Sunday, April 30, 2006

Reality Bites

There is no other appropriate title.

First, a man came and did the first estimate for a new fence. $5,000 is definitely more than I am keen to pay.

Second, I received an email letting me know that comps in my area are selling for $186,000 at the most. Grrrr. So, that puts me in a pickle. I want to sell it for much more!

Then I went to see the house off lovers. It rather brought reality screetching to my doorstep. $170,000 for a very, very small abode. The washing machine was in the kitchen, no dryer and no dishwasher. I'm not sure I can suffer that much.

So, then I went over to "Little Forest Hills" today. It is about 15-12 minutes from school, so I'm not sure of what it would be like during traffic hours. The houses are also small, but very cute and across from the arboretum. Maybe I can manage to find one large enough to suit my needs.

I finally got around to mowing the lawn today. The weeds were becoming taller than the car. Next weekend, flowers.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

The Pace Quickens

Steam cleaned the carpets in the living room. I think if I can do this a couple more times it will really make a difference. I got online to look at houses for sale in the area I want to buy, and the one from the earlier post . . . is now $170,000. Certainly makes me want to jump on it, but I have to take care of my house and sell it first.

This weekend my work will be cut out for me. Cleaning the house top to bottom and beginning to check things off my list. I wonder which of my friends I can suck into helping me. hmmmmm

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

I Love Home Depot

This or "I love power tools" could be the title of multiple posts. Everyone was very helpful as I worked my way through the store checking on prices for counters, front doors, closet doors, curtain rods, flowers etc. Early morning is the time to go cause the only other people are the contractors!

After that I made a run to Target to get sheers for the dining room and library "to finish out the rooms". So I have the rods and the sheers. They just need to be installed. While I was there, I found a pillow that I really liked for the master bedroom. It goes with the green sofa that has faded to a dull yellow. (Don't worry Mom, I'm not doing the duvet etc just yet, but the pillow was only $15.00, so I got it.) I also got what I need to make the pool area cute - I'll have to take a photo to provide a visual. I'm going to make people salivate at the thought of owning this place. SALIVATE I tell you.

I came home with a migraine today, so I haven't accomplished anything except laundry and this post. With any luck I will be fresh for tomorrow.

My love of home improvement shows is becoming an obsession at this point, however I am starting to feel very confident about tiling the closet.

Oh, I found out today that a really good friend of mine that still lives in the 'hood (where I lived before) came home Monday to find someone had kicked in her back door, robbed her (including all of her jewelry). It makes my stomach sick to even think about it.

Monday, April 24, 2006

First Day Back

Today began Theme Week. That's right, the week I try to get everyone to sit down (including seniors) and help come up with ideas for next year's yearbook. It is a freaking beating - yes, in part because I have to teach all day, and, let me tell you, it is exhausting. However, keeping my thumb on all of the little jumping beans is tiresome too. In addition I was trying to convert the spring mag pages into pdf's for the printer and get everything ready for my English class.

The guy showed up to install the Promethean system in my classroom (very cool interactive white board). So I had that going on too.

Went by Mom and Dad's picked up Eva and broke the news that I am on a mission to sell Crushing Debt with Pool.

Did all of my measuring tonight. I plan to go to Home Depot at the crack of dawn to start getting estimates of how much everything is going to cost.

TTFN

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Back in Town

It's a little after midnight. I just got in from San Francisco. Cat was very happy to see me, and Dad was very annoyed that I was getting in too late to pick up Eva.

I had a great weekend with my cousins. I'm really glad I got to go out and see them. This was my last totally free weekend before the 2006 yearbooks arrive. At any rate, the yearbook did not win the coveted Pacemaker, but atleast I was there just in case it did.

I'm probably going to be a zombie tomorrow, but my first order of business is measuring so I can get estimates for repairs (For instance the length of the vanity light to price how much it would cost to replace it.)

Saturday, April 22, 2006

The Plan

On my flight to San Francisco, I organized all of the things I need to do to my house to get it ready to sell. My plan is to return to Dallas and immediately begin working on the list in an organized fashion. Sadly I have a tendancy to make very left brain plans and then get distracted mightly quickly away from the plan.

I have been studying the sales prices of houses in the area. I think I want to list mine at a price that is a little high. Is it wrong to think that my house is actually NICER than the other houses? Doesn't matter it is true. So, I'm hoping that prices come up just a little bit before I am actually ready to put the house on the market.

I want to put the house on the market the first of June. I've studied For Sale By Owner, and I think that might be another great option for me. I can pay $500.00 and have my house on MLS for 6 months, plus get some other add-ins too.

In the meantime, I'm looking at properties near HP and finding that I might be the tiniest bit out of my price range for a lot of the houses. For instance, I took a couple of pictures when I was cruising through Bluff View with Ann. This house has a great lot, but it is about 1100 sq ft selling for 197,000. The bad part is currently I have 1800 sq ft, so I will definitely be downsizing. No matter, fixing up the house is the first thing. That's a good idea no matter what.

I'll keep working on the second part of the plan.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Decision


This is the story of a girl living in Plano whose friends wouldn't come visit because she was sooooo far away. Although she loved her house, she realized that if she stayed in her house, that would be all she had. (Sad really, don't you think?)

So, the decision was made to fix her house up for sale, see how much she could get for it and move back to the center of action.

And since it would be an "Adventure" she knew all of her friends would want to keep up with what would happen next.