Today (And Everything Leading Up To It!)

Julia keeps a calendar with notes of what she has to do and what she's done. Just little notes and such that makes sense to her. Last week she emailed me the list below about what we've done over the course of the last 9 months since we first discussed buying the new house and over the weekend I cleaned it up a bit for posting here. (Taking out things like how much we paid, things like that.)

This is a breakdown of what we've done so far this year mainly as it relates to selling the old house and buying the new one (see the last entry below for more on that). Not all of the detail is here, but this should give you a pretty good idea of what we've gone through this year to prepare the West Seattle house for sale -- and all of those notes would make a pretty good checklist for anyone wondering what sort of things they have to do in order to stage and sell a home -- and buy a new one.

Anyway, here it is:

January 4th: Julia and her mom have lunch -- discuss buying a new home.

January 15th: Make offer, contingent on Seattle home selling.

January 17th: Make sure we can afford the price they counteroffer.

January 18th: Get mutual acceptance.

January 18th: Get market analysis on Julia’s condo, decide asking price.

January 18th: Talk to our renter about buying the condo.

January 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th: Get market analysis on West Seattle home.

January 22nd: Hire agent for West Seattle home listing and sale.

January 23rd: Take jewelry order to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM).

January 24th: Move boxes to Julia’s parents’ garage, get SAM order ready.

January 25th: Stage home with Julia’s mom.

January 26th: Stage home Julia’s mom, Elena listing agreement @10am.

January 27th: Initial yard work, coworker picked up furniture, trip to Julia’s parents’.

January 28th: Wash bath walls & ceiling, pack stereo & speakers, finesse the office, add bricks, purge cd's, little lamps to bedroom, feathers to desk, tall lamps away.

January 29th: Paint bathroom, pack boxes, pack up jewelry room, add curtain rod & curtains, move slab & furniture, TV from studio.

January 30th: Moving truck 6-7pm: From outside: 2 BBQ's, 2 plastic chairs & table, bakers rack, all pots. From garage: nook shelf, product, boxes, knight light, from basement: tent, bike. From porch: lounge, chandelier, bedside table. From Living: stereo, speakers, jewelry boxes, peg board. From upstairs: TV.

January 31st: Jon’s last day of work. Complete form 17, paint shower walls latex, touch up paint on moldings, purge furs, pack studio closet clothes, , line shelf in office, add jewelry to cabinet, remove coats from porch, Ikea drawers, wicker drawers, wipe up cable dust, cooler, geraniums, fans, iron curtains, hang curtains, pantry contents, downstairs closet content/shoes.

February 1st: Julia’s mom, Elena @11am, Interior Designer Olga @11:30am. Do any staging recommendations, mirror from Julia’s parents, can lights from Julia’s mom, bench from Julia’s mom for front porch.

February 2nd: Take trip to Julia’s parents’, paint stairs, paint bathroom door, clear out jewelry room, fix doorknob, buy welcome mats, begin lining kitchen shelves, eliminate recycling from house.

February 3rd: Trim ivy, weed front bed, prune forsythia, clear back beds, replace all light bulbs, pack up the rest of Jon's room, work on basement room.

February 4th: Shred documents , get a one week extension to list house, Jon cleans out driveway, yard clean-up, finish painting stairs & door plates, trip to goodwill.

February 5th: Jon move items w/James' element, Jon pack up closet & pantry, Jon tape nook, Paint the nook, go through goodwill piles in basement.

February 6th: Jon to goodwill, post office, forsythia shoots cut back, Meeting w/Elena, do kids room, clean out nook closet, move cat food & water to nook closet, line kitchen shelf, install doorbell, drift wood to back yard, finesse front porch.

February 7th: Drop SAM items downtown. Off work, Julia’s mom in afternoon to help stage, lay pavers & small rocks, move stump. Fill in hole in back yard, bark into side yard beds. Another move w/James' element. Move stump, rug into basement.

February 8th: Pick up bark, flowers for pots. 11am Elena-house looking & pricing discussions. Yard work, cut grass. Finesse jewelry room, bedroom, basement.

February 9th: Clean basement & basement windows, vacuum basement ceiling, vacuum all window coverings.

February 10th: Finesse bathroom, finish lining kitchen shelves, repaint house numbers, finish painting screens, mount on porch, move boxes into attic.

February 11th: Jon pressure wash walk & steps, drive way. Remove weather stripping from doors, clean. Tape clean living curtains, remove plastic from windows, clean sills, vacuum whole house, clean kitchen, microwave, oven, stove, floors.

February 12th: Fresh flowers for 6 places: flowers onto porch, coffee table, mantle, kit sill, toilet, dresser. Put out welcome mats. Photographer at noon. Primroses on front step, plant onto porch.
February 13th: Professional cleaners come.

February 14th: List House. Remove hangers & some clothes from basement closet.

February 15th: All remaining recycling to empty bin, for sale sign is put up, get “house book” put together, get a plan of the house going up next door to show potential buyers what it will look like. Compost into back beds.

February 16th: Keep clean, picked up, cat litter.

February 17th: Keep clean, picked up, cat litter.

February 18th: OFF-holiday, keep clean, picked up, cat litter.

February 19th: Brokers Open, keep clean, picked up, cat litter.

February 20th: Brokers Open, keep clean, picked up, cat litter. Mutual acceptance.

March 19th: Meeting with Conner Homes for construction upgrade choices on new house.

March 21st: Meeting w/Designer for design preview choices.

March 20th: Conner Construction begins.

April 4th Meeting w/Designer for color/custom choices.

May 1st: Close on May 1st on the West Seattle home. Give first payment to builder of new home upon closing.

May 5th: Change to renters insurance.

May: Rent 3 month + 23 days lease: (May, June, July, and August until the 23rd).

May 18th: Plan landscape & out buildings at new home.

May 31st-June 1st: Repaint, clean, stage condo for sale, then decide to take out line of credit instead.

June 5th: Get line of credit for condo Equity for Conner down payment.

June 18th: Turn in plan for landscape & out buildings for new home.

July: Rent out the Condo.

July: Jon gets great Job.

July 15th: Give second portion of down payment to builder on July 15th.

July 24th: Julia sells jewelry at the Renton Annual Art Show.

August: Yard work.

August: Pack & clean West Seattle home, stove, cabinets, floors, fridge, curtains.

August 18th: Home is scheduled to close on 8/20.

August 23rd: Move to Renton!

August 23rd: Out of West Seattle home.

August: New home insurance.

September: Landscape yard: paths, grass, buildings.

September: Add good soil to raised beds.

September: Plant trees & plants from pots, vines onto fence.

September 22nd: Write very large check. Close on new house!

Tonight we're going out to celebrate. And maybe relax a little. Man, it's been a crazy year!