There's A Lovely Backyard View for Sale

So I still haven't caught up on American Idol... but here I am updating. Check me out.

Anyhow, we made it through the first weekend of having the house on the market. We cleaned a lot, straightened things up, hid the undesirable things in the house like baby potties, hampers, and excessive toys. We pulled out the "company" couch pillows. And then we waited for the phone to ring. And waited.

Surprisingly we did get three calls for showings.

I don't think we have an offers coming down the pike though.

Call #1
A young couple with a baby, and a rather snooty realtor. They breezed in. I let them look around downstairs while I went upstairs. I hear them rustling in the blinds leading to the backyard. Then in less than five minutes, they are leaving. "Thanks", says snooty realtor. I think they took one look at our lovely burnt, treeless hillside, or perhaps it was the train that was passing at that time, and they ran. Can't say I really blame them.

Call #2
They are expected between 11 and noon on Sunday. I'm waiting. Mr. D took Grace down to the park so they were out of the house. It's 12:30pm. I'm waiting. I happen to get up with Paul and walk by the window. I see a white SUV slow down in front of the house. I figure that must be them. I discreetly glance out front. Sure enough, the white SUV has pulled over just down from our house. Then the phone rings. Miss Realtor tells me that they are planning on moving on from this area. It won't work for her client. Wow. Now they are just driving by and seeing our backyard view and fleeing.

Call #3
While I was waiting for Callers #2, I received this third call. After our prior disappointments, I didn't have high hopes. This was the best one of the bunch. (Yeah, doesn't say much). It was a mom and her teenage son. They at least went through the entire house. Albeit, quickly. My feeling from them was that they were going through all the available houses in our community to get a feel of what's out there. They commented when they walked in, "oh, we haven't been in this floorplan yet." And then they went on to say that they weren't real serious yet.

So that was our first venture in home selling. A lot of rush and a lot of waiting. And Grace got a lot of park time, so she was thrilled.

The trick for me will be keeping the house spit-spot clean all the time. I'm just betting on not getting any weekday calls, or else I'll be in trouble. I will have to do more than just hide a baby potty. I'll be shoving dirty dishes in the closet too!

Catch-Up - It's Already Mid-February!

Wow. I am so behind in cyberland it's not even funny. Between the kids, the house, and American Idol - a girl just can't keep up with everything. Actually, I'm behind on my American Idol watching as well, so I'm really slipping up.

The kids are good.



Mr. Paul has decided to be super-baby and start teething. The boy already has two teeth cut and he's not even 4 months old yet. We've had a few rough days with cranky boy. Its just a change from his normally sunny disposition.



Grace is 2 1/2, full of energy, and hears the words "gentle" and "soft" about 1.5million times a day. It just doesn't seem to register that Paul is small and fragile. Okay, so she's proven he's not that fragile. I feel so sorry for the kid - he gets manhandled sometimes. Rather, toddlerhandled.




So what's really been keeping me busy though is the house. We decided to roll the dice and stick it on the market. We don't want to move far, but there's some neighborhoods 10 miles out or so that are quite appealing to us. We've been mulling over it for a while now, and it seems that the time may be right (even though the economy doesn't seem to show it). But we've been praying about it and are comfortable with whatever happens. So we've spent the last couple weeks giving the house a quick face-lift, particularly in the master bath. It was a little grungy. But a coat of paint, new faucets, and a thorough bleaching on the grout - it looks pretty good. I am still recovering from yesterday's bleaching though.

Thursday is the day the house will go up. We'll see what happens.