We sold our dream home.

BTW – This post is just 1 in a series of Home Design and Build posts. You can find them all right here: Positively Jane's Home Design and Build.

Oh my gosh. What a whirlwind it has been. We sold our dream house on the lake (you can read about that decision right HERE). It was close to 5,000 square feet (one of the reasons we sold it) and filled to the brim with stuff.

It had been on the market close to 4 months and we were getting ready to take it off the market for the holidays. I didn't want to have to deal with people and holiday mess at the same time. And, without going into all of the details…someone came to look at it at 10AM Thanksgiving Monday (the day we were going to take it off the market) and gave us an offer the next day. After a bit of back and forth – they bought the house AND 99% of my furniture. What a dream…I kept about 6 of my fave things and what we needed to sleep on and sit on when we moved. But I kept my stuff. And…

We had to pack up all of that stuff. Or should I say organize it so that the packers could pack it up for us.

But…before we could do any of that I needed to find a place to live. We had already decided that we wanted to move to Greenville, SC to be closer to my daughter, Nicole, and her family (you can read about that decision HERE). Since there was nothing on the market to buy we needed to rent.

And before I looked for a place to rent I needed to find out when the moving companies were available. We had already made plans to be at Nicole's house for Christmas (it was our turn) and I did NOT want to miss that for sure. Christmas with Eleanor…what a dream. And if you have no idea who Eleanor is…here you go.

Now…thankfully –

When we decided, in July 2022, to put our house on the market we actually delayed doing that for a few months. And instead we spent time getting the house ready to sell. All the little things that were ok with us would not be ok for a potential buyer. We fixed things, painted things, and organized things.

As we were doing that we purged. I called it Phase 1 purge and Phase 2. Phase 1 encompassed the ‘high level' purging. If we had not used it in 5 years…it was NOT moving with us. Phase 2 came into play after we sold the house…what did we need…and not need – which was difficult because at this point we knew we were moving to a rental house.

We interviewed 3 builders and chose who we thought were the best who could move us in our timeline. And, I gotta say, moving companies aren't the easiest to deal with. We talked to the estimator, who then turned it all over to the project manager…and then the actual packers and movers came who had NO idea what transpired with the other people before them. It ended up working out in the end…even if we were delayed by 1 day.

Finding a rental house.

And finding a rental house was a challenge in itself. I would make appointments and they would cancel. Houses were falling apart or dirty. And since I only had 1 day to find something, the stress level was high.

By mistake I drove into a community of houses and it turns out that they were rentals. Nicole and I went into the office and found out that they had 1 4 bedroom left (our bedroom, craft room, Willy's office, and an overflow/Eleanor room). So I took it. It was available on December 22nd…the day we were moving out. AND there was a garage available for us too.

Our packers packed up and moved everything that went into storage first. I had to move it, label it, and organize ALL of that! Then they packed and moved the rest for the rental. Thankfully there was very little furniture to move. That saved so much time…and storage fees.

We got out of the house on December 21st. Spent the night at Nicole's. The movers came on the 22nd. We celebrated Christmas and then unpacked and settled in.

Christmas was great with my little bird. You can read all about our lot purchase HERE (since I am writing this post after the fact). And you can read about finding your lot HERE.

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