Hubband is currently conked out on the sofa while some bowl game plays on unnoticed. So far he is undefeated in his pool. Boy is tucked in but restless, as usual. Visions of PS2 are dancing in his head. Me? I'm doing this. I just finished the holiday pistachios and a cup of eggnog and am chasing it all with a huge glass of ice-cold water.

We met with all the people we were supposed to meet with tonight. Hubband got video of the house and we met the husband/owner and other daughter. Unfortunately, neither Hubband, nor the owner, nor the agent worked out what the exact plan was for the leak in the breezeway. This, of course, means I have to contact Bob and get the estimate and pass it on to the real estate agent and have her pass it on to the owner.

See, there's this little design flaw in the house that causes the leak and it's totally fixable. However the owner wants to get estimates and we just want Contractor Bob to do it. Our reason for this is that the owner just had it worked on in April and obviously is not a good judge of who should be hired to fix things. Of course the owner is already taking a beating on the house and doesn't want to spend a fortune to fix his own mistake. Hubband was adamant that this was a deal-breaker. He wanted Bob to fix it and the owner to pay for it. Now the owner is talking about splitting the cost (because Bob can be a little high on his estimates, but he pads them for emergencies).

9pm tonight and I'm on the phone with the real estate agent discussing this while Hubband coaches me from the sidelines. HELLOOOOOOW! This was your deal-breaker, not mine. You talk to her. But then he starts to cave and waffle. So tomorrow I hope to get an estimate from Contractor Bob and Saturday I'll give it to the real estate agent and either the owner will cover all or half (or none of it by that time, who knows) and it'll be done with it.

I hate that about my husband. It's the same defect that keeps him from being able to order the damned pizza.

But we did get video and Contractor Bob said it's a solid house and a good deal. Mom tagged along, and felt like she should contradict every thought I had, but that's okay. My house. My way. And they certainly look like they're packing things up and shipping out of there soon.

The agent looked over our house as well and I think she was impressed (although, who can tell?). She liked that I had made the house album to show the improvements we've made and also what the yard looks like in the different seasons. (This is definately not the best time of year for this neighborhood.) I think we'll be able to get a good price for it.

And I'm anxious to get going on the packing and organizing. This is a good time for me. I naturally feel renewed at the beginning of the year, so I'd be sorting through things anyway. We're going to go through each of the decorations as we take them down and decide to keep or pitch. We'd planned to get a new tree anyway, so that will work. And we've collected so many ornaments over the years, it's become exhausting trying to decide which to use.

This is a good move for us. The right time, the right house, the right move.