The Holes Get Deeper

So it's Saturday already, and I've neglected to inform you of the goings-on of the past two days. Strap yourself in--it's a bumpy ride.

Monica Turner, the Realtor, came over Thursday evening for our meeting. She was 1/2 hour early, so mom and I were still frantically cleaning when the doorbell rang. She assured me that we need not worry about it for her sake, but still I can't help but think making a good impression on the Realtor is one of the most important things we could do! She seems really great, and I think I'll enjoy working with her. She appears to be ready to bend over backwards not only to sell the house, but to help me out along the way--going so far as to say that if I needed help cleaning up and getting ready for an Open House I had but to call her! She also said she's got some decor stuff she can bring over to dress the place up, since I've packed all our stuff away. The sad news is that unless someone REALLY wants the house and there is some sort of bidding war, we're going to be hard pressed to recoup anything but what we currently have out in loans. If we ask (and get) the price that would pay everything off and give us a little extra, we will raise the comps for our neighbourhood about $3/sq ft. Seems unlikely. But you never know. We left the meeting with a ballpark idea for asking price, and I had to call Russell for his input on that. Of course he wants to ask for more, but I'm afraid that will put people off, and then the house will just sit without showing. It's all very frustrating and scary. I've been bitchy, to say the least. My apologies to all I come in contact with.

So mom again kicked ass Thursday, cleaning an amazing amount of house. Kiki's room is actually smelling better, so I can stand to go in and start cleaning and packing more in there. The bathrooms and kitchen look amazing, and the living room too. I can't imagine how hard it would be for me to have to do all the work that she has helped with. As I type, she has started painting in the guest room! We put up the screens in the Master Windows yesterday evening, bought a new screen door for the back porch and put it up today (total pain in the butt, by the way). We also bought a replacement mirror for the Master Bath this afternoon, and will try to get it installed later. We took the last of the recycling to Yukon (from here on out I'll be throwing it all away--I can't afford to have the recycling boxes cluttering up the kitchen as they have for the past 10 months--and that kills me!), and dropped a ton of stuff off at Goodwill. I've been doing some paint touch ups here and there and thought I'd take a break and get this all off my chest. There is so much more to be done, it seems, but we are making some progress. Again, without my mom here, there is no way this house would be ready to go next week. I might have been able to put it on the market, but people would have fled in horror at the mess or the stink or something!

Anyway. I'm going to grab a quick snack, down some Alleve, and get busy. Thanks for listening.