Jericho: The Past Few Weeks
It has been a bit of a whirlwind here at the Brown residence the last few weeks. Here’s something of a 500+ word recap.
We got rid of Monica. Just over a year ago, we bought two kittens. The grey and white one, Monica, took to peeing on things, pretty much any soft surface. I used to have other adjectives to describe what surfaces she peed on, however, I now know that Steph wasn’t sharing with me even half the times she discovered Monica’s urine. If she had told me how non-discerning and out of control Monica was, I would have killed the cat and solved our problem.
I might be joking – this was disgusting!
To battle this, we had to change our lifestyles pretty dramatically. The biggest change was closing our bedroom door to keep out the cats. I’m not a fan of a kitty pee soaked bed. Of course, Monica insisted on sleeping directly in front of the door, making her a navigation hazard. In the dark, all kitties lying on the floor directly in your path that refuse to get out of the way are throw rugs!
We arranged to give her to a shelter. I did like the cat. I’ve tried to not “love” her since we’ve been talking about getting rid of her for a while, all along trying various things to make her quit and hoping she would grow out of it. The good news is that now all the rest of the cats seem happier that they can come and go as they please, most especially our other kitten, Phoebe. She has really blossomed in only a few weeks. She’s becoming quite the charming pet.
We’re selling our house. We’ve been here three years. The house is old and the projects to upkeep her are mounting. I don’t have the time, tools, talent or money to upkeep this shack. Our fear is that if we don’t get rid of her soon, something will happen that will keep us from selling the house and cost us a large chunk of money we don’t have. If we can sell the house, the profits from her will pay off a good deal of our debt. That’s exciting to us, and our plan when we bought the place was that this was a starter home and we would only be here three to five years. Our plan has worked up to this point; it’s time to sell.
We contacted our real estate agent who helped us buy the house. He was happy to help us sell it. We filled out paper work and turned it in. We set to work on starting the cleaning up process, we cleaned until 11 PM or so. The sign arrived at 11:30 PM. Things were moving pretty quick. By the next night, we had two offers on the house. That was last week. As it stands now, we’re waiting on several factors. The house has even managed to fall off the MLS listings for some unexplained reason, so I can’t point you to it. We’ll be fine, the house will sell, I’m quite confident.
Just in time for all of this, our kitchen sink fell in. You read that right. The City of Tukwila has been working on the main street through our neighborhood for about three months. They ripped out the street, installed new, larger sewers and storm drains, and they are now in the process of installing sidewalks and then they will repave. They plan to be done by the middle of November. So, for the last few months, our poor little house, right in the middle of this mess, has been shaken by large machinery every weekday from 7 to 4. Just as we were about to list, Steph noticed that there was a gap above our kitchen sink. It was mounted to the underside of the kitchen counter. Several of the fittings had fallen off – shaken off if you ask me. We tried for a homeowner’s insurance claim, the insurance company immediately hid behind every clause they could find, so much for the “Home” part of Farmers Insurance’s slogan. We contacted the City and the contractors building the street. Instead of fighting an insurance claim, the contractors sent out a guy to just fix the sink. He did a great job and we’re pleased as can be!
We will then be moving into an apartment. We’re doing this at the wrong time of year. People don’t like to move in the fall and winter, so there isn’t much churn in the apartment market. Add to that the “fact” that the housing market is supposed to be tanking and the housing bubble is supposed to be bursting (I don’t believe any of this) people are ditching their houses and grabbing apartments. So, we may get the house sold and then have nowhere to move – or at least no place decent.
Funny, now that this is written out, it doesn’t look as big as it felt.
We got rid of Monica. Just over a year ago, we bought two kittens. The grey and white one, Monica, took to peeing on things, pretty much any soft surface. I used to have other adjectives to describe what surfaces she peed on, however, I now know that Steph wasn’t sharing with me even half the times she discovered Monica’s urine. If she had told me how non-discerning and out of control Monica was, I would have killed the cat and solved our problem.
I might be joking – this was disgusting!
To battle this, we had to change our lifestyles pretty dramatically. The biggest change was closing our bedroom door to keep out the cats. I’m not a fan of a kitty pee soaked bed. Of course, Monica insisted on sleeping directly in front of the door, making her a navigation hazard. In the dark, all kitties lying on the floor directly in your path that refuse to get out of the way are throw rugs!
We arranged to give her to a shelter. I did like the cat. I’ve tried to not “love” her since we’ve been talking about getting rid of her for a while, all along trying various things to make her quit and hoping she would grow out of it. The good news is that now all the rest of the cats seem happier that they can come and go as they please, most especially our other kitten, Phoebe. She has really blossomed in only a few weeks. She’s becoming quite the charming pet.
We’re selling our house. We’ve been here three years. The house is old and the projects to upkeep her are mounting. I don’t have the time, tools, talent or money to upkeep this shack. Our fear is that if we don’t get rid of her soon, something will happen that will keep us from selling the house and cost us a large chunk of money we don’t have. If we can sell the house, the profits from her will pay off a good deal of our debt. That’s exciting to us, and our plan when we bought the place was that this was a starter home and we would only be here three to five years. Our plan has worked up to this point; it’s time to sell.
We contacted our real estate agent who helped us buy the house. He was happy to help us sell it. We filled out paper work and turned it in. We set to work on starting the cleaning up process, we cleaned until 11 PM or so. The sign arrived at 11:30 PM. Things were moving pretty quick. By the next night, we had two offers on the house. That was last week. As it stands now, we’re waiting on several factors. The house has even managed to fall off the MLS listings for some unexplained reason, so I can’t point you to it. We’ll be fine, the house will sell, I’m quite confident.
Just in time for all of this, our kitchen sink fell in. You read that right. The City of Tukwila has been working on the main street through our neighborhood for about three months. They ripped out the street, installed new, larger sewers and storm drains, and they are now in the process of installing sidewalks and then they will repave. They plan to be done by the middle of November. So, for the last few months, our poor little house, right in the middle of this mess, has been shaken by large machinery every weekday from 7 to 4. Just as we were about to list, Steph noticed that there was a gap above our kitchen sink. It was mounted to the underside of the kitchen counter. Several of the fittings had fallen off – shaken off if you ask me. We tried for a homeowner’s insurance claim, the insurance company immediately hid behind every clause they could find, so much for the “Home” part of Farmers Insurance’s slogan. We contacted the City and the contractors building the street. Instead of fighting an insurance claim, the contractors sent out a guy to just fix the sink. He did a great job and we’re pleased as can be!
We will then be moving into an apartment. We’re doing this at the wrong time of year. People don’t like to move in the fall and winter, so there isn’t much churn in the apartment market. Add to that the “fact” that the housing market is supposed to be tanking and the housing bubble is supposed to be bursting (I don’t believe any of this) people are ditching their houses and grabbing apartments. So, we may get the house sold and then have nowhere to move – or at least no place decent.
Funny, now that this is written out, it doesn’t look as big as it felt.
posted by Jericho Brown at 10/18/2006 08:54:00 PM
2 Comments:
Cat's are cute.
Cat urine is evil.
Kudos to both of you. Loving the on topic writings. Hope you keep the spirit of competition going as it could really save me some funds on reading materials (and you're both up at least five dollars Canadian, so it's a win/win situation!)
Jericho, good luck with the home sale and move. (yikes, packing, poor baby)
Max, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your apprenticeship. Great story w/ EKS. So funny, yet disturbing.
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