1. Woke up
2. Brushed my teeth
3. Played on the computer
4. Ate brunch
5. Sold my house
6. Wrote this post

And it’s not even 1:00 yet!

Weekend three of the house on the market is coming to a close. Two showings this weekend, my slowest weekend yet. Negotiations with my prospective buyer last week fell through. Any hopes of being able to tell a story about how quickly my house sold are officially dead.

One of the two showings has already generated a comment: “Showed well but he did see something he liked a bit better. Sorry. Thank you.” One left, but assuming that will be a no as well I’ll be dropping the price on Tuesday.

Portland isn’t getting any closer…

So I got my first offer on my house today. I’ve written before about staying calm through all of this, especially because sometimes a sure thing may sometimes turn out to be not so much of a sure thing. Even though I’ve told myself not to get excited, that hasn’t stopped from doing so anyway.

The night I finished my house I took myself out and spent too much and ate too good in celebration. When I put the house on the market I had visions of Scott Schneider, an ex-coworker who decided to sell his house himself. As he was hammering the sign into his front lawn a realtor drove by; he sold his house the next day. During that first weekend, when I had three showings, I tried to stay relaxed, knowing it was the first step of a possibly very long journey. But there was a little piece of me that assumed that all three prospective buyers to fall in love and I would have to fend them off with a stick before I was able to sell my house to just one.

So yeah, I’ve been trying to stay calm… but I’ve also been dreaming the dream too. Then came this offer.

I think the biggest factor in me keeping my cool this time is that it’s quite a bit lower than I’d like it to be. Though I’m forced to remind myself that my asking price is “high” for the current market (and my tax appraisal). If I compare there offer to an asking price that might be more appropriate for current conditions it’s not quite as bad, but still low. But not so low that it’s unthinkable that we’ll reach an agreement, so I counter offered.

Now either they balk and walk away, or we haggle. I may be posting sunnier news within the next week or so, but right now it’s all fake money and big talk. For now then, I’m calm.

I had a home showing today. Normally realtor’s get an hour block, but this realtor is special and asked for a two hour block. So from 3 to 5 today my house is off limits. In the early afternoon the countdown begins:

• 1:30 pm With the showing at 3:00 it’s time to hop in the shower.

• 2:10 pm I smell much less now, loins are girded. I grab the broom and sweep up the extensive tile floor. Then I go online and print out a page on using mod_rewrite in an .htaccess file (geek stuff) for reading wherever I go to.

  I’ve been telling myself that I want to get pictures of the house; with the sun up high and no clouds in the sky this would be a great afternoon to snap a few. So I go grab the camera and head outside. I take pictures approaching the house and then spend 20 minutes chasing angles throughout the inside.

• 2:35 pm I head out to the backyard to take what I hope to be are the last pictures I’ll ever take of the backyard. As I open the back door and go out I realize I forgot to sweep the patio after I spread some Texas Tee on the lawn this morning — mental note.
• 2:40 pm Pictures done, I head to the garage to get a broom. I return to the backyard and sweep. Ahh… now my house is saleable…
• 2:42 pm I’ve told myself that my deadline to be out is 2:45. I still have to vacuum.
• 2:47 pm House is now cleaner than I was at 2:00 (and thanks to the reed diffuser it smells better too). I set the alarm and head into the garage. With the garage door open I run back out onto the driveway; I don’t have any pictures of the Civic lounging in the garage. A few quick snaps and I’m in the car and heading out.

Last year I met a girl a Pei Wei (ok, maybe I go there a bit too much). The day I met her she was sitting eating dinner and waiting to be able to go back home. She couldn’t go home because her house was for sale, and there was a showing that evening. I joined her and we talked. I remember her telling me that she hated having to find places to go all the time when people wanted to look at her house. I thought of her today as I drove away from my house.

Not being hungry crashing at a restaurant, Pei Wei included, wasn’t an option. So where to go? I sat in the car parked along the curb 200 feet from my house wondering where to wander. Not having A/C in a Texas summer encourages you not to stand still for too long. So I put it in gear and got a gasoline-powered breeze going. I hit the highway still not sure where I was heading. Eventually I settled on borders, with the intention of sitting down in the cafe with a chai latte and the netbook (I really do love this netbook).

I prefer to go someplace with wifi but the only places I know of that have free wifi are restaurants. So without internet I “blog” into a text file; I’ll upload it later on when I’m plugged back into the web. So I kill my time, hoping that whoever is looking at my house is falling in love all the while.

As I’ve been typing this out, I got another phone call. Another showing between 5:45 and 6:30. An hour I’ll likely kill with dinner. More time to occupy, but without doubt happily so. I can’t have enough showings. My chai is done and so is this entry. Where to next? I think Kohls is having a Father’s Day sale this weekend, and my pants are getting pretty ragged. Maybe I’ll see if they have any cargos.

As I write this it’s almost 7:00 pm. It’s also 95°F outside, though weather.com says it feels like it’s 99°F. Earlier today my friend Dave & I looked up the weather and were informed that, at the time (3-ish in the afternoon) it felt like a mere 106%deg;.

Just for fun, here’s the 10-day forecast for San Antonio, Texas compared next to Portland, Oregon:

So close… yet…

UPDATE: It’s 6:32 am (June 11th) and it’s 77° outside.