Seller's Remorse

So our little hut is officially for sale as of today, and when I first pulled up the listing, I got a little choked up.

This does not bode well, I think, for the day in the hopefully not so distant future when we will actually be moving out. I have this mental picture of being torn away from the stoop railing, kicking and screaming "My babies were born here!"

After I pulled myself together and clicked through the photos, I was stunned by the photographer's mad photoshopping skillz.

Our house looks so purdy. The rooms! So bright and cheerful! Either the photographer stood across the street to get the panoramic shot of the living room, or she has one mother of a zoom lens.

Gazing upon the blazing little log that had been photoshopped into our fireplace, I found myself thinking, "We should build a fire in there sometime." Then I saw the picture of our basement "rec room"and mused, "What an awesome rec room! You could totally hang out down there and play games or watch movies!"

In short, I momentarily forgot that, "I hate this effing house" has been my mantra all winter.

It's sad. Now that we've finally fixed the place up, we're ready to get the H-E double hockey sticks out.

Really, I'm the ultimate pessimist when it comes to our prospects of actually finding a buyer in this housing market. Yesterday's headline in the local paper was something to the effect of "Housing Prices Tanking; Some Morons Still Trying to Sell."

Some days I think that our house is a comparatively nice little starter home, well decorated, in good repair, yadda yadda yadda. Then I start looking at the hundred plus listings of houses just like it in the same neighborhood with updated kitchens, more space, and lower asking prices, and I despair. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've said to the P-Dawg "We are never, ever going to sell this house."

"Who the hell would ever fall for this little hovel?" I say to my friend V, and she counters, "You did."

If you've bought a house or looked at real estate recently, tell me this: could you fall for a house that may not necessarily have every update or feature you are looking for, but is clean, neutrally decorated with no garish 70s wallpaper or fugly shag carpeting, and contains strategically placed smoke and mirrors?