It Only Takes One

Today we had to vacate for an open house.  We went to my friends' place. They were out of town and had generously agreed to let us camp out in front of their big flat-screen television for a few hours while we let complete strangers walk through our house and make fun of our second-hand furniture.  I can just hear them in my mind:

Potential Buyer #1:  Wow!  Look at all this hard wood!  It's gorgeous, honey!

PB#2:  Yeah, but why do they have that dining room table from 1982 paired with the mismatched antique chairs?  I don't get it.

PB#3:  Hey, come upstairs!  I just saw this futon advertised in the Kmart flyer!

After two hours, we returned home to find a dark house and a missing realtor. She called to say there had been five people - two who said it was out of their price range, two who had just started looking and didn't even know what they wanted and one who was trying to sell a house contingently (I don't know if that is a word) just like us.  It was a little disappointing to not have had more people after spending so much time this week frantically painting, raking and generally spiffing up the place, but I suppose the off-side is that we have a really good-looking house right now. It's quite clean.

I think when we bought this house, our last realtor told us it had had eight previous owners.  That's not so bad considering that it was built between 60-80 years ago.  I think the house would probably want to get rid of us. We've been strict parents.  We always give it what it needs, but we call it mean names when it screws up.  Punishment is usually swift and dealt at the hands of a power tool or home-warranty contractor.  Or maybe the house likes that we always deal with its aches and pains right away.  Who knows how This Old House really feels about its owners.  I remember when we moved in, I was briefly genuinely afraid of ghosts. It is such an old house, and it made odd creaking noises at night that sounded JUST LIKE a dead person climbing the stairs. Just like. 

Well, we may not be going anywhere if traffic continues to be this light.  However, it's just like any sale - it only takes one person to get it going.  Guess we'll see what happens.