Much Work Ahead

Well, Brandon is tall and pleasant, a good grip. He seems like a good realtor to use except I'm rocked back about all the work ahead. Mother had wanted to tap a realtor who puts his own money and workmen into getting a property market ready such as our neighbor used. I think a lot depends on how much can be accomplished. He'd like to have the house in the market for May because summer is peak.

At a minimum there's carpet to buy, doors to hang, painting to do, landscaping to purchase, ceilings to scrape, lighting to change out, finish work to do, tile to install, dish washer to hookup, sprinkler systems to install... (more detail below)

He suggested changing the windows, which Mother and I were pondering, and possibly some demolition of a half wall Father'd put in as well. I was supposed to demo it before the carpet went in a few years back but I simply ran out of time.

While we're in "good shape" on many things, we're also looking at investing. Let me correct that, it seems I'm looking at investing into the house. I know my brother is very keen on holding the car but ugh... It seems I'll have to put some of the insurance money into this situation; there seem few alternatives. Here comes to mail. Let's hope for good news such as no new bills.

Mother of God! I've been summoned for jury duty and more crazy crap came to the estate including one debt which I understood was covered by a cardholder policy. I want to scream but I'd scare the cat.

Seems the nephews and niece are sick. The infant is going off to the clinic tonight. I hate that kind of news. More stresses. That urgent care clinic is always so busy and the care I had there has not always been good, accurate or what have you.

I was nervous today, mind full of things and felt overwhelmed when the realtor left.

Sleep was fair but I had a navy / hospital dream. Didn't eat until about 3pm. Eating again now. It's after 7pm.

Rain is due tonight and for the weekend. We'd considered a yard sale for the weekend so that's looking less likely.

Let me see if I have this down: we'll need sprinklers installed, both bathrooms painted, the bath fans should be replaced, two bedrooms painted, carpet put down, flooring put down, all old landscaping removed, new landscaping put in, painting the fencing outside... and essentially cleared out the house for market. Need "new" sliding door to bridge to the edition--got a quote once, $2000 installed. He highly recommended scraping off the "popcorn" / "cottage cheese" ceiling texture. Great. Fine, it's truly fugly and impossible to paint but I don't want to do that myself because I've had a history of breathing issues and am allergic to dust. That can wait until late stage. That maybe worth hiring out.

He also suggested replacing some (or all) windows. Mother and I talked about that but knew that's going to be some real money. Could get free quotes I suppose. Sure it'll come back out of the sale of the house (in theory) but come on people!

This was all so much easier when I knew Mother had her regular income to put towards these things for her house. She was going to paint the fencing herself by brush, I'd remove the iron one section at a time for her.

Now that I'll be theoretically "loaning" money to the estate (or whatever), I feel like I've been smacked in the forehead. Then again, I did smack myself in the forehead earlier today as punishment for having missed one phone number to call about Mother's final due income.

I'm a little numb. And bewildered.

Wonder if the evil builder came to see Duckie's flooding / mess. *sigh*