Our Biggest Challenge To Date

In order to make our plans to move feasible, a couple of major things have to fall into place.  First and foremost, Peter needs to get a job in Pendleton.  And secondly, we have to sell our house here in Salem.

I'm happy to report that item #1 has already been checked off the list.  Peter just graduated from nursing school a couple of weeks ago, and he already has a job offer in Pendleton.  What a stud.  He starts August 1st at a family practice clinic in Pendleton (which shall remain nameless until Peter actually signs some paperwork).

Item #2, however, has been a little slower in coming about.  Okay, a lot slower.  We've been trying to sell our house for a year now, first "by owner" and now through a realtor.  So far, no offers.

My front yard in full bloom.

Now don't get me wrong.  I love my house.  We bought it six years ago when the housing market was really hopping, and it was dirt cheap.  It's not like any other house you've ever seen, and we really like that about it.  It was our first house and we spent a lot of time and money and effort on fixing it up just the way we wanted it.


But it is a weird house in a lot of ways.  First of all, the location.  It's on a flag lot, which means it's not situated right on the street, but behind another house.  You have to drive down a little driveway to even see it.

This is the only view of our house from the street.  Doesn't exactly scream "Come on in and take a look!"

And then, when you do finally find the house, the view that greets you is not exactly the most flattering one.  Our house lacks what you'd call curb appeal.  Like it has none.  It's mostly the fault of our garbage cans and some crumbling concrete pads out front.

We call this the "ass end" of the house, and unfortunately it's the first thing people see when they drive by.

There are two different "front doors" visible from where we park our car, and visitors to our house are frequently confused as to which door to knock on.  (Here's a hint for anyone planning on paying us a visit: it's the one at the end of the pathway through the front yard).

Once you get inside the house, things get a whole lot better looking.  But the layout of the house itself is unique, which some people really like and some people really don't.  The house was originally built in 1958 with a living room, kitchen, one bathroom, and two bedrooms.  Then in the late 1990's, someone added on to the house, doubling the square footage.  The way that did that was to add another living room, bathroom, and two bedrooms that connect to the main house through an oddly-shaped hallway off of the kitchen.  The result is a very long and skinny house with all sorts of weird angles and narrow hallways that open onto surprisingly large rooms.  It kind of looks like a lightning bolt when seen from above.

Oh, and did I mention that the house in front of ours has a yard that looks like this?  No kidding.  This is the very first thing people see when they're looking for our house.  We're doomed.

I think in this housing market, even the cutest craftsman-style 3-bed 2-bath home would stay on the market for a few months before it sold.  But trying to sell a house like ours in this market is going to take a loooong time.  And we're moving in a month.

We've been talking about all sorts of different options, including renting, leasing, leaving it vacant - even foreclosing (did I mention that money is scarce around here?).  For now, our plan is to sell it.  But we don't have any control over when that will happen.

It's a scary thing, and we didn't really see it coming.  We're trying to stay optimistic.