News..but not what we were hoping for...

Sounds like we're back to square one. The folks who wanted the house can't do anything for at least another month. So we're sorta at square one. But with the possibility of getting to square two? Disappointment, though. I'm so tired of this disappointment. 

Two in the bush...disappointment...riding the real estate roller coaster

It has been a week of ups and downs. We're (I'm) down right now. We had the one offer. We got a second offer. We decided to not go with the first offer because it was so low that we'd have to dig up $12,000 to sell the house. That's just a lot of money to sell something, isn't it? That's a huge chunk of my yearly salary. The other person couldn't come any higher. If we cut the realtors out of it altogether, we'd manage to then only owe $5000. And somehow that seems more palatable, but we can't cut out realtors--we need them. We tried selling this house on our own for about 10 months FSBO, and we got nothing but nibble after nibble without a serious offer. For anyone keeping track, we've now had the house on the market for 22 months. A house we aren't living in.

The second offer came in yesterday, but it had a couple of glitches in it that made it tough to take...those issues left way too much up in the air. But in looking at their offer, I thought that the up-in-the-air issues could all be solved by asking them to get a letter from their mortgage company since they had a meeting scheduled for today. They, oddly, responded that they would be in touch and that they wanted a response to their offer by 5:00 today. Then, they never got in touch today. So while I thought things would be clarified today, they are now muddied by a lack of communication. And we're stuck waiting with no recourse.

In the meantime, my realtor e-mailed me that another woman who was previously interested in my house saw another house today, fell in love, and is making an offer on that. That easy. Why the hell can't it be that easy for us? WHY? What do we have to do here? 

An offer...

We have one. FINALLY. Someone made an offer. It's low, but it's an offer. Ironically, the woman who made the offer is the same one who wanted the house a year and a half ago when we had the house FSBO. But for various reasons, that didn't work out. She kept in touch, though, until we put the house on the market with a realtor. Then, she got in touch with our realtor. Finally, she made an offer on the house yesterday. An actual, written offer. But it's low. Low as in we'll have to dig deeper into our pockets than we can to pay all the costs associated with the offer. So we'll counter. But keep your fingers crossed for us today. It's a big day.

Last night was the first night that Kevin talked about moving without that "don't put the cart before the horse" feeling in the conversation. I know where he's been coming from--someone has to pull in my enthusiasm when I'm ready to go out and spend money that we don't have. =)

But we might actually get to open our wedding gifts now! (We've been married almost a year).

Two Showings...One Hour...Waiting...

We dropped the price on the house on Friday by another $4000. This actually puts us $2000 under the price that I paid for the house in August 2005; but the house is worth what someone will pay for it, and it isn't worth what I paid for it in August 2005. We'll be digging into our pockets at this point to at least cover the realtors' fees, but we'll gladly do that if it will get the house off our books. 

The news, though, is that almost immediately after dropping the price on the house, we had a showing scheduled for 6:00 tonight. And then this morning I was sent an e-mail scheduling another showing for 6:15 tonight. This means that we could actually have two groups at the house at the same time. This is a dream for us considering the few number of showings we've had in the nearly 10 months we've had it listed with a realtor. I'm excited that there will be two groups at the house at the same time--perhaps that will make one of the groups feel the need to be a little competitive for the place? 

When a showing gets scheduled, I sit and watch the clock. I imagine people walking through the house at the time that they are supposed to be there. I wonder what they are saying. Then I wait...thinking that I might get a call from my realtor. Last time she took someone through the house, she actually called me from the showing to ask me a couple of questions. But regardless of who is doing the showing, I sit and wait. And I hope that our realtor will call with an offer...but I almost dare not let myself hope for that. 

This is hard. Cross your fingers for us. We have to hope, but we almost dare not hope... so our fingers are crossed, too. (And our toes). 

The Week in Review

14 Class Days Left

The only class where I still have some work to do for the end of the year is my Advanced Class. And I actually have it worked out in my head that they are going to do something using Imacs and Ivideo/IDVD to create an introductory video for the Newcomer's Center for next year. I need to sit down tonight and do the planning for that, but I currently just have a vague image of what I want done in my head and not a clear rubric for the kids. My goals are to get them to do some thinking about all that they've learned this year, learn some new computer skills, and have a fun way to close out the school year. I've got the laptops reserved. I need to pull together the necessary cameras. But first I really need to get their assignment in order... tonight. 

10.5 mile run day

It's the longest run I've done since Ironman, so I'm happy with it no matter how much slower than the speed of light that I went today. I met several new four-legged friends. And I really enjoyed my time out there. I LOVE Jelly Belly's Sports Beans, but I save them for long runs, so today was a nice treat. I've got only about four weeks until the annual Sunburst half marathon up in South Bend, so I've got to get in some more of these long runs between now and then.

Now Hiring

We're trying to hire my replacement at work, and it's not going well so far. If you're an ESL teacher looking for an interesting challenge, you might want to check us out. E-mail me for details, but it's a good job with good people and plenty of red tape. We interviewed someone this week, but I can't say how it went for confidentiality reasons and all. I'm hoping that a colleague of mine will get the chance to transfer in from another school, but it's hard to tell what to expect when personnel issues are in play. 

Baby Hats--My new obsession

So I've got three pregnant colleagues, and I spent yesterday working on making baby hats for two of them. One, I know, will have a boy. The other, I know, will have a girl. The results were fun to see--I got to learn a couple of new knitting tricks. And I'll put a picture of the hats in with this post. I wish I could figure out a way to make a little extra money off the baby hat business--it's relatively quick (5-6 hours of knitting for a hat) and inexpensive (maybe $12.00 for yarn for the ones I made today), and I really enjoy it. I clearly couldn't charge for my time, but I actually enjoy knitting for the therapeutic side of things, so I'd just be knitting for the fun of it and the money would be extra. Then again, I have so many projects I want to do!

New Teacher Orientation and me

While out on my run today, I spent some time thinking about what I'll say when I get a chance to speak at New Teacher Orientation this fall. My principal volunteered me, and I'm excited. I think I'll speak less about what it's like to be a new teacher  (since I'm not) and more about working with international students. Gotta start making a list.

Enough for now...this is the most random-though post I've done in a while. Check out my cute hats!