We woke up extra early this morning to prepare our home for the day’s events. Fresh towels were hung in the bathroom, the scale and bathmat removed. Hidden away were the kitchen wall calendar (we wouldn’t want someone to see from a photograph that our place is still for sale in May while noticing the calendar indicated it was up for sale in January, or so we were told), the toaster (I don’t know why), the cats’ toys and the large sheet of cardboard we keep on the living room floor for the cats to scratch instead of furniture. (Yes, that really works.

Cats’ Cardboard
They actually prefer the cardboard.) A few hundred additional items were also relocated out of sight, as we were advised. It will be years, if ever, that we find all the things we tucked away. The place looked good though. Really good. Maybe we should reconsider!
At exactly 10:00 a.m. we met with “the” real estate agent. We signed 6000 pages of contractual gibberish (more or less and felt like more) and initialed even more. We handed over keys for the much loved lockbox (I hate that thing), and committed our home for sale.
Immediately following the last initialed page, with precision timing, Callie arrived. Her job was to prep the place for the photographer who was on her way by turning on every light and moving things from here to there. Callie also installed the lockbox by an exterior building entrance where lockboxes live, and measured every room, closet, and incidental space with her laser gizmo.
Then Margie arrived, also with precision timing, and proceeded to take pictures of every room from every angle. Her toughest job was to lower all the blinds to the sills. She would have preferred raising them to the top of each window but the heavy wooden blinds that had not been adjusted in a full 10 years would not be raised. (We always kept the blinds about a foot from the sill to allow the cats room to sit, lie, and chatter at birds and other nonparticipating creatures.) Margie then went around the building photographing such things as the exercise room and the rooftop deck, and other relevant places.
So the game is on! Now all the paperwork gets processed, the photos get selected and arranged, the brochures get printed. The listing will go live on millions and billions of websites (or some such number) on Thursday, and next Sunday, February 7, there will be an open house.
Here we go!