Here's a shot of us going over his script, and I'm really taken aback seeing our bodies side by side like that.
I mean, if it wasn't for his lack of hair, we'd be hard to tell apart.
May 2010 Archives
Whew. That was a white knuckle ride I must say. But the house sold on Monday afternoon without too much fuss.
We started with our agent warning us that the market sentiment in TO had really shifted in the last 3 weeks; not many bidding wars, buyers playing wait and see, avoiding multiple offer situations, and lots of houses going for asking or less. So we were pretty nervous about what the two offers were, although grateful there was at least two so we had some competition.
The initial offers came in at almost exactly the same, about 10k over asking, so our agent said to their agents, "Look, knowing what we know about how buyers are feeling, let's not prolong this. Just tell them to come back with their best offer and we'll wrap this up." I was nervous that someone would just walk away, but they both came back with more -- and one with quite a lot more. Best of all, they were "clean offers" -- ie no house inspections or conditions -- which keeps things simple.
So our final price was right about what we'd originally been hoping for. This gives us enough left over to renovate the new place with a kitchen and an opening to the back garden... At least, we hope it does.
So overall, we feel fortunate to get what we were hoping for, plus a pre-HST closing date (June 30th) which saves us a lot on taxes. And it sounds like we got in just under the wire, or at least, on the wire, according to an article in today's Globe and Mail.
Alright, who wants to help paint sometime around June 26th?
"I've have knots in my stomach from this house."
So said Carol this morning, as we wait to see how this house thing plays out. It's been a roller coaster ride for us all, but especially her, as every new development seems to bring new worry. I mean, she's a fundamentally balanced person, but it's stressful for sure.
In response, I've been trying a new approach which is to be like a farmer about this: We've tilled the soil, planted the crop and now all we can do is see what the weather brings. I've had some mixed success with this approach but it's all I got.
The latest news on Tuesday was that a house down the street also went on the market same day as our; a highly renovated place that looks really nice in the photos. They are asking $749k for it, which Carol took as bad news for us. It looked like a much nicer place and would put a ceiling on what we could get. My view was that it was good news, as it set a higher benchmark for prices on the street. And the beautiful decor aside, I know that house and it's not that great. Thinner than ours, at the bottom of the street on not such stable ground, and only so-so curb appeal...
So, meh. Who can say? Let's see what the weather brings.
It was made worse that on the day our listing went up there was no IMMEDIATE response, and Carol started crunching numbers which showed that if we only got our asking price or a little more, by the time we'd paid off all the fees and taxes, we could maybe afford to renovate a regular coffee up to a latte in the new place. Eek.
I said that even if that were the case, we'd still be in a much bigger house -- albeit less attractive -- but anyway we still had each other and that's all that matters...
A bit quiet on the response. Heh.
I have to say, even I went to bed feeling a bit stressed about the whole thing. I love our current place and location, and although I know I'll be happy at the new place, I wondered what I'd agreed to with this whole "new house reno'd with the profits" plan that we took on with so little research.
Then two things happened: On Wednesday at the agents' open house at our place, they had all seen the "other" house, and agreed that it had some big problems around settling foundations etc. They seemed to think ours was the better property overall. So that brought a little sunshine. Then the requests for showings started... and haven't stopped. We have a bowl absolutely full of real estate agent cards, and more bookings today. Hooray, still shining.
So all good, although will it translate into a good price? Who can say? The cute house across the street had a ton of people too last week, but we haven't seen a Sold sign go up yet.
Me, I'm just watching the sky dispassionately, chewing on a straw and...
Carol has asked me to stop with the farmer thing already.
Whew, that was a lonnnnnnnnng weekend, but we scrambled about like crazy and at around midnight last night I had the last of the stuff either put back in the house where it belonged, or stored away where it was out of sight.
It looks very nice. I'd live there, except there's no way in hell we could afford it if weren't already in it. Funny how that works.
Here's what we did to "fluff" the house:
Painted, patched and redid the floors of the boot room and laundry area (which was basically a grotto)
Painted the baseboards throughout the house (totally trashed after years of having toy cars smashed into them)
Repainted the front porch, and straighten the wonky column (which we should have done years ago*
Patched and paint the basement ceiling where it had some water damage
Emptied out the back sunroom of years of crap and junk and turned it into a storage area that Martha would have been proud of
Painted the trim on the back of the house
Painted both back doors
Filled a storage locker with stuff that would make the place look more open and spacious
Filled a small junk truck with stuff that made the place look like a junk heap.
Then last night I cleared off the back porch, hosed everything down and put out the chairs on the back patio. Oh my God I was sore and tired. I'm still feeling it today. (My last official task was I quickly mowed the back lawn this morning.)
But with the exception of the Kid Brother studio in the basement, which is still jam packed with stuff that Carol wants for work, the place looks open, airy and just lovely. This morning the photographer came with the agent to take pictures for the listing, and Carol tells me the sign just went up.
Let the crazy real estate games begin!
* This thought applies to pretty much everything we did.
