Basement, Shmasement!

In case you didn't read all my posts, or didn't read them thoroughly, I'm trying to sell my house. I live in the middle of the midwest. Actually, I live in the middle of Michigan, which is the middle of the midwest...sort of. Anyway, my house has been on the market since April of this year. I started out trying to sell it on my own, but then tragedy struck and I had no energy for doing anything except for getting up in the morning and reminding myself to keep breathing (my mom died in May) so I decided to hire a realtor and let her do all the work. So far, she's done a fair amount of work. We argued back and forth about how much I should price my house at and she finally won. I reduced my asking price by about 20k and let her list it in the MLS and advertise it in the local real estate magazine.

Under normal circumstances, my house would have sold within 2 weeks of being put on the market. There was a house on my block that went up for sale the same weekend mine did back in April, just a tad smaller then mine, and as far as I'm concerned, not as nice as mine, but it had something my house doesn't have...a basement, and it sold within 2 weeks that it was listed. There was another house put on the market in the beginning of June which also sold within 2 weeks. It too had a basement and was about 300sq ft. smaller then mine. Clearly, if I had a basement, my house would have sold by now.

About 2 years ago I added a master suite on to the house. That's an entire second floor. Prior to that, my house was quite small with only 1 story. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with 1 fireplace. Now its a gigantic 2 story house with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. The master suite has a huge walk-in closet, remote controlled gas fireplace and a very luxurious bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and shower for two with body sprays. I've replaced all the flooring throughout most of the entire house and painted almost all the rooms. The roof is new; so is the airconditioner, the furnace, the water heater and the electrical system. With such luxury and all I can't understand why no one is snatching up my house.

I've had lots of lookers, which means its priced right. But all the feedback I get is that its a great house, its beautiful, and if only it had a basement.

I say basement, shmasement! They're just big rooms full of bugs, mold, mildew and the potential for leaks. Plus, they are places to store junk. I've lived in this house for almost 15 years and never had to worry about these things, including collecting more then I need. If I were living in the Middle of Michigan and looking to buy a really great looking house with lots of new features and a wonderful, luxurious, romantic upstairs get-a-way, I would snatch my house up in a heartbeat. Too bad I'm trying to sell it!

Trying out Beta

I'm checking out the Beta version of this blog site and so far I like it very much. See if you notice anything different. I'd be interested in reading your comments, if you have any.

No, I'm Not Eccentric!

Do you have pets? Well, I do. 2 Cat's. I never knew that cat's could be so expensive. It's the cute little one on the bottom that costs me soooooooo much money. You see, when I first got her she was teeny tiny. Actually, she was the runt of the litter and was the cutest! (Remind me never to bring home a runt ever again!) However, she was a very sickly kitty and I didn't know it at the time. That was 2 years ago. She had diarrhea and all sorts of other issues that developed and eventually seemed to disappear on their own. All except the diarrhea. All the tests that were done revealed no major abnormalities except for a tad elevation in her white blood cells. 2 years later and still nothing shows up in the diagnostic tests. She's had numerous rounds of antibiotics all to no avail. The vet I use has repeatedly wondered if my little kitty has food allergies. So, finally she decided that we should try feeding her only prescription allergy food. So I agreed. Little did I know that prescription allergy food is more costly than diamonds. (Well, okay so I'm exagerating a little bit. But just a little!) This stuff costs $43.00 for a 10lb bag of dry food. Let me repeat that: $43.00 for 10lbs! And a case of 24 cans cost $40.00. That's the medium size cans. So, today I spent $83.00 on food for the cats which I hope lasts more than 2 weeks cuz if it doesn't, then I'll be spending more on food for the cats then I do for myself.

This whole experience reminds me of when I was in college. Way back when I was a sophomore in college I had 3 cats that I couldn't afford to take care of. I was spending more on food for them then I was for myself. I am not eccentric! Even though many of you might think I am. Except that you all might be right about this! The vet who was caring for my cats when I was in college said so herself.

How Do YOU Do It?

