PRIORITIES

Funny how different priorities can be.

Marty and I got a call from our realtor last Monday. He wasn't calling to say he'd found an acreage for us to go check out, he was calling to say he might have buyers for our condo. Our condo that we hadn't really even talked about listing yet. Our condo that we are gonna take a loss on nomatter what since we bought at the peak of the market. Our condo we thought we'd have better luck renting out than selling if and when we find an acreage to purchase. We were pumped! This was an "out of the blue" opportunity and we really had nothing to lose. We had two and a half evenings until the "showing." Immediately, I wanted to make a list of things that needed to get done and in what order we should do them. Top of my list was CLEAN!!! I heard somewhere that the kitchen is what sells a house. If the woman loves the kitchen, the house will sell. I wanted to focus on the kitchen and the bathrooms. Marty, well, Marty wasn't too worried about cleaning. Top of his list? Getting a bed frame for the bed in the master bedroom. Like, what??? We've gone almost three years with no bed frame and suddenly, it is priority? We finally agreed that Monday night would be "decluttering" night, Tuesday night would, apparently be a trip to Ikea and Wednesday until 7:30pm would be cleaning.

The whirl wind began with us trying to make our living space look bigger. First we dragged the treadmill from the living down to the garage. Then spent the rest of the night clearing out closets and shelves. I'd like to say we carefully put every item we own in a special, clutter free space, but the reality is, we hid a lot of stuff under the spare room bed. Okay, I hid a lot of things under the bed. I also stuffed random clutter into desk drawers and the cab of my truck. A few things found thier way into the washing machine and the dryer. By the time we went to bed Monday night, the surface area of our condo looked spacious and clutter free.

Tuesday, Marty dragged me begrdugingly to Ikea. Don't get me wrong, I love Ikea, I really do, but NOT when I am in a hurry, not when I have a condo I am trying to get ready to sell and not when I am with someone who cannot make decisions. Marty was hell bent on getting a bed frame but once he had me in the store he started showing me living room chairs and coffee tables. He believed that new furniture would sell our place but all I could think about were the dust bunnies and dog hair that needed sweeping and mopping up. We spent the entire evening at Ikea and finally left with a new coffee table and a bed frame. I gotta admit, the bed frame did look damn good, once it was all put together.

Wednesday, we had until 7:30pm to finish prepping our condo for the big showing. I had planned to leave work right away, which would get me home at 4pm. My plan was to divide the house in two, each of us tackling a floor and cleaning steady until we had to leave the premises. En route from the school to home, Marty called. He had found a chair on Kijiji was driving across the city in rush hour to get it! What????? So while he was off on a freaking chair hunt, hours before our condo was being shown, I began the process of scrubbing the entire place! Priorities!!!

We left the building at 7:30. We took Scout to a dog park and killed time. Our realtor called at 9:45, said the showing was a success and he'd keep us posted.

After all was said and done, our condo got cleaned, cleaner than it has been in 3 years, we got some new furniture, I'll admit, it really does look good and we got a very desirable potential offer on our home! Different priorities, that what's makes Marty and I a great team!!

The chair!