Albatross!

 It's been another boring week (except for the big news below), but sometimes, boring is a good thing.

We were actually able to get out and take two walks a day most of last week, and it felt so good to get our heart rates up, and to get some decent exercise.

My bone density test results arrived on Friday.  I still have osteopenia, and have not progressed to osteoporosis.  This is good news.

We did some yard work yesterday, after running a bunch of errands.  Dave finally got the weed whacker out to cut back all of the brown, dead stuff in the flower bed, so the "curb appeal" of the house is vastly improved.  

Some of that damage was from the ice storm in October.

The iris are coming up, but the daffodils and tulips in the flower bed are in bad shape.  Fortunately, the peonies hadn't started to sprout yet when we had the latest weather catastrophe.

In the back, I cut the damaged (dead) branches off of the English ivy, and cut the freeze-burned rose canes back. There are tiny buds on the rose bush, though, so it isn't fully dead.

I pulled my dead herbs out of the herb garden (the oregano was black, and now it appears that the sage and rosemary are also dead), and removed my potted plants that froze to death inside the shed.

This included my 6 year old geranium.  It was sad, but needed to be done.

We will do more today.  The mint patch, and my wildflower patch, both need to have the dead stuff cut back, and Dave needs to figure out how to get all of the bent and broken bamboo out of the huge bamboo patch.

There is still a lot to do, and we may resort to paying our guy to come and deal with some of it.

In other news, BIG news, one of my oldest and dearest friends, Margaret, has started talking about how I really should sell my condo in Lombard.  Like, NOW.

It's a buyers' market right now, and my mortgage value has flipped right side up -- after being upside down for 12 years.

She and Dave are pressuring me.... saying, basically, that I don't need to wait for a sellers' market, I need to off load this albatross while it's more likely to be bought.

Anyway, Dave and Margaret are working with a realtor to get everything done. Margaret, by referring us to her realtor, and offering encouragement and advice (she just sold her home in Illinois, and moved to her home in Michigan, after becoming a widow), and Dave by basically managing the entire process for me because my anxiety about it is THROUGH THE ROOF.

If it doesn't sell, and my tenant moves out at the end of his lease, I am screwed.  Bankruptcy, here I come. 

There's also the fact that the condo was my back up plan.... There are some big reasons that I didn't entirely want to let it go, but it's come to the point that I should probably just do so.

I hated living there, after all.... do I really want to go back if something happens to leave me homeless here?

No.

SO, as of yesterday, Dave called my tenant and let him know, and I composed a formal letter to send to him.  

I've also emailed the condo management company.

The realtor has the tenant's phone number, and my brother in law will pass his set of keys to the realtor some time in the next couple of days.

Dave will send the condo association rules to the realtor, so she is aware of the myriad restrictions for listing and showing a property in the building, and off we go.

Some friends of ours here put their completely NOT updated 2 bedroom home on the market last week, and it sold in a day.

My condo isn't updated, and has a few little damaged areas....but I am hoping that this goes as smoothly as their sale did.

The thought is that any actual profit I get from the sale will go toward the mortgage on this house, to reduce the principle, and cut our payments.  
Dave wants to actually pay this house off with the money inherited from his dad, but it's sitting in a cd for a few more months.

We'll see.  We may need to contact a financial adviser about the best path to take.

So, on that note, now that typing this all out has created an anxiety attack for me, I will bid you good week!