Limboland
Harvest Lane: We haven't sold the house yet. Thursday night, we had a "twilight Open House"; kind of a concoction of our agent and me. She invited, by personal invitation, people who had come to previous opens and shown what seemed to be genuine interest. She worked with other agents who have properties in TVT to have Opens at the same time so we would have more traffic. She served cheese and beverages; I pulled out our utility bills and set them up in a folder for easy viewing. Gary and I spent a lot of time on the garden, as the lawn service hadn't shown up that week.
Mary thought it went well; several groups came, including one couple who "left work early just to come to this" and one who had questions about our water source. And yet, still no offers, two days later. Our contract with Mary ends tonight; we have extended until the end of August, when we will relist, with a new strategy.
Tranquil Lane: Our house was to be ready for closing on Sept. 5, and then we received THE LETTER. Seems the lumber that was used to make the joists in the basement was coated with cancer-causing formaldehyde. Because, you know, my family doesn't have enough issues to deal with. Gary jumped on the research immediately. In one way, we are not upset because it puts off the closing, giving us more time to see Harvest. However, had Gary and I taken them at their word and just said, yeah, okay, we would still be closing on Sept. 5! Do people really just go along with things like this without doing their own research? So now, Gary has spoken to the company (Weyerhauser) that made the joists, to our agent (my cousin Elaine), and one of our best friends, Dr. Alan Sherman, whose specialty is chemistry and sick buildings. He jumped on it right away and is helping us to navigate what we need to know. And, typically, he made us feel a lot better about the whole thing. Thank you, Alan. Also, thanks to Elaine, we will be engaging an attorney in PA to help us put some new words into our contract with the builder to protect us for when we have to go sell our house, so Weyerhauser will pay for retesting the basement at that time.
As much as I hate leaving Wisconsin (whoever thought I would say that?) I just want to get this over with already! And before it gets cold!