Mcd's

Since our house has been on the market some 20+ days, we have been kicked out multiple times and left stranded (well, not really) with no where to go. So my kids always ask "Can we go to McDonalds!" to which my reply is always (long pause, thinking of somewhere, anywhere better to go...) "yes, I guess so."

If I see another Cheeseburger, McChicken sandwhich, or Mc anything I may hurl. I always think I'm going to get something different this time, like a salad, but as the employee asks what I want, I never look at the menu, I just order the first thing off the top of my head because after 31 seconds of taking 3 happy meal orders, I've already ruined their streak of 15.7 second orders, it's too much pressure! So here are some pictures with good ol' Ronald McDonald. These do take place over the span of 3-4 visits in January, but really, who cares.

The best part for my kids is the marker tatoos done by a cranky woman who complains that she has lost her hearing working in the playplace. But really anyone would be cranky working there. It always smells like dirty diapers, and inevitably someone child has managed to spill their entire cup of chocolate milk (but of course that would NEVER be from MY child).

Usually the worker tells my kids that they have already maxed out their daily ration of 2 marker tattoos. To which my kids come crying to me to remedy the situation. To which I have to tell the worker that those were from yesterday and thanks for pointing out the fact that I am an awesome mom.


Hannah and her good friend Hallie



Madelyn and Ron have been good friends


Wait for it...



And there's the hug :)



Hannah, Mady, random girl in pink shirt, and Hannah's friend Ellen (in purple)


Breck and Hannah enjoying the delicious cookies that I may now have an addiction to.


Good times at McD's. For one or two hours I can mentally check out with the exception of the occasional glance to make sure they are still in the building, and playing nice.

Oh the joys of selling a house

We put our house on the market at the end of December. We spent the weeks leading up to it getting it prepped and beautified, painted walls, got some new pictures to replace our family photos once hung on our walls, did all the little projects that we have been putting off. Even had our carpets cleaned by a stellar 70 year old who had real classy customer service. See the previous blog post to read about that fun day.

Our realtor ( we will call him D.) decides that he wants to have an open house on January 1st, I believe it was a Saturday. We go for it because he seemed confident that it's a great day. Well our pictures were not even up on the Internet yet, and there was of course no advertising accept for the signs he stuck in the snow as he is driving to our house late of course. So begins the journey on the wrong foot. We have had an open house every Saturday and for the past 2 Sundays. I HATE open houses!
Every Saturday I am again prepping my house to sell, so my realtor can catch up on his tv showing( more on that to come, keep reading..). somehow my realtor kinda slips it in our conversation that he is going to get one person or another to try to come during the open house that he hasn't cleared with me. He makes it seem like I should automatically know that there is an open house this Saturday between 11-12. You know, 'the usual' time. I don't know actually because ya never told me.

So my realtor kindly brought over his wet vac/ steam cleaner vacuum - whatever you call it, because the guy who cleaned my carpets did a really crappy job. It has been taking up space in my house for over a month now. Exactly what I have been trying to get rid of, stuff. I asked his every week for the past three weeks to please kindly take your vacuum. And it's always there when I get home after he has been at my house. The problem is that when he brought it over, he realized that he didn't have a very crucial part for the vacuum to work. So he said he would leave it here until he found it or ordered another part. I have never even had a chance to use it. I finally was at my wits end with this thing, I wanted it out of my house now. I texted him yesterday and told him that if he doesn't take his vacuum this weekend, I'm taking it to his office Monday morning. It disappeared! Yeah!

