We are in Madison!

The moving van pulled away from our Indy house on Thursday at about 4:30, leaving us with an empty house and waiting for a plumber – foibles of the movers which felt huge when it happened and now just a blip to the day. It was a very long day. The promised half day of getting our household stuff on the truck stretched into an entire day – 9 to 4:30 – now, tell me they get paid by the hour! We were their only pick up and transport for this trip to Madison, and I think they wanted to get a full day of work in.

The Indy house looked lovely stripped of all our things. I have spent five months de-cluttering and putting stuff in storage, and then packing to observe the house being washed of our presence. It has been. Not our spirits completely – there is paint on walls, finishing on cabinets, tile on walls and floors, all those plants, and our fish. We are still in the air. I could not take the fish – some were born in that pond and have no recollection of being cheap feeder fish awaiting death. They are wild and free – to the extend that a 6 x12 pond is the wild and free. I have no asked and the new owners have no said if they will keep the pond or fill it in, but I have to leave my wild gold fish to their fate.

Suffice it to say that we staggered (by car of course) to Marcia's house for a glass of wine, take out chinese and ice cream. Then we fell into our beds and slept heavy and deep, even the spicy dragon.

On Friday morning, David went to the Indiana State House to meet with his old cronies, and Julia and I stayed at Marcia’s house packing up the car and readying ourselves for the closing at 3. The plan was to leave from the closing around 4 and start driving to Madison if all went quickly and well. We were armed with a back up plan of spending another night if there were some other blips which by this time we have gotten very accustomed to on this move.

Ach! The closing. I am SO judgmental! I didn’t like our buyers. I wonder if we would have been able to sell the house to these people without an agent. There was a lot of hand holding that their agent was doing with them and lots of solicitous behavior from our agent. I thought they were foolish and arrogant -- they were young but youth has nothing to do with their stance, I expect they will be the same at 70. They had a first and second mortgage on their first house and took the same on our house. They used a balloon first mortgage that has gotten so many into trouble this year. I wonder if our house will be on the market again within a year or two. They may just be investing and fixing up for re-sale. I have to grudgingly admire their nerve in this market if that is their plan. If they are just stretching themselves very thin, I see them as only foolish.

Something that distressed me was that they asked nothing about the house – its history, who lived there before we did, what we did, what others did, questions about the garden. Is it my own longing for history and roots that extend further than I can know, or some form of ego? To be able to explain all of our work, or how the garden developed for me. I don’t really know. But it saddened that the young family moving into our beloved house would have no stories to pass on. Then again, most developers pass on nothing about the corn field that they turned into a neighborhood. Our neighbor, Katherine, said, after I explained some of our dealings and bargainings, that this new family does not sound like they will fit into an old house. Possibly. But it is done.

Something I discovered only after we were a day in Madison — I forgot to dig up St. Joseph. I intended to and intended to bring him to Madison, but maybe he has work to do in Indy. Still, I felt like there was a promise broken. Sorry, St. Joe.

We drove up to Madison after the closing. It was the easiest six hours I’ve spent in a car in a long time. Fueled by adrenalin, we practically flew up – not fast, but it was a pretty easy ride even through Chicago.

And here we are! Madison. We all slept hard and long. We had a very slow day on Saturday and I expect that we will have another one Sunday. I grieve a little bit about the dear friends left in Indy. I hope to be in touch. Email and cell phones are wonderful at that.

Home Sweet Home, we think

The sellers accepted our offer at a few minutes before 5 on Monday, and we had the house inspected today. . inside of the house is in good shape, but the outside has some problems -- the roof is shot, many of the window frames are rotted, and some of the brick needs repair and repointing. We are going to get estimates and see if there is some negotiation that we can do. I did not expect to do this kind of work on this house. I'd like to spend some money redoing the kitchen, not really on roof and windows.

On the Indy home front, we have the list of fixes the buyers want us to do, and oh, I am so unwilling. We listed some of the defects they wanted corrected in our disclosures. I expect we will come to come agreement.

And then there is the count down to moving. We leave Madison tomorrow and packing begins in earnst on Thursday.

patiently waiting . . . .

Okay, I am waiting patiently. I am pantiently waiting. Patiently, I am waiting. Waiting, I am patient. Waiting patiently I am. Am waiting, I patient. AAaaaaah!

