Showing posts with label house selling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house selling. Show all posts
August 29, 2015
August 9, 2015
You love your Grandma? You love Asian art? You love waffles?
I sent an email with that subject line to oldest and youngest nephews, who were on their way to being the new owners of antique lacquer panels with semi-precious stone inlay. Their payment? Some labor, as well as removal of frozen items from the domicile.
First the labor. Their task, should they love the grandma and waffles, was to remove the solid oak desk from the office. I have lived in terror of this moment from the time the desk entered the office, because my pop had said that it could only leave in halves. Youngest neph brought his Sawzall.
But the local garbage folks' "bulky item pickup" rules consider two halves of a once whole desk to be *two* bulky items, so mrguy vetoed that plan. And given that mrguy's other name is pack-man, he and two nephs were able to get the desk into the patio without a hitch.
Then came Operation Empty The Office. Out went some cool weird furniture and some future landfill.
Then came Operation Empty Freezer. Despite the removal of 28 frozen bananas (and the 8 or so my brother-in-law also found), the chest freezer was really full. Cream puffs, frozen waffles, meat, milk, butter, lots of plums from the tree (so happy). And yes, 5 more frozen bananas. I knew someone would forget a cooler, and a styrofoam cooler appeared on the free table at work this week. Kismet. I filled it with meat.
The vegetarian nephew got the cream puffs. The non-vegetarian got all of the meat and the ancestral bait (two kinds). The estranged nephew gets bupkis (no art, no bait, no love) and his brother gets the admonition that none of what he's taking can go to his brother. Sadly the vegetarian is undeserving of having to pass on this message, but that's how it is.
While I was cleaning out the fridge, Coco came to visit. I'm sure that I've said this before but I'm not sure I could have gotten through this final stretch at mom's house without the affection of sweet Cocodee, who appears in the middle of the house at the most random times. If you're her parents, doing a Google search on your cat's name, I apologize for monopolizing her time during this spring and summer.
The boys got their art and sent another neph, his wife and our grand-nephews, who arrived a few hours later. That neph walked away with a chest of drawers, some Indian wool rugs, the pop's old fishing kit with real tin cups and stuff, and on a later date mrguy will deliver the jade panels that didn't fit in the truck.
I emptied the toy drawer of its mix of late 60's (mine) and early 80's (the nephs') toys.
And that was almost the end of it. The garage is filled with garbage bags, the garage cabinets are empty, most of the furniture is out of the house, and our entire mr and mrs guy garage is filled with the things from the house that the greater guy family cares about.
Wow.
First the labor. Their task, should they love the grandma and waffles, was to remove the solid oak desk from the office. I have lived in terror of this moment from the time the desk entered the office, because my pop had said that it could only leave in halves. Youngest neph brought his Sawzall.
But the local garbage folks' "bulky item pickup" rules consider two halves of a once whole desk to be *two* bulky items, so mrguy vetoed that plan. And given that mrguy's other name is pack-man, he and two nephs were able to get the desk into the patio without a hitch.
Then came Operation Empty The Office. Out went some cool weird furniture and some future landfill.
Then came Operation Empty Freezer. Despite the removal of 28 frozen bananas (and the 8 or so my brother-in-law also found), the chest freezer was really full. Cream puffs, frozen waffles, meat, milk, butter, lots of plums from the tree (so happy). And yes, 5 more frozen bananas. I knew someone would forget a cooler, and a styrofoam cooler appeared on the free table at work this week. Kismet. I filled it with meat.
The vegetarian nephew got the cream puffs. The non-vegetarian got all of the meat and the ancestral bait (two kinds). The estranged nephew gets bupkis (no art, no bait, no love) and his brother gets the admonition that none of what he's taking can go to his brother. Sadly the vegetarian is undeserving of having to pass on this message, but that's how it is.
While I was cleaning out the fridge, Coco came to visit. I'm sure that I've said this before but I'm not sure I could have gotten through this final stretch at mom's house without the affection of sweet Cocodee, who appears in the middle of the house at the most random times. If you're her parents, doing a Google search on your cat's name, I apologize for monopolizing her time during this spring and summer.
