SOLD

I think I have to leave in a few minutes so that there can be three house showings this afternoon, but they're probably moot - we liked the first people who looked at the house the night before last, but their offer was low, so we counter-offered with the difference halved ($3500), and they just accepted it, and their financing is pre-approved. All we have to do now is make sure they'll let us rent the house for a week after closing for $200 or so - which shouldn't be a problem. They are the only ppl to look at the house who we've actually met, and they felt "right" (good vibe), and they liked the cats and have a beloved cat of their own. They are a younger couple, my age or a little older, who want to have kids but have been waiting until they could get a larger place - this is the one they want. If they get the house we'll be very pleased, and closing will be by October 10th, so I'll be in Ohio around the 15th! (yay for Halloween parties! I'll get to take my niece trick-or-treating...) Plus, we're already really really sick of showing the house. Not having to do any more showings would be a fabulous blessing.

(This is contingent on the sale of the ppl's condo, so keep your fingers crossed that it sells! The agent says there shouldn't be any problems; condos are going like hotcakes in general, and especially at this time of year, when retirees are looking for places. and, oh, crap, the agent says we still have to show the house for a while.)

Either way, I'm off to coffee place to novelize for a while, and maybe knit.
I have about $30 to my name, so I might go pick up some vegetarian canned chili and some cereal and spaghetti sauce while I still can. I have a hungry month to get through, but over the next 30 days things will continue to look up and up and up.

holy chickens, batman

Well, things are a little different from my last post... we may not be selling to that first couple after all, even though they're the ones we like. We've had something like SEVEN OR EIGHT showings today (yeah, I spent the afternoon at Coffee Place) and as soon as I got home, more people started showing up! Right now the latest group is sitting outside trying to come up with a contract. Some people are even making offers over the asking price, I believe, and probably about 80% of people who have seen the place in the last three days have made offers. So basically, in the land of Selling Verbminx's (Late)Childhood Home, things are kind of up in the air right now. I think after the people outside come up with a contract, my mom and I are going to choose which offer to accept for real - and then, thank Bob, no more showings. (I hope.) It's not that it isn't going to sell, it's just that we're not sure who it's going to sell to, or for how much. (I guess it's all up in the air until you've signed a contract.)

Meanwhile, I am EXHAUSTED and in need of QUIET ALONE TIME. I woke up at 7AM and immediately wanted to go back to sleep (didn't happen). I finished reading Abhorsen, took a shower, generally got ready to go out, went out. Sat at Coffee Place working on poor neglected intensefragilty, then went to the new knitting store in town, which actually has some respectable stock in. If I had more money I'd have bought a nice hank of Great Aidirondack's FLUFF yarn; as it was, I walked around petting everything, and talked to the elderly lady who was clerking. Then I went to Staples and bought a bag of packing peanuts, which I desperately need for progress in packing, but which I didn't expect to be so damn expensive ($8? per bag? I thought it was like $3-5!) Then I came home, went to the bathroom, and was surprised by MORE showings - three old ladies, who I showed around the house pretty much myself (having convinced them that the room I'm in right now, which was originally intended as either a dining room or a casual family room, makes a bang-up extension of the somewhat stunted master bedroom suite and, really, is pretty keen to sleep in. and it is. make it into a bedroom and it's the largest bedroom in the house, with the inconvenience of being a pathway to and from FOUR OTHER ROOMS.)

Then my mother couldn't get the dog to get out of the car, so I got the dog out of the car. Then MORE people showed up, the ones who are currently sitting in the driveway haggling their acceptable terms with their realtor. I put the dog back in the car, and the dog and I ran far away... well, no, we took a drive. Now we're back and you can go back to the beginning to find what I'm thinking. AUGH. NEED QUIET AND PRIVACY! NEED TO WIND DOWN!

I will probably never want to be involved in selling another house ever again! it's just nervewracking!