Yesterday:
Hurray! This leaves Telstar, Aurora and Hubble still available for adoption. Fingers crossed that their people come along very soon.
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Really quick, before you go on to read the post I wrote and scheduled a couple of weeks ago, the most important bits of information (that are current) :
1. The cats are doing well – except for Maxi, they’re all behaving themselves (Maxi is Business As Usual hating all the other cats, hissing and smacking – but not so much that we’ve needed to put her out in the garage yet). They were boarded for two days at the vet, and Fred has suggested that they’re so relieved to be around people and things that smell familiar that they’re on their best behavior. To our surprise, the cat who has handled this the best was Kara. She didn’t hide, and has been strutting around the house, unfazed. For the first day and a half, they were confined to three rooms, then we opened the door to Fred’s office, and they’ve been busy checking that out. I’d like to wait until next weekend to give them the run of the rest of the house, but we’ll see how it goes. They have plenty of places to flop down and sleep (there are beds EVERYWHERE), so they’re not suffering. Archie and Kara are dying – DYING – to get outside, but that won’t happen for a few weeks.
2. The chickens and ducks were rehomed, and none of them went to freezer camp.
3. There actually exists a street named Shady Cove, I learned in the past couple of days, so chances are good that we’ll change what we call the house so as to minimize any confusion. I’ve suggested Squirrel’s End to Fred, but we’ll just have to see what we come up with after we’ve lived here for a little while.
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So yes, we have said goodbye to Crooked Acres.
It’s a fairly long story, so I’ve split it into several entries that will all post this week. This is part 1.
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*At the beginning of the year, we started looking at homes on Zillow. This is something we’ve done for the past few years, just to get a feel for what was available out there. On a Saturday in mid-May, we went to drive past a house we’d seen on Zillow, and found that they were having an open house. At my insistence we stopped and walked through the house. We liked it, but (more importantly) Fred started talking to the realtor, who we both liked quite a bit.
*We went home and started talking. Our original plan was to put Crooked Acres on the market in early 2018. But Fred waffled back and forth and annoyed me so much that I drowned him in the catfish pond and now I’m typing this at you from prison. (Or he called the real estate agent and made an appointment to come see the house and give us some idea of what it might sell for.) The realtors came out to talk to us a few days later, and we liked the number they gave us. They left, and we debated long and hard whether to put the house on the market or wait. I pressed VERY HARD to put the house up ASAP, and Fred finally agreed.
*At the end of May, after we both busted our butts trying to declutter and organize, the house was on the market. A few days after the house went on the market, I looked out the window to see a couple walking around in the driveway. I said something to Fred, and he went out to see what they wanted. They hadn’t realized we were home, and had just wanted to see the property. They were extremely interested in the house and were going to be transferred from West Virginia in the near future. Their house was under contract, and they had a million questions. A few hours later, our realtor called to let us know we had a showing a few days later, in the afternoon. I spent hours cleaning, then we left the house. That couple and their kids – four kids? five? – spent a couple of hours at the house. After they left, they had questions about the house, which we answered promptly.
*We did a happy dance, secure in the knowledge that we were going to receive an offer less than a week after the house had gone on the market.
*We did not receive an offer. As it turns out, the house they were selling had appraised for less than what they’d been offered, and it all fell apart. For the next month, their realtor assured our realtor that they were still interested and planned on making an offer when their house situation got worked out.
*We moved on. We had more open houses and more showings. And let me take a moment here to let y’all know: if you are one of those people who request a showing just so you can walk around and see someone’s house being a Nosy Nellie, may I respectfully request that you burn in Hell. Every time we had a showing, it took me at the very bare minimum two hours to get the house to what I consider acceptable. It is a huge pain in the butt and hey, look! Cameras all over the house. Right in front of your stupid Lookie-Loo face! NOT EVEN HIDDEN. So if you’re just looking at my house because you haven’t got anything better to do, it’s obvious. I SEE YOU. And we had MULTIPLE open houses, would it have killed you to WAIT?
*The summer came and went, kittens came and went, and let me tell you another thing: I don’t recommend fostering while you’re trying to sell your house. It was okay with Nola and her kittens, at least while the kittens were little, because Nola had no desire to try to escape the room. As the kittens got older and would run to the door, we started moving them all out the old blue coop during open houses and showings. We moved Belle and her kittens out to the blue coop during open houses and showings. We did the same with Mercury and her kittens. That whole moving-them-out-to-the-coop was a pain because the blue coop was where we’d moved all our excess STUFF (stuff we didn’t need right away, but would need eventually), and we had the playpen set up so that we wouldn’t lose kittens among all the boxes, and just having to move them all out there, make sure the litter boxes were set up, make sure they had food and water was a pain. AND THEN I’d go back into the house and basically clean it and stash all the toys/litter boxes/beds away and make the room look as little like it was usually occupied by a large number of poop machines as possible.
