A to Z: Selling Our House (Letter H)

April 10, 2018April 10, 2018 Shirleyjdietz3 Comments

This was written ahead, but yesterday was way too full to even sit down and post it. The painter is coming and I only had a partial day to clean before him. We don’t want to paint over dirt (anymore).

H for Handyman

There are very few houses that would not benefit from the services of a handyman. The name is so apt. Any smart homeowner should know at least two of them. Over the years we have not always fixed things that were not crucial to daily operations. Now that we are getting ready to sell, we have a lot of catching up to do.

After the home inspection, I ended up with several to-do lists. One of them was for the handyman. The realtor gave me the name of one that he trusted, but this man was booked up for weeks. That’s why I’m saying that you need to know of more than one.

I, fortunately, have a realtor who has done time as a contractor/handyman. And because he like to gets houses on the market as soon as possible, he sometimes steps down and grabs his tools again. I also know a multi-talented Hispanic friend, Joe, who does work for me when he’s not doing cement contracting. On day one of tackling the list, Joe was working with the caulk gun when Tory, the realtor, showed up. To my surprise, a few seconds later they were chattering away in Spanish and had several list items all figured out. Teamwork is sweet.

Joe often stores his ladders and ropes at our house, probably because our house always needs pressure washing and those are necessary tools. Joe is very good at yard work too. I can ask him to make it look nice, and he figures out how. After seeing “the list” he got busy and worked on places where the siding was loose and where caulking was needed. He cleaned all the gutters and downspouts. A week later Tory spent a whole day doing finishing carpentry and replacing small areas of bad wood. He removed the barrier fence around the second story patio that was going to be re-roofed. These guys have tools and know how to use them. It’s a beautiful thing to see.

What I appreciate about Joe is that if something is broken, he will always try to fix it. He has an optimism and a curiosity about how things work and he is sure he can make that broken thing work fine again. I take advantage of that and give him my broken appliances just for the relief of having them off the premises. Today he took a washer and a stove. Made a nice big empty spot in our garage.

I am a handy woman, and although I’m not quite as handy as a handyman, I got a lot done yesterday. My favorite tool is a drill. My favorite thing to do with it is remove screws. All of our kitchen cabinet fronts are getting painted white so all the doors, had to be removed and the hardware completely taken off – several hundred screws I would say. And then I had to scrub them all. The whir of the drill and the aroma of bleach… handywoman ambiance.

This is not the first time I’ve been photographed with a drill in my hand.

Do you have a handyman? You should. Get one before you have a crisis. Just sayin’…

A to Z: Selling Our House (Letter F)

April 7, 2018 Shirleyjdietz1 Comment

Yesterday I breathed a lot of bleach fumes (an F word), scrubbing tile grout in the rental house, so today I mowed and did yard work in the fresh air and sunshine. The renters moved some more things out after work but are now exhausted. They asked if they could come back to clean in the morning. “Well, of course you can,” said I.

F for Floors

Deciding to sell our house awoke a whole set of fears I didn’t know I had. One of them was the fear of people walking into our house with a critical eye and saying “what on earth were these people trying to do with their floors?” Floor fear.

Although I love things to be visually beautiful and pleasing, I’m not really a fussy person. If you combine that with my other fear of spending too much money, you get a house full of floors that resemble a quilt, with surfaces changing as you pass from room to room.

I pretty much hate carpet, at least for my family’s lifestyle, so we have done away with it. About ten years ago I put cork flooring in the kitchen and dining room. About the same time I went for interlocking bamboo in the living room and hall. The money ran out so I decided to paint the cement in my bedroom and lived with it for years. I finally put cork down there too, because I love the way it feels, but it wasn’t the same cork as the kitchen floor.

Vinyl sticky back tiles went down in the guest bath and laundry room – that was probably a mistake. The daughter living at home at the time tried to stop me, but again, the money… I learned my lesson so when we upgraded the master bath we splurged on ceramic tile. The holdouts have been the guest bedroom, which has the original, dark, shiny, sheet vinyl and the lanai which has the original green indoor-outdoor fake turf. Original means 30+ years.

My flooring “quilt”. At least they are all soothing, woodsy colors – like the forest floor.

I’ve watched those shows on HG TV. Those renovators snobbishly rip out perfectly good floors just so they can have their seamless beauty running consistently throughout. I might do that too if I had a house no one was living in, and $50K to spiff things up a bit. But no, as I said, I’m not fussy. In fact, I’m fairly happy walking on any surface that isn’t slippery, sticky or covered with dangerous objects.

