Who does that during a pandemic?

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Goodbye sweet home!

Long time readers know that we’ve been looking to downsize for several years. Some might say decades. There are friends who think we use that as a conversation opener and aren’t serious about it. We are getting older and the house and yard work gets harder or maybe the energy just isn’t there. Whatever the case I’m pleased to announce we finally bought a house. A smaller house.

You’d think I’d be overjoyed and I am. Sort of. The house is beautiful. Our bedroom is on the first floor so when I get doppy I don’t have to go up and down stairs on my butt. The yard work is significantly less. That’s the good news and the bad news. Some things that have tied us to our current home are the outdoor features – large screened in porch, pond, garden, privacy plantings. We could run around naked and no one would see us. Not that we would!

It’s exciting but extremely stressful. First there is the negotiation. The game. How little to offer without insulting. It’s a hot market here and homes are selling within days. Then there is the financing. We may have to carry two homes for a short period until our current home sells and settles. Outside I am a cool cucumber. Inside there is a crazy squirrel on the loose.

You know what made that even worse? For the first time in eons, Starbucks mistakenly gave me a caffeinated coffee. I spent the better part of Sunday bouncing off walls. It was conspiracy theories and what if scenarios. (No, the conspiracy theories had nothing to do with politics or viruses.)

Oh yes, speaking of viruses, who buys a home in a pandemic? Who puts their home up for sale in a pandemic? Not a neurotic hypochondriac for sure. We will stock up on disinfectant as I will wipe down everything after each showing.

My other dilemma is how to tell the cats. New house has no screened porch. My cats are inside only and will remain that way. The new house has a deck but it’s not enclosed so they will not be allowed on it. Fortunately there are lots of windows and that will have to do until the beloved husband decides about adding a screened porch.

When you are selling a home you cannot have cat toys littering the house. They will not be happy. We must all be neat. No hairballs either.

We are hoping to break some of the cats’ bad habits in the new house like napping on the dining room table but you know how that goes. In the meantime I’m trying to keep my inner squirrel calm. Settlement is December 29. Please send acorns.

97 thoughts on “Who does that during a pandemic?”

  1. Oh, boy, I’ll have to catch up on this adventure of yours. We’ve been in our house since 1991. It’s the only house we’ve ever owned. Even though we only have a small back yard, we love it. My husband nurtured it from a bleak, barren, cant’-grow-grass-because-there’s-too-much-shade lot to a lush jungle. We do have a screened porch which we added a year after buying the house. (I will never understand how so many houses in Florida do not have screened porches.) There’s much we love about our house and now we have four cats (up from three since November). We just don’t love the state or the city we live in. It’s getting crowded.

    We often talk about moving but, with us, the move would be to another state, probably out west or the northeast. I can’t imagine driving cross-country with four cats, although I have friends who have done it with six! Well, I know you have successfully moved (read your last post) so congratulations. And good luck with your brood. I know my cats would start sharpening their nails if they thought I’d move them to a new house without a screened back porch 😉

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  6. We did this 4 years ago, and the 2 mortgages thing, too. We renovated, moved in and then added on. Had I to do it over, I would have added on before moving in!

    If you can, see about adding the screened in deck now so it’s part of your new home and new mortgage 🙂 Just an idea.

    Good luck and pace yourself!

    MJ

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    • I remember when you did it! At a different house, I put a huge addition on. It took 4 months and I’ll never do that while living in the house especially with cats. I was able to go to the beach during the week to get out of the construction but that’s not an option now. At least any porch work is outside. We enlarged our porch where we are and it didn’t affect us too much except for junk in the driveway.

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  9. Wow, congratulations. I just moved a few months ago and it is stressful. But, I think I’ve pretty- much doused everything in my fur and clawed a few things up to mark as my own. So, now I’m ok with my new house. I don’t have a screened-in porch though. Wish I did. I will miss your pond pictures. Maybe get a fishbowl? I would break it to the felines gently. We do hate moving.

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  11. Oh, my goodness! This is big news. Congratulations! Lots of luck with the move. It seems that you’re not the only one buying and selling a house in a pandemic. Houses are selling fast around here–an average of two weeks in the neighborhoods near me. Our governor shut down open houses starting this week because of our COVID numbers.

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  14. Well, maybe something you didn’t expect would happen in this “COVID year” but, if you were lucky enough to find what you want for your needs, no time to waste. I’m sure your current home will go quickly. I keep hearing that lots of folks who lived in apartments in big cities to be close to their jobs, are now gravitating to the suburbs as homeowners for the first time ever and realtors are busier than ever.

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      • Amazing – lucky break for you! Your current home is large and you mentioned a home office – I am hearing people are looking for rooms to use as a home office and yours would be ready made. Have you read about people having pods built in their backyard to use as a home office away from the noise of the rest of the house, kind of like a she-shed?

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  15. How very exciting… and scary! Homes are selling like crazy here too. I bet yours will sell quick so you won’t be carrying two house payments for very long. I don’t envy the downsizing of “stuff” in your future but, when it’s done, I bet you’ll be relieved. But, no screened porch? I vote YES with the kitties… sounds like a good husband project.

