Relative Something

Status Report:

Work weekend at the lake has been fun, but a lot of work. We aren’t done yet, and Cyndie, Julian, and I will depart early today, heading back to the Cities to see Elysa for a brief visit. Then tend to a few errands of our own at home, before the holiday-shortened work-week kicks into high gear.

Cyndie doesn’t fly back to Boston until Tomorrow morning, and will be wearing her suit, because she will need to go directly to a meeting from the airport. Life moves pretty fast.

I brought my bike up to the lake with us, and a guitar, too, but didn’t end up using either one. It is weird to haul around my toys and not use them. It’s unfortunate, too, because I am going to wish I had more miles on the bike before I start my week-long ride during the second week of June.

I spent a good part of yesterday, cleaning the tennis court with a power sprayer. It works great, but requires an inch-at-a-time effort that will demand many hands taking turns today to complete what we started. I was working with Cyndie’s brother, Steve. I was trying to out-do him with style points, posing for the camera.

Dragging my butt this morning… but not for having suffered any true hardship. We packed up late and headed to the lake last night, long after traffic was an issue. Doing so, meant that we arrived to the mansion that is the lake place after some people were already asleep. We received a cursory tour of the new rooms that are being added, and then Cyndie and I were assigned sleeping quarters in the new master bedroom. Pretty sweet.

Weather is iffy today, and there is no time to rest. Saturday of Memorial Day weekend starts early with breakfast at the lodge and work assignments delegated. Then we tackle the chores to clean and prepare the property for the summer season ahead.

Pictures to come. Gotta do the work, first.

This post is for my cycling friends.

As the date approaches for our annual June bike trip, it becomes important that I begin to prepare. I took an important step, or steps, last night, toward getting in shape.

I needed to get out of the house for a showing appointment, and I had yet to get in my daily therapeutic walk, so it was a great opportunity to take care of both issues at once. Since I had more time to kill than I usually use for my walk, I made a plan to go farther, and to add a destination as incentive.

That is where it became preparation for the bike trip week. I chose a Dairy Queen as my destination. I walked for 38 minutes to get to the ice cream treat. It went pretty well. I ordered a small, but was hardly able to finish it. I’m definitely not at peak form yet.

It’s good that I still have a couple weeks to get into shape for the trip. Looks like I’m going to need more practice.

When is selling a house like camping? When you enter the “showing” phase! It becomes an exercise in “leave-no-trace” living, just like camping. Of course, when camping, you only have to achieve the “no-trace” accomplishment on the day you pack up and head home.

Since the average length of time to sell a house is currently running somewhere in the range of 130-days, I could be in a mode that feels like I’m packing up from my camping trip everyday, for months!

I can already feel that my initial effort to leave the house spotless every time I leave, is most likely going to be short-lived. It seems unfortunate that, as time passes without a sale, our hopes will intensify, but my energy to make the house “show” well, will tend to dwindle.

I expect that I will become more aware, with time, of when I can slack off, and when I need to have the place looking its best. We don’t even have a “For Sale” sign posted in the yard yet. I have no idea what to expect in terms of agents wanting to schedule showings. So, for now, I am trying to leave the place looking tip-top every morning as I head off for the day-job. If somebody wants to schedule a showing, the house is ready, no matter where I’ll be.

It’s all good. I can frame this phase as preparation for the camping I may need to do if the house sells. I could end up living out of a tent for a while, until the dream property is acquired. I will be well-practiced at leaving no trace, when it comes time to pack up my tent and move on.

Hey, cycling friends, look what Cyndie found for me while we were cleaning out the nooks and crannies of our house:

Do you think there will be enough open space on this year’s trip to make it worth bringing along?

To the uninitiated, the Foxtail throw-and-catch game achieved legendary status one year on the bike trip when it became snagged high in a tree. The exact details have grown foggy over time, but the hilariousness of the event remains strong for me. It isn’t the fact that it got stuck in the tree that is so funny, but what happened after that. It was a scene right out of a cartoon.

In attempt to free it from the branch it was caught on, heavier objects we thrown, trying to knock it loose. It was as if we were dealing with the kite-eating tree from the Charlie Brown cartoon.

The branch was so high, it was at the limit of distance that we were able to throw things. The challenge was to find something that could be thrown that high. I think the first thing was a ball of some sort. Easy to throw. However, since the height was near the top arc of how far a person can throw, the ball lost all momentum when it arrived at the apex of its trajectory. Eventually, the ball made it high enough to be over the branch, and then it gently settled right there on that same branch.

