Open House

We made a run up to KC Friday and came back tonight. Since we had an appointment to show the house to one family at 1:00pm Saturday, and had been corresponding with three other families interested in the house (all from Craigslist), we decided on the spur of the moment just to have an "Open House". So, Friday night, I e-mailed the others we had been corresponding with to let them know we would be at the house the following afternoon in case they were interested in dropping by to look at the house. We only decided to HAVE an "open house" late Friday afternoon and I didn't get a chance to edit our already running Craigslist add to mention the "open house" until the wee hours of Saturday morning. I didn't receive any e-mail replies to my Friday evening mailings, so, Saturday morning as I headed over to the house around 9:00am to work on cleaning it, I really did hold much hope of anyone coming. I even had my doubts that the family with the appointment would arrive since that appointment had been made through my father-in-law almost a week prior and we hadn't heard anything from them since, and they hadn't left any contact information with my father-in-law when calling for the appointment. The weather was icky...old snow and ice lingering on the country backroads making them a bit of a challenge to negotiate and the sky was gray, cold, gloomy. It wasn't a day I would've wanted to get out house-hunting on.

Well, my suppositions were flawed. We ended up showing the house to five families today. I'm impressed with Craigslist!...five showings after being on listed for free on Craigslist less than one week...and all five of the families were people that LOVED the wooded setting. I remember last summer when we had the house listed in a more traditional fashion, we got frequent feedback that the people viewing the home wanted land that was "level and open"...not the wooded, wild, Ozark-like terrain that our house was on. This always struck me as ironic...the very thing that made that home so dear to our heart was what most of the lookers complained about. Obviously, the house was being shown to the wrong set of people! Well, one thing I can say for this Craigslist experience is that it drew in with 100% accuracy people who loved the land the house is on.

Still, the entire open house experience started out on a sour note for me, even though it ended very well. Let me explain, first of all, I have done an incredible amount of painting in the house over the last two weekends--repainting nearly every room in the house. I think that act, painting an empty house, has really triggered memories of the first time I was painting those same walls eight years ago...so excited about the house we were building and eager for the day we would finally move in...so much anticipation and wonder at what we had accomplished...so much dreaming about the years that would lie ahead for us in that home. Painting now draws up such a sadness in my soul...a grieving over the piece of ourselves that we are having to leave behind, made even more accute the more I pour myself into perfecting this home that I will never again live in. I have absolutely no regrets over the choices we have made this past year. I have no regret over the new path we have embarked upon. I know, without a doubt, we have done the best thing...but it is still so sad losing our house and the land and living right next door to Mom and Dad C.

We had spent the night next door in Grant's parents' home. Around 9:00am or so, I headed over to our old house by myself to clean and put away my paint supplies while Grant kept the kids next door at his parents' house (they were gone to a funeral). There was plenty to keep me busy in our old house, afterall, when we had left it last weekend it had not been with the intention of having an open house the next time we came back! I was shocked at all the projects I found when looking at it through the eyes of "we are having an OPEN HOUSE, for pity sakes!". All the windows could have used a washing. All the carpets needed sweeping. Amazingly, even the bathrooms needed cleaning even though no one lived there anymore and I had left them spotless when we had moved out! The fellow who had built our closets just two weeks earlier (and who did a fantastic job!) had evidently washed his paint supplies in my kitchen sink and, though I hadn't noticed the weekend before, there was a fine film and splatters of faintly white watered down paint stubbornly coating the stainless steel double sinks. I also wanted to get directions to the house posted on the house's blogsite. Plenty to get done before at least the appointed couple arrived.

Things started out delifhtfully, at first. I was alone! There is something rather nice about not having three children hanging on you....at least it is heavenly for about the first fifteen minutes, but then it gets achingly lonely. So, I cranked up the music and filled our echoingly empty house with the smell of baking cookies...trying in vain to hide that faint aroma of fresh paint that was tearing my heart out. I baked cookies to have on hand for the people who would be coming to look at the house, but, in the lonely hours that followed, I ate almost all of them myself, trying to smother my sadness in warm gooey chocolate chips. That was my state of mind when the folks with the appointment showed up an hour early to see the house. They scoured over the house, spending more than half an hour in the house (much longer than the real-estate toured people typically had spent...I knew because we had usually hid out next door at Grant's parents' house the five or ten minutes the realtor and prospective buyers were there). Those folks then another forty minutes or so tromping over the land joined by Grant (who by then had been relieved of child wrangling duties by his folks who had returned home). Based on the AMOUNT of time they had spent, I assumed they were interested. Thinking they genuinely WERE interested in buying a house that we really do need to sell, I overlooked multiple little things they had done and said while in the house that were irksome. But, when Grant came back from showing them the boundaries of the land, he said that they had said the house "just didn't flip their trigger". It sounded like they weren't really so much interested in moving to a new house as they were in staying where they already lived and just buying the extra 12 adjoining acres that my father-in-law said he might be willing to sell along with the 13 acres our home is on. Suddenly the irksome things they had said while touring the house jabbed all the more deeply.

