Wow, I spoke too soon! It started raining in earnest last night, and continued until this afternoon. Even now it's sprinkling. So far, about 1 1/4"! (The first 3/4 or so using my not-so-sophisticated "tuna-can-on-the-ground" rain gauge that I had out for my sprinkler. When I saw that it was nearly full, I put out my real rain gauge.) Yay! I'm doing the happy-rain-dance right now! Of course, it's only 5 degrees, so I'm doing the happy-rain-dance INSIDE, at least for today.

The Sarasota newspaper says that the Manatee and the Myakka rivers are at flood stage today. Here in Englewood (south of Sarasota) we got 2" on Wednesday and about 1" on Tuesday. Nothing today (Thursday) but it's early :-) Just got back from a trip to Homosassa Springs S.P. and Tampa area was raining heavily both going thru and coming back. Is it my imagination? Seems like Tampa has lots of thunder and lighting storms in the summer months. Denise BTW Homosassa State Park is the coolest. Highly recommended!

Ok, I'll bite. $3515.12 (plus $351.51 10% GC markup) for a 9.5' x 10.5' kitchen and a 65" bathroom vanity. Kitchen had 3 coats of poly on walnut and the vanity was primed plus 3 coats of oil enamel. This particular contractor is expensive and VERY meticulous. They are truly gorgeous IMO and everyone who comes into the house, even if they are overwhelmed by the large expanse of wood, strokes them ;-) I know I couldn't have done 10% of the job and planned for him in budgeting!

We listed in May of 2007 with a local realtor with a good reputation who had been in the business for a few years. Our asking price was $10k less than the house two doors away which was a bit smaller than ours and did not have a new kitchen, bath, and other features ours had. We saw three houses that were in our neighborhood, one listed at $5k more than ours and the other two listed even higher sell in the first 3 months we had ours listed. I'm very realistic and just knew that ours wasn't being marketed effectively. Also, I could look at the good and bad in our home and knew ours was in much better condition and in a better location than two of the three that sold. Two of them were on a busy street while ours was on one of the most desired streets in our town. We ended up cancelling our listing after promises similar to yours of people who were "really interested" never materialized. We were going to forget about moving for awhile and relax about the whole selling situation. However, I saw an article in a local paper the week after our listing was cancelled about a real go-getter in the RE business. She didn't promise to sell in any specified amount of time but this woman sold houses that others didn't, even after being listed for months. Two months after listing with her and having had three times as many showings as we had in 7 months with the other realtor, we sold our home. The couple who bought our house wanted to look at it after driving by, they hadn't been looking in our area but our home caught their eye. Their realtor called ours after hours and they saw the house at 9:00 P.M. on a Saturday night because they were scheduled to fly home the next morning. When she asked me if I would leave the dining room drapes, I knew we had sold our home. She said she walked in and knew that was it. We had come down in price about $40k, but it was only 5% of our original asking price so I was happy to sell when we did. We had also cancelled a contract we had on another home that we were going to build when our home didn't sell with our original realtor. In the long run, we ended up getting a bit less for our home, but we also bought our new home for less than we would have and received even more builders' incentives so in the long run, things worked out for the best. I know that is hard to hear but I kept telling myself that everything happens for a reason and it is true. We just need a lot of patience to believe that and keep telling yourself that whatever happens is meant to be. I'm not making light of the situation for those who have to sell and haven't been able to but I really do believe everything happens the way it's supposed to in life. If you're not happy with your realtor, evaluate the situation and think about finding a new one if you don't think they are doing their job. Take a good, hard look at your home with a critical eye and ask your friends to tell you what you can do to improve your home. We had friends offer excellent advice but because we lived with it on a daily basis, we never saw our home the way others did. Most of all, your home has to be priced right. I've noticed in the area we left, homes have come down an average of 5 to 7% since we left and some of them were on the market at the same time ours was. If it's not priced right, it won't sell, no matter how nice it is. Good luck to everyone and may the new year bring you a buyer for your home!