That seemed pretty funny, at the time. Little did we know what would come next. Pretty much everything we could find to throw, seemed to end up with the same fate. I recall a water bottle being grabbed by the branch. One after another, as the object would go up, and then not come down, we would find ourselves wracked with new levels of laughter over the ever-increasing fiasco. Each attempt to fix the situation, actually ended up compounding the problem, with comical display.

I wasn’t able to throw anything that high, so I just watched and laughed. I remember Curt taking the most turns throwing. Eventually, I think there was a split log from the firewood pile that was being thrown. By that point, there was a certain amount of exhaustion that developed, and since increasingly heavier objects were deemed necessary, the effort was nothing short of heroic.

I don’t remember if all the objects eventually came free and returned to earth, but I do know we gave up and wandered off to some other activity, probably dinner, while the Foxtail still dangled above.

Upon returning, as I leaned down to zip open my tent, I discovered that Foxtail, placed nicely in front of my door. I think the tree eventually took pity on us and just gave it back, after we left. Someone then found it and deposited it for me to find.

There is probably a lesson in that, but I still am so caught up in how funny the situation was, and how deeply it made me laugh, that any lesson gets thoroughly lost in my guffaws.

Even though I have been preparing the house for months, now that the time to show it has arrived, it feels like it has happened very quickly. I’m still not ready. There are things I want to address that remain to be dealt with. I haven’t even started the project of cleaning the garage.

I think our realtor recognizes the situation and senses that we are close enough to ready. Taking the step of scheduling open houses for today and tomorrow has forced my hand. Either I’ll take care of things in time, or I won’t.

It is exciting. The house is now listed on MLS. Pictures were taken on Thursday. First open house, today.

Adding to our excitement, we have discovered the first property that appeals to us as a fit for our dream vision. When I met with our realtor on Thursday, Cyndie called to join us by phone, from Boston. We were able to clarify our priorities for the horse property we are seeking, and by the end of that same day, there was a link in our email to 75 potentials for us to look at.

The properties were sorted alphabetically, by location, and the very first one struck me immediately as being ideal! It was startling. It made looking at the rest of the list almost academic. I felt a need to contact Cyndie right away, to get her to look at it. There is a feeling of urgency that occurs when you find a place that appeals.

I tried and tried throughout the evening, but she never answered. I went to bed, frustrated. In the morning, I was preparing to call her, when my iPad rang with her call to me. She was filled with excitement. She was looking at the email and had only opened the first property of the 75 listed and felt the need to call me right away.

We both had the same reaction to the same property!

When it feels right… Could we be so lucky to have found what we are looking for on the very same day we put our home on the market? Our realtor advised me to “stay cool.” We need to find a buyer before we go shopping for our horse farm.

Could we be so lucky to find a buyer for our home on the very first weekend of showing by open house?

Stay tuned.

I am my own worst enemy. I can’t remember where I put things that I have packed up, and moved multiple times, while we have been fixing up the house. I’m trying to find a document that has the total finished square foot area of our house. I just don’t have a mind for these kinds of details. Do you know the square foot area (or metric equivalent) of your living space? Some people seem to have that number available for the asking. Not me.

For the record, I also have no idea what size engine is in my car.

Today I will be meeting with our realtor to show off the work we have had done, and to discuss the final steps toward getting the house listed. We have waffled a bit about what price we want to start at, and that will be one of the topics to be covered. I have reviewed the numbers for homes in the vicinity of ours, and my initial impression is that prices are strong, but have ultimately been selling for a bit less than we are hoping to get.

I need to get the square foot number so I know what I am comparing. Imagine if I could just call Cyndie and ask her if she saw where I put the files when she was home last weekend. That would be great. (I tried and tried. No answer.)

I still haven’t cleaned the garage, and I didn’t get the window cleaners scheduled until next Wednesday, but otherwise, we are darn close. Just little details left. I don’t know how heavily the little details impact the impression of people walking through for the very first time.

This coming weekend, I should be able to make progress on a good portion of small details still needing attention. That is, if my limited ability to remember details doesn’t cause me to overlook the very tasks that need to be done.

Yes, I make lists for things like this.

And sometimes, all you need to do is write it out. Take your time. It just might come to you, like it did me. Before I could finish writing this post, it occurred to me, where I put the files I have been seeking. The square foot number is smaller than I thought it would be. I found an appraisal we had done in 2003 when we went through a refinancing. It doesn’t include the finished area below grade. Really? Whatever.