Selling Our House

We have big news.  We've been looking for a while for property that has a bit more space.  One came up on the market, and after thinking on it for a week, we decided to go take a look at it.  By that time, it already had a registered offer.  We spent the month saying to ourselves, "Ah man!  We should have moved on it faster".  Then the real estate agent called us; the offer fell through, were we interested?  We set up a showing, and put an offer in the next day.

Our offer was conditional on a few things, including the sale of our home.  We quickly scrambled to get our house ready to list, and our fabulous real estate agent, Stephen Schilstra, did a phenomenal job in helping us.  He covered the cost to have a professional photographer come through the house, as well as a home stager.  Our house has never looked better!

 
I don't think I've ever given a full tour of our home, so let me show you a few pictures from the listing.
 



 
The feedback we got from all the showings was fantastic.  It's totally nerve-wracking to put your home up for sale - something that so exudes your personality and something you love so much. 

Our house hit the market around 4pm on Monday night, and we had our first showing at 5:30.  I took the girls to my Mom's house for a few days, and there were back-to-back showings for the next 4 days.  At some points there were 2 or 3 showings at the same time.  We held off offers until Saturday at 5 pm.

On Friday, we were informed that another party had made an offer on the property WE had an offer on.  Their offer was better then ours; and had no conditions.  The seller then gave us 48 hours to lift all conditions on our offer.  So we needed to have a firm deal in our hands by Sunday night at 7.  It was completely stressful!

By Saturday we had 4 offers come in on our house.  Two backed out on Saturday morning, they didn't want to be in competition.  So on Saturday evening at 5pm, we were presented with 2 offers.  The first was for over asking, and conditional on home inspection.  We explained our situation to the agents, saying that we needed a firm deal, or we would be pulling our house off the market.  There was no way for them to do an inspection on Sunday, as they were from Toronto and worked shifts.  They told us they couldn't imagine they would walk away after the home inspection, but we did not feel comfortable taking a strangers word.  So we walked away from that offer and went to the second.  The second offer was stronger than the first, however; it was conditional on the sale of their home.  It was then I realized that I actually knew the couple making the offer.  We called their agent to explain our situation, but couldn't get a hold of him.  So we decided to call the couple directly (I was able to get their number from a mutual friend).  I explained our situation, and we countered at a lower price, as an incentive for them to remove their condition.  The buyers said they would talk to their bank in the morning and see what they could do.

Saturday night I did not sleep.  I found myself making a roast at 3:30 am.

At noon on Sunday, the phone rang, and it was the buyer.  They were lifting the condition.  We had a firm deal!  Not only so, but we still sold for over our asking price.  We even got the closing date we wanted.  We couldn't be more overjoyed!

So now the fun part.  I get to share what we bought!

We purchased a 6 acre farm just outside Hamilton.  It is about a 15 minute drive from our current house, which allows us to stay in our community of East Hamilton which we love so much.  We have made such good friendships with the people in our neighbourhood, and we have no intentions of breaking our connection here.  We simply needed more space for what we do.  Our neighbours have been very gracious with us hogging the parking on the street for our vehicles and trailers, but we were getting pretty limited in how much we could do, just because of space.  This new property offers a lot of potential for us to grow in business.

The new house needs a lot of work.  Okay, a ton of work.  But the foundation is strong.  The house was one of the original farm houses in West Lincoln.  It needs a new roof, septic, work done on the well, cistern, plaster, windows, everything.  I couldn't be more excited to get ready on these projects!  Let me share some pictures of our new place.

Front view.  I believe it is an orange brick house, however it has been painted pink.  Isn't it lovely? :p

There is a coach house attached on the back.  This is where they use to pull through with the horse and buggy and drop people off in the house.  The platform is still there.   The double garage has a huge second story loft.

 

There is a large 2-story barn, which we believe was originally a sheep barn.  Behind the barn is an additional shed, probably the chicken coop.  While they are completely run down, the structures of the buildings are solid and impeccable.  The land includes surrounding fields, which the farmer has agreed to continue to farm which keeps our zoning agricultural, and our property taxes extremely low.

This is inside the coach house.  The cinder block room we believe was used for smoking meat. The black on the walls is from the smoke.  There is a loft upstairs which could be a really fun fort.  This room will be used for my furniture.  Eventually we would like to included it in the main house, and it would serve as a front entry.

 Here is the existing kitchen. The faux marble on the walls is a continuation of the counter top.  Awesome!

This is the 'great' room.  The ceilings are 11'9", and are the original tin and crown molding.  The windows are massive - 4' wide.  We plan to put the kitchen in this room, as the windows overlook the driveway and yard.



The *beautiful* sheer curtains hide intricate woodwork around the windows.  All the windows are decked out in massive trim and paneling detail to the floor.  The baseboards throughout the house are 10" high.

It has the original fireplace, and a woodstove was added along the way.  It will probably be removed.  We may put it in the coach house or in the garage.  I think it would be fun to get the fireplace functioning again, though.  This is the main floor master bedroom.  We would like to add an ensuite and walk-in closet.  to this room.  It's size gives us plenty of space to do so!

Yes, that is asbestos tile throughout.  One of the projects on the to-do before we move in.

This is the existing bathroom.  It needs to go.

 

One of the two upstairs bedrooms.  The roof has started to leak, which is damaging the plaster. But the plaster needs to be gutted anyways, in order to insulate the house.

 



The upstairs bedrooms are so large, we plan to take some space for a bathroom and a laundry room.

At one point through the showing, I'm pretty sure I said something like, "This is all I've ever dreamed of!"  Oh dear me, I have HUMBLE dreams!

We're compiling a list of the things we must do before we move in, but a lot of the asthetical work is going to be done, over time, as we have money to do it.  Both Mark and I come from families where our parents and aunts and uncles all bought beater houses, and fixed them up over time.  We have to remind ourselves that "everyone has to start somewhere!".  This is our somewhere.  I have dreams of what it will one day become; and I am so excited to roll up my sleeves and swing my sledge hammer.  But my family and friends are more important than the progress we make on our home.  I will always, always put them first!

I think our girls are just excited to be home after spending a week in coffee shops and at Ikea while the showings were taking place.  Today I found them having snooze time on the stairs.