Day: October 18, 2013

I’m trying not to be too optimistic

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The house has been officially listed since Thursday morning.  Which I just realized was only yesterday.  Feels like forever ago.  It’s been shown four times now – three yesterday evening (day 1 on the market) and once this afternoon (day 2).  When our agent told us about the three showings yesterday, I was (still am) trying really hard not to get overly excited and be all “we’ll have a contract by the end of the day and we won’t even NEED to have an open house” while twirling around the kitchen.  That’s not likely (the quick contract – the twirling is all too likely).  Then when I come down from the over-optimisticness (and the dizziness), I go too far in the other direction.  “We’ve had four showings already and no offers yet – NO ONE is going to want to buy our house.” I mean, come on.  It’s been two days, and we’re not exactly in the middle of a housing boom.  It’s too early for the doom and gloom.  I need to find a calm, centered, serene middle ground where I can keep the house clean without obsessing over whether leaving the dog bowls out or not cleaning the windows again EVERY morning is driving potential buyers away.

Maybe I should go clean the windows again.

The open house is tomorrow.  Cross your fingers!

I didn’t think it through

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I had a very productive Monday, right up until I painted the door.  John had to work (he doesn’t get all of the federal holidays off like I do), so I was on my own to get a bunch of things done before the photographer came over on Tuesday to take the pictures for our MLS listing.  (MLS listing – is that redundant?  Multiple Listing Service listing?  Maybe not.)  I took all of the window screens out and took the screen door to the deck off (put them all in the basement), and then I got the ladder out and washed the outsides of all of the back windows (on the first floor – the second story windows have to remain unwashed – I’m not risking my life by hanging out those windows or off the roof to wash them) and the sliding glass door.  (I did the insides of all the windows in the house the day before, when it was still pouring down rain.)  Then I took the doorknob, the deadbolt, and the kickplate off the front door, cleaned it, and painted it black (it was already black – the HOA wouldn’t let me just randomly choose another color).  I’ve never painted anything black before, so maybe this is typical, but it took me completely by surprise.  The wet paint on the door looked navy blue, not black.  I checked the paint can at least three times while I was painting (it said black every time).  Of course, it dried black, but for a few minutes, I wasn’t sure I’d bought the right paint.  Stressful! (Except, not really.)  So then I had a door covered in wet paint.  That I couldn’t close because of the wet paint.  And even if I could close it, it didn’t have a doorknob or a lock on it because of the wet paint.  I knew going into this project that I wouldn’t be able to leave the house until the paint dried and I put the hardware back on, but I didn’t picture exactly how that would work.  I hadn’t really thought about how I’d have to leave my front door wide open for a couple of hours…  Conveniently, it was a comfortably warm day.  The next thing I had planned to do was make another run to the donation center, but that plan was out.  I found things to do, of course, but it wasn’t what I planned.  Don’t screw with my plan!

Fun fact: I wore my midshipman coveralls all day, so I looked like quite the little handywoman hauling my ladder around, washing the windows, painting the door.  Next time, I’ll get a tool belt.