Feel the Tension

I can't believe we're already August 14th. I guess I'm a little more shocked at the date than I normally would be since we've decided to list our house in September. I know it isn't written in stone but nevertheless I feel pretty overwhelmed. But even if I had until next year, I would still let things go until the last minute. I just kept thinking, we have lots of time, no need to rush. Well, it's time to get started.

I don't consider myself a slob but having a clean house with a toddler and having a clean house for showing to potential buyers is completely different. So on top of painting and filling holes in the walls and ceilings (don't ask) and removing concrete pieces from the back yard (really don't ask), I also need to purge every room in the house. The mud room (what we call our un-insolated room, which looked as though it was going to be a garage but they didn't have the space) is the worst. With all the rnos we've been doing it's not only filled with sawdust but full of paint cans and tools, not to mention all of our regular mud room stuff like the cushions for outside, the hedge trimmers, snow shovels, etc.

But I think the biggest pain in the butt is selling our piano. It makes me sad but after thinking about it for a few days, I realized it was the best thing to do right now. I don't play anymore except when Jr wants to tinkle on the keys. We'll get another piano but probably an upright or something similar. I'm hoping that the time will come around again when I can play and I know Jr and her future sibling(s) will take lessons. Anyhow, that means finding a buyer and finding someone who will pay at least half if not more of what we paid. Ugh. We're waiting to hear back from our tuner.

And then there's our pear trees in the back yard, which appear to be dying. One of them is worse than the other -- some branches are completely bare while others have dead leaves. I've called the city and they're going to send someone to look at them and hopefully give me some good news, like it's just because it was such a hot, dry summer. I really don't want to hear a) they're dying or b) trim off all the dead stuff. It will be a major turnoff for buyers if they see two dead trees out back or if they see two butchered trees out back.

Meanwhile Jr seems to have caught a cold or something from her cousin Little Mister. At least I think that's where it came from since he had a snotty nose on Sunday. I'm glad Jr's getting her germs from somewhere (gotta build up that immunity somehow!) but it's still not fun when she's under the weather, especially since she's so attached to her suess, which requires breathing through her nose and the same for her frog, which she loves to sniff like a coke addict. I'm not looking forward to this afternoon when I have a meeting at my dad's office with a fellow broker of his. Dad said he would watch Jr while we had our powwow but watching extra-cranky-Jr is no mean feat.

Can you feel the tension??