Landed at Last

We finally, FINALLY got a signed contract on a new house late yesterday. Such a relief, the back and forth has been going on for a week. I no longer have the stamina for sustained turmoil - it was hard. It sucked much of the pleasure out of the house for me actually. The builder's realtor finally accepted our offer with this response: "To simplify all this, we'll just accept their offer..."

OK... thank you very much for agreeing to take our money.

We are pleased to get the home of course, but not celebrating just yet. I'm sure we will eventually, it's kind of hard to believe right now.

We get possession Oct. 5. I can't wait - apartment living is getting old, I'd forgotten what it was like. I was startled last weekend to see piles of furtively discarded trash and other belongings as people moved out over the weekend. What self-respecting person abandons their mattress in the street?

And I'm so looking forward to getting my creature comforts back. They're all still in storage in California.

The builder's realtor personally made me miserable, he was SUCH a jerk. To the point where it was laughable, except it was our lives he was yanking around. Get a taste of it here... note the photo - taken at least 30 years ago and the condescending response. Ironically, we initially thought the builder was the roadblock, but after meeting him, we really liked the builder - a nice young man, touchingly proud of his house and his work. His realtor however, was a text-book chauvinist, a blow hard, a non-stop pontificator, incredibly petty and just generally mean and unpleasant. Not only that, sloppy and lazy - at one point it was apparent he had not even read our offer. Even the builder seemed taken aback by his realtor's behavior. 

The lunacy of it - at one meeting to discuss some upgrades we wanted, he spent at least 20 minutes telling me how I didn't need and really, I didn't want, the alternate shower head I was requesting. He kept revisiting it over and over. Even after the builder had already agreed to swap it out. I finally told him, "it's a personal preference and I don't want to talk about it any more. We're finished with this topic." But we weren't finished - he actually suggested that I try the shower in his home. Excuse me?!? Then I would see that he was right.

I'm realizing there's a category of older men here that have issues working with women and make no secret of it. Which amazes me, I thought we legislated that behavior away, or at least the overt version, but no. However... in this case the women prevailed, our realtor remained polite and professional and just worked around him. Her commission check and philosophical attitude reduced him to the nuisance category for her. She has been trying to talk us into showing up at his front door unannounced with bath towels over our shoulders and a bar of soap in one hand and a back brush in the other. "We're here to take you up on that shower offer."

That might be fun, but right now I'm taking my revenge with my keyboard.