Still Sorting and Waiting

The last few days I have been spending an hour or more in storage, sorting. Our empty box pile is growing. That is very good news! I hauled 3 bags of trash to the dump yesterday, all from papers and broken things that had been kept in storage or around the house. It felt really good to get rid of that stuff. The yard sale pile is getting bigger. After our last yard sale I thought we had nothing left worth selling. I had even taken a couple of loads of yard sale leftovers to Salvation Army and Goodwill. I said I would never have another yard sale. I did not realize what we had packed away! I am going to try to finish the sorting this week so that we can have a yard sale on the 24th. Let me know if you are interested in joining me. Even if you have a small amount of stuff... bring it on!

The house selling process seems to be going really slow. Right now I have our house listed on 5 web sites and at least 2 of them seem to be getting a steady flow of visitors (the only 2 I can see how many views the page gets). Our fliers flew out the first weekend but now they are going about 1 every other day. It is great to know that people are looking but no one has even called or emailed us about it so we will just wait and pray. Our next step would be to pay to advertise in the Chatsworth paper (I understand the Dalton ads are way expensive). If we still do not get any calls then we might have to shell out the money to list on the MLS. The MLS would get our house out there for EVERYONE to see. The problem with the MLS and for sale by owner is #1 it is expensive!! #2 it is a data base used by realtors. If a realtor wants to show our home to someone then we would have to consider the options. The realtor would want a % if they helped make the sale. From what I understand it is any where from 1-3%. If we could get 100% of what we are asking then I think we could pay 1-2% to the realtor but we would make nothing. I think if we get to the point of where we really need to sell then we would consider that. We are not really going to make much any way. We look at what our loan was and what we owe now and have decided that we have been renting from the bank... haha. Ok so it is not really that bad but in this housing market our home is probably worth what we are asking even though it is $2000 less than we paid for it 3 years ago.

The good news is that the foreclosure up the street and the house that was for sale across the street from it look like they might have been sold. One says Sale Pending and the other one does not have a for sale sign anymore! That leave 2 houses for sale in our neighborhood. Our house for $137,9,00 and a house up the street that last time I checked was for sale for $148,000 or so. So even though no one has called after 2 weeks we are remaining optimistic and we are reminding ourselves that God is in control... after all it has only been 2 weeks.

If any of you have advice on selling a home we would love to hear it... especially if you have experience.

Storage

It has been nice to have extra room for storage but now I am realizing how unnecessary it is. Storage = Junk. Every bit of extra space just leaves more room for us to fill with junk. It makes us lazy "we don't have to sort that right now, let's just put it down here"... then 3 years later it's still there. If something is in storage for three years then how much of a necessity is it really? I am looking forward to having a yard sale to get rid of all of this... and the numerous trip I will need to make to the dump to get rid of all of the trash that has built up (not stinky trash... just years of papers and broken things that we said... I'll get to that later.)

More Cleaning

This morning I picked up Caleb from his very first sleepover. It was right next door but that is a big event in a little boys life. Then we went to Taylor's football practice. Today they practiced blocking and tackling with dummies. I thought it was a nice change from the usual practice where the kids beat up on each other. After practice I realized why they did it this way. No contact between the boys + a talk about make sure you wash your hands = swine flu prevention. It seems to be running wild here. Of course very few cases are actually diagnosed as swine but it is the flu and it spreads fast and hits hard. So either way we don't want it.

After practice it was back to cleaning and playing with the kids and more cleaning. This is the 3rd time I have had a break today. The first was writing an email to a dear friend and the second was a much needed nap. It was only 20 min or less but it was refreshing and got me geared up to tackle Taryn's room. Her room was left until last, upstairs, because she has so much stuff. I found better ways of organizing and talked her in to giving some of the baby toys away. So between my normal tidying up, finishing my room and Taryn's it has been a pretty busy day. I think tomorrow I will work on my closet and then I think it will be time to move down to storage. I do have the main bonus room cleaned up so it can be turned into the super sort room!

Now it's off to fix supper, play with the kids and then fold clothes (I have been putting this off all week) while hanging out with Jake. He has been at his volleyball tournament all day. The girls have been playing good today... sorry the kids and I did not go but between Caleb staying up late at his friends and Taryn cutting molars I did not feel like taking them out.

Pictures and Listings

So today I have focused my efforts on our master bedroom and photos. I have been cleaning and organizing our bedroom. It is not in bad shape but it is the room that is often on my daily cleaning schedule and often turns into a dumping ground when we have company coming over. So I am almost done with the basic cleaning and then I will begin to pack up things such as books that we never look at and bag up items for a yard sale. I have read that it is best to clear out any unused items because it helps the room to look clean and spacious... that is my goal. My other job for the day has been taking pictures and adding our home to listings. I am taking pictures as I get a room prepared. So far I have pictures from outside, the kitchen, dining room, kids bath, attic entry, 1 view of the bonus room, the boys room and a photo of the trey ceiling in the master bedroom. I can't decide if I want to post pictures of Taryn's room before or after I paint it. Right now it is pepto- pink. I will be painting it a nice neutral brown/tan color... unless someone comes along in the meantime that likes the pink! Now I will take a break from my cleaning to go eat with Jake... among other things and then continue (maybe with Jake's help) with out closet this evening.
Here is the link of our pictures... so far... if you know of anyone who might be interested :) I plan to go back later and add room dimensions so people can try to visualize the space.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lisabdickey/House#

For Sale By Owner

This has been a great house and we have the best neighbors but we feel that we need to make this financial decision for the betterment of our family. We have been praying about this for months. So why now? We have gone back and forth about what is best for our family. We decided that having our finances in better shapes and not having to pinch pennies is better than living in a big house. Please keep us in your prayers and if you have any advice on For Sale By Owner we would love to hear it. Also if you know of anyone who is looking for a house in Dalton please send them our way!

