WE'RE FOR SALE & Our foundation is TOO SMALL!

We went to the site Sunday to look at the backfill and took some poor photos - a little washed out I would have to say. THUS - we HAVE to go back tonight and take proper pictures.

I have read about and am now experiencing something of an optical illusion.

If any of you are out there also building for the first time you will go through this also. Your house will change sizes!!

When they excavated our lot we both said - It is so SMALL! Our house can not possibly fit in that tiny little hole. From what I have heard your house will changes sizes a number of times. Some say that when the framing starts it actually looks smaller but as soon as the drywall go up all of a sudden the house doubles in size!

One explanation is that when you are looking at the hole or foundation you are comparing it to things you see outside, the perspective is all different. Once walls go up you are comparing it to inside spaces and the house looks huge!

In fact your new house will keep changing size until the furniture goes in and only then does it settle down into its comfort zone!

All I know is that when we saw the foundation go up, it is so so small!! Our three car garage won't even fit ONE car! MAYBE I can fit the lawn mower in there but certainly not a car!!

WE'RE FOR SALE!

The long long long L O N G wait is over. Who knew there would be so many things to do. Yet the stress of cleaning and always having ONE MORE THING to clean or fix is over . . . .well . . .almost. There is ALWAYS something to clean. We both feel we now have a severe case of OCD as we keep finding things to clean and dust! OOPS - missed the TOP of the door! OOPS, that light bulb is dusty. Better polish that faucet to get the calcium deposit, ALERT ALERT - COMBWEBS in the basement!!!

We even got a little MORE anal and put all of our DVD's into a box and took the DVD rack to the basement - WOW, that helped. Declutter Declutter!!

Our plan is to have a list of things DJ and I will do when we get a showing. Each of us will have certain tasks such as wiping down the faucets, new towels in the bathrooms, vacuum and so forth. That way nothing will be missed. Our plan is to go and workout every showing so even if no one buys WE WILL BE BUFF!!

We were Dexeled yet again with a no show. When Dexel Home Interiors said we should "pick a time" and they would fix their botched job in the bathroom we picked 3:00 Friday and for the third time they missed an appointment and did not even call to say they were missing it. Grrrrrrrrrr

Does it REALLY always take over two months to remodel a 26 sq foot bathroom?

Now the wait begins. Reading house selling/buying forums we are ALWAYS seeing houses for sale with people saying "We have not even had an offer for ten months" and "we have not had anybody even look at our house for five months". Where do these people live and what is their agent DOING!!

I'm not saying that we will sell fast but, ten months? Five months without a showing?

One thing I have found interesting is the wording the agent uses when selling a house and what each word can do.

For instance "Well maintained" - seems innocent enough right? Well maintained for a savvy buyer tells him that it is an old house but it's not falling apart YET! But to the person selling the house it sounds more like a compliment.

An analysis of words show that some words are worth a lot of money while others will make the house sell faster but at a lower price.

For instance the word "Beautiful" will make your house sell 15% faster and the average list price and the effect on the selling price will be 5% larger.

"Good value" will speed things up by 5% but it will drop the average price by 5%

"Starter Home" YUCK 9% faster sale but 10% less in selling price.

"Handyman special" you will sell your home in 1/2 the time of a normal home but also 30% less.

When looking at what makes houses sell one thing is to use nouns in your ad's. Granite, Maple type words and not vague adjectives like Fantastic, Charming and Wonderful. Adjectives will typically bring down the price of a home! Nouns give people hard evidence of what they are getting.,

The sign goes up in a couple days and we will be on MLS today from what I hear.

What we need now is some major snow melt!

BUT the real fun is always the NEW house!

My latest fixation is on direct vent gas fire places. Ours will be a Lennox MPB3530. A mid range level fireplace. I have been TOLD that it under heat and physically will look too small. Well, for ONE thing it's a GAS fireplace, not a showpiece fireplace. We have seen this size in other houses and it looked OK. It's not suppose to be the center of attention.

As far as heat, I'm thinking of getting a blower kit as it would be nice to have the room heated in winter. DJ is cold nine months a year and having an extra push of warm air in the winter in the living room while keep the rest of the house cool would be sweet!

I'll have more fixations coming!

Rod and DJ