Done and done!*

House sold.

Nineteen viewings and an open house beginning Friday evening and ending Monday around 5:15.  Rather unintentionally, I met the buyers just before I left the open house on Sunday. I showed them the garage and we talked a bit about the gardens. I hear they stayed for the entire 2-hour open house.  Monday morning, they came for a second viewing at 8 am and just before midnight the house was theirs.  

My realtor asked that all offers be delivered by Monday late afternoon; the last one came in after 7. She did some organizing and then we reviewed what we had just after 10 pm.  Some of the offers, submitted that day, had a midnight expiration. Could I have asked for an extension? Making decisions like this after 10 pm could be a little crazy but parsing offers and making the decision after the long stress filled weekend was very satisfying. Most of the offers came with letters of why-this-was-the-perfect-house-for-them.  I felt badly for the single guy whose offer came in clean but with no emotional plea.  His offer reminded me that when David and I sold our first house in the Butler Tarkington neighborhood of Indianapolis, we had competing offers.  One of the final two was from a single, young man.  His offer was not as good as the ultimate buyer of that house, but we admittedly were more inclined to sell to the older woman with a college age daughter, both of whom were delightful, than to the banker-ish young man.  Neither that decision nor this one rested on personality, but had all things been equal, both the young man in Indianapolis and the single man in Madison would have lost out.

Just interesting.

I worked like a demon last week getting the house ready and while I worked, I slept well.  On the weekend, however, I did nothing but pre-set the house in the morning and spend as much time as possible out of it.  We ate almost all our meals out, and visited libraries, coffee shops, a friend’s house and the bank of comfortable chairs at FUS.  It was boring only because of my house perseveration.  There were texts and phone calls at closely spaced intervals asking for viewings or questions. No way to forget about this house of mine.  Almost not-mine.  I listened to Julia read and critiqued her latest attempt at 2-point perspective, but I cannot recall a single worthwhile task I completed.  By Sunday evening, I was beside myself with worry (lots of interest in the house, no bites yet) and did not sleep.  Did not sleep much. 

Monday night’s sleep was a whole other thing.  Yes, a bit trepidatious when I signed for the acceptance of the offer.  The Rubicon, having been crossed, lulled me into a wondrous night of dreams.  By the time I talked about the sale on Monday afternoon with one of Julia’s therapists, I felt like I had made the decision days ago, instead of 16 hours ago.

And today begins spring!  No signs of it around here, but for the much diminished dirty snow piles and sand markings along the streets, but me thinks I smell a change in the breeze—note: breeze, not wind that comes with chill— and I hear the first of the bulb plants cracking the solid garden beds.  I am ready.

*I had to look this saying up.  I was pretty sure I was using it correctly but I wondered why anyone would say “done” twice to mean really finished.  So, from World Wide Words: the earliest reference to the saying appears in Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1800.  And for an explanation: “‘[D]one and done’ meant that a binding agreement had been mutually accepted.” So, hear! hear! I am using it correctly.