Yeah, no patience at all. And it is raining, hard, and the kind of rain that is all day. Julia is playing with her blue clay, only asking me to make what she is not sure of. "Mommy make a yak." When I finish it, she improves it. Sometimes she doesn't wait for me to finish her assignment, she takes it from my hands and does a better job. She is so much more three dimentional than I am. It is nice of her to include me in her work. Do yaks have tails?

Oh, we were all so grumpy this weekend. It was not easy halting our search for that exciting home that we thought we could spend our lives in, and look for what would do and what was a good investment, AND stay within the school district that we like. This is the first house hunt in which our offers have been rejected and we've lost houses, so the getting back on the horse stuff is challenging. I am proud of all of us for making it through, but whew! I am glad it is over.

Over. Well, I hope so.

Also, waiting for the inspection on the Indy house. I am so hoping that our Buyers don't demand us to fix anything major or pull our price down.

Yes, stress has gotten to me.

Another offer

We wandered around Madison this weekend like homeless ducklings -- no, more like grumpy geese. Our hope rose with each possibility, and sunk again as we examined each house. So, no, we did not find the house of our dreams. Nothing that we saw has the promise and the interest of our Indy house. Nothing spoke to us.

But we needed to find a place to live and find a place we have. We've made an offer on a lovely little brick that has many features we like. The fireplace is of the type that we had on Kenwood in Indy. The house has a very nice flow and we think that even if the market tumbles further, this house will hold its value.



Livingroom: good wood work and bright room. Closets in the foyer and good wood doors.
Kitchen: Well, we like old but . . . The room is useable but will need updating. The tile is kind of cool but it is not a good use of the space. I have to live in it a little bit before we make changes -- maybe some of the flavor ???
The bathroom is a little move crumbly than can be seen in this picture, but the basket weave floor and black and white tile are terrific. This sink is set in a wooden cabinent that I'd like to change. Something all white on a pedestal. Some more interesting painting on the walls and some B&W drawings.

We made the offer tonight and gave them until tomorrow at 5 to respond. We asked for a closing on June 27.

Now, we wait.

Unfortunately, the hunt begins

Okay, well time to change gears on the whining channel -- out the whines about cleaning and waiting for buyers, in the whines about finding a house.

But really . . .

We made an offer ( or David made the offer) on Friday/Saturday on the house that he liked in Madision. It was a project house but neighborhood was good, house had potential, yada, yada, yada, perfect. The seller in Germany who had trouble opening her email took the other offer. this morning (it was almost evening in Germany) We suspect that the other buyer has a loose timetable and gave her all the time she needed. We did need to get in there.

So we are bummed out today.

Nothing else new has come on the Madison market that is within our favorite neighborhoods and sort of within our price range. IT has been more than a week. I should work out of this slump before I drive up at the end of the week.

We took the day very slow and let Julia play with her clay as long as she wanted. She is still making dinosaurs, with a couple of sea creatures thrown in. The newest favorite is walruses -- we have three giants at the zoo. She makes nests and eggs for the dinos, but today she was making chairs and couches. Right now, she is making a doctor for the baby elephant who is on a couch in the doctor's office and playing with a duck. Sometimes I wonder if she will ever really click in school, but I am sure about about her imagination.

We went to an asian restaurant for lunch and Julia inhalled my seaweed salad, her udon noodle soup, and David's rice. She does love when I feed her with chopsticks. I forget about that at home. Green tea too, even though she doesn't like it when I make it at home.

Cheshire comes home tonight. We've already talked to her by phone from the Boston airport. We pick her up at 8:30. I really can't wait.

We have sold our dear Indy home. And it will not be easy to leave this house and our friends here, but leave we must to be all together again.

We are probably leaving Indy on June 22. It will be the middle of this week before we work it all out with movers, Buyers and Sellers, but our Buyers should sign our last (and 7th) counteroffer today, our Seller (in Germany) should get our offer today, and our movers will be hearing from me on Tuesday to schedule the pickup, storage, and delivery. We may be in David's apartment for about a month but it is big enough and we will make it a little bit more comfortable with some chairs and a rug or so. Oh, and toys, toys, toys.

I will be up in Madison at the very end of this next week. with Julia and our Cheshire. If we get Commonwealth, I hope to see it. If not, we've got to buy a house next weekend!

By the looks of things, Julia and I will be up in Madison full time on June 23.

