27th June 2007

May I just say "ACK!" and "EEK!" and "For fuck’s sake?!"

posted in Uncategorized |

We have a “For Sale” sign out front.  I am now on call for house showing at an hour’s notice.  This is because we have a Bad Dawg, and have to clear him out of the house before strangers can come in.

Our listing is up.  The house is going for about $14,000 more than twice what we paid for it, which is okay.  The listing is incorrect; it says we’re on propane, but we’re actually on natural gas.

My bro, SIL, niece and nephew are showing up tomorrow night for a night’s stay.

The day after that, FIL and Step-MIL are arriving, and they are staying through Sunday a.m.

In the midst of all this, we are trying to keep the house somewhat (for us) clean.  Our realtor told us we had to de-clutter; OmegaDad and I looked at each other with deer-in-the-headlights looks, because, to us, it already was de-cluttered.  So I’m going through and removing things left and right, trying to figure out whether we should keep whatever it is, or just toss it.  I’m doing a lot of tossing.

The dotter is coming home dead tired every night, which, in the normal run of things would be a Good Thing.  However, whenever she’s dead tired, she turns into a cranky, whiny pill.

To top it all off, like Jess, we have managed to lose the important part of the dotter’s adoption records.  Like, the copies of her estimated birth certificate, her abandonment certificate, the translation of our adoption certificate, and her Chinese passport with the all-important IR3 visa.  We do, however, have the Chinese version of her adoption certificate, in all its red-leather-clad and red-chop-stamped glory.  The missing documents pose some problems when it comes to, say, driving across the border into Canada, and then across the border into Alaska.  We don’t need a passport (I think; it’s difficult to really tell), but we do need proof of application for a passport.

There’s this absolutely gorgeous house in our future area of AK that we’d love to buy, but we have no idea just how much money we’re going to have, because we haven’t heard who our relocation company is, or who the “approved” appraisers are, so we can’t get our two appraisals so we know the absolute price we’re going to get out of the reloco.  (Not to mention that there were horrendous floods in that area last year, and this gorgeous house is real close to the banks of one of the rivers that flooded, so I’m wondering about flood plains and stuff like that…)

I am a wreck.  I am likely to become even more of a wreck as the days go on.  You all are my whiny outlet.  If you don’t want to hear rants, whines, screeches, and vicariously watch me (read me?) pulling my hair out by the roots, I advise you to stay clear of OmegaMom’s blog for, oh, four more weeks.

Did I mention we’re clearing out of here on July 21?  Which just happens to be all of three-and-a-half weeks from now?!

ACK!

EEK!

For fuck’s sake!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 13 responses to “May I just say "ACK!" and "EEK!" and "For fuck’s sake?!"”

  1. 1 On June 27th, 2007, Julie Pippert said:

    Okay this is the hard part, really. Rant and rip away. Understandable.

    But exciting!

    For decluttering,a sk her for suggestions but I suggest pack all books and remove from premises at a start. Then only one or two personal photos per piece of furniture.

    Look at your house as if you were a maid who had to lift and shift everything for dusting and vacuuming. Well, that helps me.

    Good luck!!!

  2. 2 On June 27th, 2007, D said:

    Oh my! I didn’t realize you were moving that quickly. Wow. That’s… SOON!

    You should try to remove as much “stuff” as you possibly can. Rent storage for a month. Seriously. Every piece of furniture that you don’t ABSOLUTELY need should be gone. Rooms look bigger that way. Then Julie’s suggestions about books and pictures. And have a cleaning lady come twice a week to scrub and dust and vacuum and stuff. It makes a HUGE difference.

  3. 3 On June 27th, 2007, atomic mama said:

    3 weeks? That’s madness! Madness!! I have a free afternoon in S.M.U.T. in mid-August and was hoping for a meet-up, but alas, y’all will be long gone… You really meant it when you said this was happening FAST!! Best of luck.

  4. 4 On June 27th, 2007, SBird said:

    Why do I find it mildly amusing that you are suddenly worried about flood plains, rather than the stuff of the desert?! Hee.

