House-House-House; TV-TV-TV

What a busy beginning of the month!

Since I moved out of my modest little two-bedroom house in late August, I've been worried about selling it. The neighborhood was created after WWII for returning veterans. Decent unassuming housing at affordable prices. When I bought my house, the neighborhood was a combination of the original owners and artist-types.

However, a few years later, as the original owners died, the area became attractive to lower income individuals, which set off a selling frenzy marked by "white flight." And the property values plummeted causing even more selling.

About this time, someone told me several lending institutions were almost throwing out loans, and they would soon regret it. And indeed within six months, any number of the recently sold houses became derelict. (In fact, the woman next door moved out during the night. The next morning, the place was empty.)

Now the neighborhood changed again, this time to more finacially stable buyers. But the appraised value of the homes stayed low. Which meant that my house was now worth far less than when I bought it.

Prior to moving, I'd come to realize it would be unlikely that I'd be making a "big" profit off the sale. In fact, I was fearful that I might have to put out money.

Several weeks ago, I called a realtor recommended by some friends hoping he would handle my house. He came out, looked at the house, and said my best bet would be to call a broker, someone from the "We Buy Houses" group. He indicated that his realtor fee would be 10% of the selling price. And that I would have to make up any difference between what was left and the outstanding mortgage.

He was kind enough to call me later in the day with a list of seven or eight reputable people.

For the last couple of weeks, I've had one ailment or another, so I didn't do anything. Wednesday, I decided I could not dally any longer, so I called one of the names from the list.

He showed up at 1 pm, walked through the house, and said he like the curb appeal but that he couldn't make a profit off of anything less than three bedrooms.

I returned to my car, and moved on to another name of the list. This broker indicated he was a member of a nearby church and that one of their ministries was to restore the neighborhood. He was unable to come by that afternoon, so I said I'd call him the next day.

Thursday, I followed up, and we met at 2 pm. His reaction was very positive and after we discussed the mortgage, he offered to give me a "down payment" and assume responsibility for the mortgage payments.

Given all that I knew, I felt this was my best option. Certainly not a perfect solution given all the money I'd spend on improvements and mortgage payments. But certainly one that will relieve me of the financial responsibility.

At this point, the various selling processes are underway, and closure is scheduled for next Friday. I'm certainly hoping there's not a problem.

Earlier, I'd had the cable and phone service disconnected. And this morning, I placed disconnect requests with the various power, gas and water entities.

Next, I called one of the satellite tv providers. He drove up one afternoon, took one look at the surrounding trees and said it was hopeless.

So back to the cable company I went. This time I explained the situation in more detail and indicated the need for a bucket truck. They gave me an installation date and time of this morning between 8 - 11.

Wednesday, the power company showed up and put in a new pole next to the old pole. But they didn't move any of the lines to the new pole.

This morning, the bucket truck was here bright and early. The driver told me the technician with the converter box would be along later. By 11, no technician with the coverter box had shown up, so I called the cable company and was told the order had been cancelled. WTF! However, the service rep replaced the order and gave me an installation date of Monday.

In mid afternoon, I got a call from a technician asking if everything had been set up. Of course, it had not. He said he would be by shortly. Around 4, he drove in the drive, hopped out of his truck and brought the converter box inside. But since the tv is now across the room from the cable drop, he said I'd need to purchase a connecting cable. He finished his set up and left. At 5, I motored off toward WalMart expecting bedlam. I found what I needed, plus some clips for keeping the cable neat and headed for the check out lines. By some miracle, I immediately found an empty self-check lane.

Once home, I connected the cable, clipped it to the baseboards and over the door, and at long last there were moving images on the screen. Tiger, in his typical curious manner, jumped on top of the tv set and reached down to paw at the characters. But he lost interest after roughly 5 minutes and wandered off to the kitchen.

There appear to be enough buttons on the remote to launch a couple of thermonuclear missles. Oppppsss! I think I just nuked Kijev. Oh, and if you haven't been to Easter Island, you needn't worry anymore.

PAX!