Good day
I"m taking the day off today since my client's annual report was released yesterday and busy season is officially over. It's the first day I haven't gone to the office since Sunday, 2/11! My whole team and I worked very hard the last several weeks (a la 90 to 100 hour work weeks the last 3 weeks), butI feel very good about the job we did. The best part is that I don't have to start planning for next year since I'm moving on to different things in about 3.5 weeks! While the last several months have been particularly stressful (as they are every year), I appreciate the closure that comes with my job, because now that the annual audit is done we get to give ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back and start thinking about next year. It makes me think that all of our paper pushing is not just one big rat race, it's many smaller rat races strung together to make a racing career! :-)
Our place is on the market. I don't particularly care for the photos on the website, I don't think it captures the hardwood and lighting very well, which are some of its best features. Our agent took some better pictures last weekend and updated the brochures for people that walk through, but apparently those pictures aren't going on the website. It feels a little like being in a hotel here now, because the floorplan is way more wide open and it doesn't feel like our place anymore. It's changed even more since the website photos; we took out the pink chair, living room rug and bookshelf and put the couch in front of the bay. We moved the dining room rug into the living room to show off the wood floor in the other room, and took out our bedroom rug as well. We updated our shower curtain and replaced our medicine cabinet, so the bathroom looks a lot better, too.
The bad thing is that we've had 2 open houses, and each was the day of or the day after a huge Chicago snowstorm, so we haven't had great turnout. There were noteworthy parties at each according to out agent, so I think we'll get some offers soon. On one hand it would be a huge load off to sell this place before we leave. But on the other hand, I know it will sell better in the spring than the winter, and we don't need the cash for a downpayment on a next home since we're renting in Sydney, so we're flexible to wait for the right offer. I hope it will work itself out in due course.
Finally, we actually locked up a place in Sydney that I think is going to be terrific. You can read more about that on
kookaburra2.