Selling our house

So, we decided to try to sell our house. We have actually been talking about it for a couple of years. I like this house, but I don't really love it. I think the main reason I don't love it is that we did a ton of work remodeling it. It had four bedrooms when we bought it and was pretty plain. We added two bedrooms (it had cathedral ceilings), moved the kitchen into what was a dining room so we have a really big, open kitchen, added walls, put in all new windows, carpeted and put crown molding into the garage so it is another room, redid the bathrooms, did a ton of hardscaping in the front and back yards...the list goes on and on. It was a lot of work and we did it when Brayden was a baby, so I was tired anyway. We had tried to buy a house with six bedrooms originally, but there wasn't much on the market when we were looking. We live in a nice area and the house is really nice, but it isn't our dream house. If it was, we would just stay through the ups and downs of the market. But we think that if we want to move in the next several years, now may be the time, before the value of our house drops too much more. If the house sells, we will rent for a year or so and then try to buy a one story house. I bought a one story house before Ray and I got married and loved it. It was a four bedroom house with a pretty big yard. I loved it.
I doubt that we will sell this house though. I think we missed the time to sell for a good price. Since we have no need to sell, our plan is to try for two or three months. If we get offered a good price, great. If not, we will stay. I have to admit, that even though I have talked about selling this house for a long time, I have been second guessing the idea a lot the last couple of weeks. It is a nice house and I have a lot of friends in this area. And the thought of selling this house while having three little kids and a teenager to move is a little unsettling.
I don't think there are a lot of houses in this area that are for sale, which is good. We still have to check around though and research our asking price. Our plan is to put it up Nov 1st. I know, that is in a few days. Which is why I have spent the last two days going from one room to the next getting rid of stuff. We have way too much stuff. The first day I went through my closet and dresser and got rid of a ton of clothes. I am sure I could get rid of more, but I did a pretty good job. I also went through Sasha's things and packed up her 6-12 month clothes and put 12-18 month clothes in her dresser. Today I went through my bedside table (which had an amazing amount of important things like adoption paperwork in it), Brayden's room and the hall closet. I donated a bunch of toys and books to his school and also dropped off several bags and boxes to a local charity. Tomorrow I am going to do Brookelyn's room, the three bathrooms and start on our office. I say start because it is mass chaos in there. A ton of paperwork to go through and other things that we have dumped there. The next day I will have the garage and downstairs hall closet. I have to break it up like that for myself or I will just be wandering around straightening every room. I am really enjoying getting this done. I have wanted to do it for a long time. I like things are organized, but have let things go so I can spend time with the kids. I have to say that the more things I get rid off, the happier I am. It helps that I know people will be opening up closets and cabinet doors. If I didn't have that as incentive, I would be working as hard on this. So, even though I have a strong feeling we won't sell the house, it will be a lot cleaner and I will feel great about it. The thought of getting more things (Christmas gifts) is a little overwhelming to me now since I am anti-stuff right now. I do have several boxes of things to post on Ebay too, so I will be busy for the nex several weeks with this moving project. At first my husband was all gung ho about how we would fix up the little things around the house that we have been putting off and cleaning it together. He came up with a plan of how "we" would go through and clean and finish one room a day this week. We did have landscapers out this weekend to redo most of our landscaping. They did all of the landscaping and hardscaping for us when we moved in. But we didn't do a very good job of picking plants out last time and it didn't look very good after a couple of years. This time we let them put in whatever they wanted. Seriously. It was great not having to chose. And it looks really good. They worked on Ray's old house and my old house, so we trusted them. I think they still have to cut out and resod some grass in the back and side of our house, put in a few more plants and some groundcover. It is much better. Other than calling them and talking to them, Ray hasn't started in the "Get The House Ready To Sell" project.
I took a bunch of pictures of the house today after the cleaning people left. I still have to take pictures of the front of the house, the back and Brayden's room. I need them for the brochure about the house and for myself. Our house looks great for about five full minutes after the cleaning people leave. Really good. The problem with having an open floorplan with three little kids is that if there is a mess anywhere in the downstairs, it makes the whole place look like a mess. I told Ray that I only want to have people look at it by appointment only. I sold a condo years ago when I was single and it was a nightmare keeping it clean with two young children. I remember real estate agents calling and saying they were "in the area" and wanted to drop by in fifteen minutes or so. And then knocking on the door within two minutes...
I'll add pictures tomorrow. I didn't take many of my old house after I remodeled it and am very sorry now.
I should also add that my husband is a loan officer. Actually, he is a lender and has his own office with a few loan officers that work with him. His work has slowed down a lot lately, but hasn't stopped. He knows what people seem to be paying for houses in this area and can list it on his own. Which means we won't have a realtor pushing us to do things like let people drop by without appointments. We'll see what happens...