House situation -- updated.

Welp, we did it. We met with a realtor today and signed a contract with her to sell our house. Sigh.

As I just now typed this, my stomach turned as though I am on a roller coaster going over the top and falling down . . . faster . . . faster . . . faster. Woa, I hate that feeling.

I think I have that feeling because of, well, so many reasons.

1 - we are listing for way way way less than I ever dreamed we would list. Our list price will be 13k under what we started out asking back 3 months ago. But after really thinking about, comparing other homes selling on the market similar to ours, and those similar to ours that have sold, we know we made the right decision. It just sucks.

2 - we realized today how much our market here in Smelly Town U.S.A. stinks. Ha ha. Get it? (Another bad Val joke, I know!, just trying to lift my spirits . . . )

3 - we realized it's as if we built our $10,000 garage just for kicks and put out a sign that said "free money". Most of the time, with building a garage, you should get that money back, at least some. We won't. We know if we sell, the garage will be a very helpful factor in selling, but we just won't get it back. My stomach sinks thinking that $10,000 went down the drain. We have put forth a LOT of money into this house but won't reap the rewards. Not at all.

4 - because of the low asking price, we are not going to be able to build. Nope, I'm finally letting it be known . . . we aren't going to build. (*super deep sigh*) We were honestly starting to realize that a few weeks ago. Last week we "saw the light". Today we saw the light even more.

A few posts back I posted about how things were rough for us. It's because of the house situation(s). We realized last week that even after thinking about it, praying about it and even feeling like we were making the right decisions, we really weren't. I don't think we were praying for the right things. Too many things were pointing to "you guys can't build right now."

Why are we even trying to sell then? Because we need to get out of here.

It's obvious that the market here is very poor. That after 6 years, our house has hardly appreciated at all. Even if we acted as if we didn't put in $25,000 of hard work and improvements into our house, that we would still barely make anything more . . . that my business can't flourish with such a poor environment to work in (the dark dungeon-y basement) . . . that I have no way of expanding the business at all . . . and that we really need to get our paws into a different town, even though we absolutely love our neighbors . . . we still have to do what's best for our children and their future. It's depressing that if our house was in the town we so wish we were already in, just 40 minutes away, that our house would be on the market for probably $50,000 more than what is is going to be on the market tomorrow. Makes me want to cry.

So that's the latest news. I feel like we might actually finally sell because we're working with a great realtor and we're at a price where people will buy, but we won't be going into a house that we had dreamed of building. We've scratched those plans. Literally scratched. I've cried and cried some more, but I'm over it. (Well, pretty much.) I'm ready to move on. I'm ready for no more let-downs. I'm ready to take on whatever we're meant to take on now. I'm ready to be positive about the steps we're now beginning to take. It's a whole new journey . . . again.

I am ready . . . I think.

Enough of my whining. I know it's not that bad. We're extremely blessed. It's just a huge huge huge let-down that I honestly was not prepared for.