The boys got their art and sent another neph, his wife and our grand-nephews, who arrived a few hours later. That neph walked away with a chest of drawers, some Indian wool rugs, the pop's old fishing kit with real tin cups and stuff, and on a later date mrguy will deliver the jade panels that didn't fit in the truck.
I emptied the toy drawer of its mix of late 60's (mine) and early 80's (the nephs') toys.
And that was almost the end of it. The garage is filled with garbage bags, the garage cabinets are empty, most of the furniture is out of the house, and our entire mr and mrs guy garage is filled with the things from the house that the greater guy family cares about.
Wow.
July 28, 2015
For The Love of Money
I woke up to the sound of For The Love of Money in my head, again on the sofa at the mama's house.
I came here yesterday to meet with some auctioneers, the Asian lady and the Decorative man. Decorative told me that the museum full of European antiques would probably only net $10k. The Asian would net slightly more, but we have an emotional attachment to them. I find it all fairly sad, since my mom as been trapped in her home after inheriting these things some 40 years ago.
Since we'd net so little, do we want to sell any of it? If we don't, I have to store or get rid of it in a week and a half, when we have to turn over an empty house to the realtor.
Yesterday we had the following people at the house:
9:00 -- the neighbor who is painting. A great guy, bit of a nut, loves to tell stories.
9:45 -- realtor and stager
11:00 -- Decorative Guy and Asian Lady from the auction house
2:00 -- Our Bro, eager to work
4:30 -- Bigsis and the mama, who have news from the doctor. Mom wants to paw through every drawer in the house (for the millionth time) and take more stuff to her apartment. She told middlesis that she really wants to move to a different apartment and that she's unhappy. She told bigsis that she likes her apartment.
4:30 -- middlesis' former best friend, who just happened to drive down our street for the first time in 25 years.
Week and a half to get out of the house.
Bro is down to help. He's anxious about how to be helpful, and wants to get started.
Mom and bigsis didn't leave for hours. Bro and I finished up three rooms.
I have jury duty today.
I will only live this week once.
I came here yesterday to meet with some auctioneers, the Asian lady and the Decorative man. Decorative told me that the museum full of European antiques would probably only net $10k. The Asian would net slightly more, but we have an emotional attachment to them. I find it all fairly sad, since my mom as been trapped in her home after inheriting these things some 40 years ago.
Since we'd net so little, do we want to sell any of it? If we don't, I have to store or get rid of it in a week and a half, when we have to turn over an empty house to the realtor.
Yesterday we had the following people at the house:
9:00 -- the neighbor who is painting. A great guy, bit of a nut, loves to tell stories.
9:45 -- realtor and stager
11:00 -- Decorative Guy and Asian Lady from the auction house
2:00 -- Our Bro, eager to work
4:30 -- Bigsis and the mama, who have news from the doctor. Mom wants to paw through every drawer in the house (for the millionth time) and take more stuff to her apartment. She told middlesis that she really wants to move to a different apartment and that she's unhappy. She told bigsis that she likes her apartment.
4:30 -- middlesis' former best friend, who just happened to drive down our street for the first time in 25 years.
Week and a half to get out of the house.
Bro is down to help. He's anxious about how to be helpful, and wants to get started.
Mom and bigsis didn't leave for hours. Bro and I finished up three rooms.
I have jury duty today.
I will only live this week once.
March 24, 2014
Bye, House
As of Friday, we're done.
We signed the final papers on Thursday, and by 1pm on Friday the new owners had started moving in.
In an interesting twist, one of the buyers is also a recording engineer. Mrguy left them a bottle of champagne and a CD that was partially recorded there.
We wish them well. And on to a new chapter where we live in one house only.
Whew.
March 7, 2014
Madrid, Ho!
The reveal was revealing. There were 16 offers. One (albeit low) was all-cash.
