Apron Thrift Girl

saying goodbye

I've lost count of the days and months since we first placed out Cherry Avenue home on the market. It's now been 7 days since we closed, 7 days since we stopped owning our home and 7 days since we lost our originally invested $90,000. Okay so that kind of hurts but it's time to say goodbye to our home and to our money.

The first emotions that we had were relief that this extra financial burden has disappeared. Every month our renter paid us $1600 and every month we gave the bank $2600. Then there were the unexpected plumbing issues which cost us money. We never had planned for the house to be a rental. Shortly after we moved to California in 2009, it was set to close. 10 days before closing the buyers simply changed their minds.

My relief on selling the house has slowly dissipated into grief. As we walk away from this we can't help but feel that we have lost a lot.

The one shining star in all of this was our realtor Sarah Sydor who works with Windemere on Bainbridge Island. We found her after I sent a "help us find a realtor" post on a local Island Moms email group. We felt so helpless down here. I had asked for a realtor that was internet savvy, someone that would actually communicate with us and someone who would help us sell our house. So many moms referred Sarah to us.

She not only became our realtor but she became a close friend. She went above and beyond for us with selling the house and closing the deal. Her fabulous husband was even helping out right before closing by mowing our lawn (in the rain) as per the buyer's request. Without Sarah I don't know if we could have managed through this somewhat painful and emotional real estate transaction. There were times when she gave us the advice that we needed to hear. We had absolute trust in her and she really came through to the very end.

Since we lost all of our investment we aren't sure if we can buy another house again. When I am feeling positive I think that money is just an energy and that it can come as easily as it disappears. When I am feeling depressed I find the situation heart breaking and it leaves me grieving.

Thankfully we are content in our current rental. Yet that self-sufficient upbringing that my parents gave me leaves me wishing for land to grow our own vegetables and plant our fruit trees. I long to drink from well water instead of city water. I wish to hear the sounds of nature rather than the sounds of leaf blowers in our neighborhood. I look forward to driving through countryside to a Waldorf school rather than on the freeway every morning at 65 mph.

I'm praying that the difficulties of the last four months will slowly shift gears into positives. Our house has sold, we are now once again a 2 car family, I'm bringing in money with ReSelling and Dave has lots of possible job opportunities in the works. How will we make up for the $90,000 lost? I'm not sure. It would be somewhat doable if we didn't have school fees to contend with but for our family, Waldorf education is our top priority, next is our organic wholefoods diet and third is our home. Our main reason for Frugality is that we can have those three items in our lives. Where we spend money is actually the future. We spend money on the children's education because I want them to graduate feeling confident in who they are and knowing that they can do anything they want. I feed them a nutrient rich, organic diet to hopefully keep them healthy when they are older.

Many houses in Sonoma County in the area where we want to live are $400,000 and up. We are prepared in our minds to invest in a home that needs work as long as it has good bones. We don't actually enjoy turn-key homes because we want an older home (now 50's or 60's rather than the 20's like our Cherry Ave home) that has some vintage character in it. Nothing breaks my heart more than walking into a vintage home where it has been modernized. We'd actually love our 1950's rental house if we could only pick it up and drop it in the country somewhere.

I wish that thrifting was predictable and that I could plan to buy a $5 painting that was worth $100,000. We've all read the stories where someone picks up something for nothing and sells it for a large amount.

I'm going to start dreaming and planning how I could earn or bring in money for our down payment of our next home. I'm so ready to set down roots and have space for the children to build forts and tree houses. My first task will be to write up a list of ways to find increments of money. Some will be silly and crazy but how else do amazing dreams come true? It was only through dreaming that we came to live in Sonoma County. I dreamed about living here when Cerys was just a year old.

I love this quote by Wayne Dyer: "In order to float an idea into your reality, you must be willing to do a somersault into the inconceivable and land on your feet, contemplating what you want instead of what you don’t have."

