{a home in the making} for sale??

Good morning friends! Might I suggest you grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this post? It's a biggie! We've had a lot of things brewing behind the scenes of A Home in the Making, and I thought I'd fill you in with what we've been up to lately. Earlier this month, we came this | | close to putting our humble abode on the market. Before I tell you why we decided not to sell now, let me back up a bit. Some of you know this, and I talk about it a little in my about page, but this house wasn't exactly my choice. When I met Chris, he had owned this house for a couple years. I LOVED that he owned a house - I had always wanted to - until I moved in. Actually, starting this blog was a little *push* for me to start working on the house and creating a home for us out of the stark, all-white-wall, in-need-of-so-much-work house.

The plan was never to keep this house, though. Besides the fact that I drive an hour EACH WAY to get to work and back, our neighborhood is incredibly transitional. Our street is great, but there have been 5 shootings within a half mile of our house in the last year. Um, NOT OKAY.  The housing marketing took it's biggest fall though, right after I moved in and we'd refinanced. We've been feeling a little stuck for the past couple years.

In January, driving home from a weekend at the beach, we decided that this spring our house was going up on the market. We knew there were things that needed to be done before we could put the house on the market, and we committed to tackling those projects. So we set out refinishing our hardwood floors, updating our back entry, changing out lights and installing molding in an effort to get our home shiny and pretty for the listing. I'm not sure how the rest of the country is recovering economically, but Oregon's housing market is only in the very beginning stages of recovery. We knew we were going to lose money from selling, but we'd been saving up, and we were okay with this. We were completely committed to getting out.

And friends, we were so excited. We looked at potential houses to buy nearly every night - we even went and looked at a few. We found a real estate agent we love. We set the listing day. May 8th. We even went through a pre-inspection (and discovered we have radon! But that's a whole different post). And then I started to get panicky. And, for possibly the first time ever, I was incredibly sentimental about our house. I LOVE the updates we've done in the past couple years. We'd worked so hard to make it *ours* and we've made so many incredibly memories here. Did I really want to sell before we'd had a chance to really enjoy it? I chalked my feelings up to how much we had going on during the listing weekend: Chris' sister was in town, my half marathon, Mother's Day, big car show, and prepping for a job interview. I was completely overwhelmed.

Frowny. And stressed.

So we rescheduled the listing day. May 15. And the panicky feeling actually got worse. Much worse. What I finally realized was: I'm not ready to leave our home. I have wanted out practically since the first day I moved in. But when it comes right down to it, I don't feel like we're done here. I also didn't feel like it was worth losing money when we don't HAVE to move. It just seems silly, really. Chris and I spent a couple days talking through it, and amazingly, he was relieved. I have a sweet husband friends. He wasn't ready to sell the house, but he hates my commute so much he was willing to do it, for me. Awww.

Love this one!

After all that, we're staying put. For now. This really isn't the neighborhood we'd like to live in forever. I'll still be spending two hours in the car each day. But, I don't feel stuck anymore. I know that if we really wanted to sell, we could make it happen. That's huge. It's strikes me as a little funny that it took something as extreme as putting the house on the market to make me realize I actually do love this house. And we're so excited to enjoy the spaces we've created and to tackle some other projects that are high one our list: namely, the bathroom, and some major kitchen updates. Right now, I'm relieved to take not be thinking about it - actively- anymore. It's amazing how much time and energy putting your house on the market takes!

So, wow, this turned into quite a story! But, that's what's been up in our world this year. I know I don't go into a lot of *behind-the-scenes* info here, but I wanted to share all this because I think it's important to let you know where we're at with this place we call home. I'm truly glad we went through an exercise to evaluate where we're at and reconfigure our goals. It's amazing how one single goal kept me from seeing the bigger picture for so long. Anyway, THANKS for reading this crazy post! :)

What about you home owners out there? Anyone in a similar situation? Any one trying to sell their house right now? We'd love to hear!