House Work

Whew! We just finished a huge push of housework here. We are trying to get the house ready to put on the market on April 1st. Last year when I was pregnant we "threw" the house on the market to see if it would sell and it didn't. This time we are coming at it much more prepared. We have put thousands into it trying to make it look and smell great. We had the air conditioning (and heating) vents cleaned. We had the upstairs bathroom carpet replaced with a nice linoleum (who puts carpet in a bathroom??). We then had to remove, repaint, and recaulk the bathroom baseboards. We painted the upstairs bedroom back to white...from blue...no one liked the blue...except us :). We then took the carpet from the bathroom and had all the spots where the cats had ripped up the carpet replaced. We had a whole step, three spots on the side of the stairs, and two doorways replaced. I have dejunked every room of the house, including the garage. We have simplified the objects that we own and use. We also bought a new vacuum, which I LOVE. It sucks really well and is bagless! I have been vacuuming every day so that I can get as much dirt up as possible before we have someone clean the carpets.
So what's left...whew. We have to get the carpets cleaned, tidy and straighten the yards, do the final organizing of the furniture and stuff, get the photos of the house taken, meet with the realtor, and list it. We have priced it to sell, about 20K under our previous listing price.
Troy and I are both so ready for a change. We are ready to get into a very small apartment where we can spend less time (and money) cleaning and taking care of our house and more time doing the things we love to do, like being outdoors! Our house is definitely one thing in our lives that isn't aligned with our values. We are spending gobs of $$ on something that doesn't add significant value to our lives. We have learned an important lesson owning this house. You have to tread very lightly with large purchases. We didn't think we would have a baby this soon, and never in a million years did I think I would want to be a stay at home mama. Things can change so drastically so quickly. It's important that large purchases have a lot of wiggle room, so that your life can expand and contract. Troy and I have decided not to purchase another home. We will wait until Troys income has ramped up. We have even tossed around the thought of purchasing a weekend home in the mountains before we purchase a home in Denver. I don't feel that the market is solid in Denver, and I don't think it currently has the ability to give a good return on your investment. Also, Troy is still young in his career and he may have a job change or two before he is settled, so we need to be mobile within the Denver area.
So, you live and you learn. We really have our fingers crossed that the house will sell quickly. There are three houses in the neighborhood that are for sale right now, and we will be priced 10K under them, so we hope that will be enough for a quick sell!