House for sale this Thanksgiving?

by Suzanne Warr

One day recently, as I polished the bathroom faucet til I could see my sparkly reflection in it, I thought about the silly parts of selling a house.  Not the obviously annoying things, like trying to keep muddy paw prints off the kitchen floor, and never sitting on your bed because you just made it.  Those at least make sense.  No, I'm talking about the really ridiculous realms that we desperate home-sellers wander in.  For example, you might be selling a house if...

• you worry about whether your tp looks cheap or 'affluent.'
• you hope the guinea pigs don't wheek a hello to the visitors, and beg for their snacks.
• you fret that your bathroom rugs have a foot print on them, and therefor don't look perfectly fluffed.
• you sort through all the pumpkins in the bin, hoping one of them will say 'buy this house.'
• you feel the need to not only rake the leaves, but hide the leaf pile in the woods so no one will know how many leaves your trees drop.

However, in the spirit of Thanksgiving--and I am thankful to have a nice warm house in which to enjoy this family time--here are a few of the things about selling a house that leave me feeling grateful.

• when I ask the family to tidy up and put everything away, I can blame the buyers.
• pumpkin pie candles aren't a splurge, they're an investment.
• friends can drop by unexpectedly without my having to scramble the house clean--hooray!
• I get to live in my house at the prettiest it's ever been, for just a little longer.
• The opportunities for creative housekeeping are endless...as witness the pic below.

That, my friends, is a brainstorming/plot board for my latest wip, and it's up on the wall in the kitchen where I can jot down ideas as I go by--just where I want it!  The painting which covers it lifts up and down easily, and no one's the wiser when the house is being shown.  Isn't that fun?  Creative?  And, just...kind of cool?  I think so.  It's something to be thankful for. :)