Preparing our house for sale!

We've been in or new house for two weeks now, but I wanted to write about what we did to get our house ready for sale before I forget.

So if you read my last post, you know that we bought a new house first before selling our old one. And wow, let me tell you how much of a good idea that was! I'm not being sarcastic, it really was a smart idea. I'll get to why in a minute...

We wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible, especially with having Lachlan needing naps and me being pregnant and slow and tired. I didn't want to deal with any kind of stress or irritating situations. In order to prepare our house for sale and get top dollar, we wanted to install brand new carpets and get the kitchen cabinets painted white. And we didn't want to be in the house for these things because HOW, so we had one week from the time we moved out to the time we listed our house for sale to do these things. And everything actually went smoothly and was a success!

Moving day arrived. We hired the movers AND the cabinet painters to come on the same day. YES, that was stressful as the main cabinet guy was a bossy son of a bitch. We had some boxes in the kitchen that the movers were going to take out as soon as they arrived so they'd have space to paint, but the cabinet guy was just not listening to us when we said the movers would be there in 10 minutes, the movers will be here in 10 minutes, the movers will be here in 10 minutes, and the stuff would be out of their way in no time.

Anyway, being pregnant and basically feeling forced out of my own house, I started crying uncontrollably in front of whoever was in my house. I managed to grab Lachlan's gallon of whole milk from the fridge before they taped plastic up closing the kitchen off. And I went upstairs and sobbed. There were still things that needed to be put in boxes like our bedding, food, and ALL of Lachlan's furniture. I was just upset that this was the last moments in our first house as a family and 15 guys were tearing it apart. It was really sudden and fast and cold.

Once they started painting and the movers were in the swing of things, we headed off to the closing so we could sign a shit ton of paperwork. Lachlan was really good the entire time with coloring and eating snacks. I was so upset about the house and that asshole cabinet guy that I didn't have a chance to worry about how distracted and wiggly he might be. But he surprised us and was really very good. After paperwork was signed we went back to the house and the main bossy cabinet guy had left for another job thank GOD but his guys were still in there working. Lachlan wanted to constantly go in the kitchen and see what they were doing because of all the loud cool drilling and sanding sounds, so we decided that I'd take Lachlan to the new house so we could get out of the way, as well as not breathe in the paint fumes. That was actually fun because the entire new house was empty and Lach got to run around and entertain himself. He didn't even want to play with the few toys I brought. Brian gave me a camping chair for my pregnant butt to sit in which was a really great idea. And we waited about 2.5 hours for the truck to arrive with it's first load. Yup, it took two trips in a 26 foot truck because we have so much STUFF. Granted, some of the stuff included our large 3 year-old washing machine and dryer that we wanted to bring with us. We wanted to swap the older washing machine in the new house and bring it back to our old house so the new buyers would at least have something to wash their clothes in. That was my idea which I think was rather clever. Plus, why would I want to leave my new machines for 20 year old ones?

The rest of the day was very long. I basically set up camp in a literal camping chair near the entrance to the house to direct the movers where to drop the boxes they were carrying. Master bedroom please, Lachlan's room please, storage downstairs please, what the hell is even in that box please.

Then they left to go back to the house, bringing the old washing machine and dryer with them, reloaded the rest of our stuff and came back to finish the job. Overall it was about a 10 hour day. They did a great job, didn't break anything but towards the end, instead of asking where boxes went, they just put them in the garage because who could blame them. We were all tired.

So moving day is over. The painters still needed a second day to finish the cabinets, and the day after that we were getting our new carpets installed. And wow what a transformation! The next few days after that, Brian spent a few vacation hours during and after work at the old house filling in holes in the wall and painting them over, installing knobs on the cabinets, packing last minute stuff, just making sure the house looked brand new. We hired a professional cleaner for a deep clean which really made the house sparkle. One thing that pissed us off was those cabinet guys tied our low-hanging dinner table light up so high so no one would hit their head into it, and they forgot to untie it and let it down when they were done. And of course we didn't have a ladder to get it down safely so it took a few days for that to happen.

Here's some pics of the finished cabinets and new carpets:

So in conclusion, it was a really good idea to buy first because

1. It gave us a place to stay while all the carpets were being installed and cabinets painted 
2. It gave those companies an easier and quicker job with not having to lift and work around our furniture because the house was completely empty 
3. Lachlan got to stay on his nap schedule 
4. We were already out of the house for all 35 showings during the 3 days we had our house on the market! 

Anyway, finally it's time to list and sell our house and I'll save that for another epic post!