*I will say that 99% of the people who came into the house during the time there were kittens in that room were completely uninterested in looking at, touching, or snuggling any of them. There were a couple of women who squealed over them and took pictures and gently touched them (people after my own heart), but that was all. Most saw the note on the door asking them not to let the kittens out, stuck their heads in to see the room, and then shut the door. MONSTERS.
Random Nola & kittens pic.
*In August, we started coming to terms with the fact that we weren’t going to be selling our house this year. Our contract with the realtor was for 90 days – which took us to the end of August – and we decided that we’d extend it for another 30 days to the end of September, and then take it off the market until next April. Neither of us wanted to deal with the whole house-selling thing through the winter, and there were a bunch of small things we wanted to do to the house to make it look better.
*So we started to relax at the fact that the end was near, we had a few showings, we decided we’d have one more open house in mid-September, but we were 100% sure we’d be taking the house off the market at the beginning of October.
*BUT THEN.
*We got an offer on the house. And we went straight into a panic because WHERE WERE WE GOING TO LIVE?!
To be continued tomorrow.
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“This is a boring story. Tell the one about Alice Mo the Calico and how she loves her Daddy, yo.”
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Previously
2016: “Ooh, he’s dreamy!”
2015: Guess who no longer has an empty foster room?
2014: Throwback Thursday: Sookie
2013: “Hallo, lady, there is a SECOND treat this morning, perhaps?”
2012: Stripey believes he can flyyyyyyy.
2011: When Gracie wants to play, George has no choice.
2010: No entry.
2009: I! HAZ! A! COMPLAINT!
2008: Lem gets very excited at snack time.
2007: Some time later, I was awakened by the sound of an angry screaming wildcat.
2006: Catie and her kittens.
2005: No entry.
OMG! Leaving me hanging! The suspense! This is really fun to read. I can’t believe you had fosters and kept everything a secret!! I’m impressed!
Congratulations!!! I’m excited for you. I’ve been following you over the weekend and you’ve already done amazing work getting settled. In fact, you’ve done more in one weekend than I have since Labor Day… maybe you need to come north a bit and supervise as to how it’s done… (Is it wrong that I continue to pass that large roaster – used as a warming tray for the barbecue – and the leftover plates and napkins from our Labor Day party that are (and have been) sitting on the dining room table since??? I mean, hey, I didn’t host Thanksgiving (might’ve needed that roaster), so there it sits…. may add some festive greenery and ornaments in and around it…. ) Soooo… you’ve already made a huge dent in setting up house… put me to shame.. well, until there are pictures of the new house and the permanent residents, and adoption announcements to read and, well, I blame you, Robyn Anderson, you are the reason my roaster is still sitting in the dining room. hehehehehe Happy Housewarming! I love your blog and I love your new home!!!!!
It was awful enough putting my house on the market with just two cats – I can’t believe you did this while you had kittens! Congratulations on the new house – from what we’ve seen on FB, it looks gorgeous!
I’m a real estate junkie. I like to know what is available if I ever win the lottery, ya know. There is a website that I visit weekly that lists everything in my province-sold, new price, up for sale, even sales history. Plenty of pics.sometime video walk thoughs. Not even tempted to go to an actual home and have a look in person knowing I have no intention to buy. How rude!
Hi Robyn,
Long time reader here. Not sure if you’re going to address this in future posts, but wondering what was the rationale behind moving? Were you tired of farm life? Too much work?
Just curious, because I remember how excited you and Fred were about moving to Crooked Acres and how much work you put into renovating the house, etc. Seems like a shame in a way, but I guess you needed a change??
She did post about the plans to eventually move, maybe 8 – 12 months ago? My memory is crap; I’ll try to find it. Anyhow, some of us lost our damn minds and freaked out about it, so maybe that’s why she didn’t mention it much after that.
Signed,
someone who (temporarily) lost her mind and freaked out (I guess I’m strongly allergic to change)
P.S. Wanted to add that your new home is beautiful and you and Fred seem to be really happy there already, so it was obviously a good decision 🙂
I’m with you on how much a pain it is to get a house ready for a showing. Our former house was on the market for over a year. Truly a pain.
