Some thoughts on our house situation

Well, we've had our house on the market since last July. No takers, even after dropping the price several times. Lots of showings, especially lately, but no 2nd showings, and no offers. We are at $119,000 right now, which according to my research on Realtor.com and the Shorewest.com map puts us right at or below 2 bedroom homes (we have 3 bedrooms). Today, our realtors called Matt and asked us to drop it to $100,000!!! We're like, um, no. We still owe more than that, as we bought it for $115,000 5 years ago. There's no way we can go that low logically or financially. So now they are thinking about dropping us next Friday, May 15, and canceling our contract. There are some good things about that, but a couple bad, too. The bad: we had been planning on a July contract end, so we haven't talked about what our plans are for sure. So now we have to rush that ahead. The good news is, less stress for when Baby comes! He is due 2 weeks from today, and still lots to do to get ready for him. If this happens, we will be calling the We Buy Ugly Houses people to see what they will offer. If it's not good enough, then we have to decide if we want to try a different realtor or just hold off on selling for a while or for good.

So tonight we will be sorting through our options and pulling together a list of goals and how we want to accomplish them. We'll also be going through our budget and figuring out how we will do a remodel should we be forced to stay here. What a confusing time this is for us! We both wish God would just give us a clue as to what His plans are for us. We are lost, and we feel trapped between a rock and a hard place. To move, or not to move? That is the question. :(

I still feel like we SHOULD move, especially in light of all the craziness with our government (but that's for another post). And yet, it would help so much to stay here and be able to pay down our debts faster. Matt thinks we are being told to stay, and while I see his point, I still feel like we are supposed to go somewhere else. I think...

We also want to hold a yard sale, but I think I may put that off until after we find out if the realtors are going to drop us next week. I keep wanting to hold it on a Saturday, but it keeps raining every weekend, plus I haven't had time to pull the stuff together and price it. Not to mention the showings that keep happening within a day's notice. If we do get dropped, then Matt and I are going to go through box by box meticulously and decide if we really need to keep the stuff. Of course, we won't get rid of everything. :) But a lot of it, I'm sure. We've already lived without it for a year. Especially books, movies, and CDs, and the kids' toys. We have boxes and boxes and boxes of toys... It's really not fair to them to have all their toys boxed up and have hardly anything out for them to play with now.

So, if we stay here, what if we want to do a remodel of some sort? What would that entail? What would we do? We have no idea. :P We do know that we need to make the house bigger somehow. That's a must. So we are thinking somehow put in a full 2nd story rather than the 1/2 story we have now. But to do that, I think we have to fix the footings. If we do the full 2nd story, I think maybe we could tear out the sunroom and redo that room (it leaks through the windows whenever it rains) and then build on top of it to make the 2nd story bigger. Matt wants to build a "deck" out front over the current ugly cement steps. That would be a cute idea. But the first thing we need to do is make the space larger. We also thought about turning the dining room (which isn't near the kitchen) into another bedroom. That would help with the boy/girl dilemma now. :) If we do the 2nd story thing, we want bigger rooms (the one for sure), plus I'd like a 1/2 bath up there, as well. I'd love to move the stairway to a better location, but that might entail a little bit too much work. As for the main level, we have to redo the kitchen (and include a dishwasher!) and possibly the bathroom, and I think we should redo the floor of the laundry room. We need a new water heater in the next couple weeks, as it looks horrible. :( If we stay here, we will have to start thinking about a new furnace either this year or next. It's pretty old and inefficient. There are so many things we could do, depending on cost and how to finance it. Oh, and then there's the garage... We want to tear it down and put up a new one, and if possible (although we doubt the city would let us), attach it to the house. Maybe that would give us slightly more backyard space.

So anyway, those are my thoughts on the house. Please pray that it gets sold in the next week here so we don't have to worry about any of this!!!