Picardy Project

building shit & raising girls

Chaos

Okay, let’s just start this all with this….
ALL LOANS HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED AND THE SCHEDULED CLOSE OF ESCROW IS 2/22!!!!!!
Holy shit that’s right.
We got the news about 2 weeks ago. Just like with posting about the offer we put on the short sale, I didn’t know when we should spill the beans. But after about a week, I thought, fuck it, let’s DO THIS! Ummm, but then life got COMPLETELY INSANE. Our living room looks like this
I didn’t want to write a post that was just, “Hi, offer accepted, bye.” But it’s been a supreme challenge to get the necessary 45 minutes it usually takes me to write a post.
So, now that I am FINALLY getting to it, let’s get to the details….
If you follow us on Facebook you’d know that I’m still somewhat terrified that this sale will not go through (I shared the news last Thursday there). The credit unions have accepted the first loan, the second loan and the loan for help with the seller’s down payment will be forgiven in about a week. That was a feat. Getting 3 loans accepted for a short sale. Oy. However, much like the process of our offer and inspections, things have not been easy going.

I could go into crazy detail, but I’m just so fucking exhausted and pissed off by it all. There are 2 sides to this: 1) this is a distressed property so usually the sellers aren’t exactly forthcoming. However 2) we are in contract and we have an inspections clause and fucking crap Jesus I would like to go in to take measurements. Especially because that was in the contract.
We let the listing agent know that we wanted to take measurements JUST of Zoe’s room. We asked for literally 5 minutes for me to run inside to take measurements so I can sew curtains for her (2 very tall windows) and know the size of furniture to get for her. Zoe has a hard time with change and so I want her room DONE when we move in to make her transition as smooth as possible. They agreed at first. But then “there was a death in the family,” so it had to be postponed. Then “someone in the family was sick.” So it had to be postponed again. Then we were supposed to be able to do it on Friday but the listing agent couldn’t even come up with a reason – but the conclusion was we couldn’t do it then either.

I was pissed. I know this might sound like something stupid to get upset about. But we had 2 inspections done earlier (structural, pest) before the offers were accepted. Per the contract we are able to get 5 days of additional inspections. We don’t need any, so I felt like it wasn’t asking a lot to just get literally 5 minutes to run inside and measure for what size dresser I could get for my kiddo. As a mom, I’m just annoyed. I know I sound like a fucking brat, but if this whole process with them hadn’t been a headache from the start I’m sure I wouldn’t be as annoyed.
Ooh, and then they told us they were going to refuse the final walk through. Also in the contract. Well, you can go fuck yourself on that one. I have no idea what this agent is thinking.
Oy.

Needless to say, I think you can understand why Chris and I say, “if we get the house…” when we talk about it with each other. Lol. There still really is a small chance everything might fall through (again, I don’t want to go into details because I don’t want to jinx myself). But we’re still keeping lots of things crossed in the hopes that everything goes as planned. Or as close to planned as possible. 
What does this mean for our lives? Well it means that over the last 2 weeks we’ve been packing. We’re packing the things throughout the house that we know we won’t need for the next 4-6 weeks. We’ve actually made good progress.
We’ve also talked with our agent about what will happen to Picardy: we’re selling  it.
Yes, that makes me sad. But I’m also really happy. Chris and I have poured a lot of blood, sweat and (so many) tears into this home. We took it from crumbling to beautiful. And I am so proud of that. But the chapter of this home is nearing completion, and I am totally okay with that. I am so happy to create a home for my WHOLE family. Not just find a way to make it work for our girls. I mean, Merritt’s crib is in the laundry room for heaven’s sake.

But that means there are some projects we have to finally get done and touch ups that need tending to.
We need to repaint the bathroom – our agent says it’s too dark. I agree re appealing to buyers.
We need to repaint my office and Zoe’s room – our agent says my office is too dark. I agree re appealing to buyers. But damn if I don’t love a dark room. Zoe’s room needs touch ups. We’re going to have the office staged with twin beds and then have Zoe’s room (off of the office) be staged as a play area. So we want those two rooms to be painted the same color to make them feel more seamless.
We need to do touch ups everywhere because of all our artwork that has been hung up.
We need to finally FINISH the laundry room (though hilariously I organized the cabinets about 4 days before we heard our offer was accepted).

We need to repair the ceiling and paint the ceiling in Chris’ office (we are in the midst of this work).
We need to clean up the yards, weed, do minor planting of annuals to make things look pretty.
I think that’s the GENERAL checklist. 
Of course there is all the packing. Getting pest and structural reports prepared for when our house goes on the market (standard in this area that seller’s have those inspection reports done unless you’re a distressed sale).
So what’s the timeline?

COE is scheduled for 2/22. We’re planning on moving 3/7 (that’s if everything goes as planned with the scheduled COE). Staging and photographs that same week, and then we’re on the market to sell. Then the future house will have LOTS of work we’ll be getting to. As soon as it’s ours we’ll work on getting the exterior repainted, replacing the furnace, installing a washer and dryer, rebuilding the main deck across the back and getting the garage and basement storage squared away (necessary for making work at home easier, and for making our business run successfully). 
What does this mean for Picardy Project? A whole lot of fucking fun that’s what. I’M GOING TO BE ABLE TO POST ABOUT WORKING ON STUFF AGAIN!!!
That also means things will be a little messy and disorganized on here for a while. I’m currently working on a blog redesign and transferring over to WordPress. But also, I usually like to keep posts organized by project. That will still hold mostly true, but there will be some posts where it’s just going to be, “Look at all the madness going on everywhere around the house right now.” 🙂 I want to make sure to keep everyone in the loop as much as timing will allow. We’ll be supremely busy over the next couple of weeks, so please be patient!

But it’s exciting. Something new. Something different. I love projects. And it’s always fun to be busy 🙂

Comments

  4. Congrats!! I'm so excited for y'all. Can't wait to read all about it! Take care of yourself – I have a feeling you are going to be working your fanny right off 🙂

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