1980 Was a Very Special Year

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After being in the house for less than a year, the family grew with the arrival of Meghan on a very cold Saturday in January. We brought her home a few days afterward, and from then on the house became a different place. A house with a new baby takes on a different purpose. It forever becomes a backdrop for memories.

I had great fun getting her room ready. For medical reasons, during my pregnancy I had testing which revealed Meghan's gender. I would not allow the doctor to tell me the result, and so decorated the nursery in a neutral Winnie the Pooh motif. The walls were painted a golden "Pooh" yellow. The bedding and accessories were coordinated in the WTP theme. All together it came out well and made for a warm welcome home.

Even though she was the first, Meghan's furniture was not new. Carrying on a family tradition, Meghan slept in a crib first used by my Dad. It held up very well not only for her, but for her two sisters that followed.

SOLD

Although the contract was signed, it was still a surprise to arrive home and see the "SOLD" extension on the For Sale sign. I wasn't sure I would be so lucky to sell the house so quickly. But after only one week on the market an offer was made, a price was agreed upon, and the deal went forward.

Great thanks is owed to my real estate agents, Frank and Doug. After the contract ran out with my former agent, I was deluged with calls, mail, and unannounced personal visits from almost every other agent from here to Montauk.

It was Frank, then unknown to me, who arrived unannounced one Sunday afternoon and POUNDED on my front door, not once but twice, to get my attention. He pulled up, parked his SUV across the street, and made known his arrival by banging so fiercely on the door it rattled the upstairs windows. He then walked back to his vehicle, turned it around, and came back to my door, pounding even harder. Not one to reward such rude behavior, I ignored him. I went to the door later to get the literature I knew he would leave.

But I kept thinking during the week, what sort of salesperson do I want to sell my house? A meek, timid guy who waits for the world to come to him? Or a guy who will knock the door off its hinges on a quiet Sunday afternoon to get new business during very tough times?

Here We Go Again...But Maybe Not for Long

At the end of December, after six months on the market, my house was not sold. Not really surprising, but very disappointing. I took a break for a few weeks, and as of last week I'm back in the game. Possibly not for long since I expect to go to contract very soon! It all happened so fast and I hope it keeps going that way, all the way to the closing.

But just in case, the Open House scheduled for this Sunday is still on. Please alert any qualified buyers you know. Send them all this way.

A Parakeet In the Bush Is Worth...

Image by ecocentrikGuy via FlickrMost every family has their share of pets as the children grow up. For a number of years we kept parakeets, as many as three or four at a time. Never would we have fewer than two. They seemed more content in pairs. Even so, introducing a new pal to a lone parakeet created a skittish situation at first. You wouldn't think a parakeet could be restless or jittery, but put two together who were not used to each other and it took about a week for them to even rest on the same perch. After that they would become inseparable.

In the summer they spent their days outside in the back yard. At first I would set the cage on a picnic table on the deck. That worked well until the first time we forgot to bring them in. By the time I remembered they were still outside, the cage had been knocked over by a prowling cat. I found it on it's side and empty. But the story has a happy ending. Believe it or not, the birds escaped and were found in various bushes and trees around the yard! We caught them with the girls' butterfly nets. Not used to flying, I guess they didn't have it in them to go very far.

One of the birds, curiously named "What's That?" by my imaginative daughters, was obviously injured with a bleeding wing and missing feathers. But he made it to see many more days. From then on, their cage was hung about six feet above the ground safely away from neighborhood cats.

When Minds Don't Meet

Image by Getty Images via Daylife Last night a meeting of the minds took place among my agent, broker and me. After showing me page after page of houses considered to be a step up from mine, in a "more desirable" part of town, which recently sold for ridiculously low prices, they hit me with the "it's time to lower your asking price" line. I thought my asking price was low. The way I understood it, since my first meeting with the agent, the house was "priced to sell." But I was wrong and now it's going lower.

So I have to get ready anew for the onslaught of buyers who have been waiting for an even better bargain. But somehow my motivation to present the house in its best light seems to have gone the way of the asking price.

Back to School One Last Time

Image via Wikipedia In 2006 I began working part-time on a Master's degree in Instructional Technology at NYIT. Evenings, weekends, online - anytime a class was offered, I fit it in. This week I've registered for my final two classes! In a few months I'll be all done. Can't wait! Although it's been fantastic to have the opportunity to take these classes, knowing the end is in sight is such a relief.
Of the last two classes, one is online and the other is ftf on Tuesdays in the late afternoon at the Manhattan campus. Not a very convenient time for someone who works a nine to five day (sort of) but I'll have to deal with it. Luckily my work has a bit of flexibility to it so I know I'll be able to compensate for the times I have to leave early. The online class will work very nicely of course, no schedule conflicts there.

Homegrown Satisfaction

A Image via Wikipediahome vegetable garden is so much work but gives a great deal of satisfaction as you see your plants grow. Nothing beats preparing part of a meal from ingredients you've nurtured along yourself. My property is not very large, about seventy-five feet by one hundred. That's enough room, though, to have a few good spots to plant a garden. The house faces north and on the west side, between the driveway and the house, is a great sunny spot for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cucumbers, some of the usual summer vegetables we grow at home in the Northeast U.S.

