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For Sale

August 25th, 2012

It’s Official! There’s a sign on the front hillside…and this photo shows me I need to get out and trim the grass in the ditch out front. When Mr Chiots saw the crooked sign he went out and straightened it. The listing isn’t on the website yet, not sure when that will go up, hopefully soon!

We’re in the process of buttoning up the upstairs project, no showings can happen until that’s finished. Today we’re installing doors and laying the floor in the bathroom. All the drywall mudding will happen on Monday. Depending on how long that takes, painting will happen Tues or Wed. All the fixtures and trim will most likely go in on Thursday or Friday and we’ll be FINISHED!


It’s good to finally have the house up for sale. This is the first/only home we have owned so it’s a completely new experience for us. We shall see how this process goes, should be interesting.

Have you ever sold a home or two, or three?

14 Comments to “For Sale”
  1. K.B. on August 25, 2012 at 8:02 am

    Congrats! It’s such a scary/exciting time :)

    I’ve only sold one house, and it was during a *really* good time in the market, so it sold within hours of being listed. The real estate agent didn’t even have time to post a sign!

    Of course, than means when I go to sell my next house, it will take months ;)

    I hope the process for you goes just as well as mine did!

    Reply to K.B.'s comment

  2. Sherri on August 25, 2012 at 8:21 am

    The first house we sold took MANY MANY months to sell due to a very slow market, but the 2 after that sold quickly with no glitches. :) It is EXHAUSTING to get a house ready to sell… I do believe that you get a better price and you sell faster when your home shows really well. Yours, clearly will with all those amazing updates/renos!

    Best of luck to you!

    Reply to Sherri's comment

  3. Amy on August 25, 2012 at 8:59 am

    Like Sherri, the house I sold took forever. I’d purchased it as a single woman in my late 20s. It was a big two story Craftsman that had a very sad remodel in the 60s. Before we listed, we consulted with a Realtor and made all the improvements be suggested, which were many and uncomfortable (note to self, don’t redo the kitchen while the only bathroom is gutted!). It looked great when it was finished, but sat in the market with a handful of showings and no offers for 7 long, painful months, while we anxiously watched our dream property sit with a contingency offer on it. We finally pulled both our house and the contingency offer, rested a couple of weeks, and then fired our Realtor and went instead with an enthusiastic woman my and my hubby’s age, who had shown our house to three of her clients. She had us a full price offer and two backups within a few days! In the end, we got our dream property back, too, for $30,000 and 1% interest less than our contingency had been! It sure can be a difficult process. I hope it’s smooth sailing for you!!

    Reply to Amy's comment

  4. daisy on August 25, 2012 at 10:23 am

    Our last home (first as a family) was bought by our next-door neighbor! Hope we’re as fortunate this time around.

    Many blessings for a quick sale and an enjoyable process. Are you feeling the least bit melancholy about leaving your first home together?

    Reply to daisy's comment

  5. Deb on August 25, 2012 at 10:25 am

    Have sold 3 houses and NEvER had to remodel before we sold them and they were all fixer-uppers older homes. We couldn’t afford to remode, if we did that we might as well stay put then and enjoy all the work. If wwe had to sell our home now of 17 yrs. we’d get much less than we bought it for. We have put on a new roof, but it needs siding and windows and ther’s no money for that. Our home has been paid for now for 10 yrs. maybe. Just no money for remodeling. I cna never see the point in remodeling everything as your choices might not correspond with a prospective buyer. So it would be a big waste of time and money. Better to go with a cheaper fixer-upper and make it what you as a new owner likes. We don’t have a money tree so that’s it for us. I would never make a new room either. How could you recoop all that money, labor and materials.
    I lkike your home but of course it would be WAY out of our price range. I hope you get an offer right away since it is close to time for you to get into your new home. You ahve a lovely home and gardens. I don’t have enough time to make mine half as beautiful as yours so don’t try. I prefer the wildness of mine. Good luck. You and Mr. Chiots have done a great job.

    Reply to Deb's comment

  6. risa bear on August 25, 2012 at 11:25 am

    We sold our first home, which we built all by ourselves, in 1982.
    http://risashome.blogspot.com/2007/07/it-was-good-home.html
    We sold the second one http://risashome.blogspot.com/2010/03/suburban-idyll.html in 1993 to move here. I go by there sometimes. Our daughter was born there, in the living room. They’ve painted it a horrible dark blue, sold off half the lot (which was our veggie garden for eight years) and now a cheaply built house squats there, along with hundreds of shabby duplexes in the former pasture next door.

