As of this morning, o u r h o u s e i s u n d e r c o n t r a c t !
Yep! After four months on the market, we finally have a buyer. I’m sure you can imagine how thrilled, excited, grateful, and downright tickled pink Steve and I are.
And not to be outdone, Nathan and Meagan’s house is also under contract. They will close in about four weeks and arrive in North Carolina shortly thereafter. Plenty of housing hoorays this morning.
And even more good news?
Sarah had her 6-month CT scan at Duke last week which showed the desmoid tumor has shrunk a little bit more. Happy, happy news!
Her doctor said her next two scans will be MRIs instead of CTs and if everything looks okay with those, he will transition her to annual scans.
Do you all remember the stress we went through in the weeks before her and Gage’s wedding with this tumor suddenly appearing and no one knowing what it was or what was going to happen? Couple that with a severe case of mono, a hospitalization, half a dozen ER visits, and no one knowing what the future held, and it was truly one of the most stressful seasons we’ve ever been through.
And that makes it even more of a joy to report this latest good news from her and Gage. Shrinking is a beautiful word.
Well, it’s time to move from good news to scary news.
Last week, this fella showed up at our house.
As it turns out, the scary creature had some business to attend to in the house and the attic as he wired a new ceiling fan/light into our kitchen.
This reminds me a little bit of a surgeon’s table with all the tools laid out. It’s actually our sideboard covered by a paint cloth but it does the trick.
So that’s all the (good and scary) news from here. I need to get ready for some special lunch guests we’re having today; a certain Sarah and Gage Long. We haven’t seen them since they moved two weeks ago so we’re eager to catch up with them.
Later this afternoon, Steve has a pre-op meeting to get all the details for his March 10 surgery; he is so looking forward to having a pain-free hip. He needs all the mobility he can get since he’s about to have four lively grandchildren to chase around. Good times!
What about you?
What’s the longest (or shortest) time it’s taken you to sell a house? Any interesting stories from any of those times?
I’ve been wanting to go with Steve to see the Jesus Revolution movie. Has anyone seen it? Thoughts?
What’s something you’re looking forward to this week?
Congratulations on selling both Smith houses! That’s awesome! I’ve never had to sell my own house (we’re living in the first house we built after we got married) but I did help my mother sell her house after my dad passed away. It took 2 days to “sell” but closing took a lot longer!
I’ve not seen “Jesus Revolution” but I’ve heard positive things. We aren’t really movie people until it comes out on Netflix or Prime.
I was looking forward to a play date with my 13 month old grandson while his mommy went to the dr. checking on Baby 2. It was today and it was SO MUCH FUN! Now I’m tired 🙂 It’s the best kind of tired though. Love that sweet boy! Another play date in 2 weeks as time is counting down quickly! They live about an hour away but she sees doctors in our town. I know you are counting down the days to your sweet grandchildren living closer!
Suzanne,
Yes. Selling a house is a lot easier than closing a house! We are hopeful that it won’t take more than 30-45 days. At least, that’s what our realtor is saying now.
How nice that your daughter’s doctors are in your town! And extra nice that your grandson just happens to be in need of some babysitting while mom’s at her appointments. A win-win for all of you. And yes, those little ones are definitely tiring–in the best possible way.
Congratulations on the sale of both the Smith houses. I know that has to take a load off all your minds.
I have sold three houses. The first one took from October 1993 to July 1997 to sell. After having it on the market for about 4 months and my homeowner’s insurance being canceled, I converted it to a rental for three years. After two renters in three years, I made the decision to list it again. I think it sold within a week then, but I actually lost money on it. It was good to be rid of it though as I had moved about 2.5 hours away. My next house was a condo in Louisville. I actually sold it before it was even listed with a realtor. Since it was a company relocation, I still had to use a realtor so that was easy money for him. My last house was a townhouse in Tampa. I met with the realtor on Memorial Day, it hit MLS on Friday. By Saturday night I had two offers. I am hopeful that should I ever need to sell my current house, it won’t take long. That seems to be the case in the last couple years.
I have not seen the movie but have heard several people really liked it.
What I am looking forward to this week – I got a call yesterday afternoon that my painter had someone cancel on him, could they start on my house today. Eek! I was able to get a couple rooms ready so they have started on those. It will be nice to get a fresh coat of paint as I have lived in this house nearly 9 years.
I’m also looking forward to lunch tomorrow with an old friend and a lady from my Sunday School class.
Phyllis,
You’ve had a lot of buying/selling experience. I know you’re glad to have all that behind you.
Good news to get your painting started earlier than you thought; it’s so nice to have a fresh coat of paint everywhere. Enjoy that lunch with your friends!
