On the Market Baby!

Well, last Saturday was carpet day. Wow... now the house looks almost new. Amazing what 1400 square feet of carpeting will do. Despite my earlier complaints on the selling practices of Empire, I am very pleased with the outcome. It looks nice! Now, to see how long it lasts... being clean, that is. I'm scared to allow the kids or dog anywhere near it!

The house was officially listed yesterday morning! Within a few hours, we had a call! So, today, we have two appointments set up for showings. Mike is working all day, so I have to find some things to do with the kids. I figure that this morning would be a great time to drive out to the new lot and see if anything has happened. Probably not, since we haven't gotten word of anything new.

We do know that the contracted design of the house (options and all) were approved and were plotted ... or whatever they do to decide how the house will be positioned and planned on that lot. This week, we finished off the design center options as well. Geesh! Somehow we walked out of there owing another $28K on our next mortgage (ok, we knew that... but it's still shocking to see that final number... ouch!) The biggest hurdle was which granite to pick. I had no idea that granite just came in certain colors... universal names, too. Absolute Black, Tan Brown, Baltic Brown, Ubatuba (love the name, not the color), Gialla something-or-other. I figured that granite was different slab by slab... you picked an approximate color and that was that. Nope.... pretty standard colors. So, do we want light and mottled, or dark and mottled, or dark and relatively uniform... oh, the choices. We took up to the last minute to pick it out.... tan brown. It's a brown with little chips of red/tan in it. It's nice. We also picked "clove" birch cabinets and gunstock flooring. What does that mean... dark colors. Hope they aren't too dark!

Of course, we visited friends last night and saw their Baltic Brown granite and loved it... darn! I don't believe in astrology, but man, that LIBRA title fits me to a tee. I'm so wishy-washy.

So, we passed on the central vacuum and heated master bath floors and jacuzzi bathtub. I guess my feet will never get the treat of warm floors in the morning. Oh well. And, our current home has only one tub (kids' bath), so I haven't had a soaking bath in over 7 years. A Jacuzzi would just put my body into shock.

Well, better take one good look around before hauling the kids into the car for a little while.

Wish us luck... we'll see how long this puppy stays on the market now....

Dinosaurs, Luaus, and Puppets, oh my!

What do I do to myself? I can't sit here and claim that my life is horrible. It's nowhere near that. I'd definitely say that I am a very fortunate person, but lately I've taken on a little too much. Ugh. I'm trying to personally "stage" my current home while awaiting the carpeting installation. So, while trying to pack up things, patch walls and clean baseboards, I'm also replacing personal photos and such with neutral floral arrangements and Kirklands-style paintings and vases. This has been so fun, I must admit. I have a good excuse to go bargain shopping for just "stuff". I've hit Home Goods, Ross, Marshalls, Tuesday Morning, Target and the local Thrift store so far. May need to find more thrift stores... that was cool finding cheap goodies! I truly need to take a few classes in interior design so that I can do this for a living! LOL

However, along with what could be a full-time "sprucing up" job, I am still working at the preschool, raising four kids, helping with Brownies (planning one future meeting... but enough to add stress), and volunteering a few other projects. Next week, I plan my Wednesday classes (on Wednesdays, we plan for all 3 classes based around a theme... mine is Dinosaurs!) In April, I'm teaching/making puppets with Reagan's Brownie troop. In May, we'll have two weeks of preschool camp, and I'm also planning those... Luau and Around-the-World. In addition, I'm trying to organize a few end-of-year gifts that are becoming more extensive than I originally thought. Yikes! So, if you see me around, chances are I'll be carrying the Oriental Trading catalog, a pair of scissors, a few paper bags and lots of paper to cut. :-) Didn't quite expect this while studying in grad school (expected a grade-book and red-pen and quizzes in my go-everywhere bag)... but thus is the life of a preschool-teacher-mom. Oh, while I have your attention, I'll be in need of paper towel rolls and fleece or cotton knit gloves (adult) soon. Save 'em up!!

Tommy's 6th birthday falls on Mother's Day weekend this year (he was originally born on Mother's Day). However, I cannot depend on hosting a party here. We may not be here by then... or at the very least, I HOPE we'll be packing up! So, we are searching for other sites now. So... will it be bowling or movies or park or firehouse? Man, I wish the Lego store offered parties, that would rock Tommy's world!

Well, off to do more packing up! We laughed when we saw the size of our storage unit we rented... thought it was ridiculously huge. Yeah... I bet we'll fill it! How does one accumulate such stuff!!?

