A roller coaster ride...

I came home from work on Friday to an envelope from the IRS. That's never good. I'm thinking to myself, "I really don't need this now!" and expected to open it up and find that I owed about a million dollars to the IRS. I've always done my own taxes and have never had a problem...until now. So let's see what horrendous error I made.

$18.12. It probably cost them five times that much doing the math and the paperwork and mailing it to me. So should I make partial payments? Should I take out a loan? Personally, I didn't even care what kind of mistake I made. The relief of seeing that it was only $18.12 made up for the loss of about a year's worth of life when I saw that envelope.

On to the real estate saga...

I got an e-mail from my real estate agent tonight that a second contract has been put in on the house. This is from the couple that spent an hour and 15 minutes at the place last weekend. From what my agent says, I think they seriously want the place...faults and all. So that makes me feel a lot better if the first deal goes south. (I don't know how this whole second-contract thing works yet.)

In the meantime, State Farm will be conducting an inspection on the roof next week, and I called Raul to look at the leak on the side of the house. He said I had a very minor one. Considering my utilities bill for the past four months has been just under $100 per month, it would have to be minor...especially since the bill includes electricity, water, sewer and trash pick-up twice a week. He said he would charge about $200 to dig up the ground and fix the leak. That seems pretty reasonable to me. You gotta love Raul.

On another note, it is HOT in Texas. They predict it to be in the 100's for the next ten days. So much for the $100/month utility bill. I water my flowers every day (don't tell the utilities company), but they're still looking a little bleak and all the lawns are turning brown.

I'll have to say it's been nice to have a weekend where I didn't have to throw the cats and the litter box into the car and drive around town. Today I cleaned the refrigerator. Hmmm...that's not a whole lot better than driving around with the cats and litter box.

I knew it!

All my fears of the dreaded home inspection have come to pass.

I received the report yesterday evening from my agent. (Mike Mantel is the prospective buyer.) I was too depressed to do a blog post about it. Mostly because it was...

...pages long. I was exhausted by the time I was done reading it. Absolutely every square inch was covered and after reading it, you'd wonder why anyone would want to live here. I forwarded it to my brother and he said the same thing...who can possibly sell a home when they pick apart every tiny little thing?? I've sold several houses in my lifetime and none of them were examined the way this one was. Maybe it's because the regulations are getting tighter...I don't know.

The main thing was the roof. It's 15 years old, has hail damage and will need to be replaced in the next few years. I knew that and was willing to give an allowance for that. But I've already come down considerably from my listing price with the current offerors and don't want to go much lower. The bad thing about them is that they're going with an FHA loan...which means every repair, replacement or improvement has to be done before closing. You can't give an allowance for it for them to do the repair afterwards. I talked to some people at work about that and every one of them rolled their eyes and said that everything has to be perfect for FHA loans. I'm thinking that I need to look more into the couple that wanted to put in an offer last weekend before they found out I already had a contract on it.

So, anyway, my real estate agent suggested I call my insurance company and see if they would replace the roof. I called them and they've started a claim and will send someone by to inspect it. You already know how I feel about dealing with insurance companies from my experience from hell when my son had his accident.

Not to mention the fact that my deductible on a roof replacement would be $1,500. Yay!!!! I wonder if I could have the potential buyers pay for that.

On to more of the inspection report. This one gave me a good laugh.

We haven't had a good rain in South Texas for about a year now. Go figure that I'd have dry soil in my yard. And yet, when I try to water it, I get in trouble with the utilities company. You can't win.

Here was another one. The first part of the report had a checklist of items...one being the fireplace/chimney. Now, mind you, I don't have a fireplace or chimney, and yet I was checked as being "deficient" in this area. Does this mean I'm deficient in NOT having a fireplace or chimney?? Sure, I'd love a fireplace, but I don't think you can count it against me for not having one! How wrong is that??

And I thought this was a good one, too. Mr. Home Inspection Guy can criticize my home up and down, but the least he could do is spell "New Braunfels" correctly and get my zip code (78130) right. Duh.

So I was surfing the other day on properties in Mexico and found this place in Merida. (I loved the photo because it reminds me so much of photos I've taken on Isla.) $27,500. Sure, it needs a little (or a lot of) work, but what a cool place.

