We had 23 showings in 6 days. Hopefully we are done with showings now, feeling superstitious so read into that however you'd like, but there are a few things that I'm glad we're done with (hopefully for the foreseeable future).
- We love Halloween, but everything out this year has had to be very tasteful and tame -- no skulls in the garden, no ghouls dangling from the shrubbery, and DEFINITELY no tombstones, especially the one that reads "Death Waits For All Who Enter." That is not the message you want to send to potential buyers (even if technically it's true). Now we can dig the creepy crawlies out of the closet crawlspace, which must have been entertaining for those unsuspecting people who opened the door...
- Going out to dinner is fun. Going out to dinner every day because you don't want your house to smell or for there to be dishes when you've cleared all the counters gets old. I am pretty sure I can blame a few pounds on the Showing Diet. We made dinner tonight, and it was glorious.
-Brussel sprouts. I love roasting them in the fall, but that makes your house smell like farts. Again, not the ambience you want for potential buyers. Reveling in my farty house right now -- dinner was burgers, roasted delicata squash fries, and roasted brussel sprouts. Mmmmm. Pffffttttttt.
- Some day I will be able to go back to my yoga class and tap... Hard to keep that up when you have showings every evening (or are frantically cleaning and clearing the house to ready for the showing insanity). I miss humiliating myself for fun.
Keep those fingers crossed... Things are moving along but, as I'll write about next, this is a process with many hurdles that brings up so many emotions and echoes of processes we've left behind. But, now we can have tombstones and brussel sprouts. Silver linings.
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy!
Monday, October 22, 2018
Monday, October 15, 2018
#Microblog Mondays: I Hate The Selling Process
Buying the new house has been exciting, even though the offer acceptance process brought back difficult memories of waiting.
Selling our house? I am pretty much hating it outright. It's MORE waiting, but this time our home is being evaluated. It's disruption, because we have to keep the house spotless and sparse (since Saturday when showings began), and we have to relocate ourselves and the cats while virtual strangers are in our home, deciding if it's what they want. That's been real interesting.
I know this is temporary. Someone will love our home and buy it, and it's only been a few days... But I can't help but think that like so many other processes we've done in our lives, we came in just a bit too late since the interest rates just went up and the market literally changed in the past week or so. It feels oddly like adoption -- our home is lovely and cozy and close to being the right fit, but it just isn't getting chosen. YET.
I mean, I DO have to stop and take deep breaths since it hasn't even been a week yet, but this process is making me feel crazy and displaced and it's sucking up so much of my time. Please, please cross your fingers that we get the right match and someone snaps up our completely adorable home!
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy!
Selling our house? I am pretty much hating it outright. It's MORE waiting, but this time our home is being evaluated. It's disruption, because we have to keep the house spotless and sparse (since Saturday when showings began), and we have to relocate ourselves and the cats while virtual strangers are in our home, deciding if it's what they want. That's been real interesting.
I know this is temporary. Someone will love our home and buy it, and it's only been a few days... But I can't help but think that like so many other processes we've done in our lives, we came in just a bit too late since the interest rates just went up and the market literally changed in the past week or so. It feels oddly like adoption -- our home is lovely and cozy and close to being the right fit, but it just isn't getting chosen. YET.
I mean, I DO have to stop and take deep breaths since it hasn't even been a week yet, but this process is making me feel crazy and displaced and it's sucking up so much of my time. Please, please cross your fingers that we get the right match and someone snaps up our completely adorable home!
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| So cozy and festive! |
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| What's not to love? |
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| I even have pumpkin pillows galore! |
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| And a lovely reading spot! |
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy!
Monday, October 8, 2018
#Microblog Mondays: I Don't Want To Be Invisible
Last weekend I got invited on Facebook by several people to participate in a "blackout" for domestic violence awareness -- basically, you changed your profile picture to a black square to "show men what a world without women would be like" and of course "don't tell anyone but women about this," because THAT's how you spread awareness, with secrecy and profile pictures.
It reminded me of those stupid "breast cancer awareness" meme things where you write a weird, vague post like "I'm 4 weeks and craving pickles" or "Forgot to feed my unicorn" or some other stupid thing that supposedly makes people go "huh? what's that?" and immediately go get a mammogram.
Wait, that's NOT what happens? Huh.
It pissed me off, frankly. Right now, where women are coming out with their stories of abuse and assault and rape and violence, and they are being met with ridicule and disbelief and threats of MORE violence, right now we want to "show men what a world would look like without women?"
FUCK NO.
I just ignored these requests and didn't do it, quietly seething, and then someone I know put up a post basically slamming everyone who responded with "I'm not doing this" by saying that she was disgusted with people who don't believe in awareness for domestic violence. And I couldn't stay quiet anymore.
If you want to do something like that, have at it, and just know that it probably is not creating a safe haven for women escaping abuse, or convincing a controlling, violent man to stop being abusive. BUT DO NOT TELL OTHER PEOPLE THAT THEY SUCK FOR NOT DOING IT.
When you have kept your shoes by the door so you can run out of the house for safety, when you have locked yourself in your office while a swearing, screaming man kicks a hole in the hollow core door, when a magazine leaves Nicole Kidman's face on your white wall because it was thrown with force towards your head and missed, when someone whispers through gritted teeth "I want to just snap your neck" while shaking you by the shoulders... then maybe you can judge me for not making my profile pic a black square in order to "make a difference."
