Really, I cannot adequately describe how overwhelmingly tiresome it is to live in a house that is for sale! We have had people going through our home several times a week for months, another comes through on Friday. Our home has been inspected, poked, and prodded. I have to leave to sit in the park several times a week, with no way of knowing when the visitors have left. Keeping the house ready to show takes hours of work each and every day. It is all very, very tiresome!
Well, there isn’t any other way to sell the house, so complain as I might, the parade will continue until we sell.
The sky is rumbling angrily tonight. Attila had a few outdoor projects planned, that have been postponed. One is to spray the driveway with the mixture of epsom salts, vinegar, and dish soap. This works to kill weeds. Our driveway is long, and we have several walkways to tend as well, so spraying it is a lot of work and a significant expense. It needs to be done though, to keep the place looking good. But not tonight, rain would wash it away before it does its job. We are expecting rain.
The hot muggy weather has me wilting. I spend these miserably hot and humid days trying not to move, because when I do my body temperature rises at an alarming rate. It is after 8 pm now, and the temperature has dropped to the point where we have opened the windows, to gain a very slight improvement.
Last night Attila setup the portable air conditioner, for which I am grateful. The heat and humidity are much easier to tolerate after a good night’s sleep.
I am now doing the final edits on my genealogy book. But fate does not want me to complete it just yet! I found and contacted a distant cousin, who sent me not only information about her branch of the family, but also a series of photographs. She began by sending me a photograph of two children, all she had was their surname. Using the photographers information on the cardboard frame, I tracked down the studio, and determined the dates he was in operation, and thereby the approximate birth dates of the children. From that information I identified the children within the family tree. I will include some of the photographs in the book, and have updated the data, which requires a big edit job, but it is well worth it.
I still need to write back to this particular cousin and share with her everything I have on her branch of the family, I am sure there are a few tidbits in my notes that will be helpful to her. She has certainly helped me a great deal.
Most of the other edits are spelling corrections, formatting issues with place names, and ensuring that the conventions used are consistent throughout the book. The data was collected over a period of more than twenty years, so there are inconsistencies in my methods of recording. I try to not only correct this in the book, but also go back into the database to make the corrections there as well.
Well that’s me, busy with the ongoing attempt to sell the country house, my genealogy book, and trying to survive the heat. Life is quiet, and good.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
22°C
Muskoka Airport
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Tuesday 18 August 2015
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 21.8°C
Dewpoint: 20.2°C
Humidity: 90%
Wind: SE 9 km/h
Humidex: 30
Quote
“I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I’m gonna put pins into all the locations that I’ve traveled to. But first, I’m gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won’t fall down.”
Mitch Hedberg
1968 – 2005
Quiet and good, a very good place to be in life. My daughter would call that “boring”. I told her that “boring was the resting stage between the “exciting” times in life, and that she would learn to wish for “boring”. A few years ago she agreed with me.
Instead of waiting in the park, is there a public library that is air conditioned where you could spend a pleasant couple of hours? That way you could make use of the cool air, comfortable chairs and possible old friend (books) all at the same time.
Is it at all feasible to have the agent send you a text to your cell phone when they’re done with the showing? I know your cell phone costs seem to be much higher than ours farther south, but thought it was worth asking.
Other than needing to get the house sold, boring is good, if for no other reason than because it means nothing bad is happening.
I’m glad to hear that Attila was able to set up the a/c for you. I know what it’s like to overheat readily and how important it is to stay cool when you do. (That’s why I was so glad to be in the water when we went to the beach on Sunday. It lowered my core body temp significantly.)
Your new discovery for your genealogy book sounds important. Glad you were able to make a connection. (You’ve reminded me that I need to tell you guys about a new link I was given the other day.)
Honestly Maggie, I have to reiterate that having no AC in the house for viewers might be having a negative affect on their willingness to buy it! I know you said it’s an expense you don’t wish to make, but sometimes you have to “spend money to make money” — now who said that? Donald Trump? (joke)… anyway, I know what you mean, my sister in law tried selling their large house near here a few years back and it was just too horrible for them, keeping it clean and neat all the time (with dogs) and leaving all the time. There really should be a better system – like showings only on one day of the week, scheduled way ahead of time… and only lasting a certain length of time (an hour is long enough to view a house!)…
Lee Ann, how gratifying that your daughter reached a stage in her life where she understood what you had been talking about!
Ah yes, the park. We live in the bush. The library close by is only open two days a week, for four hours on each day. The library is not air conditioned. I do not belong to this library, as I have read all of the books worth reading in it, and my presence there would be an unusual small time event, one which I am unwilling to experience. Great idea though, if I were living in an urban area, 🙂
The park, on the other hand, has a view of the water, and is full of vacationers from all over the world, I am insignificant there, and enjoy the scenery, human and landscape.
Wendy, that is a good idea, to have the agent call. The agents who come to the house have no way to contact me directly, and I do like that because there is no high pressure sales going on, or inappropriate probing. The arrangements for the visits are made by a local booking agent, not my realtor, or the visiting realtor, so I will ask her about getting the visiting realtor to call her so that she can call me… she might do it.
You sure have that right Wendy, boring does mean nothing bad is happening!
Teri, a dip in the water does go a long way to keep a body cool! Funny though, although I could swim at the beach that is a one minute walk from the house, I haven’t done it, not in the eleven years we have lived here. I am not entirely sure why that is, I loved swimming when I was a kid; we swam at Granny’s beach or diving off the rocks on the right of way when we were older, the water was fresh and clean.
Never liked pools, hated swimming lessons (1 instructor, over 100 kids, teachers from the public school standing at the edge of the pool watching over their own classroom children, and BLEACH, blech!). I think pools are where I developed an aversion to swimming.
Bex, I take your point. It is an expense we are unable to make, as it isn’t as simple as installing the unit. We have electric heat here, there is no central system for delivery… it is a major renovation to install central heat/air, even more so because of the type of construction used for the house. It is just one of those things. It really is not as big a deal here as it is on the eastern seaboard, we will have five days of hot muggy weather, and then go back to warm days and moderate nights with the windows open. All of the other properties in our price point are without central air, it just isn’t common among the working poor here.
We keep hoping the house will sell, and that the misery of living under such circumstances will then be gone forever. But as time goes on it is looking more and more like a way of life, rather than a temporary inconvenience!
Maggie, you need to go dip those toes into your – yes, your – lake. Another memory to be made, not an opportunity to be lost. Take Attila with you. A joy shared is a joy doubled.
*hug*
LOL, Teri, you would have me wading. I like to do that with the Grandkids, otherwise I am not so keen. Maybe I will hit my second childhood sometime soon, then again… 🙂
😉 We all need a second childhood sometime. Ask LeeAnn, we’ve rolled down a hill together and into a mud puddle at an arboretum! (The mud puddle was unexpected.) Made for a fun memory, though. 😉
Dangling toes in a lake is for every age. 😀
(No, not pushing. Just very gentle nudging.)
I forgot about the puddle, didn’t stop us from enjoying the rest of the day, even though our husbands didn’t want to know us while we rolled down that hill! Couldn’t do it now, but I still do the childish stuff every now and then