    Just think neutral in terms of the house. No personal. I learned this on HGTV. Another hee.

  5. 5 On June 27th, 2007, GrannyJ said:

    Oh,dear! So soon?

  6. 6 On June 28th, 2007, beagle said:

    Wow, this is one lightening speed move! Good Luck with it all!

  7. 7 On June 28th, 2007, Jess said:

    Wow. That’s FAST. We did our entire move in two and a half months.

  8. 8 On June 28th, 2007, Spacemom said:

    Whine away, my friend, whine away! 3 weeks is very short.

    I hope you find the paperwork you need!

  9. 9 On June 28th, 2007, noreen said:

    This is what did the trick for me years ago when we had a house that sat on the market more than 3 monghts. The realtor was bringing some people to see it so in desperation I put fresh flowers all around, baked something (I don’t remember what but it smelled good)and put an empty bottle of some kind of good whiskey (we don’t drink that stuff) right on top of the trash can that was under the kitchen sink. This was in the days before recycling. My friend who gave me the empty bottle swore it would look like we lived the good life. I’m not sure what did it but the next day we had an offer, so who cares.
    My best to you in the coming weeks. I’ll be thinking of you.

  10. 10 On June 28th, 2007, Elaine said:

    Yeah that. We’re clearing out August 1 with not a buyer in sight but there we’ll go. Hope it all goes okay for y’all. The nice people at the passport office rejected our application for youngest daughter’s passport because we didn’t send a US Birth Certificate. Um? What? Did they even look at the Certificate of Citizenship and the Chinese Adoption Decree??? Apparently not. Things are pretty woeful at the passport offices these days. And yeah, I think you only need proof of having applied which they will send you even if they muck up the application (like ours).
    Sending good energy your way.

  11. 11 On June 29th, 2007, sara said:

    My best house selling advice is make the kitchen and bathroom(s) immaculate. I worked in a real estate office for a few years, and my main job was to help people “stage” their houses. Hide in your cupboards any counter-top appliances that you don’t use on a daily basis…your toaster, blender, bread maker, etc. It makes the kitchen look tons roomier, even if it is small. Same thing in the bathroom…put away all of the daily living necessities, anything personal. We went so far as to buy a bew set of towels that were only for showings, because they were super clean and stayed neat. Also make sure your front door and dooryard look great. Most buyers decide whether or not they are interested before they even walk through the door, so an extra pot of flowers and a clean doormat can go a long way toward enticing someone to look.

    Good luck! Breathe! And remember that the buyer knows you live there, that you’re human, and that you’re under a lot of stress with moving. It’ll be ok. Vent away.

  12. 12 On June 29th, 2007, Theresa said:

    Wish I lived near you. I could use all I learned “staging ” my parents house to help them get it sold in 10 days. We handed over the keys today and I can’t tell you what it feels like to have just one house to take care of. But when we decluttered their house it has caused our house to look like a thrift shop that was hit by a tornado.

    All those tips everyone gave you were great. If you have any time watch a couple of those Designed to Sell shows on HGTV-8PM and midnite here on the East Coast. I learned so much from them. Or Mission Organization-another great show for ideas.

    But really since you have so little time can you just start weeding through the stuff you absolutely treasure and need to take to Alaska and just start boxing it up? And then separate the rest of the stuff to trash from the stuff to donate to charity. Best wishes! And see if you can get a friend to help. It helps to have someone else pull stuff from cabinets while you separate it. I know dotter’s papers will turn up.

    Oh yeah start loading up on caffeine for the next 3 weeks-hell-how about amphetamines-just kidding -never touched the stuff!

  13. 13 On July 2nd, 2007, Kate said:

    Why is everyone moving to Alaska? Is there some big party up there I’ve not been invited to? This weekend I said good-bye to a friend who is moving 800 miles north of Anchorage. (??) Can you get more remote than that… ?

    Whatever… Good luck with the move!

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