We actually made it. After losing the house on Monday, we looked at "the rebound" on Tuesday, made the aforementioned offer, received a counter offer, countered that, received the second counter, and signed off. Under contract on the last day to qualify for the tax credit!

Now Tom has set up the inspection for next Tuesday. Once that's behind us, all that really remains is for someone to buy our house. I'm surprised we didn't get any offers in April, given that our house should appeal to first-timers who had hoped to get the tax credit. Supposedly the Realtor community says our house shows well and is a good house for the price, so hopefully the right buyer will come along soon....

Last night we proposed to the rebound.

Actually, we made an offer on the second house, which is way more hip and attractive than the last one. It's not as large, in square footage or lot size, but it's in much better condition and is ready to move into. We're optimistic and hope to know something by the end of the day today.

Feels like I haven't uncrossed my fingers since 2009.

Last Monday I had my appendix removed. Hence the lack of posting on this blog. During the week I was in the hospital, Tom got the house ready to show twice, and on my first day out one of those visitors came back. So three showings last week. We were feeling pretty good about our real estate situation. All we needed was the seller's sign-off on the house we were under contract to purchase and we'd be on our way.

No dice. We learned at about 3:00 last Wednesday, after much foot dragging, that the seller wasn't planning to do more than $500 worth of repairs (we had submitted two pages of requests, based on the inspection report), but that he would split the cost of mold remediation with us. (The mold was the biggest issue, but the seller's estimate was only $3,100.) We declined that offer and gave him more time to consider.

Then Saturday afternoon a little after 4:00, we learned that the seller was not on board with the required repairs, despite his agent's belief that he was. He was only ready to commit to part of the inspector's recommendations, leaving all electrical and plumbing, for example, for us to do. He had conceded to take care of the mold problem, but no more. (The upstairs toilet and sink didn't work, which he was unwilling to repair.)

So we wanted to get some estimates on how much it would cost us to make such unforeseen repairs, and since we learned all of this on Saturday afternoon, we requested an extension on our formal response so we'd have a few weekdays to try to line people up. This was a technicality, really, since the seller had not responded within the contracted time limits at any point thus far, and when he requested an extension after time had expired earlier in the process, we granted it (and he still went over by several days). So we requested this week to get the numbers together and get back to him (not to mention Monday was Tom's first full day back at work since my week in the hospital).

He said no! Wouldn't give us an extension past the 4:20 Monday afternoon deadline! After all this waiting and getting half-answers via email, not official documentation, he wouldn't give us time to get estimates (plumbing, electric, HVAC at minimum, plus we'd have had to have the floors and ceilings repaired so should have had those estimates, too).

I officially voided the contract with the request for the return of our earnest money at 1:15. After a few hours of grief, we've moved on, and today we went through another house. Tonight we'll process our offer to submit to the new sellers!

After the open house this weekend (which we all cleared out for, with the exception of Simon, who stayed hidden the whole time), I took some photos of our yard. The highlights are posted on my blog and on facebook, but really belong here.

Poor Flynn. He gets sick when he travels. And poor Tom, who was cruising around with the cats when it happened. And then poor me, who held Flynn while Tom cleaned him up. I ended up with puke-prints all over me. We're afraid this scene may repeat itself during the open house on Sunday, and/or every time the house is shown....

Zip was fantastic. She's great in the car. And Biscuit cried but was otherwise good. (Alice was asking about her commission for her work showing the house.)

Tomorrow afternoon an agent is showing our house (with Alice's able assistance). We get our first experience of fleeing the premises with Flynn, Biscuit, and Zip. Not sure exactly what we'll do while we're away, but we will certainly high-tail it outta there!

What does one do during an open house? Or during a showing? We will have at least two of our cats, plus the dog and whatever odds and ends we've scraped together, and we'll take both cars and go somewhere. Two-plus hours of driving around with Flynn and Biscuit in one car and Zip in the other, in varying degrees of distress and displeasure. I want to be in the Jeep with Zip and let Tom have the potential pooper/puker (Flynn!) in his car!

Yesterday an agent from another agency called our listing agent to ask a few questions about our house: When the roof was installed, how much updating the wiring and plumbing have had.... Hopefully our answers were satisfactory and we'll have someone come see it!

Both of our astrological forecasts indicate favorable conditions. I'm looking for positive encouragement wherever I can find it!

Fingers will probably be frozen in this crossed position until both sales have closed.

Saturday morning we had the house inspected. It went well! My parents came down and got to go in the house for the first time. The amazing thing is that I took ZERO photos.

Our house has a lockbox on the side door and flyers attached to the For Sale sign out front. No activity over our first weekend on the market, but it was Easter weekend, so we didn't expect anything to happen. No concern -- yet.

Our house is our agent's featured property at the moment. We were included in this week's slideshow for the "agent caravan" that RealtySouth puts on. Yes!

Also, open house is tentatively scheduled for a week from Sunday, April 11. Eeeeee!