A Negligent Mother

It has occurred to me recently that I have been shirking my responsibilities as a mother of a new born child. Francesca will be six weeks old tomorrow, and since I posted a announcement of her arrival, I have not posted any other photos of her. What is wrong with me? Is it because she is our fourth child and the novelity has worn off? No. Could it be that with four children I simply don't have the time? Maybe. Could it be that the depression hanging over my head about this house not selling has just sucked the joy out of my life? Another maybe. But there have been over sixty photos on my digital camera, waiting to be downloaded, so it's not for lack of pictures. Lack of motivation maybe. But that's not fair to Francesca. She deserves equal billing. So I'll try to do better.

So we bought a new swing for Francesca when she was born. Our old one was fine, but it's packed up in storage, so that's no good. Part of the reason we chose this one is because the weight limit is up to 25 pounds. One of the highest we could find. And Annamaria weighing in at 18 pounds at the time, was thinking it was for her. So the swing gets double duty, both Annamaria and Francesca have become swing babies. Pretty funny since Annamaria wasn't interested in the old swing when she was Francesca's age. And no, we normally don't let them swing together, but this just made Annamaria so happy we had to get a picture of it.

And no, our funds are not so low that we've resorted to eating our own children, but since Halloween is coming, we decided to brew up a batch of Harrison stew just to get in the mood. Just kidding, but we thought this was pretty funny anyway.

Another Showing

So yesterday we had an agent come by to take a look at our house. She has a client that needs to buy three houses by the end of the year as investment properties. Can I just say here that that is one situation that I would much rather be in. She said our house may just work for him, and she'd call us today to set up an appointment for him to take a look at it. Needless to say it is now 12:30 pm, and no phone call. But our agent also called us yesterday to let us know that someone who took a flyer from out front called him and wanted to see the inside of our house. So he's bringing them by today at 3pm. This is the first time our agent has showed our house. Is that normal? Vince says he just must not have any buyers that are looking for what we are offering. But I'm thinking, who cares, you've got them hostage in the car anyway, bring them on by. You never know.

And just so no one thinks our house is a total hole, and that's why it won't sell, I've decided to post some photographic evidence of our hard work and effort that we've put into this place.

O-kay, so it's a 1972 ranch style house. Nothing to brag about, but we have 1/4 of an acre, and for San Diego, that's considered "property".

Here is my beautiful remodeled kitchen. Complete with double convection ovens and six burner professional range. Stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. Vince made the cabinets himself. Solid Brazilian Cherry wood. Top of the line drawer pulls and my sink is huge. I think there are photos of not only Annamaria but also Harrison getting a bath in it somewhere on this blog. I'm going to miss my kitchen the most.

In the living room, the fireplace used to be faced with slump stone ( I think that is what it was called). Anyway, we had it refaced with travertine to match the floor in the entry way and kitchen, and tumbled marble. Can't believe it's the same fireplace. I'm wishing we had before and after pictures.

In the family room we had a tongue and groove wood ceiling and 70's paneling on the walls. Can you say "yuck"? We had new walls put in and recessed lighting. There used to be track lighting. So much better now. I'm not ashamed to have people over anymore.

Where Are We Moving To?

No where. Last night we got the call that the deal fell through. None of the other buyers could qualify for the house, so that's the end of that. What I don't understand is why are people out looking at houses and making offers on houses that they either don't qualify for or aren't completely serious about. What is wrong with people? Don't they understand that there are other people's lives involved in the transaction? Aren't we all adults here? Can't we all just act like upstanding responsible adults and not jack around with each other's lives? Apparently not.

Hold Everything!

