Flit, flit, flit

[msmemory_archive]

I have no attention span this week for no specific reason. So in no particular order --

I'm behind on my pace for my current freelance job. This will mean some extra time later this week. It's an interesting book, but thick and I made the mistake of taking Birka weekend "off" from reading.

Now that we are (temporarily) catless, it's time to clean up the joint and move out of it. Much throwing out. Yeah, I do remember wearing some of those sweaters, back when tunic length "handknit" sweaters and leggings were fashionable. Oh my.

My FIL phoned on Friday night, to tell me he'd heard from his brother's wife, V. V is doing a medical internship in some kind of homeopathic medicine with a special focus on geriatrics. So a group from her medical school are going to an assisted living building once a week to counsel the residents. As it happens, it's Mother's building, and Mother introduced herself last week. FIL wants me to call V to answer questions about Mother. I'm procrastinating doing so.

I'll be taking jducoeur out to his favorite restaurant on Friday for special (4-0) birthday dinner. Much more focused on that dinner than birthday pressies or Valentine's day, which makes me feel guilty. Isn't modern merchandising wonderful, where I can spend over $100 on one dinner and still feel guilty if I don't buy him some shiny trinket two days later?

We'll be thinking and talking much about the moving thing over the next couple months. All of you out in the ether may get really tired of hearing it after a while. Sorry! One of the "sooner" projects should probably be choosing one of the eager realtors who keep flooding our mailbox with offers of free market appraisals - we need one that will give us a fair assessment of what needs/must be done to the house before sale, or whether it's sensible to sell it off to someone who wants to tear it down and build something shiny-new on the lot (and not put kilobucks into rewiring the family room, or replacing the cellar door).

More rambling later.

Comments

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Is jducoeur's birthday on Friday?

Ivan's Birthday is on Valentine's Day, which means that (for us) we've just totally substituted the one 'holiday' for the other. No guilt. We also have a very solid no stupid cards rule, which helps a great deal....

[new-man.livejournal.com]

mermaidlady and I spent part of the snowstorm thinning and reorganizing the closet. Very little got thrown away, but a lot of stuff got put aside for charity. It's satisfying, sort of like dieting, but faster.

I'd suggest that rather than finding a realtor to list your place with, that you find a buyer's agent. Many buyer's agents are also realtors and there's no conflict for them to sell your place while trying to find you a new place.

If you need help with home repair let me know. I'd be happy to do some minor work as a favor, and if you need more serious work (carpentry, painting, wall board, etc.) learnedax and I are a pretty good team -- and since he's out of work, we come pretty cheap ;-)

[tpau]

where are you thinking of moving to?

[nazrynn.livejournal.com]

Good luck with moving... God knows, you're probably getting tired of my rambling about that by now.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that everything goes off smoothly.

House selling

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

You remember our house in PA. The realtors universally agreed that it was "too cluttered" to show well. I'm sure I can imagine your bogglement -- I sure was. (Those of you just reading along -- Living room and corner of living room) I think much of the western world wants to live in a flavorless beige box or something.

After we moved out and had the walls painted, we got a lot more interest. Probably should have replaced the rugs with "berber" type, too, but didn't want to spend that much, as the paint had been about $2K and the same for remedial yard maintenance. Fortunately the outside of the house was stucco, so we didn't have to have that scraped & painted. In retrospect, replacing the rugs would have cost less than having it sit empty for 6 months.

Which reminds me: random advice: when you get a new place, if there's a ghost of a chance you want new rugs or paint, do it before you move in. It takes forever and is a big hassle if you try to do it afterwards.

House values

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mention that it's our experience that some realtors will overestimate the potential selling price of a house, in order to get you salivating.

To get a realistic baseline, try talking with your insurance company. They should be able to separate out the price of the house from the price of the land it is on, and they won't charge you for the info. (Ours told us our values, which was amusing. The land is worth about 3x the house value. Explains the tear-down across the street, now a large "colonial" type.)

[pamelina.livejournal.com]

Another good way of figuring out how much your house is worth is to look at what comparable houses in your area have sold for in the recent past, which are public records. That's how insurance companies and realtors do it, anyway. Gives you very usefull information.