A Productive Day

I think it is pretty cool that you all were so pleased about our house sale. We all need some happy stories, some small reason to celebrate. Thank you for your comments. 

I messaged our buyer about the appointment with the lawyer. It seems as if her family is all pulling together on this. Her uncle donated a shower. She has a kitchen from her grandmother's house. I told her that we had some insulation for her to go into the cubicle where the shower fits. 

It is such a win-win situation: she gets a house, and we got full asking price. It is a happy story, and it makes me glad every time that I think of it. 

It was interesting that today, we got an email from the wife of the man who was so interested in the house. I think they were angling to negotiate the price. She is a realtor and offered her services to sell the house. It was a pleasure to be able to say that the house was sold. 

We also showed our apartment today. I've spent the last two days cleaning. This is a view from the living room thru the dining room. There is a balcony out the french doors. The bathroom is to the left. 

To the right, there is a small room that can be used for an office, a pantry, storage, whatever. 

It is a two bedroom. This is the main bedroom. It's a big room. Across the hall, there is a smaller bedroom, probably 8 x 12. 

We showed it today, and the woman was interesting. She walked into the bathroom and said, "Well. There's not a lot of storage here." I pointed out that it is a large bathroom and plenty of room to have storage if she wants to buy some sort of cabinet. She supposed that she could do that. She took in the living room, and made no comment on the vaulted ceiling with the beam. What she focused on was the gas heater. "Does that have to be there?" she wanted to know. Tim looked at her and said, "Well...yes." It's where the gas is run. 

She wasn't happy about the stairs. She has a bad back. She wasn't sure her baker's rack could be brought up the stairs. It was 32 inches wide. How wide were the steps? (Good grief, the baker's rack could be rotated. The stairs have plenty of head room!) Who mowed the lawn? (The tenants. We noted that the previous tenant had spoken with the downstairs tenant and a deal was struck.) "So I'd have to talk to him?" (Yes.) Did we have a mower here? (Yes.) Was the previous tenant leaving because of George downstairs? (Answer: No. She adopted a child and needed more space.) 

She waffled around helplessly. She liked the garage with electric opener. She was unhappy that there was no washer hookup in the apartment. (We have a free washer and dryer for tenant use in the basement.) She asked what utilities were included, and we told her: Electric, gas, sewage, water, and garbage. She stood there with her notepad and said, "So...I would just have to get the internet?" We told her yes.  

She said, "Well...I don't know. I have to talk to my children. I'm not allowed to make decisions without talking to them first." I took all this in and found it fascinating that a 62 year old woman would say such a thing. I mean, I've got kids. I can't imagine being that dependent on them. I wouldn't want to be. They wouldn't want me to be that needy. (Actually, they would not put up with it.) 

I could tell that she was used to the world revolving around her, and tenants like that are exhausting. Complain, complain, complain. 

I said, "Well, you look around. I know that there are things that you are unhappy with here, but it's a pretty spacious place for a two bedroom. It's not perfect, but it is a nice place." 

Tim and I walked back home in the rain. I said, "I'm not sure she's what we want." We had a call from another person last night. A tenant talked to us about a possibly renting to her nephew and his wife, moving back from Washington State to take a job locally.  It is the first time that we've rented an apartment without advertising, so that part is interesting. 

The rest of our day was free. We loaded up and headed for the new house. It is a great thing to be able to focus on the new build full time, not trying to divide our time between the renovation and the new house. Luxurious, actually. Today we installed the gas line. Tomorrow we will hook up my new stove and test the hot water heater. 

We checked on the under sink cabinet the Amish built for us. (Levi's nephew, actually). That job is completed. We will be picking it up tomorrow. We stopped in to have coffee with Levi and Mattie. Tim had a homemade cinnamon roll. David showed me horses in his picture book. His father made him an ice sled model to hook to his little toy horse and he's quite pleased with that. 

Before we left their house, we made a barter. Levi built me a chicken coop. We will pay him $200, and throw in a couple pounds of lead and an old 150 gallon oil tank that he will cut in two and use as animal troughs. 

Yesterday was spring. Sunny with temperatures in the 70s. 

Today, on the first day of spring, it was windy as heck, and you could feel the temperature dropping by the hour. We turned the heat back on for the cats. We are back home now and the wind isn't dying down. I worry about the pine trees behind our neighbor's house. 

Late Edit: Is anyone else having problems replying to comments?