The second people to look at my house made an offer.
I said no.
This house-selling business is an interesting process. I had imagined it as straightforward: standard contracts, typical mortgages, generally accepted terms. Not so much, apparently. Or at any rate, my two offers were very different. The first seemed straightforward. The second, not so much. The number of things without prices that the seller (i.e., me) was going to pay for was… well, almost laughable. No, I’m not going to pay for all these pigs-in-a-poke. WDO inspection and underwriting and tax services and closing costs and on and on. I do expect that I’ll be paying some of a buyer’s closing costs, but I’m not going to sign a contract that doesn’t come with clear prices attached. Apparently people do, however.
This offer was, in every possible way, worse than the first, so eh. Nope, not going to do that yet. Oh, well. Maybe I’m not selling my house. Or maybe the third people to look at the house or the eighth or the tenth or some other number will be the offer to work out. Meanwhile, I will enjoy living in it.
In other news… I’ve got nothing. I’ve been spending a lot of time looking up random words and thinking about definitions. Well, not exactly random. One link leads to another which leads to another, but the starting word was “grace.” What does her name really mean? A Gift of Grace started with the idea that on the surface, he rescues her (back in my original plot) but really she rescues him. In the new plot, as it has evolved, there is no rescuing. So what’s the gift? Before I could answer that question, I got wound up with words and the way we use them. Salvation, surrender, blessings, alleluia — it’s made for some fascinating reading. None of it useful for writing Grace, ha, but still interesting.
I do think that maybe I got a glimmer of an idea last night from a writing group that I go to. I brought up my struggle and what I currently think my issue is and one of the guys said (about Noah), “so his perspective needs to change.” I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with that idea, but it might help. I hope so anyway! Meanwhile, I continue meandering around in the same chapters, but I think they’re evolving in good ways.
And back to it!
Regarding your house; there can be pressure, external or even internal, to feel like a bitch just simply for refusing to be ripped off. I’m glad you’re in a position to hold out for what you need.
Regarding your writing; “A word is not the same with one writer as it is with another. One tears it from his guts. The other one pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.” William Wordsworth
(Hope it’s okay that I keep posting quotes about writing in your comments. I have a pinterest board dedicated to them.)
Also thanks for the feedback about my work in progress. Greatly appreciated and taken to heart.
Approved your new email — sorry the comment didn’t show up. (Most of my comments are spam, actually, which is why I have to moderate. I wouldn’t if the spammers would just get better lives.) Funnily enough, the offer came with a comment attached that I thought about writing about and decided against, but it was “buyer is in army and is about to be deployed to needs to settle quickly.” I’m trying to believe that the real estate agent simply meant it honestly, as a statement of fact, but it felt so manipulative. Like it was designed to make me feel guilty for saying no. But that definitely made me dig my heels in even more. And I love the quotes, feel free to keep sending them my way!
I like the image of your meandering.
Thinking of you and wishing for pleasing things to occur in each of your adventures.
It’s bound to jell eventually — just keep on, keeping on!