Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Living in a glass house

So our house has been on the market for I don't know........
1 week, 4 days and 39 minutes. Yes I have 8 weeks to sell my house so I have 6 weeks and 3 days left....I like numbers. No pressure right?

Anyway for the first week of that 1 week and 4 days, my house was ma-tick-u-lus! Yes meticulous. You could have eaten off the floor if you so chose, which is gross so I doubt you would have. But that week if you wanted to it would have been okay. Any other day that I have lived here I definitely would have suggested otherwise even on Thursday afternoons, when the cleaning girl leaves.

Yes I have been cleaning my ass off and by cleaning I mean baseboards, cabinets, grout, and everything in between. This house has never shined so much. All of that effort and not a single bite. No quick showings, no calls, nothing. So each day my very impatient self started getting more and more discouraged. I knew this was not going to happen in 60 days. And I also knew their house probably wouldn't move either, but still it was discouraging none the less. I get the economic climate right now I do, I was trying to be realistic. It had been a week already....can you tell I have never done this before? Patience.....never my strong suit.

So Sunday reality hit, the economy is in the toilet, the moving isn't going to happen, I will probably go 60 days without a dam showing....my reality. I'm such a positive thinker. So with that I decided to have friends over in my freakishly clean home. Not a party just a handful of friends and 5 kids under the age of 3 who played outside in the wet and muddy yard. Yep, I had thrown in the towel. No one called once while the house was ma-tick-u-lus! So what the hell.

I tell you what the hell was...on Monday at 9am the phone rang....

"Hello Mrs. Pessimist, yes so and so from so and so realty wants to show you home today at 1pm."

WHAT! Ummm no see I gave up on that. I let my family actually live in my house, which means cheerios are strewn all over. I had friends over, friends with kids like mine who just want to be kids, which means the floors are dirty. I didn't do laundry, which means their are piles in the laundry room. So with that I realized I had 1 hour and 30 minutes to get the house clean and get 3 people dressed and out the door for gymnastics and would have no time after to come home and clean. So I did it. I got it presentable I called Josh who ran home at lunch and got what I missed and the house was ready...not meticulous but ready.

That night we got home and once again lived in the house. I cooked dinner and the kids littered the dinner all over the floor. We played, we lived, we messed up the house.

This morning I got up in time to throw on a bra, brush my teeth, make 1 tike very cute and adorable for school and then threw them both in the car to drop off Meredith. I then headed home with every intention of showering and catching up on work, but that just didn't happen. The showering part. So I picked Meredith up in my same funky clothes. Came home and began to tackle lunch and then do more work at nap time. And low and behold the phone rang again. Another showing....seriously. Two in two days? What the hell? Do these people know that last week my house stayed spotless because I forbid anyone who lived here to such much as breathe?

So I did it again. I cleaned the dishes, put away laundry, re-mopped the kitchen floors, picked up the toy room, made beds, wiped down counters and windows and doors. I did everything but get a shower. Right before it was time to show I loaded up two sleeping tikes who woke up very grouchy and headed to mimi's with a bag of clean clothes for me. I took a shower there and then our little family met some friends for dinner.

I wasn't taking a chance on a third day. We were eating out and not dirtying the kitchen just in case. No one was coming back in the house to mess up my hard work again! I am pretty sure that tomorrow their will no showings because I am prepared.

I don't know how people with two tiny tikes do it. How do you constantly live in the glass house? How can you be prepared to have your house ready to show on the drop of a dime? My toddler's greatest joy is to throw his lunch onto the floor. Did I mention that Brownie went to stay with Lily during this selling process? I have no labrahoover anymore!

I'm ready to move out of this glass house and into something a little more private. Selling a home is not for me. I really suck at it!

1 comment:

Blair said...

I feel ya. I have been working so hard to keep our house clean...hell, I mopped two days IN A ROW!

Not. One. Call.

I am now going your route. No more cleaning!

Selling a house sucks.