Let's Puuuuhhhlayyyyyy Baaaalllllll!

It's negotiation time. One of THE best parts about selling and/or buying a home. NOT.

Last week the inspection was done on our house back east. We had to wait until yesterday to get the reply from the buyers. This would list out their issues with the house and what we would have to repair or compensate in order to get them to continue with the deal.

In a word, the list was ri-dic-u-lous.

They started off the document by saying some such crap like, "thank you for letting us into your beautiful home". Then they went right into tearing that same beautiful home apart. Bastards.

• Radon in the air was above the "educated" level (whatever that means). It was below 4.0, which according to my research is the limit recommended by the EPA. But, that wasn't good enough. They want it fixed.
• We accidently wrote on our house disclosure that our septic tank was 1500 gallons. It was actually 1250. Our bad. They want to add another tank. On top of that, the tank is totally full. There might be a problem with drainage into the leach field. They want that fixed too.
• Grading on our land is bad. The yard slopes towards the house instead of away. They want that fixed.

Then there were a slew of other issues that the buyers kindly said they would take care of. That is, only after they came up with an astronomical estimate of what it would cost THEM. I guess this was their attempt at consoling us that they could have asked for much more, but they were nice people and would fix a lot themselves. Ugh. Don't make me puke.

Needless to say the amount they wanted as compensation was on the extreme end.

Being the owner of the house is hard. When someone says that there is something wrong, you almost feel protective. Like it's your child or something. It's really hard not to get mad. And, I'll tell you, that was my first reaction. I wanted to punch something.

But, being the logical person I am (okay, well sometimes logical), I decided to call the contractors that had given them estimates and also did internet research on the problems that they had listed out.

We decided today to offer them half of their requested amount. Now, it's time for the waiting game. Will they try to re-negotiate, will they accept, will they reject? If they reject, then we put it back on the market. It'll be tough doing the two mortgage thing, but we don't want to lose our house here. It's too perfect. So, that is the house news. Not so good, I guess. But don't fret, patient readers, it will all work out in the end . Hakuna Matata.

Now for some not so serious stuff....

Tuesday I went to a nearby park to relax, eat dried apricots and read a book. The park itself was pretty big with two beaches on a big lake. The coolest part was that in a huge tree overlooking the lake were 3 or 4 hawks (I think they were hawks). All I know was that they were frickin' big. I even got to watch one swoop down into the lake, grab a fish and bring it back into the tree for lunch. It was straight up Discovery Channel. The not-so-cool part was that I got sunburnt. On one leg. How does that happen? I was sitting in full on sun and the only part of me that got burnt was my left thigh. That's it. Whacked.

Here are some observations I have made about Northwest living:

• People drive slow. They actually drive the damn speed limit. Who DOES that? Really.
• During rush hour, there are stop lights that let one car on the highway at a time. I guess this alleves back up on the entrance ramps. I just see it as a chance to drag race my Xterra.
• The news is on ALL day. The local networks have news on just about every hour during the day. It's ridiculous. I'm starting to think that they make up news.
• Stores are impossible to find. They are always tucked away in mini-malls that are set back from the main street. You drive around in circles for, like, a half hour looking like an idiot while you scan your surroundings for Radio Shack. I think the locals get a good laugh from this. Sometimes, I think it might be easier to find Big Foot than to find the stupid grocery store.

You want-a da belly, you got-a da belly.....