Selling the House-Step 2

Our realtor was just here and put a sign on our lawn and a lockbox at the back door. The MLS listing will appear tonight and realtors could conceivably start showing out house tomorrow. There will be an open house this Saturday.

Yikes! It suddenly seems so much more real! And daunting (I have tons of house cleaning to do before Saturday--no, tomorrow...) My neighbor Carol already walked over, as soon as she saw the sign go in. I gave her a hug and got a big lump in my throat. I will really miss her-- and Chris and Mara, and many other neighbors.

Since making this decision I have realized how much we rely on our neighborhood for entertainment. We usually sit on the porch in the evening with a glass of wine and the newspaper and watch the neighborhood go by. Every Saturday morning we walk to the Farmers' Market. We walk the dogs along Bear Creek and the Zumbro and through Slatterly Park. I make my morning treasure hunting stop at the Salvation Army and chat with the other thrift store regulars. We sometimes bike to the grocery store or walk to Dairy Queen (having a neighborhood Dairy Queen was a strong selling point when we bought this house). We admire our neighbors' home improvement projects, yard work and boulevard gardens. We marvel at the neighborhood kids' skateboard tricks, bike stunts, pretty impressive band practices, and growing up so fast. We chuckle at the roaring laughter coming from our neighbor Kevin's horseshoe pitching. We sniff hungrily at somebody's wonderful-smelling barbecue. We occasionally roast marshmallows in the back yard fire pit with Chris and Mara. This time of year, we watch the fireflies come out at dusk.

Will we feel lonely out on our farm with no neighbors next door?
I envision relaxing on the patio in the evening (with our glass of home-made wine from home-grown grapes), watching the moon rise over the hills and the stars come out, listening to the crickets and the nighthawks - and maybe even a cow occasionally mooing in the distance (instead of a fire siren.) I am sure we'll have fireflies there, too. And I hope we will often have old friends and neighbors joining us. And a few new ones.