Okay, so I've been checking out some other blog sites and I just don't get how you all do it. How are you able to write a new post each and every day? First, when do you find the time and B. where do you get those witty ideas from? Regarding time, I wouldn't be writing this post now if my 4:00 appt had not forgotten our appointment. So, it's 4:20pm, EST, and since I have a no-show I've got 45 minutes to do something else. (Since this is a new patient, I can't charge this person for a missed appointment so I feel it completely appropriate to really do something else!) And, I've chosen this to be that "something else". So, please do tell, where do you find the time, and where do your ideas come from?

Some of the blogs I've read are really wonderful. I've learned quite a bit and have gotten quite a few really good laughs from the reads as well. So, thank you for the entertainment and if you feel like sharing where your ideas are born out of I'd love to read about it!

Ack, Reading Mom's Diary and Wanting More!

Is that a hair ball, or am I really sick? Oh no. I think I'm sick. I'd rather it be a hair ball. But I'm not so lucky. I've been sneezing on an off all day today. Yuck. I think I'm getting a cold. You know, one of those yucky, put you in bed, summer colds.

Anyway...here's what my post is really about.



My sister found my mom's diary a couple weeks back. She read it and told me I should read it. She said I would enjoy the read. She was right. It wasn't anything heavy. My mom wrote it during her senior year in high school. It was light reading. She mostly wrote about who she spent her day with, whether or not she went to school that day (there were a few days she played hooky) if she and my dad went out that day and on every page she wrote "I love Bob." She would also write whether or not she and Bob (my dad by the way) "scrunged" that day. I think that meant whether or not they made out. Numerous entries were quite funny. I laughed a lot.

I wish she had thought to share it with us while she was alive. What a nice time we could have reading her diary together and then talking about her high school years and dating my dad. I would have enjoyed that immensely. After having read her diary I have a ton of questions that I wish I could have asked her. And since my dad's gone too (he died 20 years ago this year) I can't ask him. So, I'll never know.

We told our brothers about having found it. My older brother is very interested in reading it. My younger brother's reaction sort of surprised me. He doesn't think he wants to read it because he feels he's invading her privacy. That made me pause, for just a brief moment. I then realized that I don't feel the same way. I think we learn a lot about people by reading their diaries...its just too bad most aren't read until after the person has passed away-cuz then we can't ask questions or ask the author to elaborate on what she's written. I told him as much and my sister and I left our mom's diary with him for him to decide whether or not he wishes to read it.

Now, my sister and I are going through my mom's photo albums. I've done that more than a million times, but now that my mom's gone, going through the pictures has a different feel. I'm looking at them differently. I want to ask a ton of questions, but there's no one to ask. I want to know who everyone is in the pictures and what they meant to my mom. And what they meant to my dad.

---A week after my mom died I received a phone call from an old friend of my mom's. I knew her way back but hadn't known that she and my mom had kept in touch all these years. She moved out of state many years ago, but whenever she returned, she would call my mom and take her out to lunch. I did not know this. Anyway, she called me and told me she would like to take me out to lunch. She and her 1st husband and children were good friends with my parents and my older brother and myself. Her husband died during the Viet Nam war. Her son and my brother were good friends and her daughter and I were good friends. Her son died when he was 16 in a car accident. I have not seen her daughter in many years. When she called and asked me to lunch I jumped at the invitation. How I long to learn more about my mom.

My feelings and thoughts about my mom are influenced by my growing up years which were fraught with dysfunction, illness and anger. Now that my mom is gone, I realize that there was more to my mother then my colored memories of her. I want to know her as a person, separate from me, separate from her being my mother. I want to know what she was like as a friend, a daughter, a sister and especially a woman. So, I'm on a mission to talk with anyyone I can find who knew my mother.

I'm truly sorry that I was not able to reach this place of understanding, curiosity and loving prior to her death however, that is the way it usually works.

Did y'all hear the news?

Brad on The Young And The Restless is Jewish! It's in the Jewish News. Now, he's been calling himself Don Diamonte, but his real name is Bruce Feinberg. And, did you also know that Paula Abdul is Jewish. Yep, that's right. You know the rule...you are what your mother is and since her mother is Jewish, that makes her a jew. (Here's my claim to fame, or my 6 degrees of separation...Paula is a 3rd cousin of mine twice or thrice removed.)

Who else has been keeping their Jewish heritage a secret? Hmmmmm?