Tips

I'm thinking that if we buy this house, we're going to place ourselves in a bit of a money pit. Too much stuff that *has* to be done, rather than things we just *want* to do. The offer is still on the table, negotiations are still being made, but we can walk away. And my gut says that we will.

So, tomorrow afternoon we are going back out with the realtor to look at more houses. Today, as I sit at my desk, digesting my lunch and pounding through a pile of miniature chocolate treats, I'm thinking about the dead animals I've seen in the homes we've seen so far.

As a general rule, I'd say that it's not a good idea to keep your stuffed dead birds, dead deer, dead raccoons, and zebra skin rug out for prospective home buyers to see. I'd go a step further and say that it's also probably not a good idea to keep all that live ammunition (bullets and the like) in your linen closet, for prospective home buyers to see. You know we're looking in your closets. You know we're walking through the house.

You just might consider that not everyone likes mounted dead animals. Put them in the garage, maybe, or under the bed. I mean, I doubt it will hurt the animals' feelings. No more than it did to shoot them, slaughter them, stuff them and mount them.

All I'm saying is that you have to consider your audience when you're trying to make a sell, you know? Todd and I, for example, will likely have to take down all of our Def Leppard and Tom Cruise posters when we sell our house. Just in case not everyone likes that type of thing.