The Stress of Selling My House

Anybody out there sold your home while working towards being a healthier you? I'm having such a hard time of it.

There's a million tiny repairs to make and those I can't do, get estimates for and to schedule. There are real estate agents to interview. There's packing and getting storage units and moving stuff. There's decorating and staging and cleaning and buffing and waxing and dusting. There's the carpet to spot clean then get professionally cleaned and "stretched" - what the heck is that?!

And then there's keeping the kid doing his schoolwork, despite the major episodes of whining and tantrums. There's fixing meals with nothing in the kitchen. There's buying logs of chocolate chip cookie dough to have ready to bake at a moment's notice the house is supposed to be shown. (Supposed to have freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and punch for looky-loos.)

What about getting the Hubby to actually do something when he's home on weekends? It's like, well, almost impossible to do without nagging. The list is long, and yet, if I don't stay on him every second, it's my fault something didn't get measured, or a phone call didn't get made. But when I do stay on him, it's nagging. Can't win.

And there's the heat. Summer in this house is unbearable - the upstairs bedroom gets upwards of 99 degrees unless the noisy swamp cooler is running 24/7 to get it down to mid-80's. I mean, who's going to walk into an oven and say - ooh, it's lovely... i'll buy it!

Mowing the lawn, gardening, trimming bushes, weeding. Keeping the rodent children from next door from throwing their grandpa's empty cigarette boxes and beer cans onto our tomato and strawberry beds. Redoing the back patio area so that it's not muck-and-mire after a brief rain... means getting some toil soil and some rolls of sod.

I can't do much of this. I'm on disability, with good reason. My hands don't grip or really work at all, so it's impossible for me to do the trimming etc. Me doing these repairs are out of the question.

Finances are horrible. We're slightly upside down on the mortgage (payoff is $2k more than orig loan) but the houses in this neighborhood have been hit and have been foreclosed and sold for about $60,000 less than what we need to get out of this house. We will have only $1k in savings after we finish the repairs - not enough to pay for seller and buyer agents commissions.

Hubby and I got in an awful fight last night on the phone. This living in two different towns during the week is hard. THAT's why we need to just sell the house now instead of waiting until the fall. I don't even want to THINK about how we'll have to search for our next house the second we accept an offer on this one.

And my writing? I am so far behind with all of it. No money coming in at all besides Hubby's paycheck and a little bit of disability.

Have to admit it... I'm finding it very difficult to NOT eat every chocolate chip in the house, or to order in a pizza. I have a coffee cup of chocolate chips sitting beside me right now. It's hard enough to think of non-boring gluten-free organic non-adverse-reaction-causing meals for my kid... but for me too? So... I'm writing this posting because I can't do this. I need to reduce my stress or else my blood pressure will never get back down to a manageable level. And my kid will be happier if I'm not snapping at him with every sound he makes.

I hope you all won't think less of me if I put my health on hold for a few weeks so it will be one less stresser to concern me. Just until we get the house ready to sell and I can breathe again. I admire people who are stronger in will than I am. But that's not me. Not yet.

Vee

= = =
p.s. Jen/PriorFatGirl: We're near Denver Colorado, and this rain we finally go was desparately needed since we really didn't get any snow during the Winter.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Yikes Sorry Vee :(
I've moved 3 times in the past 1 1/2 years but without the stress of trying to sell a place-we rent out our two homes. Im sorry that your dealing with such a stressful time right now. I know its been hard on you to live apart from your husband all week too. :( Stay strong! I wish you the best!

:)tj

VRaz60 said...

Wow. Sorry to hear of your problems with moving and all. Do take care of yourself. Just went thru a move 1 1/2 yrs. ago under good circumstances and it was stressful, so I can sympathize with you. Best of luck.

Shelley said...

Moving, even under the best of circumstances, is stressful. Hang in there and don't let the food in - you'll just feel worse, and the stuff will still need fixing, etc.

Ron said...

just keep trying to make those healther choices as you go thru this and you will be fine!

Fat[free]Me said...

Ugh - been there and failed to look after myself properly - it is way too stressful!

Hugs x