I am going to try to blog throughout this whole process. For the last week I have been cleaning, clearing, sorting, etc. So far the laundry, kitchen and dining rooms are almost show ready. The kids rooms look good enough but I am trying not to displace to much of their stuff at one time. I worked on the bonus room yesterday. It was a MESS... but not any more. It still needs some work but for the first time in months I can see the floor! That was just part of the bonus room... hopefully tomorrow I can begin on bonus room part 2. It actually feels good to clean and clear out spaces. I am hoping to be done with all of this by next weekend so that I can begin to plan a yard sale... if I have enough stuff worth selling. If any of you are interested in joining me for a yard sale at my house let me know... we get good yard sale traffic.

St. Simons Part 2

So we took care of the whole RoofBag situation and took off down the road. The drive went pretty good and the dvd player was awesome! When the kids are watching a movie we have to listen to it because it is routed through the speakers but it was much nicer listening to it than 3 kids whining about the car ride :) It took us about 6 hours to get there. We arrived and quickly got into camp mode. We got all of our name tags, schedules, tshirts and stuff, unpacked, went for a walk and ate dinner. Then we dropped the kids off and went to our first chapel service. This years speaker was Brad Bird and he spoke on Romans 12; how we belong to God, we are part of God's body, and we are to love each other... of course it was a lot deeper than this but I am not going to type out all of my notes... haha. After chapel we got to break up into our small groups which is always a great way to get advice from other coaches (for Jake) and coaches wives (for me). There just happened to be a guy in Jake's group that had taught at Apalachee when Jake was there. After huddles we went to the adult fellowship, a time for the adults to eat snacks and socialize. We spent the first evening social talking with the guy Jake used to work with and his wife. They only live 30 from my parents house so I am hoping one of these days we can go down for a visit. The next mornig we were up at 6:30 and off to breakfast by 7am. From breakfast we took the kids to their groups and went to competition. Jake did a mixture of sports everyday from football, to kick ball, to softball, to his favorite volleyball. I also competed everyday with women coaches and coaches wives. I have to say that this year was much more competitive than last year. We played volleyball, wiffleball, kickball, and ultimate frisbee. After competitions we would go to a morning session. This years was called Balanced. It was about balancing finances. It was amazing! We only got to hear the first 3 lessons at camp and are doing the rest here at home (balancedonline.org you can watch the lessons and download the pdf's). After morning sessions was huddles, lunch then free time. Our first day of free time was spent napping. I had a headache and Jake was going to a class for FCA huddle leaders so the kids and I slept, it was the best 3 hour nap ever! The next day we went to the light house and the playground overlooking the ocean and then hit up Dairy Queen. Our last day of free time we went to the pool. After free time was supper, then break out sessions, chapel, adult fellowship and child pickup.

Oh and how can I forget Thursday night. Thursday night was date night. As we sat in the cafeteria waiting on the kids to finish eating a storm blew in. It poured and the wind blew and then it was over... so we thought! Jake and I dropped off the kids and headed out to eat. As we headed towards the bridge a HUGE storm appeared. It was raining in every direction, the wind was pulling the car up rom the road, it was hailing... it was scarey. We made it across the bridge. We were in a state of shock but we decided to go ahead and eat (at Five Guys and it was YUMMY!) then we walked around Target waiting on the storm to go away. When we felt it was safe to venture back out we went through the Chic-Fil-A drive through for a milk shake and then headed back to the camp. It was the night the kids were to perform and I was scared that the weather would cause us to miss out but we made it back in time... in time to find out the power was out in most of the buildings. We were asked to pick up Taryn and T and take them with us to watch the older kids sing. Instead of the kids singing infront of just parents in our evening chapel they were moved to the teen chapel because they had power. It was great! Hundreds of teenagers worshipping and then cheering for our kids on the stage. I believe some of the kids were a bit shocked. They were up on stage in front of hundreds of teens and perents and siblings but they did great.

It was a really fun week. It was exciting because this year we had 6 families from our area that were able to go! I know I had much more to say about camp but I will have to post more later as I think about it. There is just so much that happens during this time of relationship building, fellowship and worship.

St.Simons Part 1

June 29th was when our summer really kicked into gear. I drove for 6 hours! Yes, me... who usually falls asleep after 2 hours of driving managed to drive the full 6 hours to St.Simons. I really surprised myself. Now the drive home was a different story. Jake drove and I am pretty sure I fell asleep around the 2nd hour. We will talk about the drive home later. Back to the drive there. Our new car does not have as much room for luggage as our van did so I ordered a luggage bag to strap to the car. The night before we left I loaded the bag and carefully followed the directions to strap it on our car, with no luggage rack. It's ok, the directions explained how to do it. As we started down the interstate the straps started to vibrate. It's ok, the directions said this might happen. So we pulled over and I adjusted the straps and we proceeded down the road. The straps seemed better and we drove through Atlanta. An hour or so past Atlanta several cars drove by pointing at the bag on the car. Jake looks at our cars shadow and said that's how it has looked the whole time so I don't bother to pull over. But then I realize we are getting horrible gas mileage so I use the side mirror to point up so I can get the bag into view. The front of the bag had folded up causing an L shape. No wonder our gas mileage was so bad :( We found a rest area and I looked over the bag, looked in the car and said we are not going to waste any more time. Jake and I unstrapped the bag, shuffled the kids around, emptied the contents of the bag into the car, folded the roof bag and shoved it in the floor board. I am determined to use this bag on future trips, there are other ways to strap it (that in hindsight make more sense anyway). So maybe I will try it out this weekend when I take the kids and the dog to Cleveland. This is going to have to be it for the evening. I have so much more to post!