twitter - if you follow the right people - it's actually a great way to keep up with things that you care about.  mostly people I follow post links to articles and their own blog/site when they update - plus a lot of local agencies around here use it to post abbreviated meeting minutes as things are happening - and there are "tweet chats" with public figures... it's pretty interesting.

vacant pontiac silverdome

We listed the house officially today at 11:30.  We've already had two showings!  How many showings do you typically go through before it sells?  Anybody do this before?

Sarah -- you should be pleased by the number of showings so quickly after the listing became effective. Your question depends, I think, on many variables - not the least of which are the time of year and the state of your local real estate market.

We just closed on the sale of our home last week - but it was first listed around Thanksgiving of last year. We had beastly weather in our market for the first 4-months our home was on the market. We did have lots of showings (and many positive comments) but nobody really got interested until the weather improved and the feel of spring was in the air.

Good luck.

hi TC! i am going to CA for the holiday weekend! a friends wedding + the bay area!

Well housing sales are on fire here, Sarah, I hope yours moves quickly if you want it to.  We had scheduled going to see one this evening: a tiny, 2-bedroom, wacky cottage set waaaay back on the lot in a desirable neighborhood.  My plan was to buy it and live in the cottage while finally building my own design on the front of the site.  Got a text from my realtor at noon that the house sold this morning - it was just listed last Friday!

Oh, Donna, that is sad for you.

I don't know if I want the house to move quickly, or not.  I mean, its great if it does, but I don't get to stop working until June 18th, so it would be a mad rush to find a place, get packed and move.

Donna, you can always try to break the deal with a higher bid. Happens all the time, it's called gazump.

Sarah, I sold house number one in 3 months. Felt like forever. It was a tough neighborhood, but a cute house. We got more than it was worth probably. 

House number 2 sold in 2 weeks, and we felt good about the price (more than the ask). 

In both cases, we had great realtors and nice houses. I suspect that underpricing a house will make it move faster, but who knows.

In other news (bad) my curmudgeonly but beloved uncle has died. The news (good) is that my cousin has asked me to renovate uncles' Eichler home so it stays in the family. I'm pretty stoked about this project. Most of my work is not fit for the portfolio (zoning variances anyone?), so it'll be nice to have something with a bit of architectural character. I hope that my aunties' 1950's VW bug is still parked in front of the house, so maybe it can get renovated along with the house :)

@Miles love "gazump" what a sound/word.

Sounds like a cool project to be in on, gruen!

Travel safe, Nam. I'm headed up to Traverse City, home of two awesome shoe stores (really!) and a winery that makes delicious Michigan faux-grappa.

thanks Donna you too!

Thanks Donna. A good friend of mine lives in TC. 

Google street view shows the VW beetle (looks like 1960-66 vintage, so maybe I'm a couple years off, but it probably matches the house vintage :) I love old beetles...

Donna,

My fiance and I have been looking at houses also. We have been beaten by people paying $40k+ over asking price on the two houses we have made offers on thus far. 

I feel another housing bubble/ bust coming in the next 5 years.

Don't know where you are looking but around Boston house flipping is in full swing again. 

Yep, it's in full swing here in Naptown again too. Also I;m sad that we're seeing the "Oak Park" phenomenon of people buying a tiny historic house and tearing it down to build a steroidally-puffed up faux-historic house that maxes out lot coverage.  Ugh.

Surprised to see that the fire at the Mac is not already a top story! Are we all just too stunned?

It's a tragedy and probably the biggest architectural loss in recent memory - even if it turns out not to be a complete loss. Any room of that place is/was a treasure.  

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/05/23/mackintoshs-glasgow-school-of-art-on-fire/

How tragic .. and sad.

good god, that's a tragedy beyond words...

Jesus, we got a cash offer on the house for 1,000 less than listed.  We have to be out by June 22!  Talk about stressful.  How am I supposed to get ten years of living boxed up by then?  Where am I gonna put it all?  I don't even have a place to move into yet!  AHHHH!

Wow, that was fast! Good luck with the move.

Sarah -- if the house is that attractive to potential buyers, you probably don't have to accept all the terms and conditions offered. Decide how much time you need to find a new place and accomplish your move in a reasonably manner -- then try to work out a closing date with the potential Buyer that makes sense for you.

