Sunday, January 14, 2007
Baby It's Cold Outside
I had planned on getting a lot of packing done today. I figured no realtor in their right mind would bring people by any one's home to show it when the "freeze line" of 32 degrees has been steadily making it's way across DFW all day turning rain into ice and making roads unsafe.
I figured wrong.
At 12:30 Centalized Showing called to let me know a realtor wanted to show the house between 1 and 2. Up to this point in the day I had allowed the girls to play with every toy, crayon, piece of paper and pair of shoes in the house unchecked. It was all out and all over the place. I had not made one bed. Clean laundry was in the middle of the living room floor waited to be folded. And, I had a pot of noodles on the stove in preparation for the good ole mac and cheese for lunch standby. Basically, one big mess. And all of us were in our jammies.
I almost cancelled, but knew better. So, I just sounded really irritated (because I thought it would make me feel better) and said, "Sure why not." At this point I began the fastest cleaning up of the house I have EVER DONE IN MY LIFE. I threw things in the oven, dishwasher, closets, garage, washer and dryer. Reia made her bed and cleaned up her toys. God bless her.
In the middle of the cleaning, I am trying to keep my eye on the noodles so they don't over cook and I can finish the lunch plans after they leave. I get them off the stove and into the strainer and keep the speed cleaning going.
As I begin the process of turning on all of the lights and spraying the Febreeze (our house is old and when it rains, it smells really old thanks to pier and beam foundation), I realize Mini-T has made herself comfortable over the noodles and has been pouring the dish washing liquid all over them. Why, oh why does she do this to me? And that's about when the showing pulls up.
So, I grab two juice boxes, dump the noodles in the trash, throw the pan into the washer, and out the door we go. Still in jammies of course.
Wanna know how long they stayed? 12 minutes. We prayed in the car that if this house was for them, they would know it right away. Maybe all it took was 12 minutes. (From my blog to God's ears. So to speak.)
Ok, just had to share how we are dealing with the weather. Exciting, huh.
On a side note Mini-T just walked in the office, handed me a piece of paper and walked out shouting, "Bye Mommy. Tiiiiime." Which is toddler talk for "Bye mommy. Have a good time."
I'm sure I will. =)
I figured wrong.
At 12:30 Centalized Showing called to let me know a realtor wanted to show the house between 1 and 2. Up to this point in the day I had allowed the girls to play with every toy, crayon, piece of paper and pair of shoes in the house unchecked. It was all out and all over the place. I had not made one bed. Clean laundry was in the middle of the living room floor waited to be folded. And, I had a pot of noodles on the stove in preparation for the good ole mac and cheese for lunch standby. Basically, one big mess. And all of us were in our jammies.
I almost cancelled, but knew better. So, I just sounded really irritated (because I thought it would make me feel better) and said, "Sure why not." At this point I began the fastest cleaning up of the house I have EVER DONE IN MY LIFE. I threw things in the oven, dishwasher, closets, garage, washer and dryer. Reia made her bed and cleaned up her toys. God bless her.
In the middle of the cleaning, I am trying to keep my eye on the noodles so they don't over cook and I can finish the lunch plans after they leave. I get them off the stove and into the strainer and keep the speed cleaning going.
As I begin the process of turning on all of the lights and spraying the Febreeze (our house is old and when it rains, it smells really old thanks to pier and beam foundation), I realize Mini-T has made herself comfortable over the noodles and has been pouring the dish washing liquid all over them. Why, oh why does she do this to me? And that's about when the showing pulls up.
So, I grab two juice boxes, dump the noodles in the trash, throw the pan into the washer, and out the door we go. Still in jammies of course.
Wanna know how long they stayed? 12 minutes. We prayed in the car that if this house was for them, they would know it right away. Maybe all it took was 12 minutes. (From my blog to God's ears. So to speak.)
Ok, just had to share how we are dealing with the weather. Exciting, huh.
On a side note Mini-T just walked in the office, handed me a piece of paper and walked out shouting, "Bye Mommy. Tiiiiime." Which is toddler talk for "Bye mommy. Have a good time."
I'm sure I will. =)
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9 Comments:
That is so so stressful! As a realtor I'll tell you this...feel free to tell Centralized Showing if a time doesn't work well. Maybe ask them to ask the Realtor to give you an hour instead of half. It usually won't kill anyone's schedule too much. Or, you can ask if they have other showings and if they would be willing to put your place at the end of the tour. CS can always call the scheduling Realtor back to try and work things out for both your and the viewers. I hate to see people stress out!
Hang in there, having your house on the market is intense! I'll keep praying.
Oh, Robin! I live in daily dread of someday needing to sell the Clem Domicile, for just the reasons you cite. It sounds like you were grace under pressure, for the most part.
Stay warm!!
Oh- can I relate! My greatest fear is always someone calling early in the day and having that mad-rush cleaning phenomenon you mentioned. By the way, did you opt for Mc'D's instead? "You deserve a break today!"
Thanks for the Safari heads-up. I am in Safari, though I have used Firefox on our home PC. I'll ask Mr. Clem to get me some Mozilla and see if things don't improve.
I would quadruple-love to get together whenever! I've got four kids (one babysitting-age teenager) and our neighborhood has a rockin' pool.
PS: you'll always find a stash of Diet DP on the top shelf of my fridge in the back. Stop by any time!
I can just picture you! ;) Living in Chelle's house we went through the same thing, all that rushing around and they don't do more than breeze through. Please do remember that although they might check closets for space and you can't cram things there, they never look under your bed while just checking out the house. Just a back up for emergencies, you know.
Oh, my. How well I remember the emergency house-showing clean-ups. Imagine someone house-hunting on a day like yesterday. Well, it obviously happens.
I'll never understand why they can't give us more notice when they're bringing someone over to see the house we're trying to sell. It nearly drove me nuts when we were selling my mil's house. Honestly, a couple of times they just showed up - no phone call at all. I have no idea what I would have done with small children "helping" me.
The dish soap on the noodles cracks me up. I'm sure it wasn't funny but thank goodness you caught her. Imagine if you hadn't and had gone on and made the macaroni and cheese (and bubbles) with those noodles!
Whatever you do, stay inside. I've heard it's very scary driving in your area right now.
Welcome to my world. Throw another baby into the mix, and you're me. You can see why I quake in my crocs when Chris mentions putting the house back on.
May tomorrow bring another showing, this time with THREE HOURS' notice :)
Hey! Don't feel bad about not walking last week. You've had a lot going on with the house showings, cold weather and all. Jump back in any time. We miss you.
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