So much for a pleasant Fall with such weather these past days. From what I’ve been seeing, our overnight temps are supposed to be dropping down into the 20’s tonight. Ouch! Part of my morning was spent making sure the furnaces were running in the vacant homes I have listed, and tomorrow morning I’ll be checking several more. Every year during our cold months, I become all the more concerned over heating systems. I could tell you story after story regarding the nightmares created when furnaces go out and inside temps drop below freezing.
There’ve been homes listed by other Realtors over the years which thankfully for their owners, I alerted their agents about their furnaces being out. One particular time, I called an agent who had a home listed which happened to have hot water heat, and was near freezing inside when the prospective buyers and I arrived. The first thing I said was, “Oh my gosh! The boiler must’ve gone out!” While they were looking, I was on my cell phone to the agent telling him he’d better contact his sellers immediately. He acted like it was no big deal until I said, “If you don’t get on it right away, your sellers are going to have frozen radiators and piping before sunrise tomorrow!” As expected, I didn’t even receive a call-back from the sellers or agent for saving them from a certain huge expense had those radiators frozen. All I can say is, you only have to experience a freeze-out once, and then you’ll become a believer in the devastating strength of freezing water.
This past winter an acquaintance came whining to me about having purchased a vacant home that was supposed to have been winterized, and when the water was turned on after closing, his basement became an opened sprinkler system. For some reason he thought I’d feel sorry for him, but I couldn’t conjure up much empathy because if I had sold him the home, I would’ve sternly warned him about the near certain cracked water lines there would be when our City turned its water on at the curb. At the time I couldn’t help but remembering how his mindset being of the one having all the answers, and certainly knowing all the more about everything than anyone else. He must’ve fallen asleep daily in his “Plumbing 101” class.
With it being so cold outdoors, the rest of my day was spent working on several files that are coming up for closing, and afterwards, the rest at work on my monthly tasks of office accounting. With the last day of September being the end of our third quarter, there was all that much more to do. I often reminded myself today that when working with numbers, it’s always best to be as focused as possible. In spite of the my un-expected walk-ins and numerous phone calls, I did manage to get everything wrapped up which now makes me good to go for the rest of this month.
Late this afternoon I went over to check the condo I have listed at 361 S. Pennsylvania which was just recently vacated by the seller, and prompting me to make sure it’ll be presentable enough for a public open house I’ll be hosting this Saturday afternoon from 1:00 – 3:00 PM. I’m in hopes there’ll be some strong interest since it offers two large bedrooms, 2 baths, a den, and a private balcony providing the most beautiful views of Willow Creek. Anyone who enjoys the great outdoors would be mesmerized by the every-changing scenery below. I can see why the current owner lived there so long when having views like that on a daily basis. By the way, there’s underground parking that goes with that unit, so any given buyers will never have to worry about climbing into their cold vehicles. The above photo is but one of the views from its balcony.
I made sure to take in my geraniums before tonight’s freeze so to save them over for next year. They didn’t fare well this year, and likely due to all the rain and quirky weather we’ve had. The one thing I do know about Geraniums, is that they really don’t like having their feet wet all the time, and it certainly showed this year when looking at how they struggled. Oh well, let’s hope for a normal Summer next year. I think I’m going to place them in pots and see if it’ll give them a better start come Spring. And by the way, if you see me carrying buckets of snow into my office this Winter, please don’t think I’ve lost my mind because struggling plants must have either rainwater or melted snow for speedier recoveries. I’m still waiting for someone to take my giant avocado to either California or Florida and promise to plant it somewhere safe, because I’ve grown very attached to it over these years since it was started by yours truly from a seed.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.