It sounds like you live in a "seller's market" - use that to your advantage. If this buyer doesn't work out, there'll probably be another one along soon.

Maybe.  But we're selling the house 'As Is' which meant we'd have to have a cash buyer.  It's all so scary, you know?  You want to make the right choice, but you don't want to miss out, and who's to say if another offer is coming or not?  It's terrifying.  What if we say yes, and then another offer comes through?

Donna, on your Glasgow thing, I really don't know what it is, or what was lost.  Is it a museum or an actual school?

Sarah - It's a school and a masterpiece by Mackintosh, see quizzical's link above (and now in the news section).  The interior work was magical, they just redid the library recently, I think.

sarah - if you're going to re-list your house, get some nicely staged photos.  

Here are some good examples.

Sarah, one of the best things about moving is lightening your load.

Have a yard sale, put the remainders in goodwill, book and clothing drops and a dumpster. You'll feel much better afterwards. Kind of like taking a big dump.

You'll have less stuff to move and unpack.

I'm with him. Less is more.

You all should be proud.  After 8 years, I FINALLY tossed my structures and environmental systems notes.  It wasn't easy, but I closed my eyes, held my breath, and let it go.  Damn.  What if I need to know how to calculate the load on a concrete footing?  What if I need to calculate the throw of the foot candles of a sodium-metal halide parabolic lamp?

I also managed to "secretly" toss ALL the McDonalds quality toys that we have accumulated over the years.  

Sarah, the first thing is a big milestone, but frankly I'm totally envious of the McDonald's toys all being gone.  Purge!!

Well, I'm about to toss my HP Deskjet 9800d. All I need to do is find a second floor from which to hurl it.

jw468 - why not go 'Office Space' on it?

I haven't seen Office Space, so I had to google it, but that's a very appealing idea.

I don't know if anyone else is surprised at how far Houston has come in the past few years.  If only the rest of Texas would catch up...

hi TC. hope all is well. CA was a blast and my current status is Burnout- how do you manage it for yourself?

luckily the deadline/go-live is in sight...

Houston sucks.  What did they do, Toast?

Houston Article

still not quite as progressive as Austin, but it's a tremendous shift.

and there's also stuff like this

"Supporters...cheered each other with silent applause."

Love this idea. Love it!

All our elementary schools do the silent applause.

are you up to date?

that reminds me - economy must be better because product reps are handing out toys at the lunch and learns again - I haven't seen that in about 7 or 8 years.

OK so part of why I'm panicked is the letter I got today says "Enclosed is a copy of the letter we mailed you two months ago.  We have not heard from you.  You have 14 days to respond."

I SWEAR I never received a first letter! I would never toss out mail from the IPLA (licensing agency).

And it's confusing: The initial letter asks for CEUs from the date range 1 January 2011 - 31 December 2013.  The second letter asks for the date range 1 December 2011 - 31 December 2013.  So which is it?!

Not that it matters, unfortunately, because I don't have enough units for either of those date ranges.  Dang.

But if you shift the two-year date range to be 2013 and 2014 - which we're only halfway through - I have WAY over the required amount.  I've been to two conferences already this year.

Crap.  What a hassle this is going to be.

Donna -- you may want to look at my response to your identical audit post in the "being a member of the AIA" thread.

That's what I just did, quizzical.  Went to AIA and filtered by both of the date ranges the State's letters requested.

I also identified the problem: my transcript shows NO CEUs for 2012.  But I went to the Ohio Valley Regional Conference that year, so I'm not sure why none of those courses are showing up -  I should have probably 12 units at that conference!  Ugh.

It's an extortion racket.

Donna - I've had pretty good luck over the years getting 'missed' credits posted on a delayed basis, provided I have decent records confirming my participation at the event. Usually a polite inquiry to the event organizer does the trick. However, since you are under some time pressure, you may need to be pretty hands-on.

There's also the 'self-report' option - however I don't really know what sort of specific documentation you might need as backup to the LUs you self report.

Good luck.

I spoke to them this morning.  I'm just going to mail them what I have and a letter explaining what's going on so if nothing else I *have* responded within the timeframe they requested.  That should buy me time to sort out the conference issue with AIA.