Woohoo and Praise the Lord!!! Love good news. Not been so good at my house lately. My hubby just got out of the hospital yesterday after six days of being there for a really bad infection in his foot that required surgery… his fifth one on said foot. He fell off a roof two and a half years ago and shattered his heel over cement so this is the result. Now I am being caretaker and playing nurse and having to give him infusions in his pic line three times a day. I can’t complain. He took great care of me 11 years ago when I had breast cancer. His turn to get pampered. I am so happy for you and your family. Y’all have been through a lot and deserve some good things going on now. I am excited that your Florida family will soon be a NC family. I feel some heavy spoiling coming on soon. God bless you all and I pray you sell your house and the kiddos sell their house and just all good things coming your way.
Kaye,
Wow. You should have your degree in nursing by the time your husband gets done with his foot problems. You have been such a great support to him through all of this. Like you said, he cared for you so well during breast cancer; it’s nice to be able to return that care.
We sold our house in Texas in 2008 in two hours. I put the sign up— for sale by owner, and picked up my son from school. On the way home, a man called and asked if he could come by and look at the house. I told him it wasn’t fully ready to be shown, but if he didn’t mind a little bit of our living, he could come on to see it. . He showed up about 45 minutes later, saw the house, wrote me a check to hold the house and picked up the sign out of my yard on his way to his car. And we got our asking price which was significantly more than we thought we would get. We decided to ask more hoping we would get what we wanted.
It was a win-win!
I know you are so excited to be on the downhill side of trying to sell a house from afar. I bet you are on the edge of your seat waiting for those sweet grandbabies to get to Charlotte and their parents of course. 😉 Good times!!
Lisa,
That’s a pretty fast sale. I loved the fact that he picked up the sign on his way to the car; he wasn’t taking any chances. 🙂
Yes, we are very glad for this house to be sold and off our plates. Counting the down the days!!
How exciting that both homes are contracted. It is nice to know you don’t have to constantly wonder when it will sell. Pray the presence of the Lord will continue to be felt when they move in. Our first home was bought by a co-worker of my husbands – so no need to have a sign up. Our 2d home, which we lived in for 30 years was bought by our nephew. Now how quick is that? Have been praying for Steve and for the doctor’s as they operate. Have heard from others regarding the movie and it is worth seeing. As we are on vacation will do that when we get home.
Sharyn,
I loved that our realtor told us that this family felt peaceful while they were walking through the house. Hopefully, they felt the love, prayer, and laughter in the walls.
Sounds like your house sales have been easy and straightforward; good for you! Enjoy the rest of your vacation.
What wonderful news! So glad to hear that worry will be gone and you can look forward to your grandchildren arriving soon.
Liz,
Yes. Less worry. More grandkids! 🙂
Congratulations on ALL of the good news! We’ve only ever sold two houses. One took about 4 months, the other sold before it was listed. Hope we never need to sell a house again. 😊
Gayle,
That’s quite an accomplishment to sell a house before it’s even listed! It’s amazing how much the timing varies from situation to situation. I hope you can stay put for a long time!
Happy to hear all that good news Becky!
Ginny–thank you. We’re pretty happy, too! 🙂
Woohoooo! Congrats on the house sale! When we were selling our house in Arkansas, it took almost a year. (That town is dying.) When my dad died, we sold his house (same town) in a couple of months, for next to nothing.
During Covid, we bought a new house then put our old one on the market. We had an offer after 24 days — all cash. I’m mystified by people that can pay cash for a house. Haha
This week, we are heading to Ireland and Northern Ireland, so that’s what I’m looking forward to! Currently sitting at the gate at the airport. 🙂 ✈️
Stefanie,
Okay, don’t even tell me you’re going to Ireland. I am just way too jealous. 🙂 What an amazing place to get to visit; enjoy all the moments, big and small.
Taking almost a year to sell a house would be awful. And to sell your dad’s house for next to nothing? I know that was a hard pill to swallow. Even though four months wasn’t real speedy for us, at least we’ve found someone. Hooray!
Great news all around!! PTL!! We had two offers on our first home at the first showing! Sellers dream!
We went to see Jesus Revolution Saturday! I highly recommend! Awesome movie! I wish everyone could see it. We left when credits started rolling but friend told me there was an alter call after credits ran.
Looking forward to my 3 year old granddaughter having her tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy behind her and healing after tomorrow’s surgery.
Eswim29,
Two offers on a first showing would be a seller’s dream, indeed.
Glad to know you enjoyed the movie; I’ve been hearing so much about it.
Best wishes to your sweet granddaughter tomorrow; so glad to know that at this time tomorrow, it will be done!
I always love hearing the good news about Sarah and remember that scary time before her wedding. I knew then that Gage would be a wonderful husband to her! No matter what you guys are dealing with, you never cease to encourage! Thank you!
Bridgette,
Thanks for your encouraging words; I really appreciate you.
Yes, when I spent that time in the hospital with Gage and Sarah, it was pretty clear pretty quickly that he was going to be fabulous for her and to her. And he hasn’t changed!
thankful for all the good reports! Christ be praised! Ruth
Ruth,
Yes. Thankful and praise-ful!
