Twenty!

We hit 20 showings yesterday!

Eighteen was a bit of a bust, which is why there is a red asterisk on it. They came and the man member of the couple immediately announced that the roof on the three-car garage was too low for a shop.

Could he have noticed that in the online photos!? Like this one 🤬

We did not shrink down the size of the roof since the photos were done 🙄 So annoying.

I have a list going about being a House Buyer — basically, I am keeping track of what NOT to do when looking for — and at — a home. Someday all of it will be funny — right now, only some of it is. Like the reaction of a person who opened a drawer to find herself looking into one of the security cameras — a camera that was put away to give them privacy as they looked at the house!

Showings #19 and #20 were back-to-back and so the dogs and I drove around for 90 minutes. The lupine is officially toast but we were rewarded with an elk herd!

That was SO cool.

I have been considering the comment about just showing the house with a more lived in look. Part of the reason I don’t do that is because I look at a lot of houses on Zillow and Redfin, and that look is not usually a good one.

But the second reason is that I find this whole process so intrusive, and so no — I do not want to invite strangers into my life anymore than absolutely necessary. It is both literal and emotional boundary violations for me to have people in my house, and I want to be removed from them as much as possible.

We also saw these Montana Longhorns on our wandering yesterday.

I know all of this house selling thing will unfold in the way it is supposed to, and in the meantime, I get to live in a beautiful place, I have a very clean house, and I am getting additional schooling in patience.

What are you grateful for today?

❤️

Waiting for #18

When I started this house showing stuff, I read that — on average — a house is shown between 10 and 25 times before it sells. I settled on a middle number and decided my house had to be shown 18 times before it would sell.

We are at 17.

Showing the house is my new part-time gig. I calculated that each showing represents about five hours of my time. There is the frenzy of cleaning, cat herding, dog loading, and aimless wandering on the dirt roads.

The company is pleasant. I usually chat with my daughter or sister for at least part of the wandering, and I always have a happy co-pilot.

Sparkle

I text lupine photos to Alison — and they are really faded now so I will have to find something else she might appreciate.

And because I am driving so slowly, I notice things that I have not really seen before. Like this strange and random thing at a corner.

Once the dogs and I are in the car I breathe a sigh of relief — everything leading up to that point is so stressful. But once we are driving, I can relax.

And then the realtor calls to tell me that the coast is clear and we head home to undo the loading, cat herding, and cleaning.

Until next time.

17 showings x 5 hours per showing = 85 hours.

The house has been on the market for four weeks.

I am spending about 21 hours per week on showings, and that doesn’t include the ongoing cleaning and yard work.

This is a lot. I hope the new owners show up soon!

In addition to my part-time gig as a Hopeful House Seller/Dirt Road Wanderer, I am teaching summer school — online, thankfully — and so I find myself once again training my dogs in micro sessions because time is so limited (and it has gotten SO hot!).

Harper B is the world’s slowest eater and has to be reminded several times during breakfast to keep eating.

Harper B for Being 12 and 3/4 years old!

Pozy and Capella are in the breakfast shift with Harper and are done super fast — and so I got the bright idea to use that time to teach them out of sight stays.

Pozy and Capella doing stays on the not new deck

It has worked beautifully! They stay while I go to talk with Harper B for Better Eat, and then I return to Capella and Pozy and reward/remind them to keep staying — and repeat.

The time spent waiting — for a dog to eat or a house to sell or a heart to heal — can have meaning and value.

Time is precious — it is never waste.

And so as I wait to sell my house, I am reminded of my favorite Mary Oliver quote:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

Because waiting is actually part of our one wild and precious life, and so I want to use it wisely and with intention.

Happy Saturday, Friend ❤️