The photo here is not my garden, but looks just the same about one month into the season. Wooden stakes ready to hold up plants which would become many times their original size and loaded with heavy produce. Areas boxed off, each holding a different type of plant, and hoses hanging nearby for daily watering.

We didn't have a garden every year. Sometimes there was just too much else going on to get into it. There were a few good seasons though. Usually when the girls were small they helped plant in the beginning and pick in the end. Not surprisingly the in between work was left for me. They especially liked the picking part. They loved being sent out with a colander and returning it to me full of tomatoes.

For a couple of years, when my oldest daughter was a teenager she planted a vegetable garden herself and took care of it too. The earlier years of being a helper made an impression on her. She understood the satisfaction bringing something homegrown to the dinner table.

This spring I put in a few tomato plants in a small patch of the backyard. So far, they are doing nicely. When I planted them in May, I wondered if I would be here in August and September to harvest them or if new owners would be the beneficiaries of my work. As it stands now, I'll be enjoying it all myself.

Room to Grow

Image via WikipediaIn 1978 selecting a house to buy was not the ordeal it is today. You decided on a price range, went to a realty, viewed photos in a book and were shown what you liked and/or could afford. The sellers' attitude at that time was take it or leave it. There was no pandering to buyers, no HGTV guidelines to follow, no video tours posted on the web. In 1978 although mortgage loan rates were slightly rising, no crisis existed in the industry.

We didn't look at a lot of properties, maybe five or six. The first house we saw seemed to be a perfect fit, but who makes such a monumental decision that quickly? So we continued our search only to arrive back at the start. We chose the first house. It had the most potential, lots of room to grow, and interesting features which gave it a certain uniqueness. Since houses in our price range were mostly one or two bedroom homes, we thought choosing a house we could alter and add on to later made sense.

My favorite feature was, and remains to be, the fireplace. It can be a place for the whole family to gather around and enjoy or for only one to sit by and relax. It's a great background for entertaining in the winter. Anyone coming in from the cold out of doors to a warm, inviting fireplace will feel welcomed just by its glow. Each autumn I looked forward to that first chilly evening when I would light it again!

Time for a Garage Sale

This weekend I'm having a garage sale. I hate having garage sales.

I've held two garage sales in my life. The first was twenty-seven years ago. We had lived in the house for a couple of years and had already accumulated too much "stuff." Having a garage sale seemed like a fun, easy way to spend a Saturday and rid the basement of some of its many unwanted items. But it was neither fun nor easy. Advertising, sorting, cleaning off, setting up, dragging everything up from the basement, selling next to nothing, putting it all back, and not to mention I was four months pregnant! What was I thinking?

Skip ahead thirteen years. My thirteen year old daughter (yes, the same child I carried during my first disastrous experience) asks if she can have a garage sale to help finance a trip she hopes to take. Just as the pain of bringing her into the world has faded, so has the memory of the garage sale undertaken while waiting for her to arrive. So, I said yes! Why not? It sounded like such an enterprising idea. Let the child work for a goal she hopes to achieve! Let the child work did I say? Advertising, sorting, cleaning off, setting up, dragging everything up from the basement, selling next to nothing, putting it all back, and not to mention I had two younger children and a very busy schedule! What was I thinking?

This weekend I'm having a garage sale. I hate having garage sales.

Showing In the Morning

My realtor called today to set an appointment for a showing tomorrow morning. Other than the initial open house, this will be the fifth time in four weeks my home has been shown. Not bad, I'm told, for this time of year. No interest, nor any offers, but still I'm told things are going well.

So, tonight I took a little extra care in straightening up the kitchen and checking the bathrooms. The iron and ironing board were stashed away along with any other offensive household objects. I'm told people shopping for a new house don't want to be reminded of what everyday living entails. In this house, if they buy it, rooms will remain clean and no chores will need to be done.

Then my teenage daughter came home from her summer job announcing she was cleaning up her bedroom. Good timing. Although we often differ on the definition of a clean room any improvement is welcome. I won't and don't clean her room for her, even lately. I figure, the more I contradict my spoken expectations with opposite actions, the less cooperation I will get. So far, my maternal psychology usually works and she does her share, or at least what she deems to be her share. And on the days her bed is not made and yesterday's clothes remain on the floor, I remind her I but don't make a fuss.

Because, no matter how much HGTV I watch, I just won't believe that an unmade bed or a sink full of dishes can be potential deal breakers.

In the Beginning

We bought the house in March of 1979. We were the third owners since it was built in 1922. It was a commitment we were eager to make, despite the daunting financial obligation of a $229 monthly mortgage payment. Property taxes and homeowners' insurance included!

The new home was located in the same South Shore of Long Island town in which we had grown up, so there was no shortage of family members to help with the moving, fixing up, and settling in. The house was small but charming with its high ceilings, detailed moldings and a lovely fireplace. My favorite part.

But even a charming fifty - seven year old house is not without its flaws. For one thing the kitchen was very dated. But we would take care of that in time.

For Sale: Thirty Years of My Life

Since signing on the dotted line a few weeks back, I have committed myself to an unfamiliar six month experience intended to result in the upheaval of life as, and where, I have known it for close to thirty years.

My home is for sale. My choice, my plan, and my terms. But it is still fraught with uncertainty and indecision. Not to mention frustration.

So many things to do. So many options to face. And...not the best of times to be doing it in.