Congratulations on the house sale! We have sold 7 houses over the past 40 years and are getting ready to put our current house on the market….the fastest we ever sold was 2 days when we sold our house in Kansas 10 years ago, we listed it on Wednesday, had about 10 showings in 2 days and sold it by Friday, the market was crazy back then….we hadn’t found anything in NC yet where my husband was living and working so I had to quickly fly out and find a house in 4 days which we did but then ended up living in a hotel for 2 weeks because it wasn’t ready by the time we had to leave our Kansas house. The longest was our first house in Kansas back in 2004, we put it on in March and it didn’t sell until September, meanwhile I wanted to get the kids settled in their new school in Kentucky so we moved there in July and had to take a bridge loan. That was a stressful summer!!
Dale,
Just reading your comment reminded me of just how complicated selling and buying can be, especially when you are transitioning with school-aged children. I can only imagine how stressful that summer was. I know you are glad to have all those experiences in your rear view mirror!
What exciting and wonderful news all around! I am sure all the Smiths are very happy and relieved. Congrats to all! The exciting news around is I finally had a doctors appointment to look into why I have all this gunk sliding down the back of my throat, it is quite annoying though not painful. I had an appointment last week that was canceled due to an incoming storm, so I am looking forward to finding out what the problem is on Wednesday. It snowed so much last week I couldn’t get out of my back door. I could get out the front door, but would have to step down into over a foot of snow. My friend Dave dug me out later that morning. I hope we don’t get much more snow as we are running out of room to store it in the yard. Dave cleaned off my car and moved it yesterday, so now I can drive it and he doesn’t need to ferry me around town. Lately it seems that spring is never going to happen. I really have nothing to complain about since I have a warm house and Dave to drive me if I am scared. After six years I still am not comfortable driving through snow! Before the big storm I went to my favorite grocery store and got myself a key lime pie, that made being stuck in the house much more enjoyable. Tell Steve I will be thinking and praying for him as he gets his hip replacement!
Cindy,
I hope your doctor’s appointment went well today and you got some answers about what’s going on.
We are starting spring pretty early. Seventy-five degrees, tulips blooming and many trees starting to bloom. It will get to you eventually–and hopefully sooner than you thought. In the meantime, enjoy your cozy house.
Congratulations on getting your home under contract!! And you will have quite the Smith presence in Charlotte very soon. That’s so awesome!
We have never sold a home before so are really unsure what to expect when we do finally make that step. Eeeeek!!!
We have not seen the Jesus Revolution movie…..actually, we are quite “movie illiterate”. We may watch 1 or 2 movies a year. Neither of us like to sit still that long. Too much other stuff to do, places to go, etc. LOL
I’m looking forward to my birthday this Wednesday and to a quick trip to watch our oldest granddaughter dance in a competition in Omaha on Saturday!
LeeAnne,
Happy birthday to you today!
I love movies; don’t go to many in the theater but love to watch a really good one at home.
Can’t believe you’ve never sold a house before. You’ve missed a whole bunch of headache! When the time comes, you’ll figure it out. A good realtor will be your best friend!
Shortest house sale. When we put my Dad’s house on the market, the first offer came in 20 minutes after it was listed. While that wasn’t the one we ultimately accepted, the final offer still came in the first hour!
Gordon,
I can’t even imagine getting an offer in 20 minutes. You were blessed to be in a seller’s market, for sure!
So, if I read this correctly and also remember all previous details, you will have all your children and grandchildren plus Gage’s brothers living nearby? And all the Smithsters who’ve had houses for sale now have those houses under contract? And Steve’s latest weird get up is no more scary than any other of the gazillion costumes he’s donned over the years? Please correct me if I’m wrong (which is known to happen). I’m celebrating for all of you!!!
I had an event that left me with a tear in my posterior tibial tendon. The swelling exacerbated the arthritis between 4 square bones in my foot (they may have a name, but I’m not sure). This made it too painful for me to put any weight on (11 out of 10). Thence followed 1 wheelchair, 3 ankle x-rays, 2 foot x-rays, 1 MRI, and finally 1 lidocaine/cortizone shot into my heel. I can now walk again, foot seems fine, pain about a 5 in my ankle and arch.
All of the above leading to what I’m looking forward to this week:
Going back to the podiatry surgeon tomorrow, hoping I’ll get my soft cast off so I can drive and have a gait with both feet meeting the ground at the same height, and going to my primary care to do some tweaking needed to my aging body.
Yes!! The cast is off!!!!
Jan!
Yay for you and yay for the disappearing cast. Thanks for letting us know!
Jan,
It was nice to see your cheery comment; I was just thinking I hadn’t heard from you in a while. I enjoyed your succinct first-paragraph summation of all the Smith happenings. Yep. You got it right!
I was “ouching my way” through the entire paragraph you wrote about your feet. That is a lot to go through! I’m so glad your cast is off, and you can drive and have a more comfortable gait. Of course, tweaking is always a good thing, too. Enjoy feeling better!