Dana, I just have to tell you how much I love your blog. It’s always the first one I go to on my blog reader each day. We just took our house off the market after 15 months (just found out our latest house appraisal for the neighborhood is way below what we still owe. Ouch.) Anyway, I can relate to finally being happy with just letting the dishes sit in the sink and being able to really LIVE in your house, especially with kids. I’m also living vicariously through all your work on The Underdog. Our current house (and where we’ll be for at least a few more years) is an older ranch that we’ve renovated, but seeing what you’ve got planned has me thinking about how much more we could do to our house to make it really work for our growing family.

Okay, this was a really long comment, but just wanted to say hi! :)

Congrats!! We just sold our old place and bought our current one this past fall. I remember the stress of waiting for an offer!

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!!! :] I want to buy some of your furniture that you don’t take to the new (old) house!

Wheeew! That is fantastic!
Congratulations!
Kerry at housetalkn.blogspot.com

Yay! That’s great! Congrats!!

Gooooooood luck!!

what a relief! even with older kids, it was a challenge for us to keep things tip-top for showings, so I can’t even imagine what it was like with little ones!

celebrate with a week of pillow forts and unmade beds!

CONGRATULATIONS!! That’s fantastic, I’m so happy for you. Go on and leave your dishes dirty and your beds unmade…you deserve it, hah (:

Congratulations! I know that has to be a relief. I’ve been in that same position before and, you’re right, it’s nearly impossible to keep it show-room ready with little kids around. I hope everything goes smoothly.

Congratulations!! I know that takes a load off your shoulders.

Congrats! Here is to a smooth process!!! Very excited for you and your family!!! :-)

Hooray! I will keep my fingers crossed that all goes according to plan!

Congrats!!! I know you must be thrilled!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!! I will keep my fingers crossed for you. This should be just the motivation needed to get *more* things in order at the Underdog!! I am really enjoying watching your progress & wonderful ideas.

Congratulations Dana! I am so happy for your and your family…onto the Underdog!

Congrats!! Wishing you a smooth closing process!

Congrats! Those are some lucky out-of-towners!

Congratulations! We, too, found our underdog and closed on it last Thursday. Our current home has been on the market for 3 months, and we got a contract on it on Saturday. I have 2 small boys, and I can sympathize with the nightmare of trying to keep the house clean and beds made every day. I cracked up when you talked about your husband…mine says our house should be on the market all the time…he loves coming home to a sparkling clean home every day. I do not concur. :) I’m tired of driving around with all my clean laundry in the back of my car beause I don’t have time to put it up and don’t want a basket full of clothes in the laundry room floor in case someone comes to see the house. I also celebrated this morning by leaving all the beds unmade and dishes in the sink. Best of luck on your future endeavors! I’m enjoying following the progress on “the Underdog”. Can’t wait to see what you guys do with it.

Woohoo! What great news!!!

Congratulations! Hope everything goes smooth (enough) from here on out

Sooo excited for you! Been keeping our for sale home “show ready” with 5 young kids for 3 months now. Torture. Reading that you were under contract brought tears to my eyes, I was so happy and relieved for you. Should your buyer know anyone in the Indianapolis area looking for a lovely 5 bedroom/4 bathroom home, you just let me know!

Woooohoooo!!!! Thank goodness. ONE less thing you’ll have to deal/worry about…:) Poor HH though…well, think of it this way, he’ll REALLY be motivated to do all those wonderful handy projects ya’ll have planned for the underdog…heehee…;)

This is so exciting for you all congrats! Have fun packing!

Tina – 5 kids, 5 bedrooms, and 4 bathrooms sounds like a LOT of cleaning. Hang in there! A pending sale on our home literally brings me to my knees. I have been waiting {so impatiently} for this time to come. I’m so thankful! Just have to keep the house somewhat presentable for the home inspection tomorrow, then I’m surprising my boys with a camping night in the living room.

Katy – Congrats on your Underdog and contract! How exciting! I totally hear ya about driving around with last minute miscellaneous in the car to keep it out of the house during a showing. Laundry, laptop, mail, library books, wet swim clothes, etc. all made it into our car.

I am really sad to hear that. I know you are very happy, but Sophia is really going to miss Everett and Layne. Not to mention that we will miss you and Steve.

Sarah – Oh, we are going to miss you guys too! That’s really been the hardest part for us during all of this…knowing we have to leave neighbors that we LOVE. We hope to keep in touch and come visit/have visitors. Plus, I think we need to have one more block party before we move.

Camping night sounds AWESOME! We’ve even brought a tent inside before…kids are craze over it. Enjoy. And yes, it is a lot of cleaning. One of the many reasons we want to downsize!

Hi Dana,

keeping my fingers crossed for you. I had to think of you and the underdog today when I saw this housetour: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/510418/list/Houzz-Tour–Sunny-Update-for-a-California-Bungalow.
Could imagine the underdog looking like this when it’s done. Good luck with everything.
Best wishes from Berlin, Germany
Imke

Imke – You know me all too well!!! I love that Houzz tour! I actually have the master bedroom closet pinned on my Pinterest board. I adore the wooden drawers with the leather handles. I hadn’t seen the rest of the house until now. Thanks for the link! I’m not sure our Underdog will look this fab anytime soon but it sure gives me hope.

Woohoo, congratulations!!