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May 27, 2007

Open House Day

It's Sunday morning, and today is our big open house. It's been a long journey.

The past several weeks were filled with de-cluttering, tossing junk, storing away little-used but needed stuff, and cleaning. Oh the cleaning. It felt like a never-ending process of cleaning. I'm Mr. Clean.

Last night was a long night, cleaning, de-cluttering and prepping the house until about 3am. This morning the tweaking continued, as I put finishing touches on each room — washing windows, turning on lights, replacing our half-bath's 70's vanity door handles with modern ones, and so on. Like they say, God is in the details.

I began to see prepping out home like designing a logo or an icon: the details make the difference. Every time I'd think to myself "That's good enough" I'd stop that thought pattern and push to the next level. It's the same process I follow in design — pushing to the next level until it's excellent. It's a pain, but worth it in the end.

I just hope the details aren't lost on the visitors. I know that when we go to open houses, we notice those small details, and in doing so we've built up a reserve of inspiration and ideas for our own open house. I think it will make the difference.

It just feels good to be done. In fact it feels so nice in our de-cluttered and cleaned home, we hate to sell! However, we also know that it's time to sell and move to the next step in this journey of life.

Once we sell, then the next step is finding a house to buy — that's another story! :-)

Update 2007-05-27: Wow! We've heard that had 8 parties went through our house today, and one expressed interest by phone to our agent. We are very excited, and can't wait to learn more on Tuesday. Oh, and our agent was very impressed with our house preparations, which was great to hear!

Update 2007-05-30: One offer came in last night and another is coming in today, plus we had a private showing last night and have 2 more private showings scheduled for this evening. We're feeling pretty good so far. :-)

Update 2007-06-01: We had a total of 4 offers on the house and accepted one on Thursday. We were very pleased with the final offer, and now have an inspection left. Time to find a house to move to!

May 27, 2007 11:56 AM | Family | add to del.icio.us

Comments

Good luck with this process Mike. You've got a gem on your hands, so I'm sure it'll sell quickly. Hope you find your dream home after sharing this beauty with someone else.

Posted by: Phil Gerbyshak at May 27, 2007 2:41 PM

Good luck, good luck!!
Speaking from the humble Compeau-Fawkes office in Lakewood (on the market now for about 9 months with one open house and less than one handful of walk-throughs), it can be a tough process to sell a house, Mike.
Hey, I'll race you-- since I think this is one competition where my head start might mean that I'm actually starting behind. :-)

Mike

Posted by: Mike Compeau at May 29, 2007 1:48 PM

Thanks Phil, we think it's a gem -- we hope others see the gem we did. :-)

Mike! Yep, we realize it's a tough job selling a house. Around here's it's very much a buyer's market, so we're prepaed for a different environment than when we bought the place in 2001. Still, we're positive about the process. So are we on for a house sale race Mike? :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at May 30, 2007 9:32 AM

It seems it was yesterday when you shown me pictures of your brand new family house. You was so happy :) Now you are going elsewhere and believe me, I understand the feelings you are having when you look at those pictures of your house.

I moved two times, and I have fond memories of those old places, one on Barcenillas and another on Sta.Rosa. I wish I had more pictures to look at.

Good luck with your house sale! Looks really great! Can't wait to see where Mike will continue his great work of Flling the Galaxy with Good Design! :)

Posted by: Carlos at May 30, 2007 11:35 AM

Good luck! Get that signing hand ready for all the paperwork coming your way...

Posted by: Pete Prodoehl at May 30, 2007 3:18 PM

Carlos, it feels like yesterday and at the same time 6 years. Yes, I also recall those early days. We love our house, but it's time to move to the next step. Thanks for your kind words!

Thanks Pete, hand is cramping already. :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at June 1, 2007 9:11 AM