My Fortress of Solitude

Yesterday I left work a little early so I could go home and do the laundry. I know what you're thinking - leave work to do the LAUNDRY? Well, I happen to like doing the laundry. It's a trait I inhereted from my Grandmother, who was a bona fide laundry expert. I do it in such a way that it doesn't take on 'pain in the ass' characteristics. It's orderly, logical, and when it's over I feel like I have accomplished something - at least until next week when I have to do it all over again. But enough about that.

While I was in the bedroom putting the finishing touches on my sorting, I heard a knock at the door. It was our realtor with a prospective buyer. I think he was a bit shocked to see me at home earlier than usual. I told them I had come home early to do the laundry and the buyer got all excited, "You're doing your laundry? Up here?" No, we have no hook-ups up here. Thank goodness I took out the washer/dryer last week, otherwise she might have wet herself! I excused myself to take the laundry out and give them some privacy to look over the place. She seemed rather smitten with our kitten, but he doesn't come with the condo.

They were gone when I came back. We haven't heard anything else, so I am assuming the buyer is still looking. Sometimes I just want to yell out the window, "Somebody, please, make an offer!" *Sigh* I just want to move, and the closer we get to the holidays I think the less likely we will be to sell before the new year.

Yesterday before I came home I got a call from a realtor who wanted to show our property. When I got home, I wasn't sure if she had been there or not, and it looked like somebody may have come by, so I let the dog and cat play for a bit. Then I heard something, and it turns out that the realtor hadn't been by just yet, so I grabbed the dog and put her outside and went for a walk while they viewed the condo. As I was coming back, they asked where the garage was, so I offered to show it to them. I gave them a walking tour of the grounds, showed them the pool and the clubhouse, and we chatted a bit. I got a really good vibe from the buyer and her agent. I was hoping we would get an offer.

When Mindy came home we went to the mall in Cerritos to see my eye doctor. She was picking up new glasses and I was getting my eyes examined for new lenses. The mall has ZERO signal for my cell phone, so when we left I checked my messages at home - and there was a message from the agent. She had a question about the washer and dryer in our front closet.

Let me explain about that... Before Mindy and I became serious in our relationship, she purchased a stacked washer/dryer combo with the intention of getting it hooked up inside the condo. She never did, because it would have cost her more than she could afford at the time, but the unit is still in the closet for storage purposes.

It seems that the buyer wants a place that has hook ups and wanted to know if we were having that done. To be honest, I don't think it's a good idea - the location of the closet in relation to a water source and ventilation doesn't make sense for installing a washer dryer. The association provides decent laundry facilities, and it isn't that expensive to use them. I shared this with the agent, who informed me that even though the buyer liked the property she wants something that is perfect for her and the possibility of having to pay for hooks ups to be installed in a condo deterred her from making an offer.

What pisses me off is that this is the second time the washer/dryer in the clost has ceased an offer from moving forward. To remedy the situation, I think I am going to pull the fuckin' thing out of the closet tonight and stick it in the garage or something. The other thing that pisses me of is that buyers need to have a little imagination - after you buy a place you can make it your own. Just because it isn't perfect, doesn't mean it can't be! The key word in the purchasing of property is 'potential' - because if you fulfill the potential the property has, you increase the value.

Well, it's Saturday and I am in the office working... Well, I will be after I finish this little entry in my journal. I want to finish my monthly reports before my deadline, but I didn't finish them yesterday so I decided to come in and finish them. It's good to finish stuff, before your deadline, that way people think you are on the ball! I am taking Monday off though, so it's not like I won't have a full two day weekend.

I baked my brownies last night. Damn they smelled good! I let them sit out overnight to cool and I cut them up and put them out with a little note that says, "Thanks for stopping by, Help yourself to a brownie!" for prespective buyers. Mindy and I have high hopes that we'll get some nibbles this weekend. If not, we're going to talk to our agent about an Open House or changing our pricing range. As I have said before, we are VERY motivated to sell and want to be in North Carolina before Christmas.

Well, I better get to work. The sooner I finish, the sooner I can go and do something fun. C-Ya!