Look at those ceilings...and those huge doors! Yeah, it's a fixer-upper, but how cool could you make it?!

I'm thinking Mr. Home Inspection Guy would have a few things to say about it. But then again, I have a few things to say about Mr. Home Inspection Guy...which are probably not very fitting for a respectable blog site.

Getting down to the nitty gritty...

Look what I bought today at Lowe's!! Do you think Mr. House Inspector Guy would be happy with me? I'm guessing he could care less. I'm betting house inspectors don't have much of a sense of humor. I don't think he'd get a kick out of my blog, so I'm not going to pass it on to him. (Don't tell him that this is the cheapest filter I could find...$3.97.)

I had one showing at noon today, but I don't know if anyone showed up for it. I went out to do some errands and didn't get back until almost 2:00. I always turn on all the lights, ceiling fans and turn down the A/C so that people know that everything is working and it's cool in the house. Most of the time, agents will turn everything off as they go through the house, but everything was still on when I got back today...and there was no telltale agent business card on my counter.

Oh, well, that's okay. I got a "feedback" e-mail from the agent who showed the house to the hour-and-15-minute couple last night. She said that they were going to put an offer in on the house and found out that it was already under contract. She added that if anything were to go "sour" with the contract to be sure and contact them as they thought my house was "a perfect fit" for them. So that adds a little bit of an edge to the whole deal and will give me some bargaining power with whatever turns up with the inspection this coming week. I've already come down a considerable amount from my listing price with the first offer, so that will give me the ability to stand my ground with any inspection items that come up.

I can't wait till all of this is over with. I hate the going back and forth crap between prices. I know they say it's a buyer's market right now, but I'm not going to give it away.

Since I'm done with home improvement projects, I decided to try a new recipe tonight. Jared got a free subscription to Food & Wine magazine when he got his American Express card, so I was looking through it today...

...and found this tasty-looking recipe...

It's been ages since I've had scallops, so I thought I'd try it out. I've made recipes with the little scallops, but never with the colossal sea scallops. Here are some of the basic ingredients...

Reduce the sauce...

Toss the baby spinach with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper...

And saute those bad boys...

And here's the end result. I added some zucchini and a couple slices of avacado. It was wonderful. A little bit of work, but definitely worth the effort. Jared came home as I was diving into my third scallop, so he was able to get a bite. He agreed...muy bien.

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.

I'm sure my next post will be on the dreaded home inspection. :-(

And the saga continues...

The whole house-selling deal has been pretty stressful, especially considering all the work I've put into the place the last six months. So I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend where I wouldn't be doing any home improvements. I still wanted to leave the house on the market in case the deal I have going falls through, but I didn't think I'd have much activity since I'm thinking the MLS listings show me as being "under contract."

NOT! Jared and I decided to go out to dinner Friday evening around 5:30 when I get a call from the realtor requesting a showing tonight at 7:00. Okay...that's fine. We'll postpone dinner to 7:00...no big deal.

After an average dinner at Applebee's, I get a call right as we're ready to leave. It's from my real estate agent. Home inspection is tomorrow (Saturday) at 9:30 a.m. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I needed more time!! I didn't think it would happen!! I thought it would fall through the cracks!! Tomorrow morning!?!? Oh, well...I guess it's better to get it over with. And at least my place doesn't look like this.

So Jared and I went out to breakfast this morning since we're not supposed to be there for the inspection. I'm VERY nervous and am the kind of person that expects the worst in this kind of situation. Even though the house LOOKS nice and clean and ready-to-move-into, who knows what evil lurks beneath the beams, the floors, and above the ceiling and attic?? I probably have a huge swarm of termites...

...living in the attic, and thank God we don't have basements here, otherwise Freddy would probably be living down there.

So I drive by about two hours later and there's a big gray truck sitting in front of my yard so I figure it's the inspector still working. I go shopping to kill some time and get a call from the Realtor saying someone wants to show the house NOW. I say "fine" because I'm not there but that maybe the inspector will be. To make a long story short, the agent showed the house and the inspector completed his inspection. Finally at about 1:30, I was able to go home. To this...

