Weekend Work and Last Night's Visit

This looks longer than it is. It's long to be sure, but there are a lot of spaces between the listed items below.

As I stated yesterday, I busted my ass over the weekend to get the house ready for the Open House. Amanda was in NJ visiting her family, so I had a lot to do. I took Friday off and worked until 11pm. I got up at 7am on Saturday, and worked pretty much straight through to 1am on Sunday morning. I then got up at 6am on Sunday and worked until 11:32 am for the Open House that started at 11:30. I have never worked so hard in my entire life.

Here's a rundown of what was done:

Figured out correct square footage (measured entire house, arithmetic). In a nice surprise, it's about 2300 square feet now.

Hung 5 doors (three closet, one basement, one Living Room, 2 of 5 were about 75 pounds each).

Yard Work (raked/mowed lawn, raked plant beds, laid new mulch to said beds, swept driveway, weeded plant beds, washed fence, swept walkways).

Garage (organized, swept)

Finished the shower (sealed tile & caulked) in the Master Suite (Dan's Room).

Finished the ceiling in said shower (joint compound x2, sanded x2, coughed x27, painted).

Cleaned Master Bathroom (scraped shower of excess grout, removed all tools, scoured toilet/sink, scrubbed scuff marks on floor, swept/vacuumed/mopped floor).

Finished little attic door thing (trimmed it out, fabricated door, installed door).

Cleaned Master Closet (organized, swept, mopped).

Cleaned Master (Dan's) Bedroom (removed all tools/garbage, dusted, swept/mopped floors).

Cleaned Landing (dusted, swept/mopped floors).

Finished Huge Second Floor Bedroom (touched-up paint on ceiling, tidied up, dusted, vacuumed carpet)

Cleaned Office (dusted, organized, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Arty Fart Room (dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Kid's (we don't have kids) Room (dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned First Floor Bathroom (scoured shower/sink/toilet, applied new caulking to shower, dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Hallway (dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Mud Room (removed paint on floor, dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Foyer (dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Living Room (put away all non-essential TV peripherals (Wii, ps3), dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Dining Room (dusted, swept/mopped floor).

Cleaned Kitchen (scoured counter tops, bleached and scoured white sink, organized, scraped/swept/mopped floors, cleaned/polished all appliances).

Staged Entire House (set dining table, downloaded classical music, cropped images to display on the TV, lit fire, lit candles throughout the house, purchased and cut 7 bouquets of flowers to display throughout the house, baked terrible cookies, made beds, sorted 7 bags of peanut M&Ms to fill jars in the kitchen, etc).

That folks, is what it takes to have an Open House. If you don't do that stuff, you're either lazy, or have run out of time. Even though I worked for that long, I still ran out of time. The basement is still a relative mess and I was placing the last of the cookies on the cooling rack when the first two groups of people showed up.

Overall however, the Open House was a success. Eight or so groups came to walk through the place in the one and a half hour event, and all liked the place.

If you've made it this far, you'll get to read about the good news; as I mentioned yesterday, one woman wanted to come back and see the place again last night. She came by with her husband (I think) and made an offer around 7:30. Her offer was $230k with 20% down and a 60 day close. Very solid. I countered this morning at $245,900 and will most definitely get a counter offer soon.

Also, I have asked that Realtor John McCann contact the folks who came to the Open House and let them know that there is 'significant interest' in the property (he can't say there's an offer in, which is lame). Hopefully, that will drum up some more interest and possibly get a second bidder. If not, I'm sure that the woman and I will reach a solid compromise and I'll sell this house this week and close in December.

Apparently, it's very easy to sell a house. What's the big deal?