01-07-2016, 03:16 AM
Over the Christmas break I moved for the first time in 15 years. I moved from the house I had when I had a wife and 2 kids because I didn't need the space anymore. I was also tired of mowing and maintaining a yard that was over an acre. It was not a big luxurious home, but it was much larger than the place I moved to.
I had another house in Knoxville that I had been using as rental property. By moving there I cut almost a half hour from the distance to my daughters who live in Alcoa. The yard is tiny, but there is room for the girls trampoline, and that is all they really played on in my yard anyway. When I bought the house with the huge yard in New Market I imagined my kids playing ball and riding bikes all over the place. But they never really used it.
The move seemed like a great idea because it would save me a lot of money, labor, and driving time. But I had no idea how much stuff I had accumulated over the last 15 years. I had also forgotten what a massive pain in the ass moving can be. So after throwing away a ton of junk I am still having trouble finding space for all my stuff.
And now I have the lovely task of getting my old home in shape to sell. There was no real big damage, but when I got it empty I realized that it was a lot more "worn" than I had realized. Little things like jammed windows, loose cabinet doors and towel rods, nicked up baseboard, tarnished faucets and doorknobs, a little crack in a bedroom window, a bathtub with no drain plug, a ceiling fan that does not work. Basically a ton of little things that I had gotten used to and didn't even notice, but they all stick out like a sore thumb in an empty house being inspected by potential buyers. I am handy enough to fix all this stuff but it is going to be a lot more trouble than I had planned on.
I feel like the frog that was placed in cool water and didn't notice the temperature slowly rising until I was boiled alive. These were all minor things that piled up over the years. I should have fixed them as they arose, but they were not that bad, and I always had something else to do.
I had another house in Knoxville that I had been using as rental property. By moving there I cut almost a half hour from the distance to my daughters who live in Alcoa. The yard is tiny, but there is room for the girls trampoline, and that is all they really played on in my yard anyway. When I bought the house with the huge yard in New Market I imagined my kids playing ball and riding bikes all over the place. But they never really used it.
The move seemed like a great idea because it would save me a lot of money, labor, and driving time. But I had no idea how much stuff I had accumulated over the last 15 years. I had also forgotten what a massive pain in the ass moving can be. So after throwing away a ton of junk I am still having trouble finding space for all my stuff.
And now I have the lovely task of getting my old home in shape to sell. There was no real big damage, but when I got it empty I realized that it was a lot more "worn" than I had realized. Little things like jammed windows, loose cabinet doors and towel rods, nicked up baseboard, tarnished faucets and doorknobs, a little crack in a bedroom window, a bathtub with no drain plug, a ceiling fan that does not work. Basically a ton of little things that I had gotten used to and didn't even notice, but they all stick out like a sore thumb in an empty house being inspected by potential buyers. I am handy enough to fix all this stuff but it is going to be a lot more trouble than I had planned on.
I feel like the frog that was placed in cool water and didn't notice the temperature slowly rising until I was boiled alive. These were all minor things that piled up over the years. I should have fixed them as they arose, but they were not that bad, and I always had something else to do.
