Category Archives: house

A Burden Lifted

Song Lyric of the Day:

Oh, and once it held laughter / Once it held dreams … If there’s love in a house, it’s a palace for sure / But without love it ain’t nothin’ but a house

Tom Waits / “House Where Nobody Lives

If you’ve read here at all the last few years or you know me personally, then you know we moved out of our A-frame when I was pregnant with Coraline — about eight years and five months ago, to be precise. You also know we were not able to find buyers for it, so we ended up renting it out. Over and over and over. In between tenants we would try to sell the house. Of the five real estate agents we had in six years, only one got us to a contract, which the buyer then backed out of at the last minute. Turns out the sixth time — specifically the sixth real estate agent* in 8+ years — was the charm as WE FINALLY SOLD THE A-FRAME.

To say Rich and I were on pins and needles as we approached the late-August closing is an understatement. We didn’t tell anyone — at least I didn’t — because we were afraid to jinx things when it was looking so promising (if you know me, you also know I can be irrationally superstitious). A young couple with two little girls who call the A-frame “the treehouse” are now the new owners, and we couldn’t be happier. The house was bought by people who truly love it. There won’t be any more renters causing destruction and chaos and stress in our lives. (Not all our renters were bad — the first were great, in fact — but it turns out there are things professional background checks just cannot tell you.) There’s now a new family to love the house and make it their own, which made finally selling the house a genuinely happy occasion for all of us.

Now that the A-frame is sold, we are looking forward to investing in the house we live in, now our ONLY house, which is more of an adjustment than I’d expected. Turns out it’s a hard habit to break, saying the street name of your house so you know which one you’re talking about. Now when we start a list of house projects that need to be taken care of, it can simply be titled House Projects. It’s a good feeling.

Rich and I are looking forward to taking care of things that our house needs taken care of — like new eaves and gutters, a drainage issue in the backyard, and chimney repairs, to name a few — that we had to put off while all our attention (and money) was focused on the A-frame. I can’t quite put into words what it means to finally be able to start truly making our house a home, but I look forward to trying.

A-Frame Exterior

Farewell to a beloved home

*Again, a MILLION thanks to Brandon Hutchison of Hutch & Howard with Keller-Williams here in Knoxville. Brandon and his partner Rob Howard and their right-hand woman Carrie Mays pulled off what, after so many years, truly felt impossible.

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Filed under home, home improvement, home selling, homebuying, house, personal, real estate

Done Went and Bought a House

Song Lyric of the Day:

Ahh home, let me come home / Home is wherever I’m with you / Ahh home, let me go ho-oh-ome / Home is wherever I’m with you

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros / “Home

The spouse and I bought a new house recently. I’ve resisted saying anything about it because, as people who know me well can attest, I’m a very superstitious person. I wanted to wait until everything was in place and papers were signed before talking about it. Because if I’d said anything before everything was in place, the house would’ve disappeared into thin air. Seriously.

How did we end up buying a new house? Rich started the ball rolling back in September while I was in Toronto (my fault for leaving the country, I suppose). We’d already been talking about how 2010 would likely be the Year of the Baby (which it is), which, combined with our desire for a housing situation change, made the idea of a new house more appealing. Rich was initially set on buying a house in Old North Knoxville, which is where he started looking while I was away. I was fine with that, even though it would’ve put us further away from family and work. Our friends have a fabulous, large, beautiful house down there and that’s the kind of house we hoped to find. Alas, people who already live in those fabulous, large, beautiful houses in Old North Knoxville don’t move very often. So the only houses for sale we encountered were much smaller than our current house, needed a lot of work, had sacrificial altars in the basements that could double as horror-movie sets, were thisclose to the street, and didn’t have backyards. Or any combination thereof.

We then started looking all over Knoxville and the surrounding area. We fell in a love a couple of times, although in hindsight we both realized it’s a really good thing we’re not made of money because we would’ve ended up with serious buyer’s remorse. Where did we end up? West Knoxville; I will say it’s not Farragut. And after looking all over for months and months, we finally found the house that truly is perfect for us. Everyone in our family loves it, and we’ll be more centrally located for all of our family, too, which will come in very handy once Miss Bundle arrives. The dogs also like it, although Caleb has some issues with the hardwood floors upstairs. Not surprising considering this is the same dog who won’t set foot in our current house’s kitchen because of the parquet floors.

I’ll post some pics of the new house as soon as we sell our beloved A-frame. Superstition and all, you know. In the meantime, I will share that it doesn’t look like this:

Or this:Or even this: Like our beloved A-frame, it’s a bit atypical (although no more spiral stairs – squee!), older, and a little different. Just like us.

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Filed under home, house, personal