First, and perhaps most important, the house is ours. There was a bit of excitement last weekend, what with the offer, and then the counter offer, and then the counter-counter offer, and then the discovery of another offer coming in from someone else, effectively throwing a big fat wrench right in the middle of things, and then the several hours of nail-biting suspense while we waited to find out if they’d pick our offer or if they’d, instead, force us into a nightmare of multiple counter offers and uncertainty, and then finally, late at night, the phone call from our agent letting us know that we finally had an answer. Paperwork was officially signed. There was, naturally, a bit of cheering.

And since then, it’s been just a constant effort to keep the house clean and neat. Every morning when we get up we have to vacuum and straighten and make sure every surface is wiped down and then spend the day hoping that none of the cats decides to plant a particularly slimy hairball in any prime traffic zones, and then all that’s left to do is sit back and wait for someone to decide to come see it. Which did not actually happen until this morning, when Richard and I were already scrambling around getting the house ready for our first Open House, so I did the world’s fastest vacuuming job and then dashed away to choir rehearsal while Richard stayed behind to let the agent and her clients in before leaving himself.

The Open House was pretty much a dud – we only had one person show up and that was another agent who’d been unable to make it to the agents’ tour, which was disappointing., and suggests that despite my fervent wishing, we are going to probably have to do at least one more, and soon. It’s not exactly fun, because for this and for the agents’ tour, it’s not just been cleaning the house; it’s also required me to round up all the cats and then cart them off to sit, in their carriers, in my parents’ garage for the hour or two each event takes (the weather’s been nice enough to leave them in the garage; once it gets hotter, if we have to do this again, we’ll bring them inside).

So that’s how things are going right now. Lots of cleaning. Lots of wandering around the house noticing more things that probably ought to be cleaned, or put away, or fixed, or otherwise dealt with. Scheduling inspections for the new house, and singing paperwork to get all our financial ducks in a row in preparation for the new mortgage, and most of all, lots of crossing of fingers and hoping that someone comes to buy our house, so that all the pieces fall into place and we can just collapse somewhere in a little exhausted puddle and not have to worry about houses old or new any more.