outside of Rochester or in Rochester. Hence the location question. Which by the way, Brian does bring up a good point...what defines a good location. This is true, it's different for everyone. For me, a good location would of course be in a decent neighborhood (I assumed when I created the poll that of course people would choose a decent neighborhood no matter what) but I would also like to be within walking distance of either a small downtown area or the grocery store and parks or walking trails. In other words I don't want to be in the middle of nowhere where I'd have to drive somewhere all the time. There are of course benefits to that too but personally I think I want to be closer to town. Still struggling with whether or not we want it to be Rochester.

Put a new poll up, by the way...10 to 1 most people would rather have a great location. That 1 person who doesn't is my husband of course :) That doesn't make things much easier now does it?

Poor Civic...

This past Monday we had lots of snow and driving conditions weren't the best to say the least. So we worked from home this day and didn't drive anywhere (not to mention our heater broke too so we had to wait for the maintenance guy in our 50 degree home). Tuesday, although the snow stopped, was still very icy and there were a few accidents. Right when we were getting off I-90 heading north on 52 towards the Marion Rd exit (for those of you that know the area), we noticed 2 cars in the ditch and one pulled over. This must've just happened because their cars were still running. So naturally because we figure it's icy around there we slow down quite a bit BEFORE getting there. The guy behind us did not do this in time and when he did start slowing down, he lost control. We saw the whole thing happen. Scott even said "he's going to hit us, he's losing control" and he did. We pulled over and got all insurance information etc. No one was hurt thank God...but it was scary on the side of the road and having all those cars pass us and some very quickly...to quickly. I was hoping one of them wouldn't lose control also and just hit us.

The irony? This is the 4th time our car has been hit and we've only had it for a year and a half!!! All 4 times were not our fault at all and in 3 cases we weren't even moving! So needless to say, the guys at the auto body shop pretty much know us by name now. Scott was joking this morning that we wish they had a punch card or something for frequent visitors.

Just bad luck...4th time's a charm...hopefully.

Trying to keep our house warm...we turned the ovens and burners on


Our Civic


Our bruised Civic


Yeah I took out the license #...probably not necessary but hey it's good practice!

Clematis and Tomatoes

We've been doing a lot of outside work lately. Guess it's that time of year (although maybe a little late). Sue bought me a Clematis for the deck. It's supposed to climb and I can't wait until it gets bigger. I planted it yesterday and did exactly what she told me to do (she's an expert at gardening). I also took Tuck's advice and decided to plant my tomato plant in the ground instead of keeping it in it's pot. Well, it didn't look so good when I put it in and I'm afraid the rabbits will get to it. So my dad gave me some supplies (he's also an expert at gardening) and now she's ready to go. I can't wait for my first ever tomato that I planted all by myself (kind of).

Planting the tomato plant


Wow it was bright and hot out!


There she is, no bunnies allowed!


Here's the Clematis planted...thanks Sue!

The 4th

This year for the 4th we spent the day putting up our lattice that Tuck got for us while he was here. We also stained it to match our deck. Wow it was hot outside! But now our deck looks a lot better :) Thanks Tuck!

Before

After

After that day of work we went downtown to our local Arts in the Park. Then we enjoyed the parade and the fireworks...although the mosquitos came out about 10 minutes before the fireworks started which wasn't so fun.

Party for some, work for others

Today was Kristin's graduation party. I went up to the cities with my parents and Ryan and Abby this morning and hung out there all day. Kudos to my sister and those who helped her, it was a smooth running party with plenty to do! Plus good food, can't go wrong with that. And you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day weather wise.

So I spent the day hanging with my family and giving Kristin advice I'm sure she will follow :)

Scott spent the day at home being very productive. He completely cleaned out the shed, built shelves and repacked everything into new storage containers. He showed me when I got home and it blew me away!!

He did such a good job at it! I wish I had before pictures but then again I'm glad I don't even have to see the shed that way again! Above are the shelves he built.