Real estate - it's not just for sane people.

Our house closing was scheduled for 8 am today (the house we're selling). Except our agent called last night - the buyer decided that her final walk through was really her pre final walk through and she wanted to come through the house again at 7:30 the morning. We said no. Then our realtor called back and said the buyer was pushing closing back and refused to sign anything until she came through the house to make sure the movers hadn't damaged anything. We said the buyer could come through at 8:30, so I spent 2 hours this morning cleaning like a woman possessed because 1) the guys really didn't do much yesterday and 2) I was terrified this crazy woman would refuse to sign for some crazy reason.

Thank god it closed.

On the house we're buying: The home inspection came back with pretty much what we expected for a house built in 1974 that's been sitting empty a while. In other words: roof repair, some electrical work, and a lot of maintenance stuff - to the tune of probably $3000 with the hub doing everything he can. EXCEPT. The inspector also recommended we call a structural engineer to check the foundation - turns out it needs concrete footings under 2 corners. Estimated cost $4500. We asked for the seller to pay for that and she refused, so we withdrew our offer. Then she blinked and agreed to give a $4500 credit at closing. We'd asked if the "Liberace house" was still available (it is) and were ready to make an offer on it.

I'd rather have this house because the yard is already fenced and it needs less work up front, even though I feel like the other house has loads of long term potential. But hub is having knee surgery on Monday so I'd like to keep the work to a minimum for his sake. Also, I like the fact it already has a pool which will be great for his knee rehab.

But we're out of the house here, moving to temp housing tonight, and hopefully the appraisal will go through okay on the new house.

Lordie.