I'm going to contemplate finding the money for us to make a down payment on our next house. I'm starting tomorrow by opening a Dream Home savings account at my bank. I'm also going to write down ways to earn and make money. I'm especially going to find even more ways to save money. We spent more than normal during the last week between my birthday and our little vacation. Now it's time to tighten our belts and watch our savings account grow. We may be starting over but it will be our hard work, dedication to our dream and our strong power of wishing that helps make our dream of once again owning a house a reality.

the painful art of selling a house

I think if I had to be honest, I would say that I was very naive when we listed our house for sale a year ago. I loved our house and thought that everyone would love it too. I had secretly expected people to be lined up at our door with offers in hand. Our house was so charming, a somewhat rare vintage house on our little island. We had such a sweet view of the harbor and could watch the ferries come in and leave every hour. Eagles would soar overhead and overall our home was very quiet and somewhat magical.

We did pretty well when we tried to sell it ourselves. I created a website through Typepad that I think was successful. We also designed and purchased a vinyl banner, advertised on Craigslist, zillow, facebook, twitter and purchased open house signs. We did everything we could to get the house out there. The 2nd person who called actually made an offer but it was very complicated and wouldn't even go through until mid July when we were originally hoping to move in June.

We tried to sell our house privately for a month before we gave in and went with a real estate company. To be honest, I thought we had more success in that month as a FSBO. When we listed it ourselves we seemed to attract the right people who looked at our house and felt that they could do something with it. When we switched to a real estate company 95% of the people that came through didn't want a house that wasn't completely finished. They wanted new windows, open floor plans and possibly stainless steel appliances. They wanted a house that wasn't a 1927 somewhat fixer. When it went officially on the MLS market we didn't have any traffic in the house. No one came to see it so we just sat there anxiously looking at the calendar. We had our heart set on moving in June so that we could spend the summer down here in Sonoma County looking at property and organizing play dates for the children.

A year later and we have been under contract three times. Three times they failed but luckily we had the deposit on the last one which gave us some breathing room. We moved down to Sonoma County on the 16th of August with our house set to close on September 10th. We found a rental in July after I had attended an estate sale and asked if the house was for sale or rent. We rented the house with plans to be out from under our mortgage.

September 1st the buyers backed out leaving us with $7500 but also leaving us with an empty house 800 miles from 530 Cherry Avenue. We felt under so much pressure. This wasn't how our first month in our new state was supposed to go. At this point we were so tired of our house. The beauty of it was gone and we just wanted this real estate thing to be over. We rented it in the end for less than we should have and bartered for the renters to do some work on the home. The renters wanted to buy our home but their house was still for sale. We were both in the same predicament. We were so blessed to have someone in the house though. Every night that it was empty, left us with sleepless nights.

Thankfully in January their house sold and we are now under contract for the 4th time. We have lost so much money on this house though that buying a house down here is going to be challenging. We lost $62,000 between the September non-sale and our current one. I do know that we are very lucky compared to some. It isn't a short sale, it isn't a foreclosure. We will have a tiny bit of money to put down on our next house but it isn't much. I did spend a bit of last week crying over this lost money. At the same time though prices have continued to fall in Sonoma County and three years ago we couldn't have even contemplated buying a house down here.

While we do love fixers, it would be nice to not have to buy one. We want this next house to be one where we can focus on the outside and create a self-sufficient homestead. I want to plant fruit trees, have a huge organic garden and build our chicken house. Yet here we are in a more expensive area with our tiny down payment and will probably buy a home that needs a lot of work.

I found an interesting article about how to find a down payment for a home. Notice #4 says to sell on eBay or hold a garage sale. Isn't that ironic? We have some ideas but I'm not sure if we can make up the entire $62K lost. I try to make excuses as to why things happen. I'm really hoping that our dream house is only coming up for sale in the next two months which is why we have had to wait an entire year to sell our home. The same one that I thought would have sold immediately. I know I am not alone though. Even when I tweeted about our house being under the contract for the 4th time, a few people said that they too were in the same boat. Some people had been under contract three times and their house still hadn't sold.

Dave won't allow us to celebrate our 4th contract until the money is in the bank. At this point selling our house feels like a broken record.

How would you make up for the money lost? Try not to think about it? Start having weekly yard sales? Take money out of a 401K? I'd love to hear your thoughts and money ideas.

At the end of the day the home we will buy will hopefully have strong bones, a good foundation and an acre of land. We know that we can look at it like a blank canvas and create something beautiful over the next decade. This is our last house to buy while the children are small. We have moved too many times in their young lives (7 times) and need to settle. I need to plan my garden and fruit trees. I really do want my pomegranate tree.

