Some really great advice that someone gave me: it's all new and terrifying to you, but to your realtor, lawyer, mortgage person it's all routine business. If you feel you have good ones, they can help guide you through the process.

Yes, yes, and yes. I was a complete freaking lunatic buying the house. My crew (which definitely included Stephen, who was designated OH MY GOD KEEP HER SANE person) were collectively and individually a ROCK.

Because I am insane in this. So out of my element.

Apparently I am no longer go brane properly -- I somehow read this as "so out of my elephant" and thought is was some sort of limbaugh crack.

I need sleep. Or sex. Or both. Both. And a job. Sleep, sex, a job and I'll regain my power of reading english.

Sara, I really like the house. And although many people would not have guessed how insane I was , the fact that it was terrifying and I love my house/neighborhood means i never want to do that again. I don't care if it is easier.

Happy Birthday, Tommyrot!

Corwood - sending strength to the whole community

I was not ever seen as gifted,nor did I take AP classes. Someone should have thrown in an AP class -- I might have learned to work before my Jr year of college.

I have a friend that was in the gifted class -- she was an unusual learner. Last I knew she was teaching kindergarten in a private school -- and she had a very unique , holistic approach to teaching.

Put Leif in the gifted program. sounds like he needs it to deal with being ahead ... Is this the part where I spout my theory that we divide kids by age -- which is highly unnatural and it would make more sense for ages to be mixed so kids could see different abilities in all kinds of areas -- so they figure out some people are better at x some people are better at y -- and that is how it is. And BTW, age does not have to keep people from being interesting.

PANDA!

Yeah, the broker gave me some good info tonight regarding actually offering. It's all such a crapshoot juggling numbers and $$ and who does what, trying to figure out the psyche of another. Not my thing, I'm heart on sleeve girl, so this is difficult. I want the final price to be the final on the ticket. Fuck negotiating. And I realize this isn't how it goes, so it sucks for me. I buy at DSW for shoes. When I had to buy a car, I really punted to my mechanic. Give me a number and I am in or out. Not ideal, but oh god, the rest? I'm confused.

my advice: name your price -- when they come back with a counter -- look at the counter in comparison to the whole price.

we said X in a sellers market -- they cam back with X+10K --- over the loan that was Nothing. As far as I am concerned we won.

And yes though it is scary you can afford that big number. And oddly, that number will become normal.

And if times get rough for you -- as long as you move carefully through home improvements -- your house can be your back up plan. In other words, if we had to sell now, even though prices have moved close to what we bought - we'd get out with a chunk of cash

For Trudy:

I can't get no....satisfaction

Probably NSFW

One thing that helps with the panic is making the sale contingent on the report of a home inspector [link] The inspector's report got the previous owners to fix several things about my house, including the fact that the kitchen exhaust just blew greasy air into the attic, not outside.

My house was listed for $179,900. I was hoping to get it in the low $170s. My broker suggested going in at $170K as a starting point because psychologically, $170K sounds closer to their asking price than $169 or $168. I wasn't convinced, but I followed her advice, and they accepted that first offer. I couldn't believe it.

Two years later, there's an identical house on my street, albeit with more renos, on the market for $44K more than I paid for my house. I feel like I got a deal.

Love you guys.

Oh Sail, oh sweet jezis... I can barely breathe.