Wiring

Today we met with the low-voltage wiring company that will be installing audio/visual/security types of things in our new home. That was fun, although half the time I had no idea what was going on. LOL (What does that jack do? Huh? What do we need for satellite TV? So... what do YOU recommend?) Anyway, got the wiring options worked out. We've opted to put a box for a TV over the fireplace. It's a stone fireplace. What do you all think? I love the idea of making the fireplace/TV ONE single focal point and not needing a second focal point/cabinets/etc. Not sure I'm crazy about replacing lots of beautiful stone with a big ol' box and ruining the look of the stone with a TV. The wiring guy had the exact same thing, and he loved it. But, like he also pointed out... he's a guy! Mike wants the TV there. It's a done deal now... just curious to see what you all think. We can always cover the box with a painting or mirror until we get a TV, of course. Hopefully the TV thing works out and doesn't destroy the look of the stone.

I have one other question to pose to people. Since that TV is over the fireplace, we're having a multi-media port that is rigged to that jack behind walls installed for the DVD player, satellite box, etc. We just located it in the corner of the room... however, now we're waffling over the idea of putting it in a closet so that we can hide it all and take up less space by not needing a cabinet for all of that. Another plus... eight little hands couldn't reach all those neat boxes and DVDs! Has anyone else ever done that? Is it weird to hide it all in a closet?

We've always purchased a resale house before (or a spec home that had nearly no choices left for us to pick). And just as my co-teacher and I like to say to our students, "You get what you get and you don't have a fit" when you buy resale. I've never had to decide where to put an outlet or TV jacks or telephone jacks or whatever. At least maybe I'll have a better understanding of how houses are really put together and what's behind all that drywall now!

If anyone has built before, any advice for the real electrical stuff is welcome! Same with choosing kitchen stuff. We have an idea of what to do... but any advice is welcome!!! I don't want to find out later that we screwed up because we weren't thinking of "that". All the design center options get decided in two weeks.... then I believe our decision-making is pretty much done till it's time to move in ...and paint. LOL

Crazy Carpeting

Well, we need to replace carpeting in this house in order to sell. I wish we didn't, but 7 years of four kids and a dog on 9-year-old builder-grade carpeting wouldn't exactly "show well". Trust me!

So, we took lots of local advice and went to our local in-town small carpeting business. Loved the guys. Trusted them. Know they'd do a great job. When the quote came in, I was a little shocked... but honestly didn't know what to expect.

We decided to get a second quote to compare. So, to be easy on us, I called Mr. 1-800-588-blah blah blah that we hear so much on TV.

I HATE their practice. Absolutely hate it. The gentleman came in and measured, took our selection and gave us an estimate. Literally $1200 more than the first quote from the local company. So, Mike and I exchanged glances and said, "Well, thank you for coming in... we'll be back in touch once we've made up our mind"... fully expecting to go back to company #1.

The guy said, "What can I do to make this happen tonight?" Ugh... crap... he wasn't going to be easy to show the door. And I am not a bold "get out" sort-of-person. So Mike explained that we were looking to compare quotes and we already had a much lower price quoted. The man laughed. Yes. Laughed... as if we were suddenly playing games with HIM. (Don't most people get multiple quotes before plunking down thousands of dollars??) That ticked me off.

But... he then said if we could wait a few weeks, he could probably get us in on a builder's deal and that would be a few dozen bucks cheaper than the quote from the local company. We hesitated.

So, he "called his boss" to question him about the "manager's special". He hangs up and gives a brand new number. $2000 less than his first quote! No kidding. TWO GRAND less... not far from 50% off the original quote. Mike and I dropped our jaws. What a freaking game this was! We just wanted a number... not to play games. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE the whole idea of haggling for deals. China gift-buying did not suit me well... it totally stresses me out.

However, we are honestly in a situation where money rules. Regardless of reputation or quality of product (both were builder grade and seemed quite similar), our decision had to be ruled by $$$ only. So, since this new company did come in at $800 less than the local company, we went with them. It kills me to have done so. I hate it. Hopefully the service and installation go smoothly. Oh... and they could do it next day. (Proving the whole, get-you-in-with-the-next-builders-purchase thing was a scam.) We opted for March 20 to give us more decluttering time.

The local company didn't blame us for taking the other offer... and we did tell them that if we ever need new carpeting and plan to live in that house, we will absolutely be back.

Ugh. Just dealing with a company like this gives me the chills. I hate the whole haggling crap. They came in hoping to make an extra cool two thousand dollars off of a bunch of naive shoppers. That just ticks me off.

I'll keep you informed on how the installation goes.