Buy my house!

Please!

The realtors came by yesterday and I am amazed at the speed at which things occur once the ball starts rolling. I signed the papers saying I wanted to sell my house, they slapped on a lockbox, and then it was on the market. I’ve already had two calls from realtors wanting to bring people by to look at the house, so that’s kind of exciting.

The picture they chose for the listing on the first day is a little old and a little weird. I hope they fix it before you read this, but we’ll see.  I only had to do a few last minute things to get it ready, they said:

• check the smoke detectors
• clean off the dining room table
• move some things in the basement
• wipe clean the door
• empty and get rid of the catbox
• clean out the screen door runners

So, all of that is done and hopefully everything is about ready.  Apparently, the realtors also list on craigslist, which I find strange and hilarious.

Daisy, Daisy…

I took the cat to the animal shelter today.

Daisy was a very pretty cat, somewhat aloof (as cats are wont to be), and a little demanding.  I don’t think she knew what was going on when Melissa and the dogs left.  She seemed somewhat happy to be rid of the dogs, I guess, but never quite happy with my treatment of her.  Her main problem was a failure to hit the litterbox (almost certainly caused by my failure to clean it often enough).

All the apartments I’m looking at don’t allow pets, and I think she would be happier with a family that would take better care of her.  I don’t really know how to take care of a cat.  With dogs, you love them, you walk them, you feed them, and they are good.  With cats, you have to read their moods.  I’ve never been very good at doing that.  Plus, sharp claws does not mix well with the kind of roughhousing I like to do.  It was best for both of us that she go.

We got her from a no-kill shelter.  When we picked her up, they said we had to give her back to them if we ever wanted or needed to get rid of her.  After 5 e-mails to them, the last 4 with no response at all, that option was no longer available.  My brother’s friend Ian works at the county shelter, and he says that they always have tons of room for cats, and that cats under 10 are always adopted right away.  That gives me hope that she will find a good family.  And, hopefully Ian can keep an eye on her.

She meowed a lot while we were on our way.  She always meowed when we put her in the travel crate, so I don’t think she knew what was going on, but it still makes it harder.  When we set her up on the desk at the shelter, she stopped meowing.  I don’t know what that portends, but I hope good things.

I was going to write this blog post from my parents’ house, but I’m glad I didn’t.  I want to tell you about the experience of coming home and having the subconscious expectation of a greeting there.  At the very least, the past couple weeks, I would get a few meows.  Daisy had been lonely right along with me.  Hopefully, she won’t be lonely for very much longer.  A nice family will adopt her.  Me?  We shall see.

Now, I go to clean the litterbox for the last time.

Book Recommendations

My Mom came over, who happens to be a book expert, and she helped me whittle down my collection of readables to three small shelves worth.  Since these are the ones I consider keepers, I’ll recommend them to you, also, to read.  Click on the picture for a high-res version, every title is legible.  You should definitely read every one!

Most of these are science fiction, with a few non-fiction and cookbooks thrown in.

Does anyone know if anyone else has done a book recommendation this way?  I would like to see some of these pictures as produced by others.  So do that!  And if you don’t have a blog to put it on, make one!  I’ll link to you, I promise.

Keeping my promises

I told you before that I would post pictures of the basement after I got it tidied up. In case you missed it: the “before” pictures.

Here is the “after”:

My Dad came over to help me clean it up, much gratitude and love go out to him!  I am getting closer to getting the house in order enough to put it on the market, though there is still much to be done.  The basement is not done, in its current state, just separated into different piles, some of which still have work to be done on them:

• Trash, not much to do here.
• Wedding stuff and memories of my time with Melissa, this stuff I have to sort through and plan to try to put all into one box.  I’m not even close to ready to get rid of much of this stuff.
• Personal Mementos, another small category of stuff that will only take about a half hour to an hour to deal with.  This is stuff like my high school diploma, awards I won, my favorite book and toy growing up, old letters and cards, etc.
• Old Clothes and Linens, I don’t know what to do with much of these!  I donated two bags to the people that call me every week already.
• Star Trek Collectibles, most of these are boxed I just have to box the rest and they will probably go into long term storage.
• Junk that might be worth something, I’m going to give anything she wants from this pile to my aunt, who is very good about holding yard sales and such.  There are about 4 boxes of books that fall into this category.
• Lawn and House equipment, this is all piled neatly in a corner and I will leave it for the next people who get the house.
• One box, filled to the brim with stuffed animals.  I don’t know what to do with this.

