SOLD!
2008-01-21 - 7:19 p.m.

Since I last wrote we had one person come see the house last Thursday. Our realtor was actually the one who brought her. She called the night before that to talk about painting the den and about possibly putting up a privacy fence on the side of the yard next to the "trashed" neighbor's yard, and said she had someone who wanted to see the house and could she bring her over at 1:30 the next day.

This woman surprised us all by making an offer on the house that day when she was here with our realtor! Our asking price had originally been 148,800 and we'd just lowered it to 145,500, so she offered 140,000, which included us supplying a new stove and a privacy fence, which our realtor had told her we were thinking of doing. We came back with an offer of 142,000 (I think), including the new stove and fence, and she accepted! Believe it or not, she likes the den the way it is, so thank God we didn't start painting it before last Thursday. Actually, I did just a tiny bit of painting on the trim around the ceiling, but B was able to scrub it off with some water and a green kitchen scrubbie-thing, so it looks fine now.

The house inspector and termite inspector are scheduled to come on Wednesday afternoon, so as long as that goes okay, we're set to move. B has already called our realtor in Arizona and the two houses we liked best are still available, so we'll be making an offer just as soon as we know the inspection here went fine.

The closing date on this house is February 29th (leap year this year), so we will be in Arizona in less than a month and a half. We're feeling really excited/nervous/overwhelmed right now, so keep your fingers crossed that the inspection goes well on Wednesday. As far as we know, there's nothing majorly wrong with this house, so really it should be fine.

It was really unexpected to get an offer when we did, because I was feeling so frustrated and helpless about the neighbor's yard. I still don't really understand why it's been a deal-breaker for so many botential buyers and I think a privacy fence is overkill, but if that's what it takes to sell this house, then so be it.

I think the back yard will look weird with a big fence on only one side, but I have to let go of these thoughts because it's not going to be my back yard anymore. Obviously, I haven't yet, though. :) There are already a bunch of trees on that side of the yard that mostly block the neighbor's yard anyway. The people who come in to build the fence are going to have to go in between the trees and the current fence, and it just seems silly to me. Okay, enough about the fence.

We got a little snow here on Saturday, so it was nice to see that before we move, because I don't think we'll be seeing much in Arizona. It started around 1:30 and snowed until maybe 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. There was probably less than an inch on the ground by the time it stopped, so not a big snowfall. All the churches and things were closed the following day, though.

People around here really freak out when it snows or it MIGHT snow. If it would've been a weekday, all the schools would've been closed the next day, no doubt. My school NEVER closed for snow when I was growing up in Cincinn@ti except once when the snow caused a power outage and there was no power at the school. I'm suprised they didn't make us come in anyway, those meanies.

I went to public school and my friend down the street went to a private Catholic school that was like the schools around here and would close at the drop of a hat. So she was always getting off school for snow days (and was always bragging about it) while I had to stand in the snow at the bus stop, waiting for the school bus and freezing my butt off.

My apple juice fast lasted four days. I expected it to get easier as I went along, from what B told me his experience was like, but in fact it got harder. I started on Sunday and by Thursday I felt like I was going to die. I was trying to work and, no matter how much apple juice I drank, my stomach would not stop growling, so around noon that day I gave in and had something to eat. I lost 3 pounds, but gained it back almost immediately after I started eating again. I can only assume those 3 pounds had been the contents of my bowels (gross) because the apple juice worked like a laxative. In fact, it was really becoming a problem by Thursday, so that was another reason I stopped the fast when I did. My body still seems to be having a little trouble adjusting to eating again, but I've been feeling mostly back to normal today. It was an interesting experiment.

We should know the final result of the inspection by this coming Friday, so I'll try to write about that as soon as I know.

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