Housekeeping notes

You can dust every day.

If you take out the vacuum, the floor will be dirty.

Although it is pretty weird welcoming potential buyers to your house and showing them around (or following them around trying to be entertaining. Oh, what a mistake!) when you are doing a FSBO, it is weirder still to be told to vacate you perfectly clean house at a time certain and not even know who is looking at your house.

Contrary to any rational thought, a low bid is a reflection of my housekeeping. (Okay, just a little bit.)

A low bid by a Buyer you’ve never seen plants seeds of contempt, ingratitude, and down right unfairness. And some negative feelings develope. Okay, lots of negative feelings!

The owners of houses we are looking at give us credit for lots of imagination – they have very cluttered homes (who needs three couches in a livingroom?), they don’t clean up the dishes, the sign on their door says not to let the dog out (and who is on the other side of the front door ready to bolt? 65 pounds of golden fur). We, on the other hand, think our potential buyers are stupid. We clean, straighten, fix, declutter, hide books and family pictures, and generally try to make our humble abode into some sort of generic paradise. Who is doing this right?

Should I take down the travel pictures?

Will anyone think I really collect cookie jars and kitchie tea pots?

More housekeeping

The 30ish couple looked at the house 3 times. The last time, they brought her parents flown in from Detroit and a contractor. I entertained the mother while the others went through the house and asked the contractor what it would cost if they knocked out the back of the house, put in a new kitchen and a big family room, added to the second floor, put in a master bath, an extended second bedroom for a master bedroom, made the third bathroom larger, and redid the existing bathroom.

This would have added another third to the floor space in the house, and they were shocked to learn that such renovation would cost some where between 135,000 and 175,000. Sounded reasonable for all that work.

Anyway, after talking and looking and taking up my time (sorry, I am a little bitter), they decided on the "other" house on our old street in Butler-Tarkington.

Oh well.

Then Monday evening, two potential buyers looked at the house. The feedback was that neither was really interested, but an offer came in on Tuesday. It was really low -- 35000 under our offer price. We countered to see if they are in any way serious. I tried not to be insulted. I tried not to be depressed, but an offer the second day after listing, however low, is not bad.

St. Joseph?

Housekeeping

May 20, 2007

I've been trying not to write much about housekeeping and selling the house, but I give up right now. I wrote this on Sunday. And then, more to follow.

I showed the house again today. A young 30ish couple coming from Denver and their realtor. He is coming to a research position; she is either pregnant or they are trying. How do I know about her – just a guess, just a guess. They knew about working on houses and gardens and seemed to take their time looking. They are deciding tomorrow and may stop by again. I could hope that they do, but hoping right now is silly. They seem to me the type of people who have some vision, and I guess that is what we have been buying this house and living here. There is a bit more vision needed to complete the house. I do want to tell people looking that this is a good house, filled with really good feelings, good Chi tumbling about not too quick or too slow. But how can you say that to a looker. They have to know these things for themselves.

I have been keeping house. House keeping. Keeping house. The effort of keeping the house ready to show at less than an hour’s notice is a challenge. It generally means vacuuming at least three times a week. Rooms with tile need that to be perfectly clean. Stray dust, dog hair, a few stray feathers, crumbs that the spicy dragon drops – really hardly worth getting the vacuum out under usual conditions, not continually, not on some sort of schedule. I can appreciate those who keep house so well. I don’t remember when my mother or grandmother cleaned when I was too young to have cleaning chore myself, but I am sure that they spent their days doing it. Those houses were always clean – a baby could crawl in white overhalls, food could be picked up off the floor.

I enjoy the knowing of the house as I do right now. We have had no choice but know this house, considering all the work the house has needed, and this is just another way to know walls and ceilings and places where the wood floor is not perfect and doors that don’t close completely, and nooks that attract dust. I have theories of dust and how it gets to where it is going. Great physics experiments would have to be performed to determine whether dust is a sentient species that moved faster than light.

Today was a straightening and vacuuming day to get the house ready for lookers. I didn’t clean the inside of the microwave and the upstairs bathroom that needs doing. Not that they are really dirty, not really, really dirty, just not as clean as they might be, the faucets don’t shine, the tile is soap dulled.

