Progress on Matt's Condo: Before

For the past several weeks we have been trying to get my stuff moved completely out of my old condo and get it all cleaned out and ready to sell. It has been a big mess for a long time, but we have been been plugging away. Here is a video of what it used to look like, taken during the thick of it, on April 8th:




Two weeks ago we finally got most of the non-furniture stuff moved completely out and into our home, where it is currently stacked in a precarious heap in the little glass "cat room":


It took a lot of elbow grease, a couple of trips to IKEA (a.k.a. Disneyland), and some creative work on our part to get the condo cleaned up and staged, but we're finally there, mostly. Thanks to CA who took a day off on Friday to finish getting it cleaned and put together with all our new stuff, we were able to spend our weekend (between a baptism and the Sabbath) getting it photographed and making a video for YouTube.

Also thanks to CA, who put in a lot of legwork talking to a real estate agent about our options, we decided for now that we will try our hand at being landlords and attempt to rent out the condo instead of selling it. Selling it now would require taking a big loss, probably, with the real estate market in its current state. We have come to realize that although renting it will probably require taking a monthly loss, we hope to eventually recoup that loss when the market recovers in a few years and we can maybe sell it then. Keep your fingers crossed!

But despite the difficulty of selling the condo and the possibility of losing money, we still feel very grateful that I bought it. We're sure it was the right thing to do in the first place, so we aren't really worried about how it will work out in the end. When I saw it the first time a year ago I had an absolutely confident feeling that I should buy it. I knew it. It was the surest, most lucid moment of inspiration I had ever had in my life. We now know the reason why. It would put me in the singles ward of one CarrieAnn McBeth, whose striking smile, blue eyes, sense of humor, and sharp mind would captivate me on my first Sunday in my new ward, and who would subsequently spend many an evening hanging out, along with other ward friends, in my condo, playing games and watching movies. When friendship turned to dating, dating to love, and love to eternal marriage, the condo had proven its purpose. So, we Maddens LOVE that little condo. It allowed me to find CarrieAnn, exactly the person I had been looking for. (If any of you are looking for the woman/man of your dreams, we've got a condo to sell you! It works! My little sister Lindy also started dating her awesome husband-to-be a mere two weeks after moving into the condo last spring. Is any price too high to pay for finding your soul mate? ;)