This was standing against the wall of my garage when I pulled in. Okay, Mr. House Inspector guy, I admit it. I completely forgot to change out my ceiling filter the last couple months. I'm usually pretty good about it, but with everything I've been doing, it slipped my mind. Thank you for that little reminder. And I just wonder how that's going to read on my report. "If this woman can't remember to replace her ceiling filters, what kind of shape is this house going to be in??" Personally, I think the ceiling filter police should just come by and shoot me for my negligance. Who knows what horrific crimes a person can commit after not replacing a ceiling filter. Believe you me...replacing that damn ceiling filter is on my calendar for next month.

So, with everything else, I also got a warning from my utility company that I had been watering my yard too much at the wrong time. This is the first time this has happened in the five years I've been here. When I told Jared, he said, "You should send them a picture of the yard." Maybe I should. I'm just trying to keep it looking like this...

...as opposed to this when I'm trying to sell it. I doubt if they would understand.

It reminds me of a year ago when I had an outside faucet leak. I got a notice from the utility company saying my water usage was "above normal" and that I should look for any leaks. This was my normal usage at that time with my three sons living with me...

This was with the faucet leak...

HaHaHaHa! Yep...that was up to almost 40,000 gallons that month. I guess it was a bigger leak than I thought. Anyway, Raul fixed the faucet leak for only 60 bucks...I gave him 100 because I appreciated his work.

So I've digressed again. I went back home after the inspection only to get another call from the realtor saying an agent wanted a second showing at 5:30 p.m. These were the people that had seen it the evening before. Fine. It gave me a chance to mow the lawn. I don't need to tidy anything up anymore because everything is ALWAYS tidied up now. Most showings last between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on how interested they are in the property. I usually go out to shop or drive around, checking back to see if they're still there. These people were there for one hour and 15 minutes. I don't know if they know we already have a contract on it. Since I was so tired by that time, I got a bite to eat, drove around with Nutter Butter for awhile, then just parked down the street thinking they would leave soon.

This was me after awhile (only a lot older)...

Obviously, these people are VERY interested...and my dining room chairs were pulled out again meaning they had "discussed" the situation. And who visits a property for over an hour if they're not interested??

So, who knows what will happen. I sure the heck don't. Stay tuned...

And this is stressed-out Nutter saying she doesn't want any more car rides...

It's showtime!

I always think of "Beetlejuice" when I hear "It's showtime"...when Geena Davis says "Beetlejuice" three times and Michael Keaton appears.

That movie was a hoot. One of my favorite parts is when the dinner party sings along to the Banana Boat Song. (This one is in English but has foreign sub-titles...couldn't find just a regular one.)


Anyway, "Beetlejuice" is not the reason for my post tonight. If plans had gone according to schedule, I would be here right now.

But VivaAerobus cancelled my flight "due to the swine flu virus." In reality, I think it's because they weren't making any money flying out of Austin, so they've cancelled all further flights from there. Now they're flying out of Las Vegas, however. We'll see how that goes. At least I got my full refund.

The real reason it's "showtime" is because I've officially put my house on the market and signed all the papers last Friday. So this baby is up for sale. (No "For Sale" sign in the front yard yet, though.)

Since I've been thinking about doing this, I've painted the entire exterior. (I did the tile work in the front entry shortly after I moved here in 2004, so that wasn't part of my recent improvements.)

Close-up of the telltale real estate lock box.

So I have totally de-cluttered, de-personalized and minimized furnishings in the house. Very few knick-knacks, neutral colors, etc. Painted the living room a neutral taupe...

And the dining room...

And decided to move my desk/computer into the quirky room with the cement floor off the kitchen/dining area...

...on the other side of the window I made (and posted previously) to give it some aesthetic appeal. It was empty before and some people don't have the ability to imagine what to do with an empty "bonus" room, so I thought making it my office would give it some definition.

Painted my bedroom 'Vanilla Wafer' (boring but sellable)...

And bathroom (a kind of light sage green...slightly more interesting)...

And painted the little deck on the backside of the house. My garden ain't got nothin' on Beck's, Ann's and Vee's yards. I should have paid them to come out and give me some tips. I just planted a few more flowers and threw down some fresh mulch. It's amazing how fresh mulch will make a garden look so much better.

