Right before the estate sale in July 2016 in Davenport, we put Mom and Dad's house on the market. We were sure it would sell instantly. It is in a very nice neighborhood and it's a beautiful house with an excellent layout. The master is on one side while two bedrooms are on the other side of the house. It has a front porch and two back porches that overlook the creek, and a very large basement. We decided on a price, which was around the average of the comps in the area. We were not surprised when many people wanted to see it but, we were surprised at the comments. Outdated, didn't like the living room floor, too many updates needed and then the most surprising, outdated furniture. I guess those people couldn't look beyond that. After awhile, we lowered the price. We did get one low ball offer that we didn't even acknowledge. I found the following article in Mom's house papers. Looks like she got the floor plan from the local newspaper, the Quad City Times.
It was around this time last year, October, when I woke up one morning with the idea of moving into Mom and Dad's house. Mike was wanting to retire after 31 years with the University System of Georgia. I had 21 years with them under my belt. When I told Mike my idea, he said he was thinking the same thing. That is when I knew my Mom, even though she was no longer with us physically, was probably putting that idea into our heads and that might also be why the house wasn't selling. She wanted us in this house.
Mike and I worked up some numbers and came up with a plan. The first thing we needed to do was tell Molly and Maggie. I knew this would be hard for them because they grew up in our house. We bought it in 1989, three years before Molly was born. I would suggest not planting a tree when your child is born, it makes it harder emotionally, to sell the house. They also didn't like the idea that we would be moving so far away from them.
The second thing was to tell Mike's parents we were selling the house next door to us in Athens. We bought that house for them to come live in during the brutal winters in Iowa. When we bought this house, it took us seven months to fix it up for them.
When we decided to go ahead with our plan, we put the house on Zillow and we sold it in seven days.
These are pictures from Zillow and my scrapbook of the house next to us in Athens. I really enjoyed fixing this house up.
The contract we had with the Realtor for Mom and Dad's house stated it would be on the market until the middle of November. So, we were still kind of hoping it would sell, but at the same time, hoping it wouldn't. We decided to wait to put our house in Athens on the market until after November 2016. More on that in a later blog.
Looking back at these pictures reminds me of the hard work we all did, and the hard work we are doing now, with Mom's bathroom in our Iowa house.
I have started steaming the wallpaper off and tearing down the door frame where I removed a door.
Gary and Jo are heading up this way tomorrow and will be helping me put this bathroom back together.
Once it is complete, I will have more before and after photos.
I also decided to put fabric on the shades Mom had up in the windows. We didn't have anything up for awhile but now that it is getting dark earlier, I need something to hide me from the neighbors. As always, I had help from a cat. This time it was Pete.
I finally got all of the kitchen chairs recovered.
I am now working on two living room chairs.
Seems like the house is in a constant mess.
Can't wait for Gary and Jo to get here to help us out!
One more thing. Today is my four year anniversary of being cancer free, October 18th! Can't believe it has been four years already. My sister Mary found out she had the same thing I did, DCIS, but luckily only in one spot. Mine was all over the place. Mary had a lumpectomy a couple of weeks ago and is doing great.
Happy to be alive and healthy!
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