The end of a chapter

Well, it is the end of a very good chapter in our lives.  We have sold the little house in town.  It is a bit of a melancholy feeling, but it is absolutely the right decision and we feel so GOOD about the lovely young lady who bought the house.  We pray she will be blessed and make many wonderful memories in this house.  

You may remember how hard we worked to get the house ready to be an Airbnb.  It was wonderfully successful and, ironically, I received 'SuperHost' status on Airbnb right about the time we decided to sell.  But, goal achieved!  :)  Covid-19 wiped away most of our business and Marvin and I realized we didn't want to have to clean after random guests given his high risk category.  We also felt that maybe this chapter had simply come to a good and timely end.  I think that is true.  We contacted our friend and realtor, Erick, and listed the property with him.  But then the city shut down due to Covid, so we never even took the listing public.  However, after the shutdown Erick let us know there was interest in the house (we had almost forgotten about it being listed!) and so he showed the house.  It was still not a public listing, but the lady who saw the house wanted it and put in an offer.  Kind of a whirlwind, but it just felt right.  We sold the house with all the contents which worked well, I believe, for us and for the new owner.  Since it had been an Airbnb we didn't really have much to do to get it ready to sell, except we wanted to finish painting the garage room.  We had never gotten that final task accomplished!  So on this day Marvin went back and finished painting it.  We also took all our storage stuff out of there (that was where we kept cleaning items and supplies for the Airbnb... locking it when guests were in residence.)  I think that room looks so nice now!  The color in that room is the same color as the accent wall in the kitchen.  And with the desk Marvin had built it is going to be a very usable space for an office.  

We closed on the house Friday, June 26 so it is all completed now.  We still have to remind ourselves that we don't need to go mow there or check on things.  It was a good house.  But we are so happy for the new owner and new life for the house.  A good end to a chapter.  

Marvin finishing up after painting the garage room - 
before we got things tidied up in there again.

re-setting the desk in the garage room

The day we closed Marvin, Jonathan, and I went by the house to say one last 'good-bye'.  :)   I snapped these final photos.  

garage room

that back yard really is beautiful!

I always loved that tree.

ha!  The new owner may have questions about this...
this was Jackson's knife throwing target back
when he and Brianna lived here.  :D

we were able to do curbside closing on the house - wonderful!

Remembering when I posted that our Airbnb was up and running!

https://lifeatwilliscreekranch.blogspot.com/2019/12/update-on-cozy-guesthouse.html

Update on Cozy Guesthouse

We finally got everything finished up at the Cozy Guesthouse in mid-November.  We had our first booking the weekend of November 15 and it has been fairly steady ever since.  Sure is a good feeling to have it completed.  Boy, it took a lot of work and felt like we were so slow in getting it all done.  But then again, a lot has been going on in our lives this year, so I won't worry too much about our speed.  :)  We are all very happy with the set up.  Jonathan can fully use the house as he likes and we are able to rent it out periodically.  It was a long (and somewhat costly) process to go through planning & zoning and then get city council approval, but it was worth it.  We are very happy with the way things have worked out.  Here are the photos that we took just before the first renters arrived.  I do need to have Jackson take professional photos for me to use on the Airbnb site... one of these days.  For now, these will do.  (Note - we do have his photos up throughout the house and even as magnets on the fridge!)

We have books by local authors and also some good reading books
from the Truman library sale on those shelves.  :) 

Jonathan removes his computer before guests come...

We use this August keypad lock to allow guests to self check-in.
It has worked really well for us.

I've even added more books since this photo was taken...

And here are the books in the 2nd bedroom - more local history here.

I have some local history and info, plus
carry out/delivery menus in the house manual.  :) 

One of the books by Dr. Jim Thomas.  He was a great man.  

For a tiny bit of reference... here was one of the first posts about this house - when it transitioned from Jackson and Brianna's house to Jonathan's house (and was on its way to becoming the cozy guesthouse).  This (below) was posted in May but the photos are from late February!!
https://lifeatwilliscreekranch.blogspot.com/2019/05/transition.html

a few little updates

October 2019
This was still back when we were finishing up the house in town to get ready to be an airbnb.  I appeared before the Planning and Zoning committee on October 9 and then on October 21 I received the approval of city council.  Boy, that felt good!!  We hosted our first Airbnb renters on November 15 and have been going strong ever since!  SO glad we finally got everything done, up and running.

Marvin built new front steps for the house.  The old ones were too narrow and a bit wobbly. These are wonderful!  Deep tread, sturdy and proportioned much better.  This was the day we took them in to make sure they would 'fit'.  They did!  He then brought them home and painted them the same color as the doors.  I think they look just wonderful.  (You will have to wait to see the finished product because apparently I haven't taken a photo of them!!  I will do that soon, but trust me, they look great in that rich, dark, charcoal color.)  :D

Here were the 'new to us' dishwasher and microwave that we purchased from dear friends who were renovating their own kitchen.  I was pretty excited about this!  While the appliances in the airbnb worked, the dishwasher was very loud.  After the Homecoming parade Jeremy, Marvin and Jonathan worked to get the old dishwasher out and install the new one.  We sure appreciate Jeremy's ability to do electrical work!!  :)  The new (to us) dishwasher runs like a dream and is so quiet.  Very nice!

I am pretty happy with the August door lock we installed on the Airbnb.  We also installed a keypad entry that allows us to assign a personal entry code to each renter so that no one has to deal with keys.  This is working very well.

Here is a funny story... we finally got the new (to us) microwave installed.  Isn't it pretty?  Yes, it is.  But sadly, the hinge on this one is not the same as the hinge on the old one - and though it looks lovely, the door won't open more than a couple of inches.  :D  Glad we checked!! ha!  So, out came the new one and we had to re-install the old one.  Anyone need a really nice microwave??  :D

It really did crack me up.  Crazy!  So, if you have a microwave that is installed flush with a wall, definitely double check the hinge on the door before you replace it!  :)