The first two weeks of having our house on the market were full of too much excitement. Everybody in our family got the stomach flu, or some viral illness really bad. Hannah was the first to throw up, which she did sitting on her bed after we just had sausage for dinner. And she threw up continuously for the next 2 days, Mady decided to join in the fun on the second day, which was really awesome because we had two scheduled showings. So between cleaning the house, laundry and cleaning up vomit we finally got out of the house. I couldn't go anywhere, I couldn't go home and risk them throwing up on the carpet. I stayed in the car ( it was like 10 degrees outside) with my girls the entire day. They were a pathetic sight to behold, throwing up every few minutes. Around lunch time they had not thrown up for a little while, so Hannah was asking if she could have a little bread to eat. I thought I could make it into Daubies for a minute while Hannah was asleep in the car. Mady decided to throw up in Daubies as I'm ordering some bread. I just held out her hat and she threw up in it. I was so appalled and embarrassed that I just walked out without a word and added the hat to the mass mounds of throw up laundry (in trash bags) I had in the back of my car. Maybe looking back I shouldn't have chanced going into Daubie's. It was an awful day, But we got throughout it.
I got sick shortly after then Breck and then Aric in the span of two weeks. Someone was always throwing up.

We have had lots of activity and lots of showings, great feedback, but alas no offers. That's fine, we have some unique features and we are just waiting for the right person. One person said our house was too modern, another too big, and another didn't like the hill in the back. It's hard to see the landscaping in the back with our record amounts if snow.

Move forward to almost a month after we have had it on the market. I feel like I'm in the movie 'Groundhog Day.' I get up and clean everyday. Those of you who have been through this experience must be having traumatic flashbacks.

So for the past four Saturdays our Realtor 'D' has scheduled open houses. Most of them he told us about, once or twice he said we have someone coming during the open house, to which I'll inquire about because he never asked us about scheduling one. He had an open house a week ago on Saturday and Sunday. That same weekend he also scheduled for a realtor to come by one evening and never told me about it. Thankfully we were eating out that night celebrating Aric's birthday because on his actual birthday we were all very ill. I would have been alot more upset if we were at home when the realtor showed up. How unprofessional.

I do have point I am getting to, so keep reading, the climax is coming...

Yesterday, Sunday, I took the kids to church. I always make sure the house is show worthy when I leave because I often get calls that someone wants to come by while we are out of the house. Aric had to go into work that morning to perform surgery on a patient and decided to go home to take shower, since we still live there. I get a text from Aric asking if we were having a showing or an open house. I said no, nothing was scheduled. I had even checked online Saturday night on my own house, on a website that my realtor said would have the most updated info. Since his communication hasn't been top notch, I thought atleast I would get accurate information from an approved source. Nope nothing planned Sunday. Aric said there was an open house sign in our front yard. Why!?

Funny enough 5 minutes after Aric texts me, realtor D texts me and says he'll be finishing up in 10 more minutes, the people thought the house was too big. I don't know if these were the people we've been waiting for to come into town that liked our house. He still hasn't told me. I would have had NO idea what he was talking about if it wasn't for Aric driving home and seeing the open house sign and his car.

The best part:

When I got home Aric and I were trying to figure out what happened when he turned on the tv to watch a big football game that was on. Funny thing is that when he turned on the tv, it was already on the football game, and the tv was on a format that we NEVER use. Then we see little pieces of silver foil wrappers on the coffee table and the floor from hershey's kisses that we leave in a bowl for potential buyers. Wow! Not only was he in our house when he shouldn't have been, but he eats our candy and decides to relax and watch a game. He is so worth the $$ he will get paid. Apparently since he knows that we are supposed to be gone at church for a 3 hour chunk, he can do whatever he likes. I'm so glad that he asked us when our church is, and has keys to our house. Maybe next week I should just leave him a beer and some snacks and say 'help yourself.'

Atleast he took his freakin' vacuum with him!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crazy carpet cleaner

We had a very non-exciting Christmas. It was quiet and we had boatloads of snow. I have been working from about 7 am to 3 am every day for about two weeks to get the house ready to sell just after Christmas. I worked up until 5am Christmas day. Pretty much took Christmas off to make sure the kids didn't feel like we glossed over Christmas. They opened their gifts, and were Sooooo excited to finally get the pillow pets they have been asking for awhile now. We went to see the Rapunzel Tangeled movie, which the kids loved. While the kids were playing with their toys in the evening, down came the tree and all the decorations. I was surprised that they didn't really care. Aric and I moved furniture around and I started painting more walls that night after the kids were asleep of course. I tried painting while they were awake on e and that didn't go over too well. Mady has a way of getting into things she shouldn't and started painting walls the wrong color. My budding Picasso.