Cath Kidston all over the place

There's nothing like collecting something that is either so hard to find or too expensive to buy. I don't remember how I stumbled upon Cath Kidston or where I first heard of her. It might have been through Country Living Magazine or a similar publication. It was love at first sight. All of those sweet colors, patterns and stuff brimming with color and shabby chic-ness. I love Rachel Ashwell's, Shabby Chic line but it lacks some of the vintage pizazz of Cath Kidstons patterns or at least to my style.

Every time Dave goes to England I beg him to go to a town 45 minutes north of where he is staying so he can hit the Cath Kidston Outlet store. I visited this store 2 1/2 years ago and I still remember the excitement of being totally surrounded by Cath Kidston fabric, bags, mugs, wall paper and more. If the dollar wasn't so lousy I would have spent nearly all my spending money there. In the end I took a few items and cherished each and every one of them.

Dave suggested to his mother and sister if they need present ideas then to shop there for Christmas for me. I couldn't wait to see if they had found something. My sister in law gave me a lovely enamel flowered broach which I adore. My MIL couldn't find anything within her budget. But I loved the broach and wear it on various winter coats to brighten up my day.

Dave went to the UK this last trip and brought back these delights:

A large overnight bag.
And this....

A make-up bag. So I think a vacation is in order but I'll save that for another post.

At the day after Christmas sale at Goodwill I was over the moon to find some Cath Kidston linens. In fact it made the entire trip worth while. I found a duvet cover and matching pillowcases. Cath Kidston originally designed some fabric for IKEA quite a few years ago. I think it is called Rosali pattern or something like that. I wasn't into her then but I now search for it whenever I thrift.

Goodwill had actually marked Full on the duvet cover but it was indeed a King and fit perfectly on our bed. The other side is the blue flowers that match the pillowcases. To add some amusement to the story, at the Goodwill sale my cart was absolutely heaped with clothing, a vintage suit case, books, dishes and on top sat the duvet cover. I would leave my cart at the end of the aisle (far too full to even get into the aisles now) to search through the clothing racks, and I kept a very close eye on my goods. I saw a woman walk near my cart and look at the duvet. I was ready to do a friendly pounce on the cart if need be. I kept a good watch on her but she left the cart alone and continued browsing through the sweaters on the other side of the rack from me. The most amusing part of the story, is this woman is Mary from Cherry Tomato. We later learned we had both been at the sale and tried to figure out if we had seen each other. Turned out she liked what was in my cart and of course I noticed her because she went near my Cath Kidston stash (I'm thinking I may be too territorial when it comes to thrifting). We had a good laugh together about this.

My last Cath Kidston find recently has been two hand crafted curtain thingies. They are like Roman blinds but they roll up instead of gather up as a Roman Blind would Maybe it's a Roman Roll. I picked two up at a rummage sale. They were stuck under a table and I kept liking them but kept walking away. Finally I asked how much and was told that they were $6.00 for the pair. I bought them and they fit perfectly in my kitchen. They are checkered red on one side (same as the duvet cover) and white with red polka dots on the other side. They are kind of funky to work but they look vintagely sweet in our breakfast nook. I tried to take a picture but it turned out to be a blurry mess but hopefully you can picture them. So its been a good couple of Cath Kidston months for me. With my birthday coming up in April, I hope to add even more.

Rose Room

I have a new album up this morning of our main bedroom which I call the Rose Room. We are doing a deep clean of our entire house preparing for a house exchange in a couple weeks so it is exceptionally squeaky clean. We will trade our cottage for a home down in California in a lovely town called Sebastopol. So this week we are purging, moving furniture around, chasing dust bunnies all with lovely feeling of excited anticipation of our family vacation (holiday) just around the corner.

Children's Room

I just uploaded some photos from the children's bedroom. Their room is one of my favorites in the house. There is still work to do in the room like replace the windows, repaint my childhood furniture from blue to white and so on. You might miss the bookcase in the photos since it is the same color as the walls. I can actually remember painting these blue 24 years ago? Because the house needs so much attention elsewhere and the kids do not exactly notice that their bookcases fade into the walls like camouflage I'll just add them to my "to do list" for a rainy day. Here's a sneak peak from the album: