Selling Our House

Before we decided to move, back when we were still trying to figure out what we wanted to change, we debated about whether we could change our lives enough where we were, or whether we needed to strike out to somewhere else. Central to that decision was our house.

We went back and forth and back and forth about whether to stay in our house and make it work or whether to sell it and move, either somewhere else in Durham or out of state. I can’t count the number of discussions we had, over many years, about whether to sell our house or not. There were changes we had wanted to make since the day we moved in and we were finally in a position (financially) to begin to make some of those changes.

But ultimately, there was one thought we kept coming back to. This house would always be too big for us. We are 2 people and we don’t need 2700 square feet. It doesn’t matter if we renovate the kitchen and get rid of some of the exterior doors (there are 5!!) and fix some of the layout problems that were created when they converted the house into 2 separate apartments and then back to a single family home. We could make all the changes we had dreamed about for years and it wouldn’t change the fact that the house was too big and we didn’t want that much space.

One thing our house is not too big for? Some really great parties. This was Chris’ 40th birthday party in March 2019.

Once we finally accepted that fact, we knew that selling the house was the only option. We contacted a realtor to find out what we needed to start doing to get the house ready to sell. We knew it was going to be an extensive list, but, as it turns out, we didn’t actually have any idea.

Our plan was to list the house in the spring of 2020 (maybe March or April). We talked to a friend of ours who we decided to hire as our realtor. We knew the first step was to get a structural engineer to check the foundation. Based on cracks in the walls, both inside and outside, we thought there were some “shifting” issues. Sigh.

The engineer came out and spent almost 3 hours in our basement and came back upstairs to tell us that we had “major structural and foundation problems.” Including that our pantry was -literally- falling off the back of the house. The foundation under the pantry was completely crumbling. We knew there were going to be some repairs that needed to be made, but we had no idea the extent of them.

We talked to a contractor that our realtor recommended and had him give us a quote. He spent another 2 hours under the house and then went back and forth with the engineer a couple times. A few weeks later, we got his quote.

Twenty seven thousand dollars.

I was in shock. We got a couple other quotes and they were all over the board. One was $16,000, one was $29,000 and another was $32,000. Chris met all of the contractors so we trusted his gut and went with the $27k quote.

We hired the contractor in January and he started applying for permits. A week of 2 later, we found out that the city of Durham had been hacked in a ransomware cyber attack, so we knew there would be a delay. Once things started to get up and running from that, Covid-19 hit. More delays. In late March, our contractor called me and asked if I knew anything about our house being in a flood plain?

I did not.

Turns out, FEMA redrew the maps in 2018, and a small piece of the back of our property is now in a flood plain. This meant more delays as our permit application had been flagged as “flood plain” and had to get special approval. Of course it did.

On April 20th, we got an email that the permit had been approved and work could start. You would have thought we had won the lottery, we were so excited. Well, the lottery where you have to pay them $27,000. But still. FINALLY, some forward movement. Some progress.

Everything on this truck was supplies needed to repair our foundation. This was a happy, and overwhelming, day.

Because here’s the thing: there are many other projects that need to be done on our house to get it ready to sell. But nothing, literally NOTHING, could get done before the foundation. The tile floors in both the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom need to be ripped out and new floors put in. The whole house needs to be painted (apparently not everyone likes for every room in their house to be a different color. Huh. Weird). Several windows need to be replaced. And lots more (I’ll be sharing lots of details about all the work we’ll be doing in the coming weeks and months). But NONE of that can happen until the foundation is fixed. It is so bad that as they lift it up and repair it, there will likely be more cracks that happen and possibly more windows broken and tiles cracking. So we have been at a standstill until the foundation work could be fixed, which is why the delays in getting the permit were so frustrating.

But finally, FINALLY, we can start. I’ll be taking you along for the ride with us because most of the work that is going to be done on the house, we’re going to do ourselves. Have we ever done anything like this? Nope. We have done very minor and quick repairs ourselves, but nothing like replacing a sub floor and laying a new floor over top of it. But it’ll be fun, right?

Right??

Right.

Our new goal is to list the house in the fall. Maybe September? We’ll have to see how Covid plays out and what the housing market looks like. As Chris keeps telling me, maybe we’ll be delayed, but we WILL get to Hawaii. Just have to get rid of this house first.