Our rental house has even more ancient flooring, and it’s there that I’m most tempted to put down something new. But suppose I put down something I liked but the new owner did not. What a waste of time and resources! How to make it appealing and contemporary without wasting time and money… that is the question.

My sign for F was taken in Hayward, Wisconsin. The Feed Mill really is a feed mill and has sold animal food and field/garden seed since I was a small child.

A to Z: Selling Our House (Letter G)

April 7, 2018 Shirleyjdietz5 Comments

But as for my theme, G is for Garage

Once upon a time, in Florida, we did not have a garage. We had a carport only. It never really was enough room even for our car, truck and trailers. When we moved to the oneacrewoods, we were overjoyed to have a large two car, attached garage with an automatic door opener! My parents in the adjoining house also had a large two car garage. Both of these garages had pull down ladders leading to large attic storage space. I don’t know how many readers will recognize the potential for catastrophe here, but I will just tell you – it is real and present danger, unless you are a very disciplined, organization freak.

We are savers. At one time our garage was so full that I stored my precious lumber (yes, I had lumber) on the floor in piles just high enough that I could park the car over them. Every spare part for sprinklers, various engines, draperies and blinds, lawn equipment, along with nuts, bolts, nails and hardware from every project we ever attempted was all put in the garage. At one time, effort was made to corral like items in boxes, jars and little cases with tiny plastic drawers but it never worked very well. At least 50% of this stuff was/is unusable and should be thrown away, but that is a job in itself and we are always tired when we get done with our projects.

When the hurricane came last year, I got both of our vehicles in the garage but I don’t know how I did it and it hasn’t happened since.

And because I’ve just carried everything down from the attic, it won’t be happening this week either. BUT SOON.

Now, garage clean up has to happen in order to sell the house. And it includes the attics above the garages! I understand, the buyer is not going to want my stuff. I don’t even want my stuff. I feel embarrassed at the 10 years worth of National Geographics that I saved and was going to use for…? And how is it that there are more seashells to be found in my attic than at the seashore? And do you know that it’s probably 120 degrees up there?

These magazines weigh a ton! I hope they weren’t valuable, nah….

The truck and men that I wrote about a few days ago took the big furniture out for me but I have been working on the boxes of saved toys and glassware, books and canning jars all afternoon. The renters are still working on their side too but I think this might be their last truckload.

Today I read about something called dostadning, or “death cleaning”, which is a Scandinavian term for getting rid of your stuff so your children don’t have to do it after you’re dead. But really, it would be good for us to do a little of this for our own well-being and sanity. Keep this in mind, the only thing worse than having to clean the garage is having a garage sale, because then you have wasted a whole half day (at least) and still have to re-store the leftovers in your garage or haul them to a donation place. Just give it all away in the first place. My thoughts.

A to Z: Selling Our House (Letter C)

April 2, 2018April 2, 2018 Shirleyjdietz11 Comments

Today as I finally got to start cleaning one room in the rental part of our property, I ran across another C word, Closet. The person who designed closet doors like these had to be someone who had never had to clean or paint them. What were they thinking?!

Louvered doors – the ideal way to collect dust and dirt and protect it from being washed away.

C is for Contracts and Closings

There are all kinds of contracts I have learned about while getting ready to sell our house. There was the contract with the pest control company before they tented our two houses. Yes, there are tents that big in the south where termites are constantly looking for wood and water – houses are perfect for both.

Then there was the contract with the company that put new windows in our rental house. Windows are a special item in hurricane country. One small one in the laundry room cost over $700. It seems that all really expensive things require contracts, probably because there is a lot to put in writing about the guarantees, warranties, and disclaimers designed to protect everyone involved.

But the contract that we really care about is the one that comes at the end of the sale – that sweet agreement between buyer and seller that seals the deal. There is always a tentative sigh of relief when the house is “under contract”. I say tentative because until the final papers are signed at closing, the deal can fall apart and the process has to start all over again with the next prospective buyer. This last year we sold another property that was under contract twice before we found a buyer who could meet the financial stipulations of the contract.

The closing is always a mysterious thing to me. The husband and I sit at a table with the title company lawyer with our pens in hand. He hands us one paper at a time to initial or sign, and it goes on forever until the tall stack of papers is finished. I could not begin to tell you what all those papers are about, even though they are quickly explained to us as they go whisking by. I kind of glaze over, all the time pretending to be an astute seller, nodding and putting on my “knowing” look. I’m not recommending this method, just saying it happens.

Okay, I need to be silly (it’s a mental health tactic). I started noticing signs this winter and collecting pictures of them thinking that “Signs of the Times” would be an interesting theme for the A to Z. So as not to waste them, even though my theme has changed, I’m putting them in when I have them. They’re fun.