Well, its been a minute….2021 has turned out to be a crazy year and not just for my business! This has been the year that I over saw the sale of my childhood home in Florida – the one my mom has lived in since 1962!! If I thought doing deals for my friends and clients was stressful….multiply this by 10….dealing with a mother that has never bought or sold real estate in her adult life. It’s hard to fathom as most of us buy and sell at least once in our lives and many of us several more than that. It was not only nerve wracking (wanting all to go smoothly for my mom) it was emotional too, selling the family home.

My father and mother built the home in 1962 for $35,000.00. A price and feat that is unimaginable today. Dad was the general contractor and brought in the trades using a design that he got from someone- not sure who. The home was a brick ranch 1710 sq ft., 3 beds 2 baths…living/dining combo, kitchen and family room with a one car attached garage. The house decor went from mid-century modern to the groovy 70’s complete with my bedroom and it’s wicker furniture and blue/green shag carpet. It settled somewhere in the late ’80’s where it stayed until this year.

After my sister and I left home, my dad commandeered my old bedroom as his computer room and den…his man cave so to speak. Mom used the other bedroom as her sewing room and office. They accumulated a lot of stuff and kept it ALL. They were both products of harder times….WWII in Europe where my mom remembered being without shoes and food at times, and my dad, the depression when his own father lost their home because he owed $5000.00! They were frugal and always saved things in case they might need them someday. It was both lucky and unlucky that the day they would need their stuff never came. Lucky for them, unlucky for Mike and I dealing with all of it as we moved her out.

Earlier this year, after 8 years as a widow and one major hurricane that required her replacing the roof, my mom decided to make the move here to St Louis to be closer to family. We had been urging her to make this decision for several years, but as expected she was reluctant to do so. She lived most of her life in Florida in the home she built with my dad. But she began to realize she couldn’t keep up with the care of the home and as she has increasing health concerns, she also realized she needed to be with family. I think being very isolated during COVID last year also drove home the importance of at least having some family to interact with regularly.

In April, Mike and I found an independent living facility (The Fountains of West County) and secured an apartment for her. We then went about the task of furnishing it for her as she didn’t want to move her own old furniture here. In May we drove down and packed her up and separated out the things she wanted to keep. We hired a company to come in and empty/clean the house. We brought her here and a week later Mike and I rented a van, drove down packed the remaining things and over saw the company that cleaned out the house. We left three days later leaving the keys in the lockbox provided by our very wonderful realtor – another Coldwell Banker agent and high school friend of mine and put the home in her hands. She was of course, a rock star and I knew going with another CBanker agent we would be in good hands. The best, actually.

It was a surreal thing to see the home you grew up in empty. But it looked great and we imagined what someone who wanted to update it might do- opening walls, combining rooms, enlarging the master bathroom. We were very lucky to get it under contract within the first week and we closed on July 23, 59 years and 1 day from the July 22, 1962 date that my parents and I (not yet 2 years old) moved in. As my mother said as we were leaving with her in May….now starts the epilogue of my life. Poignant to say the least. A tear or two was shed. It will be odd going down to the beach and not going to my mom’s house. But we are excited that a new family now has stewardship of the home. We are also beyond relieved that she is now a mile away from us.

She’s done remarkably well…settling in with not much fuss. Getting to know people and participating in activities like Bible Study, knitting group and most recently, Casino Night where she won $9800 in chips! LOL. I think we need to take her to Vegas.

Now, you all need to understand, that during all of this I was having the best year of my career! So I’ve been remiss in writing and keeping in touch as I should. There were some weeks I didn’t think I could get it all done. I had more than one wonderful buyer who looked at homes in West County, Labadie, St Charles County, Warren County and Jefferson County as well as more wonderful sellers than I can recount to you all here. You know who you are!

But I came away with some lessons for all of us older folks to keep in mind as far as real estate is concerned —do your adult children a favor….downsize while you can and get rid of extraneous stuff. They will thank you for it. We don’t need it and if the zombie apocalypse does happen, it won’t matter. We are not the sum total of our stuff. Its the memories and relationships that last and are most important. Also, as we age, if we need to move closer to a child, we need to do so while we still have the ability to make the decision ourselves. It was becoming unwise for my mom to be alone. I know many of you have done this already, but for those of you younger folks who are writing the early chapters of your life, keep this in mind.

Now that things have calmed down, I hope to be better about my writing and keeping in touch. As always, I am here for any real estate need you or your friends/family might have. And not just the buying or selling….but the vendors to do updates/repairs and clean outs too when the time comes. Please reach out to me! You and your referrals are the lifeblood of my business and are appreciated more than you can know.