ON a Wednesday evening nearly three weeks ago, Dawn and Barry Goldstein were surprisingly calm as they sat on their plush brown sofa chatting with a guest, while their son, Jordan, almost 3, fidgeted between them.

“At least the worst part is over,” said Mrs. Goldstein, referring to the sale of their apartment. During the six and a half months that it was on the market, the couple endured two dozen open houses.

If they were anxious about the fact that movers were coming the next morning to pack them up and whisk them away to Long Island, they didn’t show it. Chocolate, their Labrador retriever, on the other hand, nervously gnawed on a green chew toy as he eyed ominous stacks of boxes.

“I knew all along that when my son turned 3 I wanted to move to Long Island, so he could have a big bedroom, and be an outdoor kid,” said Mrs. Goldstein, a stay-at-home mother, giving her son an affectionate squeeze.

The Goldsteins anticipated that it might take some time to get their home sold. “I didn’t want to wait until the last minute to put our apartment up for sale,” Mrs. Goldstein said, describing the couple’s basic game plan for selling their 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom co-op on the eighth floor of 136 East 56th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. “I really wanted to give myself a year so that we could get a good price.”

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House Selling, Real Estate Market