Good grief... time passes quickly when

you spend your days scrubbing, polishing and vacuuming!!  The viewings and open houses idea wears a bit thin pretty fast when you have a few a day and do a clean through between each visit.  But, the good news is that we have a buyer... so it is conditionally sold and hopefully in a few more days I can go and put the big SOLD sticker on the board out the front!!

Amazingly, the cats have learned to go into the crate when I ask them to now!! LOL

I haven't been doing any scrapping or playing so I have nothing exciting to show you. :(

I'm here in spirit...

Yep, you might actually be thinking that I have fallen off the edge of the planet but I am still here, in spirit, if not body!!  It's been a couple of really manic busy weeks getting the house ready to go on the market. I haven't had any time for scrapping or playing with paper and glue and am now down to this as supplies!

I have a few bits and pieces that I need to finish up and get in the post and my poor altered book is sitting neglected in its basket... but at least I know I can go back and re-visit Elizabeth's tutorials and work through them when things quiet down a bit.

My realtor has had me scrub and polish and de-clutter to within an inch of my life and the photographer has been and done his bit and the results are here.http://homesite.obeo.com/viewer/default.aspx?tourid=723534

and we had our first open house on Sunday afternoon.  Chris and I managed to catch the cats and put them in their carriers and leave them in the basement while we went out for the afternoon... and my UK friends will understand my confusion when it comes to having to actually leave my house and let anyone pop in and have a wander about!!  I figure that all the nosey neighbours have now had their look-see and hopefully only serious buyers will be making appointments to view from now on. ;)
When we got back after the open house and found out that Tom-Tom had meowed melodiously for the entire 3 hours we decided to get them a dog crate that they can go into together....

and for the viewing last night it seemed to work better than the carriers as they both were quiet... I am arranging to have stitches where Pandy protested about being shoved head first into it... I am sure my arm will recover given time and long sleeves will hide the scars!

Found this sign at the pet store so if any little kids pole their fingers into the cage its not like they haven't been warned!! 

They look like butter wouldn't melt don't they??? LOL

So, wish me a speedy sale... the stress is killing me... well, the constant polishing and vacuuming is definitely killing me!

Yay... I made the boxes disappear!

It took till 11.30 last night but they are gone and the basement actually looks like a room again!!

It looks fairly neat and tidy for a basement, doesn't it?  

Of course, the storage space under the stairs is completely chocker block with them... stacked 5 high!!

OK... so there are still half a dozen in the corner over there... but what is a girl to do? I couldn't hide them in the half bath or peeps coming to view the house might think it was a teeny weeny room which would sort of negate the bonus of having a half bath in the basement, don't you think?  Oh and where on earth did the phrase half bath come from?  It's daft.  It seems that this is real estate talk where if you have a half bath you have a bathroom without a bath in it... normal folk would refer to them as toilets!! ;)   I like the above photo... Pandora is coming through the door and looking around as if to say: 'where did all the boxes go'??  In true pantomime spirit I am yelling: 'behind you'!!!  (The panto reference may be completely lost on my North American audience... I think pantos are a totally British thing).

So is all the stash packed?  Nope... still got a 16 square Ikea unit and couple of chest of drawers to do... LOL