That’s about it, basically all we did was tidy things up, though my Dad did take one box of stuff to store in his garage with my camping and sports equipment.  Cleaning up like this is so easy if you’re motivated.

Lance Corporal Broseph

My brother is in the marine reserves and just started his two weeks of service in Honduras helping to repair a school.  (I sincerely hope I didn’t just violate operational security!)

Anyway, I miss him, but I’m sure he’s having a great time.  I can’t decide whether to start moving furniture now or wait for him to get back, since he is the brawniest of the family, and a good friend who’s ready to help whenever I need it.  I’ve already been in stasis for the past few weeks just waiting for Melissa to remove half of it, so two more weeks won’t hurt, right?  I just hope I’m not making excuses.

I really appreciate the work he is doing helping people, and when he gets back, maybe I’ll invite him to share a few stories with you.  He is an excellent writer and an interesting guy.

It’s a Jungle Down There

I promised pictures of the basement I need to be cleaning:

I’ll promise you pictures after I clean it up, but who knows how soon that day will come?

If you want to come help me let me know!

Apartment Search Party

Today I went out with my brother to get a sense of what the apartment market is like. After I sell my house, I’ll need somewhere to live and he has been looking for someone to live with. I don’t know if this is a good idea or a bad idea, but it’s something to try. I need to learn to live more independently. One of the things Melissa says I should work on is not needing someone to take care of me, and I think this is a good step towards that.

Some issues arise, though:

• My brother is a smoker. Eeyuugh! I already told him he should quit but if I harp on him about it living together could be tough!
• My brother also likes to party! This means I will be spending time with his friends, which is good because I’ll be out there meeting people, and I could even be his designated driver. Because I’m not much of a partier myself.
• I make a lot more money than him, so that could cause tension if he is not able to pay one month.

Those things being said, I love him and we do get along pretty well. So, we went to look at apartment. It seems like for a two bedroom, the price range is from $1100-1500, which is pretty high. And no one seems to be covering utilities where we were looking, in Glenmont and Rockville. The cheapest apartment (and hence the one we liked the best 😉 had kind of a weird attribute. One of the bedrooms had a hallway at the end of it that just sort of ended at a window! It looked like this crude paint replica:

My parents theorized that every bedroom needed a window for fire safety rules or something.  I’m thinking that area would be a good place to store my board game collection.

Realitor

We just showed our prospective realtor(s) around our house and now I’m going to store the list of things I’m supposed to do here:

• Clean out the basement
• Caulk the bathtubs
• Put in a little linoleum edge holder/divider thing in the kitchen
• Stretch and clean the carpets
• Clean off the deck
• Wash down the walls
• Fill out a disclosure statement

The problem is that I am not very good at getting things like this done. I work, so things have to be done on the weekends, and generally it’s a pain. But this really isn’t very much. The basement and the carpets are the hard part.

If I am not too lazy later, I may post a picture of the basement that needs to be cleaned out, but right now Melissa is making her famous pasta bake and it may be the last time I get to have some.

Decisions, Decisions

I have to figure out where to live after Melissa leaves.

I have never been good at making these kinds of decisions, and I’ve been trying to get my head clear on this, so I’m just going to make a list of options.

1. Keep the house, and try to stay afloat whilst living here alone. I would have to be VERY frugal. I would also have to take care of a whole house by myself. I would also have to work out a deal with Melissa to pay her some amount when I sell it.
2. Keep the house, and try to get a roommate I know. My brother would be the most obvious candidate, but I could also try craigslist.
3. Sell the house, get an apartment within walking distance of work. Apartments in downtown Silver Spring are EXPENSIVE. Not as expensive as paying my mortgage, I grant, but still, a big money sink. Also, a year commitment.
4. Get an apartment in Silver Spring with a roommate. Not too appetizing.
5. Get an apartment somewhere with my brother. Probably in Rockville, for the ease of his commute. I would be commuting on the MARC train. I also don’t know if he will be able to cover his half of the rent!
6. Live with my parents. This is also not an appetizing option, though it would allow me to do some pretty serious saving.
7. Move to Portland or Seattle. I have college friends there who would help me out until I find a place, or make good roommates. The “scene” there seems exciting, but I would miss my family.
8. Move somewhere insane. Like South America. I am not a very adventurous person.

I am not a very decisive person. Advice, people! I need it.