It's customary these days for a buyer to write a letter to the seller. We did this when buying both of our houses. One couple had a 15-year-old cat, loved New Zealand and wanted to make this their home. Both they and another buyer volunteered that they'd continue our position in the neighborhood disaster preparedness group. You want to choose them all. In the end we took the high offer -- a father and son buying the house together for the son and his girlfriend to live in. Like mrguy, he's a recording engineer.
We'll see how it goes. Could fall apart, but the early stages have been promising and the sums we're talking about are not small, so the high offer really was higher.
In the meantime, our band has been asked to play at the Aloha Festival. The kumu hula we're working with has decided upon the theme of "Colors of Hawaii" for their set. This means playing a lot of hapa haole songs (Blue Hawaii, Pretty Red Hibiscus). I draw the line at "Little Brown Gal." Your "Colors of Hawaii" are not allowed to refer to the colors of people.
Also happening this week is a nasty cold that's had me laid up for days. After trying several cold preparations without any relief, I finally approached the pharmacist at CVS and said "Here are my symptoms. What active ingredient should I look for?" He suggests Claritin, but I find a little Mucinex D and an Alka Seltzer plus nightcap seem to work, as well. This morning I awoke feeling a little better, which is great because I get on a plane in ten hours and I don't want to have that icepick in the ear sensation that happens when your cold goes into your eustachian tubes.
I haven't even packed, but I do this trip regularly enough that I can get it together fairly quickly. Then tomorrow I'll be in Madrid. The Prado, the flea market, and forklift work at the museum.
It's customary these days for a buyer to write a letter to the seller. We did this when buying both of our houses. One couple had a 15-year-old cat, loved New Zealand and wanted to make this their home. Both they and another buyer volunteered that they'd continue our position in the neighborhood disaster preparedness group. You want to choose them all. In the end we took the high offer -- a father and son buying the house together for the son and his girlfriend to live in. Like mrguy, he's a recording engineer.
We'll see how it goes. Could fall apart, but the early stages have been promising and the sums we're talking about are not small, so the high offer really was higher.
In the meantime, our band has been asked to play at the Aloha Festival. The kumu hula we're working with has decided upon the theme of "Colors of Hawaii" for their set. This means playing a lot of hapa haole songs (Blue Hawaii, Pretty Red Hibiscus). I draw the line at "Little Brown Gal." Your "Colors of Hawaii" are not allowed to refer to the colors of people.
Also happening this week is a nasty cold that's had me laid up for days. After trying several cold preparations without any relief, I finally approached the pharmacist at CVS and said "Here are my symptoms. What active ingredient should I look for?" He suggests Claritin, but I find a little Mucinex D and an Alka Seltzer plus nightcap seem to work, as well. This morning I awoke feeling a little better, which is great because I get on a plane in ten hours and I don't want to have that icepick in the ear sensation that happens when your cold goes into your eustachian tubes.
I haven't even packed, but I do this trip regularly enough that I can get it together fairly quickly. Then tomorrow I'll be in Madrid. The Prado, the flea market, and forklift work at the museum.
February 26, 2014
The Reveal
The Big Brown Box has been warmed, and today's the day when we receive offers from potential buyers of our old place (formerly "The New Place"). As of last night there were going to be 12 offers.
It's a little intimidating. There are some people who badly want to buy the house, and they want to present their offer to us over the phone. They did want to present to us in person. I will feel badly for them if they are not our top offer.
I am so grateful for the timing, and the amazing work of our real estate agent, MD Jr. Mrguy has put a tremendous amount of work into all of the documentation and finances, not to mention the garden, project managing a bunch of the contractors over the years, cleaning out our garage, and the host of many things he's personally done that have made this move and sale possible.
It would be really nice if we recouped what we put into the place. It would be extra nice if we recouped the down payment we made on the Big Brown Box, since our bank account is about to sue those dollars for alienation of affection ;)
Mostly, today finds me grateful for many things and many people. And excited by the thought of being finished with the buying and selling of houses for a while. And that ten bucks I'm going to win when we learn the final sale price. Mrguy doubled down on our original $5 bet over what the listing price would be.
Fingers crossed.
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