Okay, so the guy who had made the written offer on the house decided he didn't like our counter offer and not to make another offer on our place. Mindy said she felt like he was dicking around with us anyway, so no big loss.

On the other hand, both of the agents who called me yesterday to tell me they were going to check out our place did not show. I did see one of them showing a different place, so now I am thinking she was an idiot and didn't know the correct address of which place she wanted to show and called me by mistake. It doesn't help that our realtor has three places in our condo community that he is selling, but than again it is a testament to how good he is if everyone who wants to sell goes through him.

Oh, and our annoying neighbor thinks he is being cute or funny by walking by our for sale sign and turning the arrow that points up toward our door to the opposite direction. Yesterday when I left our place it was facing in the right direction, but when I came home it was facing the wrong way. So, I turned the right way and went upstairs to tidy up and get the laundry going. When I left to take Dixie to the dog park, it was still facing the right way, but as I got into the truck I saw him walk downstairs, by the sign. I drove around the block and when I saw the freeway traffic I decided it wasn't worth getting on because it was jammed. So I went back to my place and when I went by the sign, the arrow was facing in the opposite direction again. In talking with my wife about it, I found out he got to work about late yesterday, which means he left not long after I did in the morning - and gives him opportunity to play with the sign. Granted, it's circumstantial evidence. I put some tape under the corner of the arrow to hold it in place. If it moves again I'll know for sure that it's because someone is touching it. If it happens once again, I think my hunch is concrete enough to warrant a stern warning with the optional ass kicking if our neighbor gets mouthy.

Well, most of my runny nose and stuffed up head have cleared, now all I have is a tickle in the back of my throat that I keep trying to cough out, but with no success. I am confident that I'll be back to 100% by Saturday!

In other news, (I've always wanted to say that), we got a couple phone calls yesterday from agents looking to show our place today. So we did some last minute touch ups in the kitchen, did a little light sanding of our cabinets and put on some new stain/polish to bring out the color. It looked really great when we were finished! Mindy said now that the place is so clean and nice looking, maybe we should stay in SoCal, but I said no way. I am looking forward to moving and buying a real house! In all my life, my family never owned a home and always rented, so I want a house very badly. I want a place that my children will be raised in, and will be able to come back and reflect on all the happy memories they had in that one special place. I can't do that - I tried it once, and there were strangers who didn't speak english living in the apartment. They thought I was a Jehova's Witness, Door-to-Door Salesman or something else and slammed the door in my face.

You can never go home again, but if you do, be preprared for a little rejection. ;)

The painting at the condo is done! The place reeked of new paint, but it looks great. Tonight we will try to put stuff back where it belongs, before the big birthday weekend (yeah!), and I will spend part of Monday doing more stuff around the place so it can be shown and people can fall in love with it and buy it. As for me, I am tired of the place and am looking forward to the arduous task of moving cross country - as you may have guessed, I have a touch of a masochistic streak in me with a taste for suffering. But hey, the rewards in the end (of the move - get your mind out of the gutter) are worth it.

Did anyone watch 'ER' last night? All I can say is, "DAMN!" Watching aguy have his arm chopped off by the rotor blades of a helicopter sure gets you going... Especially if the arm belongs to an ass-puppet chief of staff asshole like Romano! (I know, I need a life... But I love 'ER' and am addicted)

We did it all... We actually had the place emptied of 95% of all clutter! I hauled out a ton of stuff we threw away. I dropped off about 7 huge garbage bags filled with clothes and shoes to Goodwill. (Love that Tax Deduction!) We boxed up almost all of the stuff we haven't used but want to keep, and I moved it all down to our garage. All of our furniture was moved into the center of their respective rooms, and the place looks BARE! I even managed to do four loads of laundry last night, and watch the season premiere of 'Smallville'. Not bad!

This morning when I met the painter he commented that he couldn't believe we got all that stuff done since he had come out for the estimate on Monday. I guess we are pretty motivated... After all, the idea of selling the condo, making a tidy profit, paying off all our bills (including my student loan), and the eventual moving to NC and buying of an actual house can make you do things in a hurry.