Home Sweet, oh, Wait

I'm Type A personality. I need to plan things. The general plan as far as housing goes is for us to move before Shaun starts junior kindergarten in September. But the plan in my head includes things like: re-pot plant in the living room so it can sit on the floor instead of on the table (what size pot, how much soil will I need?), pick clothes to place into storage to make the closet look larger, buy candles (do I want varying heights or all the same, coloured or all white, scented or not?), replace lightbulbs to higher wattage. I plan excessively and it's keeping me up at night because I can't turn my brain off.

We will get the house in tip-top shape so we can list at a moment's notice, and then we will begin the serious searching for our next house. Once we find it, we can quickly list this place and, hopefully, have a quick sale and then move. This house is so far from tip-top shape it's not even funny. When my Type A brain starts thinking about all that needs to be done to even get the house into half-decent-to-show-my-parents shape, it scares me. Not that it's dirty at all, it just needs so much. The basement is torn apart... still... from all the way back in March when Craig ripped the panelling off the walls without a plan or timeline as to how drywall would make it up in the panelling's place. Then it all needs to be taped, mudded, sanded, and painted. Oh Joy.

The living room ceiling needs to be painted as well as the walls. Our bedroom is desperate for colour - it's still one coat of white from whoever painted over the grey from way back when, the laundry room needs major decluttering... it just seems to go on and on. Oh, I need to scrub the oven since I didn't get to do it for the whole 9 months I was carrying Ian and it's in pretty dire straights at the moment. The ceiling in the front hall needs replastering from a leak in the bathroom above that was fixed 6 years ago but the ceiling was never addressed. And all the baseboards throughout need to be painted.

Did I mention that Craig doesn't paint? Ever. Yep, I'll get to it during the hours and hours of free time I have every day. :S

Okay, so with all those fix-ups in mind and a move-in date in mind of the summer, we put an offer on this house yesterday. What were we thinking? The closing is really in our favor: February 17, 2008. That gives us lots of time to get this place in tip-top shape, list it, sell it, and close on it. The house in question ended up going into multiple offers and we got out bidded but now that I've actually put the ToDo list in writing, it really is daunting. I'm actually glad we didn't get the house, though it really was a nice one.

Another will come along and next time, we'll be more prepared. In the meantime, I'm digging out my painting clothes. I wonder if they'll fit yet??