Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Going back to work so I can REST!

Well it is my second day back in the office after my week long absence last week. I took another one of my vacation weeks in order to work on the house to do the last minute preparations to get it "on the market". HOLY COW! I worked harder, sweated more, definitely had more STRESS during that week that I usually have at work. It seemed there was always an impending deadline that had to be met. First it was Monday, July 19th and we had to have the house ready for the professional Stager to come in and "stage" our house for showing. That's real estate "speak" for putting all your furniture the way she wants it placed, putting her pictures on the walls, adding her professional touch here and a little there. Accent pillow here, a shower curtain there, a bowl of fruit over there, etc., etc. Well she arrived about 10:30am and we showed her around the house so she could see all the changes we'd made since she'd last been there in about early April. She was very pleased with our work. Then she promptly kicked us out of our own house (kidding of course) so she could work her 'magic'. We had to be gone for 4.5 hours. So we went and had lunch, then stopped by two different apartment complexes and looked at two bedroom apartments. They didn't have any 3 bedrooms available. Then we just hung out awhile. When we got back - WOW, she had really done quite a bit of work. It is absolutely amazing what little "color" can do for a place!

Thursday of last week, our next deadline was for the photographer to come by and take pics of our home both outside and inside. When he called to confirm I asked him to make it as late as he could because we were still doing last minute things in the house. I started mowing the yards that morning about 7 or 7:30am and didn't stop until 11am! I was trimming bushes, moving logs, raking parts, washing porches, etc. etc. Well, he came and took the pics and left. I kept working until I melted into bed about 10pm. Honestly, I don't' think I could have put another foot in front of the other. I was absolutely and utterly exhausted.

Oh yeah, we had guests from Des Moines, IA come and stay with us on Friday. We pretty much had the guest room ready for them. We took them to Cinzetti's Italian Restaurant where they have a buffet of the most INCREDIBLE food you can imagine! and the desserts! OH MY GOODNESS! I just about hurt myself - sampling this, eating that, had a little of this - OH, did you get some of that stuff?

Saturday morning we have a strategy session with our guests from Des Moines and Judi Jones. Sam and Jessica Luwandaga are our emissaries to Uganda, Africa. We have been talking for a while now of taking a trip to Africa to meet the children and families out non-profit organization has been helping out just over the last year.

It is official - we ARE going to Africa! November 2011 is the date we've all agreed to calendar the trip. We've so many things to put together in preparation for the trip. I'll be blogging more about that in the near future!

Well, this morning I get a call from the "home scheduling service" asking if it would be okay for one of their agents to show our home from 11:30am to 12:30pm. I said "of course". So, I took an early lunch about 10:15am and made a quick dash home because I thought I had left my tool box out in the floor of the office; and I knew I still hadn't re-installed the air register vents back into the walls because I was painting them just last night. I get home and sure enough, I had left the tool box out so I put it away; scrambled to get the air register vents back into the wall..."Oh no, where are the screws?" No screws! so I started grabbing little pieces of paper and folding them up the "wedge" them in between the wall and the vent! "Necessity is the mother of invention". I got that done, ran downstairs into the basement and began arranging what few things remain down there then - ran back upstairs and quickly squirted the front entry storm door with window cleaner, grabbed the Fabreeze air freshener and ran upstairs and began misting everything in sight - came down into the living room and into the dining room. I've covered in sweat at this point (and I'm in my office clothes)....ooops....out of time - put the air freshener away and dash out the door! Get into my truck and turn the A/C over to "artic" and blaze a trail back to the office. (I think I met myself coming while I was going back to the office, I'm not sure - everything is a blur).

So I get a call about 4:20 this afternoon asking if it would be okay if an agent showed our house from 5 to 6pm this evening! I said "sure it would!" So...I immediately called Tamala and told her not to go home just yet (they don't want home owners on site when prospective buyers are looking at your property). So we've been kind of, sort of, kicked out a second time all within a week! That's okay, it WILL pay off in the end - I know it will.

I've got a wood pile out back that I have to get completely burned before Sunday because they're going to have an open house from 1pm to 4pm that afternoon. Guess what? We'll be kicked out again during that whole time as well.

Well....that's about it. As soon as we can get back into the house this evening I'll begin "securing" the air registers to the wall, burning more wood out back, more painting touch-ups to be done.

Gotta run-
Blessings!

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