De Ann's Clan

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Okay, where is the hidden camera?

Don and I put our house up for sale a week ago. Have you ever tried to sale a house with kids? Now think of how hard it is and consider my past week.

When the realtor listed our house, he just used pictures from when it was listed four years ago. He wanted to get it on the market quickly and we still had to get the house ready before we could take pictures. I was fine with that. Working full-time makes it hard to spend hours cleaning at the end of the day.

On Friday the first realtor called asking to see the house ten minutes from then. I had just walked in from work. The house needed a deep cleaning. I asked if they could wait an hour so I could clean it. He said that he didn't care if it was dirty because he was just looking at the layout of the house. I agreed as long as he took responsibility for insisting on viewing a dirty house.

On Saturday we had Josh's baptism out in Orem. We had to leave at 9:00 in the morning. There wasn't much time to clean the house before getting everyone ready and out the door. As far as I knew, no one was coming to see the house. When I came home, Ky told me that someone would be there in a few minutes to look. I was ready to die. The house was a disaster. I called Don to find out when the people were coming and he said that the people had already come. I laughed and told him that we wouldn't be getting an offer from them.

A couple of days passed. I still hadn't had time to get everything done. We had decluttered a little bit, but there was a long way to go. I was at work when Don called and said that someone was coming to look at the house. He said that someone would come at 4:00. According to him, the house was clean. I usually don't get home by then, so I knew I had no choice but to trust him.

The next day our realtor called trying to figure out why he was hearing such horrible things about our house. People had said that our house was dirty and that the carpet was beyond saving. I was embarrassed. I explained that we were still trying to get the house ready to show. It really put a fire under my butt to get the house completely clean.

I borrowed the carpet scrubber and carpet cleaner from my parents. I spent the entire night cleaning the carpet after work. It looked amazing. But, unfortunately, it stirred up old smells from the carpet.

I hired someone to clean our house. I knew I just didn't have time to clean the whole house in time for the next viewing. She came and spent two hours wiping our kitchen counters. (They were not that dirty, she was just incredibly slow.) Don't ask me how much I paid. I am still waiting for those wounds to heal. Don told her that we didn't need our house clean after all. I came home from work to dirty house. The counters didn't even look clean. I spent the night scrubbing walls, counters, floors and everything else I thought the house cleaner was going to clean.

I woke up this morning and the entire house stunk from the wet carpets. I spent the day trying to think of ways to get the smell out of the carpet. Then, an hour before I came home from work, I decided to just rip it out. I had one hour before a couple was coming to look at the house. Ky, Porter and I moved the sewing machine, piano, and T.V. and ripped out the living room and hallway carpet. There were still little staples all over and the nail strips, but the smell was finally gone. We grabbed some food and ran out the door.

Did I mention that it is parent teacher conferences at school? Today I taught school and then stayed late to meet with a ton of parents. Parent teacher conferences take a lot of energy. I barely had the strength to drag out the last of the wet disgusting carpet. What a day.

We left the house. We parked at the church just a few houses down, across the street. I shoved my mouth full of food as we watched to see if the people came. I wasn't planning on parking there and watching the people come. I was just too hungry and I had to eat right then. They came and spent a total of five minutes looking at the house. Disappointed, I drove back into our driveway. We were greeted by Lexi barking at out through the window. Somehow she was left in the house, to attack innocent victims. I can just see the couple walking nonchalantly through the house. When out of the clear blue a small, fat attack dog comes running at them. I can't wait to hear what my realtor has to say.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Too funny and sad for words!

Anonymous said...

how much are you asking? And where are you moving to?

mooresclan said...

We are asking $199900. We are trying to buy a house a couple streets away from you.

Katrina said...

Oh my heavens, kill me now.

Melanie Palmer said...

Wow. Um, good luck...and hugs?!