Holy moly…. And really only 2 ladies liked the kittens?? Sheesh 🙂
I know! What’s up with that?? 😉
When I was looking for a place to buy, I saw one townhome that had the sweetest kitty living there. He/she was following us around the whole time. And of course I pet him/her! How can you not!
I would have bought the home contingent the kittens stay!!!!
So cool! I’m on the edge of my seat – will the house sell? Will a new house be found? And will word get out in time to all the local strays in the Shady Cove area that they now have a new crash pad?!?! Stay tuned!
(Glad to read that the Permanent Residents are for the most part unfazed by the move!)
Robyn…I feel your pain! Selling and buying with multiple cats is exhausting. You have to keep the house tidy and clean every day because you just never know when you will get that phone call. I had to request at least an hour notice so that all litter boxes could be cleaned and vacuuming the entire house could ensue. I would have to reiterate that there were cats in the house and that they would likely see none of them but PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE DOORS TO THE OUTSIDE WIDE OPEN. I would worry like crazy till I could get back into the house to count cats and make sure everything was ok.
Thank God we only had 2-3 showings and the house was under contract. Like you and Fred…we then panicked because we had no where to go with 5 cats. I looked at every house in a three mile radius (as we needed easy access to Sam’s for the “other” cats). We were ready to sign an apartment lease when “our” new house came back on the market due to financing falling through. We really wanted a single story house, but we landed in the right house for our needs…the cats love it and so do we : )
In the end, we had three weeks to spare between selling and buying…we too closed on both houses in one day (I will hopefully never have to do that again!!}.
We send you best wishes and lost of love…enjoy the new home…it looks like the cats are settling in very well…and it looks like they have lots of nooks and crannies to hang out on.
The house is beautiful!!
I’ve wondered how I would sell my house with my 4 cats (at one point up to 6) and I didn’t have foster cats/kittens! Congrats on the sale and the move and I was very relieved to know the feathered babies found good homes, too.
If I looked at a house that had a room full of foster kittens that is all I’d remember about the house. And I’d probably have an application in on a kitten by the end of the day.
So we need a photo of Sheriff Mama patrolling her new territory! I was trying to take a cat count between your photos on Facebook and Fred’s, and unless I mistook Dewey for her, I didn’t see Kara. (Tell Fred he needs to add helpful hashtags like you!!). 😀
I am already in a panic about what to do with our 5 cats when we put our house on the market in the Spring, and it’s nothing compared to what you had to do! Sheriff Mama..well, she’s the sheriff…she has nothing to fear!
Oh come on, there’s LOTS of rentals that will take short term renters with 11 cats.
where IS this magical land you speak of?? (lol)
We got our card this weekend and my husband laughed until he snorted. 🙂
and this is why we took out a home equity loan to move. Our house is now going on the market, and fortunately, where we are the market is really hot so I’m hopeful that it will sell quickly.
OK, I am just super excited with the details of “Good Bye Crooked Acres” story, but MERCURY FOUND HER FOREVER PEOPLE! How cool is that?! (Sorry for screaming, it’s the “GBCA” story making me losing my mind. THE TENSION!!!) 🙂
I’m just ecstatic about Mercury!!!!!!
I would have toured your house with no intention of buying… wait wait, don’t burn me at the stake yet! For the sole purpose of squealing over kittens and pestering permanent residents and petting EVERY SINGLE KITTY I COULD FIND! And trust me, I’d snoop for them because I would not leave until I found the most and I would be ticking them off on a list to make sure I didn’t miss anyone.. I’d be in the garage looking for Maxie, avoiding your spider friends, I’d be in the back yard after Sheriff Momma and the rest of the outdoor contingent, I’d be under beds for the scardy cats, no where would be safe! And when I did eventually leave, you would not be able to find you some Loony Jake because he would have “accidentally” found his way into my oversized purse and it wouldn’t be my fault and I would bring him back.. next time I was in the area… in a few years or so.. So, yeah, I’d be that person, but just for the cats. Does that make me more or less creepy??
Hahaha!!! That would be me!!! Please don’t judge too much
Did you take the screen door at the bottom of the stairs with you to the new house?
Nothing wrong with claiming the monicker of Shady Cove for the new house, unless of course you actually lived on Shady Cove Lane.
All I have been doing since July is dream about moving! I am zillowing all over the place every day. I don’t know if we ever will move, but I sure am interested in this story.