Wow, I guess it's bitter sweet for you; I can read in your tone.....
You've been good at holding back the news, lol. I'm happy you can look forward and get resolution, thanks for sharing that.

I've not had an offer on our yet.

Many wishes for lovely memories made in your new home, Mari. I know that you'll miss the old one (I would, too), but your new one is very charming!

Mitch, sending you wishes for a buyer soon!

Congratulations for getting a sale. I am sorry that it wasn't exactly as you would have liked it but I guess there is no telling where the bottom is on this market. We had the same situation recently. We received several "lowball" offers right away and turned them down. If we had only known that what we were going to sell at, a year and a half later, was one of those "lowball" numbers! C'est la pool.

Hopefully it will make your yule season a little lighter. Take care.

Mari, it may not seem like something to celebrate, but congratulations on the closing of your home. Now you can really move forward.

I have followed your saga, and think I can relate to what you are experiencing. Back in 1985 ex-DH and I were living and working in the Boston area. Decided to stop renting and buy a home. Real estate prices were getting ridiculous in the Boston area, so we bought our first house in southern NH. A really adorable 1920's english cottage type home with fieldstone fireplace and other nice features. We did tons of cosmetic work. Within a year we realized that the neighborhood was deteriorating (lots of older victorians converted into multifamilies with not the most "elite" renters moving in). We sold the house and made what seemed like a "great" profit (bought for 75K, sold for 125K in one year). Then we built a home that actually looked similar to yours in a new development. Two years later, DH's company was folding and he needed to find a new job. This was 1989 and lo and behold the real estate market was totally collapsing!! I was working at home for an appraiser so I knew what was going on. We did the same thing you did--made sure we had the best house in the price range. Our neighbors were furious at how low we priced the house. But it sold. Everyone told us it was worth $50K more than we sold it for, but I knew the market had not hit bottom yet. A year later, if we even could have sold the house (nothing was selling) it would have been for at least 50k lower! Which was obviously less than we paid for it! People were being forclosed on right and left. I can remember watching the auctioneers standing outside houses in my neighborhood with megaphones, barking out the details of the home and doing their bidding thing. It was horrendously depressing. It took almost 15 years for that real estate market to recover.

We did the best we could do at the time. We were realistic, and in the long run that really minimized our losses. Having lived through it, I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the bottom yet in New England. I think you did the right thing, and I hope a few years from now you will feel better about this.

Marie, I think most of us know that feeling when your house closes. Yes you'll miss a place where you had so many memories. But you know when one door closes another opens and you'll be making many lovely new memories in your wonderful new home. I'm sorry you didn't get what you wanted for it, but it's undoubtedly better now than later. This is a huge weight off your shoulders and now you can move forward. So congratulations!

Congratulations. I know it is always bittersweet to part with something you love, even when logic dictates it is the thing to do. We were in a similar position earlier this summer. We had an odd, sort of forced move come up, and had two houses at one time. We took a leap of faith that our old house would sell, but had prepared for the worst (socking away cash to make the mortgage in the event it didn't sell).

The old place was gorgeous. Ca. 1925, all brick and windows and wood and plaster and butler's pantry and . . . Well, you get the picture. Thankfully, a young couple fell in love with it and made us an offer that we were financially able to accept.

Like you, we had been watching the market. We priced the house competitively and got an offer within a few weeks. Even then, we were extremely surprised given the trend in the neighborhood and housing trends in general. But, we took it and ran.

When we did the final sweep-up the morning before closing I teared up for a moment. But then it passed. Just like that, it was gone. I believe subconsciously I had already dealt with leaving the house and had moved on to the new place. Somehow, it all just felt right. I hope that feeling comes to you now that you have said your final good-byes to the old place. Just think what wonderful experiences and adventures the new place holds for you!

ahhh mari - sending you some tlc that's just what you need - not that it changes anything, but just to lessen the blow. You grew attached to your home and that's a good thing, so not unreasonable that you would mourn the loss -

Since you are so good at making a house a home, with time hopefully you will grow to have a similiar fondness for the new place

good luck mari

Mari--All generations of my family have handed down the adage and firmly believe that "everything happens for a reason!" I can't wait to see what you do with the new place! Congratulations on your new start!

I just wanted to say I understand the bittersweet part but congratulations on the sale and I wish you the best in your new home.

Mari, wishing you better times. I know this is hard.

I'm at the beginning of that road right now -- leaving a home I love. I'm sure you'll have good advice for me as I follow in your footsteps.

Peace,

Amy

Congratulations. I've been wondering what happened. It's too bad it wasn't under the best of circumstances, but I hope you can now enjoy decorating your new place.

Johnmari, congratulations on the sale and hang in there. Having just gone through the same thing with selling a house we love(I loved) to move to Ohio was bittersweet. Just give yourself as much time as you need to adjust.

Good job, Mari! Sorry it wasn't ideal through and through (we went through that with this place and our last one), but hopefully you'll see everything on the whole as progress.

It took us all of a year to really embrace all of our decisions and all of the fall-out from those choices, but in the end, we're happy. I hope you'll find that same happiness in your new place.

Your new home is just beautiful. In no time, I'll bet you manage to make it even more gorgeous than the last one.

Bright blessings for Yule in the new place!! ...AND with no strings attached to the last one. What a great way to kick off the holidays!

I hope your blues pass quickly. : )

Mari, I am sorry you are sad and missing your new home but like others have said, now you can move on and make new memories in your new beautiful home. Thanks for sharing.

While I'm thankful that you finally did sell your old house -- it is indeed a bit of a sad passing -- and you are certainly entitled to those mixed feelings! But with your considerable talents -- your new home will be whipped into shape and looking wonderful in no time!

Bright blessings on this latest chapter in your life! :)

Jan

I'm glad it is sold but very sorry for your sadness...hugs and kind thoughts going out to you my friend.

Everything works out for the best - Believe!

But I do know about leaving stages behind, people behind, stuff behind. I gave away a few things I should have kept.

At least we had a successful sale. So many others are still struggling to sell. Some are in foreclosure. So you are doing well.

In the future, who knows what may happen but most likely your situation will improve so keep the faith going there!

Congrats on your new place. You had done great things in your previous home. The new home will be even better.

Congratulations mari. I understand your sadness but that will soon pass. Think of all the fun things you can do to your new house!

Good luck Amy. I am sure you'll find a buyer with that gorgeous house of yours.

Oh, it feels sad Mari. It must be very hard to move on and away. As much as I dream of some day having a nicer place and a single home, I would be so heartsick to leave my home and garden here. Many dreams, memories, and places to part with.

On to even better things in the future! Hopefully you will someday cherish the move you've made this time too :)

I'm happy that you have "loosed the millstone" from your neck, Mari. But I also know how much you loved the house and how hard you worked to put your stamp on it.

You're right about "emotions not being rational". I think you and DH made a smart decision but that doesn't take the sting out of it, I'm sure. I like the home you're in now very much, and am quite certain you'll be busy "pimping your ride" in the months to come.

We closed on the old house yesterday. I didn't want to mention there was even an offer for fear of jinxing it after three other failed offers that got people's hopes up, since it was from one of the offer-ers who had dropped out earlier and to be honest we didn't trust them entirely. They got it for much less than they had offered last summer, too, so it ended up being in their interest to wait thanks to the complete collapse of the real estate market there. Pretty painful for us, though. While I'm happy to get the financial drain off our backs, I was and am sad because I didn't want to sell the house in the first place and now it's irretrivably gone (not that we could have gone back after buying this house, but emotions are rarely rational!). At least it's gone to people who seem to appreciate all the work we put into it.

Congrats Mari.. I don't blame you for not wanting to jinx it. I was following your posts.. the one about the hotel going up.. I felt so bad for you, I didn't know what to say.

Which buyer ended up buying it?

It's always a mixed blessing, selling one home, having another one. As someone suggested earlier, when God closes a door, He usually opens a window. This is a new window in your life. You'll probably come to love the new place as much as the old.

I think the fear that most of us have is that the market will go below what we paid for a house. If you are able to hang onto your house thru a housing market recession, do it. Things will look up later. We've had ours almost 16 years (we made the offer on it just after Christmas, 1991) so we've watched the value of ours go up and down. Mostly up, but most recently, down (which is, of course, the OTHER adage, "what goes up, must come down....").

DonnaR/CA

Mari,

So sorry that you are feeling sad about your old home. I hope the new year brings new memories in your new home (which as I recall has that charming porch?)

Kelly

Sorry the sale didn't go as you'd home Mari, and being a scentimental fool who has moved many times in my life I understand about 'leaving' a home (because it's not just a house that's being left ;). On a bright note, I saw one picture somewhere here of the outside of your new home and it's so New England enchanting to me!

So whenever you're ready to get crackin', I'm sure there are lots of us here who are ready to help however we can. (I for one am ready to "paint", ha!)

Here's hoping you begin to love your new house as much as your old, Mari. I think it looks like a great place! Congratulations on the successful sale.

Mari, I know you're emotional about your old home, I know I would be as well, so I understand your sadness.
I think it has nothing to do with downsizing or up sizing.
Everyone that fixes up their home and puts a lot of TLC into it, is emotional about it. I think if I ever sold my house, no matter where I would go, no matter how nice my new home would be, I know I'd be grieving for a spell over the loss of it. Heck, maybe that's why we've never moved.

One door closes and another opens...Best wishes for much love, happiness, and good health in your charming new home, that's the first most important ingredient, everything else is the icing!

Joann

Mari:
I don't post often, but I've followed your path to the final sale of your home. Please remember that it's all just "stuff", and you will never know just how many years of healthful life your very adult decision are added to your DH's life.

I know it's hard leaving the old home, but how wonderful to start the New Year in a better financial situation.

I remember the day I called my mom up after she sold her very favorite house.

She was crying and said "I just divorced your father, but that's not why I'm crying. I had to sell the house!!!".

Congratulations - and now you are free to make your new house "your home" that you love.

sky

Mari: I'm sure that must be a weight off your chest, though can sympathize with the letdown feeling. Soon there will be a new year and these bittersweet memories will fade as you and your DH can start anew in your new house.
Best of luck to you both.

Thanks all, I needed the patsonthehead, and I REALLY appreciate how so many of you acknowledged grief instead of going all Pollyanna on me. Yeah, "bittersweet" is the perfect way to express how I'm feeling - I think it would actually be easier if it were all one or the other. I admit I bawled the whole way to the closing and about six weeks ago I stopped going over there unless I absolutely had to because it just made me miserable and even I'm not that masochistic. ;-) I went through a LOT of Visine the last several months, so daisyadair, I know EXACTLY how your mother felt! But, there were a lot of things DH didn't like about that house and he really loves this house, ginormous warts and all, loves the neighborhood and all that. I pretty much did all of this for him because he's done so much for me throughout our whole almost-14-years together. He's happy and I'm working on being happy because he's happy, although as someone coping with major depression (bipolar II) most of the time, it's not quite that easy to just "make up your mind to be happy" the way some can. (Yes, I'm aware I am whining.)

It's going to be quite a while before I can do as much decorating as I would like to :-( because of those lovely invisible-but-expensive things we had thought PO had taken care of. However, DH has asked that I go ahead and get "his" Morris chair cushions done as his Yule present because he's tired of his butt going numb ;-) so I'm going to spend some quality time on fabricguru.com, and I hope to get my "baaahgin" rugs from Home Decorators put out this weekend, so there are a few things getting done. (Now if I could just persuade DH to get those darn curtain rods up - I've only been asking him for more than a month!)

The people who bought the house are the ones who had bolted when the hotel project was announced. DH spent many nights going to planning and zoning board meetings in TWO towns (when it didn't fly in one town the whole thing was moved a few hundred yards across the town line!), talking to neighbors, and just generally making a pain in the patoot of himself, and the project eventually went kerflooey. But, by that time it was too late, they were gone; we and our new agent thought our original agent should have been able to negotiate something like "give us six weeks to make this go away" but he couldn't manage it. Our new agent knew this couple so she very politely rode their butts for three months until they came back and snapped up this huge bargain. She rocketh most thoroughly and deserved the really nice thank-you present we gave her. :-)

I'm actually pretty scared about where this market (and economy in general, but I don't want to raise a discussion more fitting Hot Topics) is going, and I worry for those in the sagging markets who have to sell for reasons other than "Iwanna new house" and can't sit on their homes until the market recovers. Hopeful thoughts going out for those of you with properties up for sale. If we had known what was coming we'd have pulled it off the market after firing agent #1, stayed put and managed as best we could, but by the time the market collapsed in early September it was too late. Our realtor said that Labor Day week the phones simply stopped dead in her entire office, just like someone flipped a switch, and even a significant drop from our already-aggressive price didn't generate the expected rush of responses. I have a feeling that the house-flipping shows are going to go off the air before too long, and good riddance to them.

Ahhh Mari sounds like you need a good dose of fabric guru and just in time they are having a huge sale! 75% off
I promised myself no more fabric until I get some projects done with the fabrics I already have from them. I broke my promise - but RUN over the stuff will fly!

here I'll even give you a free lift

Here is a link that might be useful: fabric guru - mari's pick me up

I know exactly what you mean about the market stopping dead in its tracks in September. Our neighbor is a realtor and I see the signs for the company he works for all over town.

Small, neat, well-maintained homes that would have been snapped up and "renovated" up until last fall (read: leave one wall standing to qualify as a "renovation" so as to sidestep the waiting period for a new building permit) are still sporting signs on their front lawns.

The wealthy will be able to buy whenever they like. Those caught in the "rub" are those attempting to buy a first home or trying to move into the town while they wait for their present home to sell. The homes for sale are the very homes that have been "flipped" 2 or 3 times in the past 10 years. And having been purchased and sold again at inflated prices their owners can't afford to sell "low" because they likely don't have the equity that would enable them to do so.

I agree, this is a scarey time. I just listened to a news story (NPR) that said this is the worst housing market ever which makes sense when you consider the unprecidented rise in "value" (mostly speculative) and the rush to "take" equity loans to fuel continued consumer spending.

Most tragic of all, are those who were lured into taking "adjustable" loans because no bank "in its right mind" would ever CONSIDER loaning the applicant the money required to purchase a home. For one simple reason: they could never afford the loan over its term.

On a "bad day" I can convince myself that this is the equivilent of the 1929 stock market crash; the result of "buying on the margin" and "flipping" stocks but never really having any real equity. It scares the daylights out of me, too, Mari! But I tend to be very conservative at heart when it comes to money, spending, and investment, so I "scare" easily about things like this.

Like many of you, I worry a great deal about those who will "get caught in the machinery" as it grinds on relentlessly. It's good that you were able to get out, even though the loss will smart for awhile yet.

Do something "pretty" for you new home! and do it soon.

Mari, I understand your feelings, even if our circumstances were slightly different. We had been in our home only five years when Katrina hit and took everything away. To say I mourned and grieved would be an understatement. I missed my home, my "stuff" (I can't tell you how many well-meaning people told me it was just "stuff." Perhaps it was, but it was 35 years of my family's "stuff.") Most of my friends and neighbors moved away, out of state. It has been very difficult.

But there is always light at the end of the tunnel. On November 7th we moved into our new home, and we are so happy to be in our own place, "feathering our new nest." I pray that we have many happy times here. We've already had two sets of company and plan on many more guests sharing our happiness. I know you will, too, and as each day passes in your new surroundings, the sadness will fade, not disappear, but fade.

Mari,
Congratulations on the sale, although I know it's hard for you. HOpefully that sadness will fade as you and DH make the new house a home. You should feel proud of your decision to make Dh's life healthier and happier. Kudos to you, and hopefully you'll start to feel a little better about the move soon.

Mari -
My sympathies and congratulations on selling your house. I know how much love you put into that place. I'm not going to tell you you'll stop missing it - geez, I'm still missing the house I moved from when I was 9 years old!

Still, I have to say that your new house, despite all it's invisible flaws, is charming and somehow seems more like you, if that makes any sense. I hope you grow to love it as much as DH does.

Have a joyous Yule (and many more in the future.)
Amy
(Looking forward to seeing you work your magic on the new place!)

Good job getting it sold! My husband was transferred from Georgia to Wisconsin. We had to sell. My husband works for GM so we did receive quite a bit of help(incentive to sell rather than give the house to GM). Even so, this was the worst sales experience ever. We practically gave the house away We received a bonus for selling the house and GM paid the agent, thus we could afford to be very agressive on the pricing. Even so, the new buyers came back with a list of nitpicky repairs as long as my arm-this house had passed a GM inspection-give me a break!. At this point I told the Realtor-give them $200.00 for any/all repairs, 24 hours to make up their minds and that's it. I can let GM take over my house, I didn't have to deal with them. I also told her to make sure they understood that they would not be able to buy the house from GM afterwards. Anyone who has made an offer on a house is excluded from making another offer by GM if they take over the house. People think they can get more money off this way;they can't. It worked the buyers accepted the offer immediately. I had another offer coming in-this helped of course. Also, with the credit market tightening. even if you had an offer, people were having real problems getting financed. Luckily for me the couple was pre-approved.

I worked really hard getting the Georgia house in shape for sale. It looked beautiful. I built this house-it was my dream house. I hated selling it to begin with and selling it in this market was horrible. However, my family is together again, the new house is ok (newish ranch). It will be nice once I get started decorating. We saved a great deal of money on the new house because of the bad market so I guess in the end it all evens out. Congratulations again!