Coming to a close

as my home has been on the market for a little over one month and there has been very good "foot traffic" as my realtor calls it. Talks with my bank, Downey Savings proved exhausting and futile. Inspite of everything, a single woman working part-time with a 15 year old son cannot afford to live in a home anywhere in California. Faced with the facts, even if I could rent out my in-law apartment downstairs and make part of my monthly mortgage, there are still maintenance issues that come up every other month.
My now beautiful home will belong to someone else. With all that I've been through this past two months, home, realtors, maintenance, work, my RA has been the least of my worries. I am ready to sell and call it a day. I received an offer over the weekend, $20,000.00 below my asking price after dropping down from $565,000.00 (dream price) to $495 (more realistic) price. After advisement from my realtor, I countered. With a steady stream of people coming in to see my home, I am hoping for a few more good offers which I can still entertain while "countering". With that said, I am also preparing for a trip to Ireland and London and will be leaving next week. I am highly looking forward to my respite to recharge my spirit on my journey.
I loved that fact that I lived by myself for a few weeks, without my daughters and son being in the home due to the constant flow of realtors coming to the house. The quietness, solitude and stillness that is in place when you live alone. I had visitors over which I very much welcomed now that my home had been "de-cluttered" and staged wonderfully with art and paintings that I accumulated over my years with frequent trips to "Savors" just two blocks away from me. My daughter is living with friends and will hopefully stay on her own and my son is staying with numerous cousins and his father while i'm in this transitioning stage. It has been hard on my son and I could tell by the way he visits me when he comes home to pick up clothes and such. "I miss this house" he would say to me. Just by his quiet tone, I can tell that he doesn't want to leave either.

Open House

My house is finally finished, paint, Spackle, vacuum, vinyl tile replacement, tons of cleaning, mopping, scrubbing, caulking, garage repair, install lighting, overhead stove fan, fix a broken toilet, donate stuff I wont' use anymore, frequenting Lowe's and Home Depot, store stuff that I need to still sort out, kicking out my brother that has moved in at his convenience, telling my oldest daughter Nani that she needs to grow up and go live with someone or anyone and go on her own, having two of my very good family friends, Mama Diane and Beatrice come over and meticulously clean my daughters apartment, shuttling out my son to his cousins for an unknown amount of time, getting rid of clutter and pretty much a major overhaul of my home. That's what I've been working on since the end of May to now and I'm finally finished. In between working and home, I've been so tired that I've been falling asleep as soon as I sit down for a break or any spare amount of time that I get. Today was the first day where I didn't lift a paint brush, box cutter, tool of any type. No errands to tend or any important tasks to get done. It is finally done. I rested until 11:00am and that is the longest time that I've taken out for myself. It was nice to rest and have this now beautiful house all to myself. My open house was yesterday and from what my realtor said is that the foot traffic was good and there was quite a bit of interest. She thinks that the asking price is a little high and we may need to lower it. I was in agreement. Anything to get the home sold and pay off my bank and hopefully have a little money left over for me. I don't want to be a homeowner anymore. The taxes, monthly allocation of monies that are needed to go to repairing the home and the daily and weekly upkeep and all of this on my own. I'm not a two earner family but a single mother of a 15 year old son who thinks I'm an ATM! I could very well do without all of that. My dream is not to own a home but to enjoy my life. With my RA now is check and medication working to make me work, it will be a matter of time before I really become disabled. I'm hoping that the time will be further along in my future or maybe not. I want to travel, take some time off from work and see all of the things that I've read in books and readings. But for now, it's work and more work. But today, I'm at rest.