    But the fruit trees are still there.

    Reply to risa bear's comment

  7. Dawn on August 25, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    Your place is beautiful and buyers will feel all of the care and love you’ve placed into it. Hope your realtor understands how much value a garden like yours has as a selling point! I recommend leaving some printed photos of your garden at during peak seasonal times out on your dining room table for prospective buyers to see. Any gardener would love to inherit what you’ve created. I’ve bought houses needing all sorts of fixes – just because the gardens were great. You can lay new bathroom tile in a weekend – but you can’t grow a 60 year-old rhodie hedgerow in a weekend! Good luck!

    Reply to Dawn's comment

  8. Linda on August 25, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    I think making the house “bigger” by adding the upstairs bedrooms will probably at least make the house sell much faster, and will probably recoup most of what you invest.

    We, too, are getting our house ready to sell. We did our construction work in the basement, where we had to get a Certificate of Occupancy or else tear out everything that had been done in the past to finish the space. We knew it would need an egress window, but the inspector also required us to raise the ceiling by 2″, which in turn meant we had to do some additional finishing work. We decided to replace the worn vinyl floor with laminate and then added glass block to the other three windows. We know no one will buy the house because of the “beauty” of our finished space, but the fact that it’s finished and legal adds to the attractiveness of our offering. In the end, we felt we could lose more than we invested in the upgrades if the buyer insisted on a concession for the C of O.

    Reply to Linda's comment

    • Susy on August 26, 2012 at 9:13 am

      We will definitely recoup what we invested with the addition of the 2 bedrooms & bath upstairs. We made sure to check that before investing all the time & money. The realtor confirmed that was the best option and we listed our home for 3x more than what we spent on the redo because of the space it adds. Plus it opens up the market since not many people are looking for a small 2 bedroom, but a 4 bedroom is a different story.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. Maybelline on August 25, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    Only sold investment property.
    This is the only house Farmer MacGregor and myself have owned. I couldn’t imagine leaving it.

    Reply to Maybelline's comment

  10. tj on August 25, 2012 at 5:21 pm

    …Whew! That crooked sign was bugging the tar outta me! *giggle* :o)

    …This is all so exciting and of course with it comes the bittersweet. You’re moving onto your dream home but leaving behind something that is a part of yours & Mr. Chiot’s personal history. I’m certain it was exciting when you both purchased this place a long time ago and look at all of the hard work you’ve done! Amazing, and it shows. With that being said, I can’t imagine that your lovely cottage will be on the market for long. It has everything most home buyers are searching for and more.

    …This is our first home and as you know we are pining for a place with more land and further out in the country. We talk of putting our old homestead on the market but we don’t have anything else lined up, if we did sell we would end up renting until we found or built something. It’s scary to think about but inviting to think that possibly our perfect place is out there waiting for us. :o)

    …Enjoy your weekend you two!

    …Blessings

    P.S. – Can’t wait to see Dex’ and the rest of the gang’s reactions to their new home too. :o)

    Reply to tj's comment

  11. Deb on August 26, 2012 at 10:53 am

    If you recoup 3X your investment and enough plus that to pay for what you spent for the home originally, the market must be much better there than anywhere around here. No way around here. Hope it sells quickly for you and that the markket’s better there.

    Reply to Deb's comment

    • Susy on August 27, 2012 at 9:20 am

      The market is doing well here in our area because of the natural gas boom.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  12. igardendaily on August 27, 2012 at 1:14 am

    I just can’t help but comment because all of your pictures remind me so much of our remodel and first home. It was in an urban neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. a 1920 bungalow totally restored to time period. Our project was to take the upstairs which was just a “loft” area or master bedroom w no bathroom. We added 2 bedrooms and a bath, making a totally of 3 beds up with a bath and 1 bed down with a bath. WE did a lot of the work our selves and were “Under the gun” too because we were moving to Pennsylvania as soon as it was done and on the market. We had 60 days to sell it ourselves and then my husband’s company bought it from us. We did well on the house and the co. bought it at market value but we don’t know what it ever finally sold for. Near our asking price I think but took 7 months. I think about that home (our first ever together) alot and no home since has ever replaced it’s place in my heart. Best wishes to you.

    Reply to igardendaily's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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