I knew I'd find something to complain about. Last night I got a call from our real estate agent letting me know that one of the buyers, the one carrying the loan, was hesitating on being the only person on the title to the house. Now, I'm really not racist, or prejudice. At least I don't think I am, but this is the second round of real estate nightmares and both buyers were hispanic. The first, a Ms. Nunez, just backed out for no legitimate reason. At least none that she could give. And kept us off the market for three weeks during prime selling season while she made up her mind as to whether she wanted to go ahead with the purchase of the house or not. Now, the second, also involves hispanics. All I know is that there was a young woman, currently pregnant, her two small children, a young man, and an older woman were the ones who came to look at the house. When we got the offer, they were signed by an Amos someone. Now I was told that this Amos person doesn't want to be the only person on the title, but no one else has good enough credit to qualify for the house. And this was all suposed to be a done deal, he was pre-qualified and everything, so he knew he'd be the only person on the title and now he's backing out. Now when they had the home inspection, another young man by the name of Roberto, who is suposed to be the boyfriend of the young pregnant woman, showed up with the buyer's agent and the inspector. He didn't speak English so I didn't speak to him myself, but he is suposed to be living here too and wants the deal to go through. The young woman also wants the deal to go through. So who is this Amos person, and how does he fit into the puzzle? And why can't we just get some normal people in the door who have their act together, and can act like responsible and civilized people? So now Roberto is trying to get his mom to sign for the loan on the house. So say a little a prayer, make a little wish, do a little dance, whatever it is you do. We could use any help we could get at this point.

Stole My Thunder

I was all set to blog about our real estate nightmares and the fact that our house has been on the market since May. We've only had two showings in September, and I've been throughly discouraged. We went ahead and had the house tented for termites at the end of August. We figured it had to be done sooner or later, so we packed up the kids and spent two days at Disneyland while the house was being fumigated. It was great, but more on that another time. Our last day at the Magic Kingdom I get a call from our agent saying that someone wanted to show our house the next day. I told them as long as the gas was cleared out and the house was free for reentry to go ahead. So we got home at 12:30 am, that night or the next morning, whichever you prefer to call it. Got a few hours of sleep, woke up and started getting the house ready for the showing. Of course I was about a week and a half from my due date at this point. The house wasn't perfect, but at the point my attitude was "whatever". Of course nothing came from that showing. We dropped the price of the house AGAIN, and had our agent put a notation in our listing that we had a new born and needed a couple hours notice for a showing. Then earlier this week we got a call from an agent who said he wanted to come check out our house for some clients of his. He set a time, 45 minutes to 1 hour from when he called, and we rushed around getting the house ready. And guess what. He never showed. Forty-five minutes later, Vince call him and he said he was looking at another house and he'd be over soon. Vince explained we were about to sit down to dinner and he'd have to reschedule. To say we're being less accommodating these days would be the truth. We're really tired of it all. The next day, Vince was out running errands with Harrison and I was home with the girls. Sophia was doing school work, Annamaria was toddling around, and Francesca was taking a nap. The phone rings and it's the agent from the day before saying he was down the road with his clients looking at another house, but his clients really wanted to come by and check out our house, could they come over in about 20 minutes. Screw it. So I told him I had a three week old down for a nap, so as long as his clients didn't mind us being here, to come on by. So they did. All six of them. And again, the house wasn't perfect, but hey, I have a three week old, give me a break. So the next day I sat down and started typing to vent about our real estate woes, when our phone rang. It was our agent letting me know that we had an offer coming in. Apparently they really did like our house. Now was their offer great? No. Were we excited to be getting an offer anyway? Heck yes. We countered to make the deal a little more palatable to us, and they accepted it. Amazing! Of course since we lowered the price for a second time, we'll be getting about $40K less than we really wanted when we started all this, but that was five months ago, and the times they are a changing. The market here is so flooded I'm really feeling quite appreciative that we even have a buyer at this point. And it looks like these guys are actually serious, unlike the other "offer" we had. They've already scheduled their home inspection for this Monday, so things are moving along. Oh, the only kicker, they want escrow to close by the 27th. Yes, October 27th. And we still have a house load to get moved out of here. And of course Francesca is being baptized on the 15th, and I've already sent out invitations inviting over 30 of our closest friends and family to come and celebrate with us. So it should be an interesting few weeks. I've been praying that our house sells "now", and we get moved and on with our lives "now". So be careful what you wish/pray for, you just may get it. But now what will I complain about? I'm sure I'll find something.