Furniture Fortitude

Two posts in one day. It' clearly a sign of the apocalypse.

When Frangelica and I moved out here we put our fancy new sofa and chez lounge in storage.

Naturally, it flooded, and the cushions have some water damage. I didn't have them professionally cleaned. The pieces themselves have stayed in the storage facility. It doesn't have any standing water in it or anything, but it is humid.

Today I called to see about getting the cushions cleaned. After all, I sprung for the warranty.

Problem 1: The chain we bought the pieces from (The Room Store) doesn't have any stores where I live now.

Problem 2: The warranty doesn't cover flooding damage, nor does it cover damage caused in storage.

Problem 3: They discontinued the pieces, so we can't order new cushions.

Right. Expensive (to us) furniture potentially down the tubes.

Our options at this point are:

1. Get the pieces (and cushions) cleaned and hope for the best.
2. Clean the pieces and try to find some other way to replace the cushions.
3. Trash the pieces and start at square one

I've talked to a professional furniture cleaner and he suggested at the very least replacing the cushions. He said that if mold is deep in the cushions they can't get it out.

I don't like any of the options. I think option 1 is out because I have allergies and I don't want to risk mold being in the pieces/cushions. Option 2 is also risky because of there possibly being mold in the pieces themselves. Option 3 makes me sad because we really liked those pieces and they were a bit pricey (for us).

Decisions, decisions.

Crazy Realtors

The house has been up now for a couple of weeks and we've been showing it like mad. Last weekend we had a lot of showings.

Saturday morning we had someone over to clean the house to prepare for an open house on Sunday. At 9:30 I got a phone call from the realtor. The nice woman asked me if anyone had contacted me about a showing at 10:15. I said no. I told her we had someone there cleaning the house and as much as I wanted to say yes, we couldn't possibly be out of the house in 45 minutes. However, if she wanted to come see the house at noon that would be fine.

The nice lady from the realtor hung up. I was expecting a call back about a showing.

Instead, at 10:15 we get a knock at the door. It's the Crazy Realtor (whom I will call CR --she's not the same person who called me). CR is there with a couple in tow. Could they please see the outside of the house? CR said the couple was trying to decide between our house and one other, and they wanted to decide today. My mother told her we were in the process of cleaning the place, and she could look at the outside all she liked. If she wanted to come back at 11, she could see the inside. CR agreed.

We scrambled and managed to get the dog tranquilized, got the house clean, and sent my Grandmother off to her hair appointment.

When we returned at about noon there was no indication that CR had been there. Realtors are supposed to leave cards when they show the place. We don't know if CR showed up or not.

So, my mother calls our Realtor, Darcy. Darcy is great. We're very happy with her.

Darcy said that CR is known for muscling her way in to showings --for saying anything she has to in order to get her folks in to see houses, including that there might be an offer on the table shortly. Not only that, but CR had called Darcy Friday night to set up the showing and Darcy told her no, and that she could come back on Sunday between 2 and 4.

So CR called the office directly. When we said no then, she just showed up and told us a story about a possible offer.

Right. We won't be holding our breath for that particular offer.

Sunday we had 2 showings and an open house. The first people were late getting to the house --they showed up an hour and a half late to look at the house. We had already left and come back, and I was out scavenging for lunch for everyone. But it's all good. They looked at the house with Frangelica, my grandmother and our two dogs on site. They stayed for all of 3 minutes. One person didn't get out of their car.

We won't be holding our breath waiting on that offer either.

The other showing and the open house went very well. The open house was supposed to go from 2 to 4, but everyone didn't clear out until 4:30.

Hopefully we'll hear something soon.

Everyone cross your fingers and hope for a good offer.

And while you're at it, hope for less Crazy Realtors.

Selling a house

The house finally went up yesterday.

I have been around when we sold houses before but I don't remember much from the experiences. Just getting this house ready to sell has been painful. We have cleaned, sorted, and packed a crazy amount of stuff.

What I find most stressful now is keeping the house in a "model" state. "Model" means "unlivable." That is, we can't have anything personal --no family pictures, etc. We can't have anything that illustrates a shortcoming of the house.

For example, our tiny bathroom has a tiny shower. The tiny shower only has a soap dish. It doesn't have any room for things regular humans need --like shampoo and conditioner. So, we have to keep our hair care products in a box, and only take them out when we shower.

All of us here are really hoping the house sells soon. We joke about the "model" house and the "fictitious family" that lives there. The fictitious family doesn't have hair, for example. The fictitious family has one cat (not 2 cats and 2 dogs). The fictitious family doesn't read, or at least doesn't have many books. Bookshelves, after all, are used for tasteful displays of cute but generic chotchkes.

I don't know how long my sanity or my job can take this. Working at home and showing a house are not really compatible. Still, the house only went up yesterday. We have already had one couple come look at it. Someone else is coming tomorrow morning. Hopefully the house will sell soon and we'll be able to start moving forward with the rest of the packing and getting a new house.