Worn Out

So, I'm just gonna say it. Selling your house is not for wusses. Especially when you put it on the market the weekend of your son's 7th birthday party.

I at least had enough foresight to hold the party NOT at the house. We had two calls on Friday morning about showing the house on Saturday.

One buyer said the house just didn't fit their needs right now. The other put in a very low offer that we said no thank you to.

That Saturday night, MacTroll and I got all dressed up and went to the Eastern Illinois Foodbank Prom fundraiser. Some of my friends were there and it was fun to finally be old enough not to feel like being a wallflower. We all got out and danced and danced.

MacTroll saw that they were auctioning off trips in the silent auction. He got on his phone and found out which one of the Caribbean Islands worked easiest with his miles on American Airlines. And then he had me put in a bid. I upped the ante once and ended up with a 7-day, $2,200 package to St. James Resort on Antigua for $800. We'd been talking about going on a vacation at some point after all this house selling was figured out. And the places we were looking at were all $300-400 a night. So, this seemed like a pretty okay deal. It's an all inclusive resort, so it's not as remote as what we're used to. But we've never been to Antigua before. :-)

On Monday, we heard back from the buyers we had declined with a new offer. We weren't able to make it work out. And then they called me at work on Wednesday and asked to see the house again. They went by and said that they were still worried about a smell of gas in our HVAC room.

We have two water heaters and a furnace all that run on gas, so they all have pilot lights. I wondered if maybe the couple were first time buyers and just never had their own appliances before. But I called a plumber to be safe rather than sorry (because I couldn't smell anything abnormal, but this is gas...). He came and inspected all the mechanicals (even though they had just been inspected via our home inspection that we did before going on the market in January) and did a gas leak test on each of them and found nothing. It was $89 well spent to be sure.

Anyway, as it turns out, we got a call today that we have a new showing with a new couple today. I like that we're getting action. On the weekends, people have been driving by our house and taking the flyer out of the box. The first weekend we had over 200 hits online (and Joel and I swear they weren't just from us) at Realtor.com.

But this getting up and making the bed and wiping everything down every day is -- ugh! I feel like I'm living in a museum. We keep eating out, which isn't a good health or financial choice, because I don't want to have to be in a rush if someone calls and wants to see the house. Maybe the longer that we're up, the less anal retentive I'll feel about it. But right now, it feels like everything has to remain perfect.

X-man had a ball turning 7. He celebrated with six of his friends at the Savoy Recreation Center. He had an R2D2 cake from Cake Artist's Studio and gets to set to work writing his thank you notes today, since in less than 20 minutes, he starts spring break!

As for me, I've been having trouble sleeping. So much so that this morning as I'm finishing the house clean up and getting ready to go work out some stress at the Y, sleepiness hit me like a brick. Instead, I set my phone for 10:20 a.m., laid down on the couch with our dog and fell asleep. I woke up and took a shower and felt a bit more like myself. But honestly, I don't know if it's the gray cloudy day or me averaging 5-6 hours a night over the last two weeks, but I feel like if I could, I would have just hit snooze forever.