Throw Me a Bone!

Blah - waiting for the final word on the outstanding offer. Ugh! Keep your fingers crossed.

In other news, I was at a café with another mum and baby today. The waitress kept cooing over my friend's baby.

"She's so precious!"

"She's so lovely!"

"Can I carry her into the kitchen and show her off?"

Her only acknowledgment of LM was, as we were leaving, "He's a... good little baby, isn't he?"

Now obviously my friend's baby is a complete sweetheart, but for god's sake, throw my kid a bone! Clearly the woman was insane, and also, blind. Luckily I don't need any outsider's confirmation that he is the most adorable seven-month old on the planet, because well, the proof is right there on his face!

Lazing in the sand.

Not digging the baby sunglasses.

All the proof I need!

Eyaach. So the second bidders resubmitted their offer, which is good. We won't know if it goes through for several more days so in the meantime we are still keeping it clean all the time (or attempting to do so.) Their inspector came through and was very hardcore about everything apparently and found all sorts of problems that the other inspector didn't. But I'm assuming no news is good news and I've got to believe that if they were going to back out based on the inspection, they would let us know before our open house (when presumably if others were going to make offers, they would.) They knew we were screwed over once, so hopefully if they were going to withdraw, they wouldn't wait until the last minute.

I do have a better feeling about the couple. They sound like nicer people. And the woman who withdrew sounds like she's sort of under Daddy's thumb a little bit. Plus he bought her a beemer for her birthday. And the going theory is still that she withdrew after he decided there was something wrong with the place. Coddled, much? And we're not talking some sweet young thing - she's well into her 30s. This apartment holds so many wonderful memories for us that I'm quite happy to sacrifice a few dollars to have it go to someone who sounds a little less immature. And if it's not this couple, it'll be someone else. But I really hope it's this couple!

F*ck f*ck f*ck

We had three offers on our place Sunday. We accepted the highest one with the fewest conditions. The offers were close, and we could have gone back to the closest ones and asked if either one was willing to go a bit higher to create a clear difference. But we wanted to be good people, and we trusted that in a multiple offer situation both people had put themselves out as far as they could go. We didn't want to get greedy since we were getting what we hoped and a bit more. Plus we felt a real comfort in that the buyer's agent made her client sound extremely sympathetic and that she really, really wanted to be in this building; that it quote unquote "felt like home." It's funny how it works here - the agents do their little spiels on their clients in the hopes that you might be swayed by that even if the offer isn't, strictly speaking, the best one.

What's weird is that for a few days afterwards I had a real sadness for the runners up, who had apparently been beat out in several multiple offer situations already. They were (according to their agent) a young couple looking to start a family et cetera et cetera. I don't know why I didn't really care about the third couple even though they had sounded nice as well. After a few days I got over my seller's remorse.

The inspection was yesterday and went well and I met, very briefly, the skinny bitch who, I thought, would be moving in. (You see where I'm going with all this, right?) But there was one more little condition I hadn't really worried about. She had already seen and signed off on our financials for the condominium, but not a particular form that also lists some financial details and assures that we are up-to-date on our condo fee payments (which we are). In my mind it was a complete formality, but of course the standard contract is drafted in a way that is quite vague. So apparently she is now backing out because she has decided she will not "approve" that form. The pisser is that she's had that form since Sunday night and she has waited until Thursday to back out so now our condo is cold cold cold.

I know it sounds crazy to be in a fit because our condo hasn't sold in a week, but in this market a week or two on the market can mean a difference of $15K or more in price.

The somewhat significant silver lining is that at least we can go back to the other two offers and ask them if they are still interested. But man, how could she DO that to us? She royally f*cked us and she knows it. Our agent and hers feels that she is using it as an excuse because her father (who was at the inspection) feels she is overextending. Good for her I guess, but our condo was very fairly priced and I can guaran-f*cking-tee she will not find anything as nice at the same price. Did I mention the gleaming hardwood floors, gourmet kitchen and loads of upgrades? And now I have to clean it again! F*ck!!

Not Counting My Chickens

We sold - pending inspection. We are very much relieved and I will post more about the process once everything is all confirmed. All I can say is that this is a crazy, crazy market. In the meantime I am still trying to keep the place neat and tidy since I know the potential new owner will be spending some time in here poking around tomorrow (at least that's what I did for our inspection!)

Also, don't you find it weird when neighbours ask the price? Five sets of them traipsed through the open house too. Hmph - nosy. We don't even tell our family that - it's kind of personal. I'm pretty open to blogging about finances in the abstract here, but I prefer to remain quiet about it in my real life. Why don't they just do what I do - quietly e-mail your real estate agent and ask.

Offers

We are accepting offers for our place at 8 p.m. So incredibly nervous. Hope all goes well. Trying to feel zen about it. BUNDLE of nerves. If it doesn't go this weekend that's bad news in this market as stale = bad.

Prepping

Man - that cold/flu lasted forever. I missed all my baby activities last week. I was pretty sure we were past contagion after about five days, but I figured the other mothers might not appreciate me hacking and coughing all over their infants.

We are crazily preparing our home for sale now. Our open house is this weekend. We are packing up boatloads of baby gear in an attempt to make our 700 square feet look as spacious as it feels to us. It's funny, D was really reluctant to rush and in and buy anything and kept asking friends with older kids if they really needed the space. I think he could have easily been convinced to last here for another year or more. But now that we have our new space, and there will be a separate bedroom for LM, and a den (a real den, not a condo-speak den that can fit a desk and bookshelf and not much more), all of a sudden this feels cramped. D is planning our workout area, and I am praying we get over asking so that we can afford a new washer/dryer. Ahh... bourgeois dreams. I just realised how gender-stereotyped our little fantasies are.

