Sold!

June 26, 2008 | Filed Under auto-categorized | 13 Comments

We like to move it move it

So! Since last I had a second to pop in here, we’ve had nine buyers come through, including five at a good Open House on Sunday. We have another showing in an hour and a half (ack!) and then we’re meeting with the agents at 2 p.m. to discuss some offers. Offers! Two! That makes plural!

The suspense is killing me.

June 25, 2008 | Filed Under house | 8 Comments

OMG, first showing

So we are officially on the market. I can’t believe we’re doing this. And somebody is actually going to come see the house! They want to see my house! In 33 minutes! Cormac is napping and it’s almost dinnertime so I guess we’ll be hanging out at Applebee’s, crossing fingers. The house is all cleaned up, although there’s laundry running, and I hope that finishes up soon because a first-floor laundry room, while AWESOME, is also loud.

God, I bet I’m forgetting something. What do I need to be doing right now? Hiding the rest of the dirty laundry, that’s what. OMG. This is too weird.

June 21, 2008 | Filed Under house | 4 Comments

Library haul this week

The Wire, Season 4, three discs ($7.50)
The Ivorybill Hunters
The Black Swan
Entertainment Weekly
Domino
Real Simple
Alton Brown, I’m Just Here For More Food
The Whimsical Bakehouse
The Year of Eating Dangerously
and a board book about Curious George

June 20, 2008 | Filed Under minutiae | 4 Comments

Thoughts while watching the fourth season of The Wire

• Jimmy McNulty: I can’t figure out what makes him so attractive.
• Utz Jalapeno potato chips smell weirdly like Chinese food.
• Hey, I’ve been there!
• And there!
• But never there. Oooh, scary.
• I feel much safer, as a Baltimore resident, post-Wire than I did before.
• Second season had my favorite version of the theme song.
• I still get Herc and Carver mixed up.
• And I still miss Frank.
• What took me so long to get on the Wire train? And why is David Simon so good?

June 19, 2008 | Filed Under baltimore | 8 Comments

Ready to do this thing nonetheless

Well, the house goes on the market in like two hours. As I explained to Owen, that means our friendly real estate agents are going to come over, take a bunch of pictures, and start letting strangers poke through our medicine cabinet. Like a party, right. Only without warning and without any Parrot Bay (and hopefully without any nude picture-messaging).

Our storage unit is 9/10 full. I have every intention of going over there and taking a photo, but as I mentioned, the damn place has been closed for days for “floor refinishing,” which I suspect is code for either “drug bust” or “bug dust”.

The house gets cleaned every night after the tots go to bed, and every morning by 8:30 a.m. it looks like a team of wild donkeys has stormed through.

I can’t believe we’re selling this place. I have finally come to halfway enjoy it, what with all the work we’ve put in. Sometimes I think about when we bought it; it was 2004, and the Baltimore housing bubble was just about hitting its peak. People were throwing thousands of dollars over asking price at anyone with a For-Sale sign. Houses were getting contracts within minutes of listing. Our own sellers nonchalantly tossed a list of conditions at us when we made an offer — they wanted to sell it as is, purple bathroom and all, and they wanted to move fast. And of course we had no option but to accept. The only reason we got any sort of deal is because they’d already bought a bigger house across town and were counting on their 100k profit for a down payment. Bastards.

Sometimes I think Iain and I were born at just the wrong time. By the time we graduated college, the dot com bubble had burst and the economy was entering a recession. Then, when we got pregnant and were ready to buy a house, real estate was soaring. Now that we are ready to sell, prices are plummeting and sellers are laughed at left and right. Sigh. If only we had been born, say, two years earlier, how things could have been different.

Anyway. Things are not so bad now; we are still at the beginning of the race, when the course looks short and flat and breezy. Anything could happen. Theoretically, we could get an offer Friday and be ready to go. What? It could happen. You never know.

Meantime, I think I’ll just start crate-training the children and save myself a headache or two. And if you’re looking to buy in the County, do drop me a line.

More on our future living plans slightly later in the summer, ja?

June 19, 2008 | Filed Under auto-categorized | 7 Comments

two macs

Bondi iMac running 8.5, 1-year-old Cormac running 24/7.

June 18, 2008 | Filed Under auto-categorized | 3 Comments

Mixin’ it up ‘round here

So hey guess what? My super awesome husband scored a new job. Can I get a woot?

Just to mix things up a bit — life with two little kids just gets so dang calm and peaceful sometimes! — we have decided also to sell our house. Why not? The housing market is softer than room-temperature butter, so this is surely a good idea. It’s a market in which buyers could waltz up and slap us each in the face before commencing the tour and we’d thank them heartily for the honor. So, yes. We are brilliant. But also motivated! And also knee-deep in staging hell! (Seriously. Have you seen my furniture?)

So right now we have boxes everywhere and splatters of beige paint in our hair. We rented a storage unit and it’s already three-quarters full. (And then the managers of the storage unit place told us that the entire building would be inaccessible from the time of: hmm, yesterday until the time of: oh, one and a half weeks from now. Super helpful! Jagoffs.)

Owen is doing super well through this transition. Seriously, he’s blowing my mind. He is excited about buying a new house, and all of a sudden he’s night-trained as well. I know! Weird. Woke himself up at 3 a.m. to pee one night last week and has been going strong ever since. Color me surprised, with a light patina of very pleased.

So that’s the haps. Boxes boxes boxes, paint paint paint, shuffle shuffle, nap. It’s thrilling, every bit as thrilling and meditative as you know it obviously isn’t. But that’s all right, we still know how to relax.

June 15, 2008 | Filed Under daily grind, house | 9 Comments

Mackie and the cake

This is what happens when you wake a baby up from a perfectly serviceable nap to have his birthday cake.

June 15, 2008 | Filed Under baby | 4 Comments

From last summer to this summer

Was talking with a few of my friends about the changes a year makes. As it’s been said: the days are long, but the years are short. Sometimes I can’t believe how much they grow.