Mother's Day

Looking at houses, carrying Julia piggy-back, catching a nap, and a beer and salad -- a great mother's day! David and I agree that we have re-set our expectations. Madison is a great town and we are going to be happy with a smaller house and one that may need as much work as our Washington Blvd house and one that may be at the top of our price range. This was a hard pill to swallow a few weeks ago, but I am definitely more open to the possibilities this time round. We saw three today -- one was a second visit for me and probably the one that needs the least work, a second house was a small cape in a school district I am checking out tomorrow, and the third in a great location with good "bones" but in need of LOTS of cosmetic work and a new bathroom. The two houses needing work are empty and flexible in terms of closing, and the owners of the bigger house are moving down the block and rather flexible.

I have two appointments to show our Indy house this week so I am optimistic there as well. And we sign with a realtor on Friday if those don't work out. Somehow, we are going to be in Madison asap, I am hoping for a June moving.







We are watching the Lilo and Stitch movies with Julia. She likes Stitch more than Lilo. So my spicy dragon wants to ask like a little blue monster. What is a mother to do?

Mondy's entry posted late

<> It is Monday and we made it through the weekend. It feels like a great gift of a new time. No, the house is not sold yet, but there is interest by at least one person who has been here twice and people are still stopping and taking flyers from our "info-tube." This is not like ‘96 with a sale of our Butler-Tarkington house is one day with hords of people through the house during the open house. We had about 10 groups (some singles, one young man with his parents, young couples, etc.) come and look at the house. Only two were neighbors and one of those brought a friend back which was very sweet of her.

By five when we closed up shop, I was exhausted by . . . being so nice and helpful for three hours??? LOL.

The woman, Cheryl, who returned on Monday came with a realtor (she had asked me about this prior to her coming) and they went over things with a fine tooth comb. Lots of relevant good questions and also lots of oohs and ahs. Cheryl’s timetable is perfect. She has sold her house and is in an month-to-month apartment right now. She is down to 2 houses that she likes and ours is one.

Oh, St. Joseph make it happen.

So I can breathe out after weeks of cleaning, fixing and worrying. I have been so tense that if I let me shoulders really drop my ears will get frost bite. No, it is beautiful spring right now and the outside really looks good. I am so grateful that I am seeing the garden for the last time in the spring, but it makes it harder to leave. Perennials that I've nursed along for years now look good! And there actually looks like there is some plan to my plantings. Colors are meshing together and giving each other room to shine. I feel both very attached to every plant and blade of grass and ready to separate from it. I have the idea that it is time to leave this work-intensive private garden and be more active in a community. I am not sure what that means.

Julia had a hard week last week and so I had a hard week. Think she is picking up on the tension in the house? If she isn't, she has rhino hide! Our 10 year old friend, Matthew, was with us for part of last week and at one point he told me that my job as Julia's mother was really hard and he felt sorry for me. Last week, he was right on. (I wondered what Julia was thinking, with the tension in the house, the constant cleaning, Daddy gone, and Matthew staying with us -- how confusing is all of that?)

Her behavior in school is better if you consider compliance better than fighting the system, but I don’t think she is learning much right now. There are less than three weeks of school and I have been so busy and pre-occupied that I haven't done much about it, but I plan to try home schooling this summer to the extent that I can. She is learning the names of some of her favorite dinosaurs – big favorites are duckbills right now, Maisaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Chingtaosaurus – the last was found in China which Julia seems to be very proud of. She is just starting to show some connection to China these days, very slight interest, but some. I figure I will use dinos as a jumping off place to work on numbers (she is counting! -- really counting, not just reciting numbers), colors, and her letters.

I have my CLE (continuing education for law) to catch up on and I have to do it before leaving for Wisconsin and I can do a bit of garden work just to keep it up even if the house is sold. But I want to have some fun this summer too -- traveling to see Ches who will be in Bolivia and visiting the east coast, getting Julia and a new house ready for living longterm, and swimming. Julia remembers the Florida beach very well and talks about it all the time. I hope the Wisconsin lakes satisfy her.

David is still loving Madison -- so great!!! Yes, we are very grateful that we are moving to this very cool town, but housing is more expensive than Indy and we are looking at smaller homes and smaller lots. I am over any regret about this and hope it is okay for Julia and the dog.
I hope that we can drive up and be with David for the weekend coming up. I hate seeing him do the 5 hour trip every week. And then last week, he took a wrong turn and put an extra hour on his trip. As I said before, last week was a tough week.