Before and After

I am too tired to detail what went on over the weekend. It was a lot. I will write about it sometime this week though, I promise. In short, it was a lot of work to get the house ready for the Open House on Sunday. I got it all done (for the most part) and the Open House was a relative success. Some folks will be coming back to see the place again tonight, so that's a good sign.

Much easier for me than writing about it all? Pictures. Some before. Some after. Some combos.

Enjoy.

Exterior:

Foyer:

Mud Room:

Living Room:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

Hallway:

Kid's Bedroom (we don't have kids):

Art/Sewing Room:

Office:

Bathroom:

Stairs:

Landing:

Huge Second Floor Bedroom:

Master (Dan's) Bedroom:

Master Closet:

Master Bathroom:

Yard and Garage:

Listed.

The house is listed:

http://www.colemanrealtors.com/buy/listings.php?mls=951539

Please buy it.

The Breakup(s)

So. I broke up with two Realtors last night, which was surprisingly nerve wracking. I talked to Doreen from Century 21 first, who took it pretty well. She seemed to be a little bummed out, but also seemed resigned to her fate. She came off as a bit of a dour woman, so I'm sure she was pessimistic about her chances.

Michele from Coldwell Banker, however, went a little nuts. I called and left her a message, asking for her to call me back. She finally called back around 8pm, and I broke the news to her. It didn't go well from there. She asked me a million questions, each one more frantic than the previous. I tried to answer them all, and be as nice as possible, but she wasn't having it. It was a mix between her trying to sell me on herself (which she did for half an hour on Monday), and her implying that I made a huge mistake. I thanked her for her time and effort, and finally got to hang up the phone. Amanda was amused by it all.

In summation, the breakups were, surprisingly, a lot like ones from my dating past. For instance, the Doreen call was like breaking up with someone after only a few awkward dates. She seemed to think it was a little too good to be true, and while disappointed, didn't seem all that surprised.

The Michele breakup, on the other hand, was more like breaking up with a girl you've been dating for five years, who is a little nuts. Things aren't going as well as they used to, and the girl (I'll call her Caitlin, because that's my crazy ex-girlfriend's name) is going a little crazy about fixing things and it's only making things worse. She used to focus her craziness on overachieving in college, but is now out of college and has nowhere else to channel that being nuts energy. She drags you to couples' counseling once a week to crap on your for an hour and is a mess at home. You finally try to pull the ripcord on the relationship, but she ends up collapsing at your feet in a defeated puddle of her own tears. The whole process takes a few months to end with any finality, and everyone is exhausted, bitter, and has had a few years removed from their life at the end of it. That, and you had a deaf/blind dog that she wanted, bugged you about taking him via email for awhile, but never actually took him when you offered repeatedly before moving to Providence.

Maybe that's a little dramatic, as it was only a ten minute conversation, but I think it parallels a lot of the above. Michele focused all of her nuts-ness on researching the house/comps (college). She then made a long winded presentation to us to try to strengthen her chances of staying with me (counseling). Finally, when I tried to end it, she tried everything she could to get me to reconsider (defeated crumpled heap in tears). Also, I'm sure she hates me and thinks I'm an idiot (just like Caitlin probably does (definitely does)).

In the end, I'm much happier now, both in my chosen relationship, and in my Realtor. I'll be signing with John McCann today at lunch and the house will hopefully be listed for $249,900 today. I spent an hour or so last night cleaning up a few select rooms to snap some pictures for the listing. I still have a lot of work to do, even in the rooms pictured, but they should serve well for the listing images.

Enjoy.

Living Room:

Huge Second Floor Bedroom:

Kitchen:

Weekend Work/Prices

Over the weekend, I was back to busting my ass in the house. The shower upstairs was tiled and grouted, doors were sanded/painted, trim was put up, etc etc. Amanda also cleaned a bunch of windows, so that's done. Still a lot more work to be done for the Open House on Sunday, but it's definitely manageable. The biggest project left is cleaning up the basement. Ugh.

In other news, the Realtors are done in the house. A second one toured the place last Thursday and my buying agent, John McCann toured it last Friday, and again this morning. The prices are in:

Doreen (Century 21) - 239,900 - 249,900

Michele (Coldwell Banker) - 200,00 - 225,000

John (Coleman Realtors) - 249,000 - 259,000

Overall, pretty good numbers and I'm a little excited to sell this place. First things first though, I need to choose a Realtor. Each one has some pros/cons, obviously, and each is capable and has been in the business for awhile.

The first two work for big corporations, which is generally a good thing in this case. Everyone knows the two firms they work for and visit their sites frequently. On the other hand, they each have a lot of listings, and thus, their time will be divided.

John works for a smaller, local agency and thus, doesn't have the huge resources and built in infrastructure of the other two. That's not good. On the other hand, he actually invited all of the agents there to view the house this morning. 17 of them showed up for the tour. They are more of a 'team' than the larger corporations, and will collaborate accordingly.

Either way, Amanda and I will chat about it tonight and try to make a decent decision. Either way (again), we're going to choose someone tonight, clean a few rooms, take a few pictures and get this place listed tomorrow.

Hooray.

Realtors and Selling This S-Hole.

So. The place is almost done. I want to sell it as soon as it is. In order to do that, I need to get some advice from Realtors. That process started yesterday.

I reached out to a handful of agencies and am having people take a tour of the house and then provide me with prices/etc. Last evening, the first Realtor, from Century 21, traipsed through the house. Amanda and I pointed out what had been done to the place, she made some remarks and promised to get back to me with her thoughts today.

I just got her email. 239,900 - 249,00. That's pretty good. From the first day I researched the house, after the initial tour, I wanted to get 250k when I sold it. Not too bad.

I have another meeting at lunch today with the second Realtor, and a third will be showing up on Friday.

Since this will be done this week, I am going to sign with a realtor early next week and have an open house on the 17th.

Awesome. Its kind of exciting, even though I still need to finish the stupid house and put in a tub and tile and clean and decorate and etc.

Live, Shiver and Learn.

I'm a novice at this home improvement stuff. I never claimed to be anything more. When it comes to plumbing/heating? I'm thirteen steps below novice. I am functionally retarded. I can install a faucet and/or toilet. That's it.

Our heat was not working. I had the system overhauled in the spring and it no longer fired. This is bad with winter approaching. The boiler would fire, run for about seven seconds, and shut down. It was not promising.

I set up an appointment to meet a heating fellow today at lunch. I met him at the house and we went down to the basement to figure out what's wrong with the boiler. Mike the Heating Fellow put on some black latex gloves, put down some padding and went to work.

Two minutes passed.

The heat fired and stayed on.

The problem? There wasn't enough water in the boiler. All that needed to be done was to crack a plumbing valve, allow a few gallons of water into the boiler and turn it back on. God I'm an idiot.

I cut him a check for 85 (!!) bucks and he was on his way.

F.