Monday night nail biting

In case you were all biting your nails, there is no offer on my house yet. I know. I'll pour us all a glass of wine. 

I tried to get back to normalish today, which is funny because the kids stayed overnight with their other set of grandparents and a day without the kids is pretty much the opposite of normal. But I CAN say that I wasn't at all Nervous Wrecky, even though I was totally neurotic about cleaning up after myself and arranging everything just so, especially when I left the house. I just wasn't NERVOUS about it. But my fixation with clean floors and counters is not going to bode well for The Rest Of The Week And Thereafter, when I will be trying to keep the house show-worthy with two shorties running around. I think I will pour more wine. 

But I went for a run, which I haven't done in God knows when. I didn't want to, but it was nice out and I didn't want to get yelled at by some loud TV trainer, so I decided that what I really needed was some new running music. I kicked Taylor Swift off my iPod and replaced her with generous portions of Ke$ha, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga and lo, I was a Running Goddess. I took my mind off my shoddy ankles by picturing myself back in Italy on Christmas break, applying questionable amounts of eyeliner, sitting in the back seat of someone's mom's car with the techno music blaring, shivering outside the disco because you don't want your coat to reek of cigarette smoke. 

I rewarded myself with lunch and a little bit of the Agatha Christie Wii game I picked up when we went to see if any Wii Fits were in stock. (They weren't.) (And yes, I know I am the only person in the world who owns an Agatha Christie Wii game. Shut up.)

But I also folded laundry and grocery shopped and updated the calendar and did all my boring houseworky Mom things. Oh, and I bought some touch up paint. I had to go to an Actual Paint Store and I had to go twice, because the first time I didn't have the proper information, and both times I was treated like a Beautiful If Somewhat Ditzy Princess by an older paint-spattered gentlema, so cheerful and chivalrous I had to pick up a comment card to fill out at home. I bought one pint-sized can of paint each time I was there and both times he CARRIED IT OUT TO MY CAR. Now, I realize that makes him sound sort of goofy and/or annoying, and his demeanor was, at times, a tiny bit fatherly patronizingish, but gosh if I don't love being treated like I'm Cute As A Button when I'm so obviously well past my Cute As A Button days. 

The deal with the touch up paint is: that's Phillip's job. We have three iffy areas to touch up and I am scared of all of them. The small hole in the entry way from the day Jack shoved his shopping cart down the stairs and it lodged itself in the wall. The holes on the brown wall in the living room where the weird geometric candle holder thing used to be - a tough one because there are plastic screw holder thingies still in the wall. And some various holes and scrapes in the kids' room. I am okay with the kids' room and the brown wall, because I think a new owner would most likely paint over these things anyway, and they're just little holes. The entry way, though, makes me nervous. Phillip patched it over, but we never sanded it down and painted. (We just put a bench in front of it. Fixed!) He tried sanding it down the other day, and now thinks he has to do it all over. And I'm nail bitey because the patched/sanded area won't be textured like the rest of the wall, and we have to paint it ORANGE and what if the orange wall has faded and we have to repaint the entire wall? Let me go get the wine bottle...

Molly has her 18 month appointment tomorrow morning and it will be the first doctor appointment in a while when I haven't had someone to watch the other kid. But I am thinking it will at least be Something To Do. Wednesday I have to get out of the house at lunchtime and the beginning of naptime (for my kids, at least, who are Early Birds) because there's a Brokers' Tour or something like that. Who wants to babysit the Cheungs? (Carrie! I'm looking at you!) Thursday we have a playdate. Friday I have a dentist appointment and Phillip will be home. I like having my week Nearly Planned, even if it involves someone popping a delinquent crown off my tooth. And I am thinking that people will most likely want to see the house in the evenings, though, and I'm wondering how to manage a phone call that comes during dinner, or right before the kids go to bed. If we GET phone calls. (Please God let there be phone calls!)

Actually, God calls us to be bold in prayer, right? So forget the phone call prayer. I'm going to pray for 1) an offer in the next couple of days that is 2) an acceptable price, freeing us up to score the 3) old lady house, with enough money to shell out to 4) a carpet installer, a painter and whoever sells appliances. In the meantime you should go get more wine because God also made us intelligent beings and we should always have a Plan B.  

Comments

[Carrie]

We are going to the Ballard MOPS group from 10-noon on Wednesday, but will be home after that. Seriously, that's the only thing I have on my calendar all week, and it's during the time you need me, more or less. But feel free to come over at 12:30, we will be here.

[HereWeGoAJen]

Once upon a time, we had a white house with white walls and sparkling white carpet that was on the market because we were moving. Then my husband spilled AN ENTIRE PITCHER of RED KOOL AID in the middle of the living room floor. Strangely, I didn't kill him. But we sold the house anyway! Our realtor tried to convince me that people would think the pinkish stain on the floor was a weird trick of the light. (Our response was to get a quote on replacing that part of carpet (like $150) and then tell anyone making an offer that we'd get it replaced or they could do it.)

Wait, what was my point? Oh, yeah. Don't worry about the orange wall. Dab the paint on so that you don't have any sharp edges. No one will notice, if it has faded. (And if it hasn't faded, then of course no one will notice.)

[Jess]

I don't pray, but I will cross my fingers for all this stuff to happen for you! And soon!

[Christiana]

Is the bench still in the place in front of the hole? Leave it there. I SERIOUSLY doubt anyone will notice until your furniture is moved out. :) We had a random hole in our house in our kitchen that we didn't notice for 2+ months after we bought when we had to change the clock the previous owner had used to hide it and "accidentally" left behind. And that was with a very throughough house inspection.