I can't believe that we have arrived at the finish line of this marathon and that we actually finished strong. Almost 3 years to the day that we signed the paperwork to purchase 1428 Railview Lane, we will be signing paperwork to sell it. Our fifth grandchild was born the day we bought the property, and in that 3 years I lost my dad, welcomed grandbaby number 6, bought another property, added another daughter to our tribe, built the most amazing raised bed garden, graduated 2 beautiful young ladies from highschool and restored this old house.
With graduation quickly approaching on June 1 of this year, of course we decided to start a new project :) Jeff and Caleb worked so hard on this and I absolutely cherish it. I spend so much time in it just walking around and admiring God's beauty. This took about 3 months to complete but it was so worth it. The heat has been brutal this year and we haven't had rain in over a month but I have been able to harvest garlic, peas, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, lettuce, kale, onions, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash so far.
Graduation was beautiful. We had all of our family and closest friends in to celebrate Maddie and Faith. Both girls passed their boards and earned their cosmetology license. Faith got a job working at a high end salon in Lynchburg and Maddie is pursuing a career in elementary education. We are so proud of both of them!
About 7 months ago, we decided to pencil in a two week vacation the week after graduation. The plan was to take the girls on a cross country RV trip. The closer we got to June and the more projects we were trying to wrap up, it was looking near impossible to make the trip happen. Jeff and I both have jobs that are difficult to be away from and we literally had nothing planned for our trip other than the dates. A week before we were slated to leave for our vacation, I started looking at cruises. I booked a 7 day cruise to the Bahamas on a Tuesday and we set sail from NYC on that Sunday. It was probably the craziest thing I've ever done, but it was arguably the best vacation that we've ever taken. We both worked long days that week to wrap up loose ends with our jobs and headed straight to Gladys that Friday. We worked until late that night, but it was finished. We were exhausted. Mentally, physically and emotionally tapped. I had nothing left to give but I threw some frumpy clothes in a suitcase and headed to Jersey on Saturday. I had to book a hotel that night that specifically had a business suite so that we could print our luggage tags or we could not get on the ship the next day. I signed the listing agreement for Gladys sometime before losing all contact with the world for 7 days. It is extremely rare and almost impossible for Jeff and I to not have contact with the outside world. Its our life, our jobs. I had no idea how desperately we needed to disconnect until we were sailing out of the harbor and we waved goodbye to everything that connects us to the demands of our life for a week.
Imagine my surprise when we returned to the land of the living to find that our little listing in Gladys had been picked up by one of my favorite blogs! I was scrolling through instagram on the way home and almost scrolled right past it but recognized the house. Check out www.theoldhouselife.com to see so many cool old homes all over the country. Michelle is local to Danville, VA and features some amazing homes on her blog. I was over the moon excited! This alone gave us so much more exposure. As of writing this, our listing had over 8,200 views and 661 saves on Zillow. But even more importanly, I have an amazing broker/ agent. I used to work for Judy as an agent and she will always have my business. We had two offers and a contract just over 2 weeks after listing it. Thank you Judy Woten with The Real Estate Advantage!
Here is the link to the official listing: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1428-Railview-Rd-Gladys-VA-24554/84606910_zpid/
While I am truly grateful that the house sold, I am a bit sad. Something about this house became a part of me. It tested the boundaries of everything in my life. My marriage, my job, kids, time and money. All of it. This project came to me before I knew loss and walked me through one of the most difficult times in my life. I loved it, hated it and everything in between but I healed from it. I can't say that my dad would've loved it because he was a man of few words, but it would have given him joy to see me succeed at something that I am so ridiculously passionate about.
Stay tuned for a walk through our lake house project, from purchase to VRBO ready. And, I am already in the beginning stages of securing my next project. Anyone who knows me is not surprised in the least by that!
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