Signing off

The move back to Houston is really starting to feel real. 2 days, 18 scheduled showings and 4 offers later, we canceled our Sunday showings to go ahead and accept an offer to sell the house - ahhh! Of course, there is still the inspection and other various negotiations that would take place, but we didn't imagine how quickly we were going to get offers. We feel awfully lucky and blessed beyond measures. We certainly had some concerns putting the house on the market with COVID-19 still very much affecting every aspect of our lives. But life must go on, and our realtor felt like the housing market in St. Louis is still going strong, so we decided to follow our originally planned timeline.

Modified open house during COVID-19

Obviously, we have taken some modified measures to maintain social distancing for those curious (and in a similar position as us). We decided on vacating the house all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to concentrate all visits in one weekend. There was really no such thing as an open house as we traditionally have known - instead, all realtors/interested buyers had to request via MyHome by ShowingTime (30-minute slots during the time range we approved), and then our realtor would approve/confirm the request. This worked out well because it helped control the traffic and we would get a heads up (by text) which slots were getting filled. Initially, we blocked a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon for showings so that we would still have some time spent at home. We quickly decided that it was actually more inconvenient that way (loading up 2 dogs and baby several times a day felt like a daunting task) so we allowed for an all-day showing and we stayed out of the way the entire time.

How we staged the house

First of all, it was extremely challenging to prep the house for staging/open house with a baby who is energetic 3-4 hours at a time (and then naps for like 30 minutes...why?!?) and wants to grab everything that you touch. On top of that, I was working from home full-time (and still am) and maintaining social distancing so I didn't seek any childcare help. Z, while not on the frontline, was still working heavily due to facial trauma cases that were coming in daily. I am not going to lie, there were many times that I just wanted to sit and cry like a baby. We ended up spending the final 24 hours before the professional photos were taken, and then the open house, to shove all the items into the basement storage or closets. I wanted things to be more organized from the beginning, but we just simply didn't have the time to make it happen that way. For photos, the basement storage, garage, and closets were not taken. For the open house, those areas were still used as storage (therefore, not entirely presentable) except for master closets because we knew there would be high interest.

All of the furniture was ours. We did buy a couple of fake plants and real flowers the day before to add a little more colors.

(Front Door Media)

How we spent all day outside

We could not have asked for better weather this weekend to stay out of the house since there wouldn't many places we could go if the weather was bad. St. Louis had decided to reopen some of the parks since April 28th so we took advantage of those places as well as hundreds of other people. I hadn't been outside for many weeks now so I was rather surprised/uncomfortable to see just how many cars were on the road. People were obviously taking advantage of the reopened parks and the gorgeous weather. Of course, we were part of that bunch so I can't say much, but we had a legit reason to be outside...haha. Anyway, thankfully people maintained social distancing and the parks are large enough that we could easily remove ourselves from the more busy areas.

I knew we were going to be outside the majority of the day (we had showings between 9am-5pm) so I loaded our SUV with portable toys and books for Zoe, as well as a playpen and blanket. The playpen, which Zoe has not liked for a while now, ended up being a huge hit for outdoor use. We were able to keep her in there while we ate some delicious food from our curbside pickup orders. The blanket was also useful as a boundary for a tireless crawler as we discovered that she wasn't a big fan of touching the grass; it ended up being a natural border to keep her contained...lol. As far as Zoe's food goes, we resorted to baby food pouch most of the time. I also prepared a small container of steamed veggies as a snack, which she seemed to like. Since she is still on formula, I had those premade and stored in an insulated bag with an icepack. Overall, the forced outdoor time gave us some wonderful quality time that we needed as a family.

We very much enjoyed our rare and much-needed vitamin D and outdoor time. I think I am replenished enough to be able to stay at home for 1 week+ again. I know our dogs, Lilly and Stark, enjoyed the long outdoor time with us ;)

It was in late April of 2014 when we put an offer on a house that has been our home of 6 years (below). We were first-time homeowners with very little knowledge about home maintenance (thank you, YouTube, for all the video tutorials over the years) back then.

This is the home where we started our family, brought our families from all over the country for the holidays, a pit stop for many of our friends doing long road trips, invited friends and coworkers for parties including a beautiful shower for Zoe. And lastly, it's a place where our firstborn has spent her first year of life making the most fun and exciting memories for her parents to forever cherish. We were so blessed with this home, and it is going to be missed. We put a lot of love into this place, and we hope that the next family will carry on the love and build unforgettable memories.

Dear home, thank you for being so good to us.

(Front Door Media)