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  16. We are in the process of looking for another home with less yard work and maintenance than our current home. We have finally settled on two locations – one with resale homes only (in state) and one where we can build (out of state, but near more grandchildren). Both have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Who knows, we might wind up staying right where we are after investing over a year of searching for what we want. Stay tuned! Good luck with you and the kitty’s upcoming transition and may all go smoothly as possible!

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    • Good luck to you! We are downsizing the yard work and costs. Most of the living area is adequate but the closets leave something to be desired. I will miss my fabulous closets but we need to do it. We’ve been looking for several years. Haven’t found the perfect house but at least the one we found is clean, we can move in without a big reno and in a great neighborhood.

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  17. “Outside I am a cool cucumber. Inside there is a crazy squirrel on the loose.” This is great. Prefect description of this year.
    So thrilled you found a place! Don’t worry – all the data is saying people are moving and looking for houses with ” large screened in porch, pond, garden, privacy plantings. We could run around naked and no one would see us.” That’s just what people are looking for right now!!!! Your house also has lovely windows and space – what people desperately are searching for – and there’s so little on the market. It’s bound to sell quickly. Go ahead and put out Christmas decorations and put it on the market – people are looking for that feeling of a warm home – timing is perfect.
    Well, the cats will object, but they will learn to be window sitters and as long as you stuff is there to cuddle on, they will manage. And the yard hobby can be replaced by some nice potted plants
    Hooray and Cheers! (especially the 1st floor bedroom)

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  22. Fingers crossed for you Kate! It’s exciting…. and nerve racking! Houses here are selling like hot cakes as people want to get out of the cities and come to the coast. Thing is, a seller cannot look for anything else until they have sold subject to contract. It is all so complicated here with estate agents, solicitors, one for each party, and the covid virus scuppering up any viewings or face to face dealings.

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  24. Congratulations on your new house! That is just fantastic! Looking forward to hearing about your new place and how it is settling in 🙂 Best of luck selling your current home – it will go quickly, I am sure of it! The cats will do OK – there will be new smells to smell and new sunny patches to find. It will be an adventure!

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  25. Congratulations Kate! I am super excited for you! And you do know who buys a house in a pandemic?… me and SSNS. Yep, and it all went relatively smooth. We bought the house and three days later we got a call on the condo. The sellers couldn’t be out of the house for three months and our buyer and was starting a new job so the deferred closing worked all the way around. All done without realtors, just a great real estate attorney we had used before. It was a little scary owning two homes briefly during hurricane season but luck was with us. I had a few meltdowns and my blood pressure went up but all is good. You will make it… you both will be fine! And you can build your own screened porch designed by you!

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  26. Congrats! Lots of houses on our street have sold during this pandemic and have done so quickly. I don’t think you’re crazy for putting your house on the market now. I can understand your stress, but hang in there, breathe deeply, and it’ll all work out perfectly.

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  28. Congratulations! So much work involved in all of that, but it will be worth it. I bet your current home will sell in short order and you won’t have to have too many showings.

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  29. Congratulations! I hear the market is hopping – in spite of the pandemic people just want DIFFERENT and it seems that’s what everyone (but us….whaaaa) are getting. Downsizing is the smart thing to do. Hopefully the process will go smoothly. Some years ago we THOUGHT we wanted to move – sell this place and move up the road a bit to a 55+ neighborhood. Our house sold before it was even on the market officially so I will WISH THAT FOR YOU! We changed our mind in the end and stayed here – you are doing the right thing – if my “beloved” has his way, I’ll have to install chair lifts to handle all the stairs we have. I’m going to pester him to go to a SMALLER place though – pestering is my middle name. HAHA Again – congrats Kate!

    Hugs, Pam

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      • I hear you…..that’s what I think about too…..the “what if”…..and we have tons of trees on our property which require a LOT of maintenance (leaves/trimming). I think a smaller house just plain makes SENSE. We love this place – – – BUTTT!!!!!! 🙂

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        • I hear you! We’ve been working on this for years. We looked at a lot of homes before settling on this one. Some needed extensive renovations. There were a lot of homes that fit our “20 years ago” category. That means we would have bought 20 years ago and rehabbed the way we like it. I’m not looking for major construction projects at this point.

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  32. Congrats! That is very exciting. I guess you are off the hook for putting up a ton of Christmas decorations while you are showing the old house–or will you wait to show until you’ve moved into the new one to avoid having people tromp through during COVID?

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  33. Buying and selling real estate involves drama in the best of times. My best friend just sold her house here and moved to IN. Yes, the pandemic is definitely a challenge, but as fast as homes are selling, you may only have to clean up after them a couple of times. 🙂 I can send acorns and pine cones if you really want them, otherwise, I’ll just leave them where they are.

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  35. “…who buys a home in a pandemic?”

    A whole bunch of people, it seems. The market is hot up here in Canada, too.

    Best of luck with the move. No acorns up here – too cold for oak trees, but I have a very hardy bunch of catnip…

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    • The market’s hot here too. We were looking over the summer. We looked at one house and was told we had 2 hours to put in an offer as there were multiple offers coming in and the owners would pick the best. I can’t do that. Too important a decision to make on the spot and the house wasn’t perfect.

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