Parachutes

Image via WikipediaOn April 10, 2000, I began my career at Amazon.com. It's been full of generic ups and generic downs, but I've been hankering for a serious change.

In the past, I've entertained a few career changes.

A little over four years ago, I took the classes to become a Real Estate Agent, and I even got a job offer. Looking back on it, I think it would have been worth trying then, but now... never. My newly developed distaste for home ownership and my absolute hatred for driving would make that career unbearable for me.

A year or two ago, I started enlisting a gardener to teach me how to garden. I still have a passion for plant names, and I like the idea of being employed by a nursery or greenhouse. Plants just make me happy. I like touching them. I like watching them grow. I love learning their names and their quirks. However being a for-hire gardener also involves driving, so that's right out.

Back in late 2006, I started baking bread regularly, and I entertained the notion of being a baker. However, remembering my days as a pseudo-baker at Perkins, I remembered the long hours and the early mornings and dissuaded myself of that idea. I do love the chemistry of baking. I love making the yeast work for me. I love reading multiple recipes and distilling them to their essence -- and yet learning why someone might twiddle this bit or that bit.

Most recently, I've been taking a ton of dog training courses. I confess that I have entertained the idea of dog trainer, but really... that career should be called "human trainer." I think with time, as Grete and I progress, I might reconsider this as a career, but for now, I'm still building up a knowledge base and some muscle memory and confidence. That career should be on the back burner, I think. I do love all things dog, and I wouldn't mind finding time to volunteer to work with dogs at a shelter. I just don't think I'm ready to train humans, ya know?

So what can we take away from this?

I want my next career to involve as little driving as possible. I LOATHE my car commute. A nice bus ride might be ok. Working from home might be ok. Walking would be ideal.

I find it easy to fall in love with learning new things. Learning real estate law, comparing bread baking recipes, memorizing new plant names, and learning new techniques for teaching my dog -- these are all new and fresh and fun. Turning these things around into a career -- I know it's possible, but I haven't found the right recipe yet.

More on this later -- right now I need to check on my first gluten-free loaf of bread!

Where are we now?

July 19 (Evening) - Enter MLS
July 20 (Afternoon) - Open house
July 22 (Late Evening) - Full price offer (with closing cost concession)
July 23 (Afternoon) - Accept offer
July 29 (Afternoon) - Inspection
July 31 (Afternoon) - Inspection response sent

The ball is now in my court. Deadline: Monday, August 3.

I won't get into the details -- but we're grumpy. Really grumpy. Ready to take our ball and go home grumpy.

Hopefully we'll have some concrete numbers and a reasonable response ready for them tomorrow, but yeah... Home ownership still sucks.

Subject To Inspection

July 19 (Evening) - Enter MLS
July 20 (Afternoon) - Open house
July 22 (Late Evening) - Full price offer (with closing cost concession)
July 23 (Afternoon) - Accept offer

The ball is in the buyer's court.

In other news, my MLS # is going to change since my agent is moving Windermere offices.

I'm tuckered out from all the fretting. More on house selling another time.

For fear of a more modern kitchen...

The open house is still on track for the 20th. In a bizarre twist of real estate fate, there is a slightly-bigger copy of my house recently listed just a block away for $399,950. They are also having an open house on the 20th. Mine will be listed at a TBD price -- but it will be lower than that.

Their kitchen > My kitchen
My garage and general access > Their garage and access
My yard > Their yard
The rest of the house is probably a wash.

Wish me luck!

home ownership sucks, but home selling sucks even more

It's all a blur. Everywhere I look, I see surfaces that need a squirt of Simple Green, a scrub, and a rinse. When I see walls, doors, nooks, and crannies that need touch up paint, I become wicked anxious wondering, "Do I have that color on hand?" and "Was that paint can mixed in the last decade?"

We started working on my house on the 4th of July. Since we refused to completely give up our lives, we've probably clocked 80-100 man hours on the house. (Props to Rishi and Melissa for chipping in. Props to The Best Neighbors On Earth, DJ and Emily, for working on their projects that face my house.) We MIGHT be finally getting close to the finish line, but there are some nasty problems to solve. Two nasty plumbing related problems. (One small ugly rusty leak in the bathroom and one gushes-when-front-watering-spigot-is-used leak in the crawl space.) We've left messages with 3 different plumbers but haven't heard back from them, probably because of the weekend.

The goal is to have an open house on the 20th -- but this all depends on the water issues.

Tomorrow... More of the same... Squirt, scrub, rinse, repeat. And then if that doesn't make it look presentable, go hit the paint can stash one more time. All the while, whispering soft prayers under our breath that a plumber will call us back soon.

Launched! Page Recommender Widget on Amazon

My team launched a new Amazon Associates widget last night. If you have a blog, you should check it out. Go to http://widgets.amazon.com and look for the "Page Recommender Widget."