Resolution-By Vince

I’ve heard people say that you will do all the things you always wanted to do to your house just before you sell it. I had always scoffed at this notion, but now have to admit that at least in my current situation, this adage looks to be true. After discussing this with several coworkers, they shared additional data points to support this conclusion.
So what is it about the human experience that causes us to put off all of these changes until we have made the decision to move on? Several explanations come to mind.
Is it ego? We all seek validation, and want people to see value in what we have accomplished. Do we finish things just before we pass them on in order to validate the vision we had of what they could be? In our current situation I am trying to be much more pragmatic about what I do, or don’t do, to prepare the house for sale. This is not because I am above wanting to seek validation, but purely out of practicality. There is simply too much to finish for me to even contemplate trying to do it all. In fact, that there is so much to do was core to our decision to move on. I could spend the next thirty years working on the house and the property at the expense of doing the things that truly inspire me. Right now we are in triage mode. What must be finished in order to get the house to sell quickly and smoothly. We are prioritizing the things that could lead to questions, and or require having to hire out to correct before closing. We want the new owners to have a good foundation on which to customize their new home to fit their needs. What we do not want to do are things that are to our tastes that the new owners will tear out and do over.
Is it the focus that comes with getting a clear vision of where you want to go that helps you make these choices? In our case this is certainly a major factor. As I mentioned, we are performing Triage. It is a lot easier to decide just to put the drywall back up when you are not still debating if you should install hydronic heating tubes under the floor first. When you aren’t going to live with a decision for forty years, you can distance yourself emotionally enough to see that you were never going to install that tubing anyway, so just finish it, paint it a neutral color, or don’t if you don’t have time, and let the next guy figure it out. Let them decide what color tile they want in that bathroom.
Another factor in our case is that we were always working around stuff. Now that we are downsizing and preparing to move out, I can see us having most of the furniture and stuff out of the house before we sell it. It is a lot easier to repaint or fix the drywall in an empty room, or finish the counters in the kitchen when you are moved out, or close to it.
Some of the issues we simply can’t put off. For instance, when we bought the house our agent talked us out of having a survey. She was the selling agent on our property, and the listing agent on the five acres next door that was closing about the same time. She swore up and down that she had walked the property with the sellers, and that they had had the property surveyed and staked. I have been over every square inch of that property and have never found a single stake. Now with the advent of Google earth, Zillow, and the like you can go look at satellite imagery with the parcels and lines marked out. Lo and behold, the property line runs right thru the neighbor’s mobile home, which was sited while we were waiting to close. We have consulted with a lawyer, and we know what needs to be done. We will have to pay for a survey, and go negotiate with the neighbor to do a property line readjustment. We've known it for awhile, but it is easy to procrastinate when you have time.
I remember a conversation Care and I had with a friend over coffee about transformative moments. We were talking about addiction, and other self destructive behavior patterns, and he made the comment that people decide to change under two circumstances. One, they are at rock bottom, have lost everything, and thus have everything to gain by changing, or, they have nothing to lose, and see the possibilities.
Our decision to sell the house and go back to boating has definitely forced us to lose some of our preconceptions about what was and wasn’t possible, and shed some of our baggage. In hindsight, we had nothing to lose that we really needed, (or that in reality was just weighing us down,) and we are definitely for the first time in years seeing the possibilities.