Selling Falconhead Cottage

On June 28, 2018 JEGs and I sat in a conference room in Conshohoken and handed over the keys of Falconhead Cottage to the new owners.  They were a young, newly engaged couple excited to buy their first house.  The settlement was filled with questions about utilities, neighbors, laughter, beer and surprisingly no tears (I was damn proud of myself for not crying).

How did we get to this point?  Well, we always knew this was a starter home, and after our daughter was born it was clear that our time (and the space) was running short.  In October 2017 we has started softly looking at bigger homes, testing out who was going to win the right to be named Falconhead Estate, but we were unsure if our house would sell.  In February 2018, someone in our neighborhood Facebook group said their cousin loved this neighborhood and was hoping to purchase in the neighborhood, was anyone selling their house.  JEGs and I thought, what the heck?  Let's have this chick over to see our house.   She made an offer, and months passed while we negotiated back and forth.  In the time we were negotiating the Eagles won the Super Bowl, JEGs' grandmother passed away, it snowed A LOT and I had breast reduction surgery (I'll tell you about that another time).  We couldn't come to an agreement with this woman, but JEGs and I started to think that maybe we could get this house sold.  

So we made the decision to finish up a couple small projects, move anything we didn't need for the next three months into a storage unit and put up a FOR SALE sign in the yard during the second week of May.  Three days and four offers later, we were under contract.  Let the packing begin.

Instagram: LifeThatIsGood

We were very lucky to have the ability to move in with my in-laws while we search for our next home.  All of our things are in a storage unit and we currently live in a house built by my husband's grandfather where my mother-in-law grew up and my husband grew up.  It's a small town in Chester County, Pennsylvania and the neighbor has a rooster that crows all.  day.  long.   This city girl is struggling.  Also, I have never seen a real live chipmunk before I came to Chester County.  They are cute as hell and I want one for a pet.  

Anyway, I thought I would do an official "Before" and "After" post.  Without further ado, I present the most finished version of Falconhead that we were going to do:

Here is a refresher of what we bought:

more bushes than a 70's porno

 We ripped out pretty much every single bush/tree there was and listed it on Craiglists.  I planted three hydrangea bushes and it opened up the porch.

The backyard was pretty much unseen on the blog, which is a shame because it was huge for the area.  We had taken down a tree, filled in all the holes the  previous owner's dog had dug and added a small shed and swing set for the kids.

Living Room

In the summer of 2017 we finally made the choice to replace all the flooring in the main level.  It was originally the cheapest carpet Lowes had to offer and a kitchen full of cracked grout and cracked tiles.  I HATED it.  JEGs installed laminate floors throughout in a honey oak to match the original hardwood that ran upstairs.  He also ripped out the entire landing that was patched together with 2x4's and plywood and expanded it with real hardwood.

KITCHEN

One of the most dramatic changes, I think, is the kitchen. We painted the walls in Spring 2012, but when we replaced the floors, we also painted the cabinets, replaced the hardware and my vision of moving that stupid island finally came to fruition.  We added wainscoting to the island to add interest and JEGs installed an electrical outlet on the island.  Not shown:  the amazeballs sliding shelves he built for each side of the cabinets in the island.  LIFE CHANGING YOU GUYS.  I want all my shelves to slide now.

See that sexxxxay fridge?  JEGs bought that off Craigslist for $250 because it didn't work.  He snagged a part off Amazon and had it working in a jiffy.  We sold our previous fridge for $250, so it was basically a wash.  I miss that fridge like woah.

MUDROOM

A little bit of paint, new floors and some cabinets and BOOM- transformation.  I wish I could say that it was that easy but this floor was so unlevel, JEGs still can't talk about it with out cussing.

NURSERY

Some of you may remember that when we first moved in, this small room at the top of the steps was used as my walk-in closet.  Then we got the shocking news that we were pregnant, and it quickly became our son's nursery.  When our daughter was born, it got a girly make-over.  

SECOND BEDROOM

When we first moved into this house, this bedroom was storage.  We added a couch and tried to pretend like it was a man cave/playroom, but if I am being honest, it was just a place to shove our crap.  When the little lady was born, we made it a big boy room.  It was probably one of my favorite rooms.  JEGs bust out the closet, dry walled it and install bi-fold doors.  He made a radiator cover and added quarter round throughout the whole room.  This room got so much light during the day;  sometimes I would just sit on his bed and marvel at how this turned out.

BATHROOM

I mean, that blue, right?  LAWDY I hated that color.  One of our last minute pushes to sell the house we decided to to replace the sink top and faucet as well as switch out the medicine cabinet with an IKEA mirror.  We added some shelves over the toilet and done.  

MASTER BEDROOM

Oh this bedroom. We pulled this shit together in the eleventh hour to list the house.  If you remember, we had hung two rods in the nook area to expand our closet since the original closet was not big enough for use to use functionally.   We had plans of creating an entire all of closets, but it never happened.  So instead we decided to create a medicine closet in the storage space (you can kind of see it peeking out behind the bedroom door, and then JEGs built a custom closet system to house all our hanging clothes and shoes.  My parents gave us a dresser they were keeping in the garage and we slid that into the nook area and paired it with a circular mirror.   JEGs also built a radiator cover and bookshelf for added character and storage. I was a little upset we waited as long as we did to make these upgrades, because it improved the functionality of this room 100%.

This post has served as a "letting go", if you will.  Selling this home and moving was very emotional for me; I still have bouts of feeling home sick.  While we are so very luck that we were able to move in with my in-laws, this is not our home and I miss feeling of being settled at home.  But I am excited to find the next house;  after all the lessons we learned as homeowners in our previous house we have a must-have list a mile long.  Maybe I will even blog about house hunting again ;)

So farewell to you Falconhead Cottage.  You were our home for seven years, two months and twenty one days. I hope the new owners have as many joyous memories as we did.

xoxo, 

  ME