Home for Sale

I live in a beautiful home. Well, it does look beautiful when we put away all the stuff that hangs around on the hallways to have people over. My husband is a pack rat who rarely throws anything out. He also likes to shop in bulk. The other day, for instance, a liquidation store had umbrellas for $1. He bought six.

All the stuff needs to be stored somewhere, so we have all kinds of shelving and cabinets and places where to keep stuff. But we’ve exhausted the house’s capacity. We really have.

Of course, he isn’t the only one to blame. I, too, have my bad habits. I like to make 100% home made food. So, I must have a juicer, a deep fryer, a sausage stuffer, a grain mill, a bread maker, a heavy duty mixer, a hand mixer, a blender, all kinds of baking sheets and pans, a counter top oven to save electricity, a pressure cooker, a pressure canner, three slow cookers (yes, three), etc—all that is my fault entirely. So I have a large kitchen with an island in the middle, and I still need more room. And only two people live in this professionally decorated home.

But that isn’t the only issue. We live in a soft soil area. That means that in some distant past, a river went by here, and through the centuries, an island appeared made of sediment created by the river currents. What that means in practical terms is that it is “sinky” here. The soil was preloaded before building the neighbourhood, and the houses are sitting on a concrete pad, so they aren’t sinking. But we live on an earthquake zone, and I’ve read horrible stories of what happens on such areas during disasters of that nature.

When we bought the house, we needed to live close to the big city, because we both worked there. In fact, his job was right downtown—and this is a major North American city, so we needed to stay close.

Now however, he works two cities away from downtown, and I don’t work. Also, incredibly enough, the house has appreciated to almost double its purchase price. So I’m thinking that it is time to get the money from our investment and get the heck out before something terrible happens.

We would move further away from the city, hoping to get more square footage for the same money. I’m thinking of a house with a large basement where my husband can keep all his trash. And an extra room where I can keep my cooking toys. Our thousands of books should also fit in that basement.

So yesterday, We talked about it in the morning (vacation day for him), I called the realtor, and he was here within two hours. We discussed the situation and decided to work towards putting the house in the market by early spring. We are thinking that after the Winter Olympics bring people from all over the world, the housing market may boom even more than usual. They will experience first hand the incredible pleasure of living close to the ocean surrounded by snow capped mountains, parks, lakes, and rivers. Let me tell you...!

I’m nervous about leaving my treasured nest, of course. When I look around and see all the window treatments that I so carefully chose. All the storage space that my husband added with hard work, and just how beautiful the house is when clean and tidy, I feel like saying, “To heck with moving, let’s stay.” But my brain still says go.

We will see what happens in the next few weeks.