My favorite, or least favorite, story, how ever you want to put it, was when the carpet guy came to clean the house. He shows up, and he looks like he is about 70 ( later tells me is 64- keep reading..). Now in Minnesota, everyone takes their shoes off when you walk into someone's house, or the service guy will put on clean booties over their shoes. Apparently not this carpet guy. Not only does he not take off his shoes, but tracks snow all over the house. It was almost painful for me not to point out the fact that he still has his shoes on, and there's snow everywhere. Whatever, he's making his job harder. He starts cleaning and I notice that the is using a rug doctor. A RUG DOCTOR people. You can rent one at Walmart for like $20. Now I have a bad feeling. But then I think, ok, maybe this is a commercial cleaner for professionals. No, I know what a professional steam cleaner looks like and this isn't it.

So after he does the top floor in about twenty minutes, I go and review the stellar job he did. Our carpet is only a few years old, so I just
want to give it that brand new look to it, it's not really dirty, but boy did he not only do a super crappy job, but when I ask him to go over the stains again he breaks out the target brand carpet spray to remove stains. Awesome. Then he gouges my VERY freshly painted walls. I hear my kitchen sink running and him moving my dishes around in the sink. A little weird. He rinsed out his dirty water in the sink. Use the bathtub, or as me where he should pour filthy water out. I am fuming at this point. What to do? I call my realtor, who talks to the guy. This only made it worse. While he's finishing his crappy job, I call my neighbor and ask him to call me make in a half an hour to make sure we are still alive. This guy is putting out some scary vibes, and if he was younger, I would be thinking serial killer. He is not happy to go back over his work, if you can call it that. So, he knocks off $30 off the bill because he knows I'm not pleased. I went over many of the stains that I was hoping he would do( while he was there) and it came out no problem, if he actually did his job, he wouldn't have had any issues. Due to his age alone I would have happily paid him full price if he would have been a nice person. But alas, did I mention he was probably a retired serial killer?? So after he hands me the bill, I tell him there is no way I'm going to pay this amount. I'm kinda shaking at this point because he starts yelling at me. I tell him that I though he had professional steam cleaning equipment and that he was being slightly dishonest. He says he was yelling at another guy who had the same problem ( really?? Someone else had a problem with his work?). I would expect this level of quality work from my four year old. He yells at me again, when I'm trying to calmly tell him his job is unacceptable for the price in a nice way. I am not good with confrontation. I finally stood up for what I knew was right. I also showed him 3 of the gouges in my walls, and he just said that he wasn't perfect, and it happens. He finally said pay him whatever I feel was acceptable. $30 wasn't even acceptable. I paid him $80 so that he wouldn't try to break my windows. I was shaking so bad as i was writing the check. As he was leaving I opened the garage so that he wouldn't try to back into it. I thankfully had a baseball bat of Aric's that I needed to put away in the garage, so I picked it up and pretended to look for a place to put it. If I knew what a panic attack was, I would say I was probably having one. I was so glad he was gone! I don't remember being afraid for my life before. I made sure all my kids were accounted for before he left. Scary dude!

So when Aric came home I told him what happened and he called the guy. He was so rude to Aric, which was surprising because Aric is good with crazy people like that. Aric just said he didn't care what kind of job was done, but that you shouldn't yell at clients. So what does this guy do? He yells at Aric and hangs up on him!! Wow! I bet he gets alot of return customers with his top notch customer service. Awesome.

So irregardless of the carpet job that was done ( my Kirby vacuum does a better job), we had two showings today. We heard back from one of the realtors. All positive. They loved it. They were looking at houses for their son and his family that will be in town in two weeks, and that they hope it is still available. Yeah!! So hopefully all of my many late nights will have paid off. I just hope someone will love our house as much as we do.