Well now. That wasn't so bad. The realtor did his walk-thru this afternoon and now I feel a little like someone who goes into the dentist office expecting several extractions and a root canal and is instead sent home after a brief cleaning with a new toothbrush.

He basically said that our asking price (that we dreamed up based partly on "market research" (ie; too much late night Googling) and partly based on wishful thinking) is actually quite reasonable and ALSO that houses in that price range are still a pretty hot commodity right now. Or at least, "hot" in comparison with the rest of the real estate market, which as we know is about as hot as the Antarctic right about now. He seems to be pretty positive about our chances of selling and recommended some things for us to invest in as we're putting it on the market and going through all the necessary paperwork.

1) The shower. Ugh. That shower is my Achille's whateveritis (J would be appalled, but I'm pregnant and I just can't think of the correct body part right now). It's dark, gloomy and full of mold that seems to resist every know mold-removing substance. I've tried EVERYTHING, including nearly straight up bleach. I suspect that the mold itself is quite dead by now (it's not spreading, or anything) and all that's left is a stain on the grout. Mr Realtor suggested that we simply scrape out all the old caulk/grout/whatever and re-do it. That is quite do-able and affordable. I can wield a caulk-gun with the best of them. Although I will "let" J do this one. Also, we'll be replacing the shower light fixture (also cheap and something J can do) and the linoleum (yes, linoleum) that's covering the walls above the shower surround and the ceiling. Presto-chango! A new-ish shower for less than $150!! Hurray! Now why didn't we just do that four years ago????

2) Paint the roof. Now this one has no easy answer. I mean, this house is seventy-some-odd years old and the roof is tin and rusty. Bottom line; it needs to be professionally scraped and painted. J is tossing around the idea of doing it himself, but I have a feeling we're going to end up having to hire someone. He just doesn't have the luxury of taking a week off to paint our roof right now. I wish... Know any painters in the area you'd recommend?

3) The back deck. Now this one is embarrassing. That deck is one of the veryvery few things in the house that looked better when we first bought it than it does now. Someone had painted it years before and there were remnants of primer and paint hanging on in scraps and shreds and I had the brilliant idea of simply sanding it down and repainting, rather than stripping and scraping and treating it with a real deck stain and sealer, like we shoulda done. So we did. Bad idea. It is now, once again, covered with the shredding remnants of paint and primer, only there are a whole lot more remnants now than there were then... So. We gonna be doin' a whole lotta scrapin' in the next few weeks.

Anybody wanna come help out? Sofi will make you lemonade. Pink even!