Monday, August 20, 2007

Open house before the Open House

I had an open house this weekend, on Sunday. The realtor hasn't even called to let me know how it went, so probably nobody came. Actually, I had an open house BEFORE the open house! Let me explain, and I swear that the old saying (from a country song, I think) that "If I had no bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" certainly seems to be operating in my life since last spring.

It was early on Sunday (yesterday) and, as I rolled up the window blinds I noticed a fat, Sunday paper sitting on my front porch. I'd been planning to go to pick up a paper later, as my subscription has long expired and it's too costly to renew. Wondering what the ethics of such a thing might be, I went out into the porch/entryway thing, opened the front door and with difficulty, bent to get the paper. One of my feet was still inside the porch and as I rocked back with my weight, my foot and leg went right through the floor! It was a small hole but I fell in up to my knee and the falling, broken board crashed through the ceiling tile of the bedroom down below! Now I had a shortcut to get downstairs that was right inside the front door. The realtor's lockbox is on the front door, so it wasn't like I could close off that entryway and have them come in downstairs.

You could see right into the bedroom my son used to have. I had just cleaned it up on Saturday because the kids had left it somewhat of a mess last weekend, with apologies, because they had to drive the several hours back home to get to work on time. I could see his desk, the nice red futon with pillows, his queen-sized bed with comforter all smoothed on. It was pretty weird but disconcerting too--I had an open house in a matter of hours. There wasn't anyone I could call to repair the floor and ceiling in that amount of time and I didn't have the money to pay them, anyway.

Even though I've disposed of lots of my stuff, I still am something of a packrat down in one part of the basement. So I went down there to figure out how I might temporarily cover up the floor. I found the metal back of a computer, which was the right size, and some old floor tiles. So first the thin metal back went over the hole, to prevent anyone from falling in, and then I covered it with the large floor tiles. It didn't look too bad. the change of flooring material was obvious but at least there wasn't a hole to see into the bedroom.

For the ceiling downstairs I actually had some ceiling tile. It was too large so I had to cut it to fit and get it up in those pesky little hanger-things. It made an even bigger mess once I was done with all of that and I had no vacuum cleaner. The vacuum I had used previously was my son's and he had asked for it back. So the last time I went to visit him (also with the little washer and dryer) I had brought him his vacuum cleaner. I did still have a mini-broom and dustpan so used that to clean up all the dust and debris in the bedroom.

The weird thing is that this house is a nice house, really! The little country house wasn't so great, and the house before it even worse but this one is a well-kept up, good house. And none of the other houses ever had the floor give way! Go figure. It's getting late, so I must go to work. Have a great day!

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9 Comments:

Blogger Karen said...

That is so unfair for that to happen when you are trying so desperately hard to sell. You really can't take a trick at the moment and you seem to be taking it so well. Chin up, the tide has to turn sooner or later. How's your back now? I bet suddenly going through the floor didn't help any. Take care and try to stay in one piece.

7:50 AM  
Blogger Terri said...

How ingenious you were to fix the hole so quickly. I'm sorry for all the bad luck though. I sure hope something goes your way soon.

9:01 AM  
Blogger sumo said...

Just when you thought it was safe to sell your house...so sorry for your troubles at short notice no less!

3:44 PM  
Blogger Walker said...

That sucks and it would happen on a day you need the house to look its best to.
I got to give you lots of credit for rising to the occation and getting it fixed with what you had available.

The realtor should be keeping you up to date with all that happens.

10:52 PM  
Blogger Lorna said...

Have I ever mentioned the evils of reading newspapers?

4:49 AM  
Blogger Stacy The Peanut Queen said...

Isn't that just the crappiest??? I hate it when something so unexpected happens, you know? It's not like the floor was rotted and you knew about it...it was just WHAM!!!

6:44 AM  
Blogger Dale said...

Wow! What an unpleasant surprise! I hope it didn't further aggravate your sore back.

8:17 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

PBS: You are creative, that's for sure!!!

2:45 PM  
Blogger Maria said...

Good hell, I would have been wringing my hands while you were rummaging around finding a solution.

And, I don't mean to add more anxiety, but has your house been inspected for termites? Most buyers insist on it these days and it might be good to just go ahead and have that worry gone.

7:28 PM  

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