House For Sale, Cheap!

http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1078399107?lnksrc=00045

As a technologist, most of the challenges I encounter can be met given sufficient thought. Selling a house is not one of them. Regardless of the number of calories we burn thinking about how to sell our house, no results are produced. OK, so it's only been on the market for a week, but this is a big item that we'd really like to have behind us.

We've had a few people come to look at it. One couple loved the downstairs, but thought the upstairs needed too much cosmetic work, partly because of the stickers on Caroline's bedroom door. They said that the house should be "perfect". Perhaps they should be looking at new construction. The house is 16 years old. It's not perfect.

In a way, our house is representative of our neighborhood. Yes, the floorplan is almost identical to everyone else's (which sounds boring, but believe me, when you're drunk at a neighbor's party, it's great knowing that no matter whose house you're in you can always find the bathroom), but that's not what I mean. I mean that it's imperfect, and because of that imperfection, lovable.

No one in the neighborhood is perfect, but then, no one claims to be. That's what I like most about where we live - we're all just doing the best we can to make a nice environment for our families. And generally, we succeed.

I look at some of the new developments popping up around us like dandelions, and they seem soulless. I suppose some of that could be sour grapes - after all, I won't be able to afford an $800K house any time soon. But largely, I think my negative feelings about them is that they're too perfect. The manicured lawns, the expansive facades, the 7 series BMWs in the driveways. Maybe if I knew some of these people, I'd feel differently, but the houses in these Toll Brothers developments simply don't invite neighborly conversation. I'll take my own neighborhood, thank you very much, weeds and all. Oh wait, that's just my lawn. Damn.

I'll miss our neighborhood. And, while I never thought I'd say this when we first moved in to the house and there was soooo much to do, I'll miss our house. Warts and all.

Want to buy it?