Sell This House

As you can probably predict, there have been some adventures in the selling of this house. There was the time that they asked to see the house at 6:00. Sure...It is 4:30, that is no problem...except that I hadn't reset the clock in my car for Daylight Savings and it was really 5:30. My sister and her husband were here, so there was extra visitor things here. But thankfully we did a quick sweep and were out in about 20 minutes!

Another day, I had offered to watch my friend's two children so she could go to a funeral. Of course we get a call for a showing at the exact same time. Thankfully we have another house to go, so I told her to drop them off at the other house. I load up the dogs and my girls and was about to leave and I couldn't find the key. I looked and looked. Started to get frantic because the people were coming to look at the house soon, my friend was about to meet me at the other house, the kids are less than thrilled with my over-eager dogs, so the thought of four kids and two dogs in a car for an hour is unsettling at best. At last with minutes to spare, the key is located. So we head over to the other house. I stop and grab the key...and it falls between the seat. I try, and reach, and strain, and scrape my arm...finally it is in my hand. I just need to ease it out, slowly, slowly. Dang, I dropped it. One more time. Yes!!! Success. Drop the dogs off, and take all the kids to a park.

Oh and then there was the time that we had used the crock pot the day before. A call came in for a showing right away. I spent the time cleaning up everything else and thought that I would just load the crock pot into my car to get it out of the house. I sat it and every other non-desirable showing item by the front door. At that moment, the mailman comes by. If you have never been around my house at mail time, it is quite a show. Jake (the dog) goes completely out of his mind. I'm not exactly sure what he was doing this time...I just know that a shattered crock pot lid was all that remained. So not only am I running around like a crazy woman cleaning everything. Now I have to clean up shattered glass too.

He has also pooped on the floor before a showing.

We did a few updates about 1/2 way through our time on the market. I ripped off wallpaper, re-textured and painted two bathrooms. We hadn't had a showing in over a week. The day the wallpaper came down, I received three calls. You are kidding me!! One of them said they didn't mind the mess...I told them that if they would give me one day, I wouldn't have it painted, but the texture would be up. So, we for one time in our lives had concert tickets. We get back from the concert at midnight...and I start texturing. Until 4 am. So, I'm ready for them to call any minute. Guess what. They never came! Grr. The whole project was done in two days, but I missed three showings. Oh, well. That's the way showings go.

I love the two hours showings...or even better a two hour showing block and then a cancellation of it 1 1/2 hours in.

So many calls where I have had to completely abandon plans to rush home and adios the dogs and do a quick clean up. I had a lunch planned with a friend. On the way there, I got a call, she was so sweet and just took my girls while I came home and put the finishing touches on. We did get to spend some time together eventually, but she was a dear for helping out.

I love the cleaning up with dogs and kids bit. They see that I'm running around like a chicken, but yet, they insist on jumping on a bed that was just straightened, or getting out the Lite Brite (so many pieces), or whatever else you can think of to make me insane. Just sit there and don't touch anything. What part of "don't touch anything" is unclear? We have been in the selling cycle so long now that the other day, I catch Micah (4 years old) getting out the vacuum. I said, what are you doing? She said that they had just made a little mess and needed to clean it up. That is bizarre behavior around this house folks.

You might recall another time involving packing peanuts (http://shinguardsandleotards.blogspot.com/2011/05/that-mom024.html)... what I didn't mention in that story was that we had to hurry to get it cleaned up for a showing that afternoon.
About a week ago, I had a dentist appointment and my mother was watching the girls. Wouldn't you know it, I get a call. So she more than stepped up to the bat by getting everything ready and clearing out the girls and dogs. As she was picking up, Dylan (7) said, "Mimi, we need to turn these lights on and take these things to the car. Have you never had a showing before?"

So after several months on the market, I am ready for this house to sell. I have loved this house, but I am ready for the madness of showings, having everything split between two houses, double utilities & mortgage payments, and just being consumed with everything house to end. We have tried baking cookies, prayer, updates, the St. Joseph statue, super clean, PRAYER, pleadings, open houses, realtor tour, did I mention prayer? and it hasn't sold yet. I'm not above asking for more prayer. Please say one for us. Please Lord let this showing tomorrow be the one!

AMEN