Nope, even then, for the love of all that's holy, respect other people's choices not to participate in this ilk.
Because THAT'S WHAT ABUSERS WANT -- a world where women are invisible, powerless, weak, easy to push around.
That's what all these people who are bullying Christine Blasey Ford and other women coming forward with their personal accounts of sexual assault want. For heaven's sake, the effing president of the United States took in all the accounts of violence and assault and inappropriate behavior and then turned it into IT IS A SCARY TIME FOR YOUNG MEN TODAY.
We don't need to make ourselves invisible by choice, it's already happened. We need to be loud, because apparently it is damn near impossible to get a woman's voice heard. We need a flood of strong, fierce, vocal, VISIBLE women.
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy. Some may even be micro!
It reminded me of those stupid "breast cancer awareness" meme things where you write a weird, vague post like "I'm 4 weeks and craving pickles" or "Forgot to feed my unicorn" or some other stupid thing that supposedly makes people go "huh? what's that?" and immediately go get a mammogram.
Wait, that's NOT what happens? Huh.
It pissed me off, frankly. Right now, where women are coming out with their stories of abuse and assault and rape and violence, and they are being met with ridicule and disbelief and threats of MORE violence, right now we want to "show men what a world would look like without women?"
FUCK NO.
I just ignored these requests and didn't do it, quietly seething, and then someone I know put up a post basically slamming everyone who responded with "I'm not doing this" by saying that she was disgusted with people who don't believe in awareness for domestic violence. And I couldn't stay quiet anymore.
If you want to do something like that, have at it, and just know that it probably is not creating a safe haven for women escaping abuse, or convincing a controlling, violent man to stop being abusive. BUT DO NOT TELL OTHER PEOPLE THAT THEY SUCK FOR NOT DOING IT.
When you have kept your shoes by the door so you can run out of the house for safety, when you have locked yourself in your office while a swearing, screaming man kicks a hole in the hollow core door, when a magazine leaves Nicole Kidman's face on your white wall because it was thrown with force towards your head and missed, when someone whispers through gritted teeth "I want to just snap your neck" while shaking you by the shoulders... then maybe you can judge me for not making my profile pic a black square in order to "make a difference."
Nope, even then, for the love of all that's holy, respect other people's choices not to participate in this ilk.
Because THAT'S WHAT ABUSERS WANT -- a world where women are invisible, powerless, weak, easy to push around.
That's what all these people who are bullying Christine Blasey Ford and other women coming forward with their personal accounts of sexual assault want. For heaven's sake, the effing president of the United States took in all the accounts of violence and assault and inappropriate behavior and then turned it into IT IS A SCARY TIME FOR YOUNG MEN TODAY.
We don't need to make ourselves invisible by choice, it's already happened. We need to be loud, because apparently it is damn near impossible to get a woman's voice heard. We need a flood of strong, fierce, vocal, VISIBLE women.
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy. Some may even be micro!
Monday, October 1, 2018
#Microblog Mondays: Soooooo Invasive
Our Realtor warned us about the mortgage process.
"It's incredibly invasive, you won't believe it. They need all this paperwork from you, and they inspect every little thing. But you'll get through it. It's just really annoying and can be super stressful."
Huh.
We laughed, and laughed, and LAUGHED.
We got the list of paperwork to hand over to the bank guy and discussed it on the way to dinner this weekend.
It seemed...not at all that bad. 2 years of W2 and tax returns, 4 most recent pay stubs, current mortgage statement, current homeowner's insurance info, bank statements.
"Did they need our birth certificates?" I asked Bryce.
"No."
"Fingerprints?"
"No."
"Letters of reference from four people illustrating how we'd make good homeowners?"
"No."
"A signed statement from our doctor stating we'll live until the majority of the mortgage?"
"Mmm-mmmm."
"A visit to our house to see how we take care of this one with a multiple-hour interview?"
"Nope."
"Written autobiographies about our life prior to buying this house?"
"Uh-uh."
"A TB test?"
"Nah."
By this time we were laughing hysterically. I'm not sure if our realtor understands how incredibly low the mortgage attainment process rates in invasiveness when you've gone through the adoption homestudy process (plus a renewal).
Ah, the gift of perspective.
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy!
We got the list of paperwork to hand over to the bank guy and discussed it on the way to dinner this weekend.
It seemed...not at all that bad. 2 years of W2 and tax returns, 4 most recent pay stubs, current mortgage statement, current homeowner's insurance info, bank statements.
"Did they need our birth certificates?" I asked Bryce.
"No."
"Fingerprints?"
"No."
"Letters of reference from four people illustrating how we'd make good homeowners?"
"No."
"A signed statement from our doctor stating we'll live until the majority of the mortgage?"
"Mmm-mmmm."
"A visit to our house to see how we take care of this one with a multiple-hour interview?"
"Nope."
"Written autobiographies about our life prior to buying this house?"
"Uh-uh."
"A TB test?"
"Nah."
By this time we were laughing hysterically. I'm not sure if our realtor understands how incredibly low the mortgage attainment process rates in invasiveness when you've gone through the adoption homestudy process (plus a renewal).
Ah, the gift of perspective.
Want to read more #Microblog Mondays? Go here and enjoy!