open house, garage sale, open house: repeat

We have hosted two open houses, had one very large (and successful) garage sale,made 9 very large trips to goodwill, sold oodles of 'goods' on craigslist, and have whiddled our possessions down to the items that we hold nearest and dearest. You'd think that our home would look sparse, empty, or even like we had been robbed. But no. Instead our home looks fully furnished and well organized with tidy (but full) closets, cupboards and drawers. The human ability to 'collect' 'stuff' is mind blowing. How two, childless, women could acquire THAT much 'stuff' in such a short period of time is arresting. Nevertheless, we are systematically paring down.

Now, about the open houses: three weeks ago we had an open house advertised ONLY online for two days. That day we had four or five folks drop in to view the property. Yesterday we decided to really 'go after it'...it being the sale of our home. We advertised in the local paper for two days, posted online in various places for a week, and had signs up all week. No. one. came. Ha! Well, almost no one. About an hour before closing up shop a couple came by....but not just any couple. This nice husband and wife duo visited our property on SATURDAY as WELL AS on Sunday. That's right...TWO VIEWINGS. I don't know about you, but in my handbook, 'the fancy girls guide to selling a house in 40 days or less', this is a great sign! I am, we are, cautiously optimistic. The last thing this couple said to me as they left was, "feels just like home". Alrighty then. The only thing better would have been "the check is in the mail". Either way...it was a positive experience.

In the mean time, while we wait patiently for the residents of our property to find their little gem (located at 3503 Westleigh St) Trina and I have been doing our fair share of online property cruising. For those of you who have not rented a home in the past 10 years, it is a whole new world out here. Nearly any property that one could conceive of finding is now posted on any number of websites, online property management companies, free-online-lists (read, craigslist)and even online neighborhood newsletters and newspapers. It really is amazing. Our routine goes a little like this: one of us locates an AWESOME apartment in one of the three neighborhoods we are most attracted to in Boston (South End, Back Bay or Jamaica Plain). Then, we find the address or the properties cross streets (full addresses are rarely available) and search google maps (http://maps.google.com/) by typing in the address or cross streets to get a real life, street level view of the property and the surrounding neighborhood. It is so. much. fun. If we like the area (we often virtually 'stroll' up and down the surrounding streets) we contact the landlord or property manager for additional information. Usually we will 'like' an area if the surrounding streets and properties are tidy, the shrubbery is maintained, there is no graffiti on buildings, the sidewalks are in good repair, there are no bars on windows and if there are parks and greenspaces near by for walking our sweet little beast. So far this has kept us entertained for HOURS as we point and click our way to a new residence. I cannot imagine trying to do this without the internet! Oiy-Vay!

On a completely unrelated note, last week was 'grad fair' at OSU. This is an event for students who will be graduating and participating in commencement....universities will use any excuse to have a 'fair' to sell students things that they 'need' in order to: graduate, register for classes, go to class, go to a sporting event, or any number of other everyday student activities. Nevertheless, I went. It felt like 'the' thing to do, and it felt festive...and let's face it. Jennifer Jabson will do almost anything for a little pomp and circumstance. My dear friend Verna joined me at this 'fair'....and it turned out to be a load of fun. We had our picture taken together posing in PhD regalia (puffy costumes that PhD's wear to commencement ceremonies and other such fluffy events). I can't resist posting these....it was so much fun. By the way, Verna is one of my closest friends whom without I might not have ever made it through this journey. I wonder if she will be able to fly to Boston for our weekly 'social support' meetings?