Then came the next set of people. First thing out of the husband's mouth was "There isn't much counterspace. What am I going to do with my vegetables when I wash them?" I was not in a good mood. I was already sick of people tromping through my beloved home finding fault with it. The immature part of my heart wanted to tell that guy just what he could do with his vegetables. I had by that time decided that I could see a REAL advantage to going with a realtor...I wouldn't have to smile at these disparaging people complaining about the home I loved.

The weather was gloomy...all gray and overcast with slushy, icy roads. I really didn't think anyone else would show after those two sets had left. And, really, I was surprised that THEY had come, given the kind of day it was and that we had only decided to have the open house late the previous afternoon. I was HOPING no one else would come. I thought it surely must be 4:00pm already, but to my dismay, found that it was only about 2:00. After the first set of people had finally left, I had gotten out my paint and picked up where I had left off last weekend, thinking no one else would be coming and I ought to make use of my time there. Iran, our dear friend, had dropped by a bit earlier and now Grant joined me, too, having gotten free of the folks who just wanted to buy the land possibly being offered along with our land. The mood began to lift as I slapped paint on the walls (don't misunderstand, I am a PERFECTIONIST when it comes to painting. I don't have to use a drop cloth and I am meticulous about not leaving any traces on the trim (my pet peeve to see traces dried paint on wood trim). Still, I was slapping (meticulously!) the paint on the living room walls (which didn't really NEED it, but still would look brighter and "brand-new" clean with it). Grant and Iran both sat on the carpet leaning against the opposite wall critiquing my labors! Mind you, I didn't WANT their assistance...perfectionists don't like others working on their projects(!), but, still, I was beginning to envy them getting to just SIT there and watch the paint dry! Of course, just as I had SEVERAL key walls wet with paint, the second batch (the vegetable guy) had arrived. (They had also made the comment, "You must have a cat." Grant and I neither one could figure out what on earth provoked that statement....we don't have and our dogs were always outdoor pets...it was said in a manner that indicated it was some sort of insult...the house was fresh and clean, right down to freshly baking cookies and vanilla scented candles in every bathroom. We didn't ask him what he meant or why he thought that...we were both already annoyed with his attitude, well, at least I was...I may be projecting, thinking Grant was annoyed!) Anyway, I was glad to get them out of my house. And I attacked my painting with renewed fervor, as though doing so might fend fend off any more interlopers!

But, true to Murphy's law, wet painted walls just draws them in like flies! However, this is where my story takes a turn...for the next three sets of folks (who of course all overlapped on top of each other, making for quite a chaotic scene, trying to run three different tours at once while keeping everyone clear of the wet paint!) were wonderfully enthusiastic about the home. Everyone had liked the land, today...and, thankfully, the last three families liked the house, too. One couple, in particular, just won my heart. They weren't making statements for our sake, but the comments they quietly shared with each other just washed away all the irritation from our earlier visitors. They truly LOVED the home, the land, everything. They didn't just "like" it, they loved it. They were already planning out everything they would do with each room in the home. I had to laugh inwardly with bittersweet irony when they came to the newly converted main floor bedroom (our former LIBRARY which just two weeks ago we spent several thousand dollars having a closet built in it and a closet finished off in the basement schoolroom, to make both of them "bedrooms". We had been advised multiple times that the house just wasn't very marketable without a bedroom on the main floor. Well, they have no use for a main floor bedroom, but, they have already figured out that room will make a great office. (I hated the thought that it would have been an even BETTER office had we left it a library and not taken up footage with that closet. Grant joked to me later, "Hey, they can tear the closet out and make their office bigger!". Thankfully, they didn't seem to mind at all that the closet was there. We will be showing them (and their parents this next time around) the house again next Saturday. They are both fresh out of law school and ready to move away from UMKC into more permanent housing than what they have been in thus far. It warmed my heart that they just genuinely loved the house just the way it is. When we built the home, we had picked very old cape cod floor plans on purpose...because that was what we liked. The house is not contemporary. It was never meant to be. There is no garden bath or kitchen island or two story high great room. I like those things, but they just weren't something that fit into the home we had envisioned as ideal for ourselves. Most people come to a home built in 2000 expecting to see those things, though...and view it as a fault when they don't find them. Not this couple. They were as delighted with what they found as we had always been with it. They oohed and awed over how much space there was and what terrific storage areas it had. They thought the rooms were beautiful. They truly loved the house just the way it is.

Not long ago, a relative of ours purchased a home. Turned out they were in a bidding war with another family, and their's was the lower bid...but, the owners of the home chose to accept their bid over the higher bid because they liked my relatives better than the other family. When I had heard that, I had secretly thought, "That is weird. Who cares what the people are like that are buying your home...you aren't going to ever see them again, anyway." But, today, I suddenly understood EXACTLY and COMPLETELY. Honestly, if the vegetable guy or the "I just want land, afterall" guy offered us substantially more for our home, I would go with a lesser price in order for the young couple who genuinely love the house to get it instead. Somehow, it won't hurt as much to leave that house forever if I know the people living in it treasure it the way I did.