I can't find the book I have been trying to read (Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker). I think that's some sort of sign that I should move on. Either that or clean my house.
My Cody has been valiantly fighting off throwing up for the last few nights. He yakked there on Saturday night but has been eating grass like it's laced with crack every night since. I also bought some plain yogurt to help settle his stomach. Still, it's another visit to the vet tomorrow.
Between discovering the poor guy can't breath through his nose, having people ask me WTF is with your dogs' breathing and the fight not to puke I figure the vet might be able to do something. So far they've not been helpful about his breathing but this time I think I've figured it out. The nose bleeds helped me narrow down the whole sinus issue. Shut up. We're not that observant around here.(Since the cats rule the house this is a picture of Cody trying to convince Amber that he's cute. She's not buying it)
We spent over a thousand dollars on vet bills last month between Cody and Rocky.
I know. I didn't really look at it until we got to month end and the bank accounts came up with zeroes.
I have no clue what they charged me for with Rocky because they put him down and then we got his ashes but the bill was 600 bucks. Ow. I'll pay whatever but when it all lands in one month, some of us don't get to eat as much as normal and no, it ain't the cats or the dog. Add to that the pool and the heat and we were entertaining to the hilt so when month end hit the money all disappeared.
Did I mention we own two houses?
Since I'm the money person it was my fault that I had miscalculated a few things but luckily I always over save. Course when month end hit my cushion got whipped out from under me and I panicked which had Bob panicking because I never panic about money. It's just, wow!
I started backtracking to figure out where I had made a mistake and discovered the vet bills which was truly comforting because that's not a monthly occurrence. When I discovered that I knew we would be okay once I built the cushion back up. Phew! It's just with gas bills and heating bills for two homes coming in things tend to get misplaced.
Bad Cindy.
Add to this the 'Stagers'.
It's a new phenomenon - or not - in real estate that you have people come in and tell you why your home isn't selling. Now, Bob and I have some experience selling homes from the renos so we know that most people are vacationing in the summer and not thinking about moving. September is when we'll probably see some action. Still our realtor pays for stagers so we were all knock yourself out.
Well, good Lord these people are pushy.
'First, beige it all up.'
We knew this, we were lazy, now we are paying for it. So yeah, thanks.
'Second, we heard you were handy so could you blow out this load bearing wall and put in a set of french doors in the dining room.'
I put 'load bearing' in that sentence because neither of these women would know a load bearing wall if it hit them. And well, it would if they tore that wall down. That wall supports the ceiling!! The I-beam and posts alone would be a fortune not to mention the loss of the hall closet and the meshing of three different floor types. Who cares!
At this point I'm cranky. I'm thinking 'no shit' it would sell our house faster if we put in french doors but we're not gonna! If we do put french doors in then guess what is going to happen to that asking price. That's right Motha Tucka it's going up!!!And breathe.
Sorry. I'm just amazed at how people can tell you to do all this work and voila your house will sell. No shit sherlock! I wanted french doors in there for years but guess what? It wasn't in the budget!
They get away with this by saying stuff like, 'but it's not your house anymore'. Bob lasted the whole session before climbing in the car and muttering 'Since my name is on the ownership then the house is still mine, beyotch'.
Anyways, beiging up is fine and we're getting a quote for that. They want us to paint all the stained bookcases also. Whatever. I'm over it. After that, I'm done. Sell the house as is.
Bob got off the phone with one of them tonight and he told her to go ahead and get all the quotes she wanted - did I mention that they wanted to strip up the carpet we had installed after we moved and replace with ceramic tile?
Thing is, there's only ever one top bitch when it comes to selling our houses and it's me. I'm not liking all this pushing so they better get ready to find someone pushing back. It's always easy to spend someone else's money.
Bob said tonight that he wants to know what their credentials are.
The small stuff I appreciated but the big stuff? Get over it! You put a price on the house and that is what the house should now sell for. It's not our fault our agent guaranteed a certain price. He should have thought of that before he wanted to add 10 000 dollars worth of upgrades!
As one of our friends pointed out, putting a second story on the house would probably sell it faster too.
Wow, here's hoping that I can do a post sometime this week that isn't a Bitchy McBitch post!
Please don't leave me! I'll be good!
6 comments:
1000 dollars in one month? That's crazy! My aunt goes through that every couple of months. She has two dogs-and they get into so much trouble between the two of them. One swallowed a staple-so there was surgery to remove it. Then that same dog got a hot spot on his tail, chewed his tail off, and they had to hire some specialist to dock his tail. He was an adult, so it was very risky (and very expensive). The other dog had breast cancer (they found a lump by one of her nipples) so that had to be removed.
So I hope Cody gets better soon!! And how come cats never get sick?
Oh man I hope your baby is OK soon. I feel so bad for you. I am a total mess when one of mine gets sickie. :-(
Oh man I hope your baby is OK soon. I feel so bad for you. I am a total mess when one of mine gets sickie. :-(
1. My sister and I were talking about vet bills just today. Her Jack Russell is chronically ill, though it pains me to say this, I'm not sure how much is the dog or my sister being neurotic. My niece was the healthiest "sick" kid in the county. Sorry, I've gotten side tracked. My sister drives 40 minutes to bring her dog to a vet in my area, I told her I stopped using them when after spending $2000 to save one of my cats they had the nerve to bill me an additional $200 for a lab that the vet ordered after the cat was put to sleep--I refused to pay it and now go to a different vet. Hopefully Cody will be feeling better soon.
2. Staging is what I'm considering as a profession once Junior goes back to school. I would love to do this. Two of my BILs are selling their houses, one is staged beautifully and still took 2 months to sell, they went to contract today. The other BIL's house is a nightmare, a cluttered dirty mess, and even taking into consideration it's the summer, there is no way that house is going to sell before October when they're closing on their new house and considering they're spending a 3/4 of a million on the new one, I don't think they can handle both houses. Good luck selling the other house, ignore the stager and do what you know will work.
Oy! Stagers. You're right--they stood in line twice when pushiness was being handed out. Beige it up and sell it--but construction on the say so of the stagers? I think not.
(The company that staged our house decided that the bedroom looked too small for a real bed, so they built one out of cardboard boxes and a too-small headboard. Apparently someone sat on it and collapsed the boxes during an open house. Our Realtor asked for a partial refund.)
And vet bills--yeah, I hear you. Spent $700 on my dog's leg a few years ago. He jumped over a fence and missed--tore into his stifle and bruised the muscles. My friends couldn't quite figure out why I was spending so much on a dog. ::shrug::
Hope Cody stops vomitting.
Good news!! Cody has passed all the tests put before him and tonight he didn't do the 'heaving walk of death' so that's better. We're looking at a head X-ray to see if there is a mass and also a scope of his nostril - they have to knock him out for the X-ray so we're waiting until the person who does the scoping is in so that he only has to be knocked out once.
He got a steroid shot and I could swear his breathing is better already even though the one nostril is still blocked. All the same, maybe he just needs a low dose steroid.
Tara Marie - DO IT!! I would also love to stage people's homes but when it comes to actual moving of walls and such, that's someone else's job. Hey you can always mention it and if you get flack back away ;) Also, I don't think you are the pushy type so you won't annoy people. I did find their eyes good for things that we hadn't fixed yet - the mail box wasn't hung up because we removed ours, there was a drain in the basement without a cover so looked like a deep hole. Basically having an unbiased person come in and tell you the things that are bothersome to the eye is all good. It's the moving of the walls. Am I still talking about the walls ;)
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