I am hiring a cleaning crew tomorrow and since I am paying for that I have stopped doing any sort of cleaning maintenance for the last week, which means the tub and toilet and kitchen sinks are all icky and the place is in desperate need of a vacuum. But at least I'll feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

Cold Season

I have the flu, or a bad cold, or something. A really sore throat, nausea, fatigue, no voice. LM has it too, or at least has a terribly cough... again. And so I called D home from work to take him and I rested all day. Which really means I got a little sleep, watched some bad TV and made some baby food in peace while they were out. (Aside - I have decided that shelling fresh peas to puree them is above and beyond the call of motherly duty - so not worth the effort. And he didn't even like them that much. Bah.) Pea frustration aside, it was heavenly - why do I have to be sick to enjoy that?

Now I'd really like to just chill in bed reading, but I can't because LM is asleep in there. And I'd really, really love to sleep in tomorrow. But I can't, for like, the next 7 years. And I know I'm going to be up in an hour or MAYBE two, with a crying baby, desperately hoping to get him back to sleep before he wakes up so much that he just won't.

He is lucky he is so darn cute.

Dilemma

When I got pregnant, one my big regrets regarding the timing was that it meant that I'd have to turn down my clerkship. It was a really tough decision, and I still sort of lament it. Yesterday I got a call from the courts - apparently two clerks have left, one for family reasons, one for reasons unspecified, and as a result they are scrambling. The position was offered to me - to start ASAP, full-time, 9 to 5.

And it was interesting, because my immediate reaction wasn't "No." At the time I turned it down, I could have asked to come back after six months. But I didn't. And yet, a part of me thought - wouldn't it be wonderful to be back in the working world, doing a really interesting job. And I guess the thing is, I wanted the clerkship so badly. It was the focus of my whole second year of law school. And then I got it, and didn't do it. And here it was being offered again, which is totally unheard of. It was like all the stars were telling me I need to clerk!

But after mulling it over for an afternoon, I have decided not to take it. It would mean finding last-minute childcare for LM, cancelling my two trips, delaying my start date at my firm. And it wouldn't bring in much more money - maybe a couple hundred dollars extra a month - because by the time I finish paying for childcare, what's left won't be much more than what the government pays me to be on my year of maternity leave.

I'm sure LM would survive, even thrive, without me. I'm sure I'd enjoy the work. But I think I'd also look longingly out the window on a sunny July day and think, I could be hanging out in the wading pool with my guy, I could be going to music class or working in my garden. Work will always be there. But I can't get back this time.

And part of it is just about having confidence in my original decision. I don't want to a big fancy New York lawyer, or a well-known litigator. Work is important to me, and I want to have a career I love, but I have to have faith that I can get to that place through less traditional means. I need to define my own success - not adopt the definition from some law firm hiring committee.

A Room of One's Own

So we bought a house! I am still reeling from the sticker shock, but we're so happy. I tried to believe when we lost the other place that "what's meant to be will be" and this kind of confirms it. I know hindsight is 20/20, but when we first looked at the last place I told D that I just didn't "see" us there; I can totally see us in the place we've got - which I guess is a good thing since we are indeed going there! It doesn't have quite the same cuteness factor that the other place did, but at its heart, it's a better house. The neighbourhood is closer to where we are now, it's not too near a busy street, the basement has a higher ceiling, and the kitchen is much bigger.

In the three months we've been househunting we honed in on one style that is very typical for the area since that is pretty much all we could afford. I think I have seen about 40 of these two-bedroom bungalows - all of them variations on theme. They are all square boxes with four main rooms: living, kitchen and two bedrooms. They all have oak flooring in the living area and cedar in the bedrooms (unless some one covered it with carpet, or, ugh, replaced it with laminate.) Small things change: the placement of the bathroom or hall, the existence of an eating nook, or the exterior siding, the yard. I've gotten really good at looking past the staging and noticing whether it has our "must-haves" - entry closet, storage space, room to grow.

So the plusses on this one are:

• big, new kitchen - it might not have been done the way I'd have chosen (I think it's IKEA) but still, nothing to do there;
  
• high basement height, means there are real possibilities down there, a guest room and 2-piece bathroom downstairs (plus a studio suite has a separate entrance and is rented out to assist with the mortgage);
  
• big closets and cold storage (YAY STORAGE!) and
  
• a view of the mountains;

The biggest plus as far as I'm concerned is that it's right next to a giant park with a play structure and kiddy pool and lots of kids running around in it. The minusses are all quite fixable:

• ugly windows, driveway that abuts the house (we'll rip it out);
  
• yard not completely fenced in;
  
• no garage (but space for one);
• a bit of a mouldy corner in one corner of the house but we can fix that quite easily.
  

I feel very lucky that we can even contemplate owning a house in this city. Many of our friends are settling permanently in apartments or moving outside the city limits. The real estate market is insane. We bid $25,000 over asking to secure this place and because there were multiple bidders, we could not make it subject to inspection, financing et cetera - all that had to be done beforehand. Within less than 24 hours after the offer was accepted I had to somehow liquify $4oK for a deposit even though we haven't yet sold our own place and therefore have no access to the equity we have in our condo. (Um - yay line of credit, credit cards and bank of Mum and Dad). That money's not anything close to our full downpayment, that's just a part of the downpayment that we have to pay immediately so that if we back out on the contract they can keep that. We spent all of 3 hours in the house (including the inspection - done before the offer) and we're now going to be moving our whole life there! Oh and I just found out someone was stabbed down the street just a few weeks ago - woops!

This city is crazy. But we are still really, really happy. We have seen enough houses to know that we did good.