Even painted the garage. I don't mind painting the interior of the house because the final outcome is always so gratifying...especially when you're painting a vivid color. But painting my garage was damned boring because I don't spend any time in my garage...only to get into/out of my car and when I'm looking for a paint can or tool or getting the lawn mower. The most time I've spent in my garage at any one time is about two minutes...tops. Except when I was painting it...then it was like a whole bunch of boring hours. (By the way, all those red boxes are full of books which I'm giving to the senior citizens center who I keep forgetting to call to have them pick up.)

So I sign the papers on Friday afternoon and the real estate agent goes out to my house to take pictures and measurements. She said I wouldn't have any action this weekend because it takes several days to post. NOT! I woke up on Saturday thinking I had the whole weekend to do little odd jobs like dust the ceiling fans, swiffer the floors and wipe down the cabinets. I pulled into the Target parking lot where I was going to get some new towels for the bathroom so it would look spiffy, when I get a call from my real estate agent. Someone from her office wants to show my house at 3:00. What time is it now? 2:15. Forget about the towels...call Jared to get him to arrange his room and clean his windows. Rush home and do as much as I can before 3:00. Throw the litter box and cats in the car (because we don't want potential buyers to think we have pets) and drive around for an hour listening to MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! while they're climbing on the dashboard, around my legs, wondering why I am being so cruel to them taking them away from home in this strange machine. (Why is it that dogs LOVE riding in cars and cats HATE it?) And since we're in South Texas where the days are approaching 100 degrees, I have to keep the air conditioning on so that they're comfortable. Wouldn't want the SPCA on my back.

Oh, well...that's what happens when you're selling a house. I'll have Sunday to catch up on those things I wanted to do. NOT!! On Sunday morning, I got calls for showings at 11:00 and 2:00. Shit!! I got the 11:00 call at 10:00 and still hadn't mowed the yard so I asked them if they could back it up by a half hour...which they did. So I mowed the yard, threw the cats and the litter box in the car and drove around for an hour to MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! Get the hell in the back seat and shut up, for God's sake! (I didn't really say that, but I may have been thinking it.)

Okay, so we get through the 2:00 showing and I'm thinking "Whew! That was fun." Then I hear, "...have another beer in Mexico..." (That's my ringtone.) I look on my phone and it's from the realtor. Oh, God, no...please, no. Yep...it's another showing...at 5:45 tonight. I have about three hours and I'm so tired I don't want to do a damn thing. I should be glad that I'm having this activity but if it weren't for the damn cats (who I love, but maybe not so much when I'm trying to sell a house)! One last time today...throw the cats and the litter box in the car and drive around. By this time the cats were actually getting used to it and just laid down in the back seat...probably from being tired of the whole ordeal.

So these are a few things I did to boost the sale. Good smelling candle...

Fresh daisies on the table...

And even bought an inexpensive fountain with zen-like water trickling...

So I'm at work on Friday and I'm telling the UPS guy that I'm trying to sell my house. He says, "Isn't there something you're supposed to bury in your yard to give you good luck?" Hmmm...come to think of it, I had heard that myself but couldn't remember. Then the lab technician guy comes in an we ask him. "Yeah...I think it's St. Joseph...you should Google it."

So I did. And St. Joseph it is.

I guess you're supposed to bury him upside down next to the "For Sale" sign facing the house. I'm not Catholic but I've learned through the years that we should get all the help we can get, so what the heck...I got one. I don't have a "For Sale" sign yet, so I'm waiting to bury the poor guy (seems kind of cruel to me...especially upside down for cryin' out loud), so he's perched on my window sill above my sink.

So my office is the only place in the house where I have some momentos. These are sitting on the table next to my printer. My real estate agent was at my computer last week looking at local listings and she said, "So, is that your son?"

HaHaHaHaHaHa! That was a good one! I told her that was one of my favorite photos from Isla Mujeres...a little island off the coast of Cancun. I took this picture in May of 2007...he was one of the workers building the new pier. He was about 100 feet away from me and didn't have a clue I was taking his picture...which makes his cocky pose genuine.

Well, I wish I could be like a bug in the window and hear what potential buyers think about the house.

And, finally (thank God)...it's time to relax...