Chapter 5: Marketing the House

Marketing the House

While attending to the needs of my parents held the highest priority, their home in Sheboygan was a close second. It was imperative the house be sold. Before this could happen, however, the entire house needed to be cleaned and emptied out. Two to three weekends a month, for four months, were spent getting the house ready to list.

Bill and Jason began by washing down the walls and the once beautiful woodwork. The entire interior of the house needed painting, and only after the floors were scrubbed, carpets shampooed and cabinets and closets cleaned out, would Sandy, the realtor, finally be able to start showing it to prospective buyers. .

Thankfully, Sandy's husband was a painter and offered to help in any way he could. The walls were a variety of colors: the hallway, a golden yellow; one bedroom a light mauve, another one brown and yet another, green. It was strongly suggested all the walls be painted a neutral, off-white. Knowing it was something that needed to be done, yet not being in the position to do it ourselves, we readily hired her husband to do the painting.

As I moved from room to room, I tried to separate everything into three piles ... Save, Sell or Throw Away. I hated being the one to decide what to do with all of my parents' possessions. I felt as if I were violating their privacy, even though I knew what I was doing was a necessity.

Finally, in April, after sitting vacant for five months, the house was ready to go on the market. It was still furnished, but I felt that helped to give it a warm, lived-in look. An "open house" was held the very next weekend. Many people came to look, but the majority at that first showing were just curious neighbors. While there were a few couples seriously looking for a home to buy, the realtor noted some negative comments were made about how dark the carpeting was. "Too oppressive" was the way she put it. I had always liked the deep, rich brown o the carpeting, and encouraged her to market the house as it was.

When warmer weather arrived a month later, however, along with the rise in humidity came a definite odor problem. Even with newly painted walls and scrubbed floors, a foul stench was evident immediately upon entering the house. It was essential this problem be resolved before the house could be shown any further.

It didn't take long to learn what the problem was. Mom and Dad had always been dog owners. Before Max, there had been Mickey, Musky, Marco and several others. Apparently one of them had "marked his territory" in the living room many years earlier and the others had followed suit. By checking further, Sandy's husband learned that dog urine had soaked through the entire carpeting. Anything short of replacing it would not eliminate the problem.

"Sale" Time

All of the furniture and many of my parents' belongings were still in the house, so it was decided we would put a hold on selling the property until we could empty it out and install new carpet. First on the agenda was a massive garage sale, planned for the beginning of June.

Jason and I spent several weekend visits marking items and moving them into the garage. Larger items were left in the house where they could be viewed and purchased. On the weekend we held the sale, I recruited several helpers from the neighborhood to keep things from "growing legs" since we couldn't be everywhere at once.

About an hour before the sale officially began, a man in an old truck pulled up, eager to see literally everything. He owned a resale shop and was interested in buying anything that could turn a profit for him. We were happy to show him around, but I quickly tired of his fast talk. My patience finally took flight when he came up to me with a box of my father's old rings, tie tacks, pins, etc., saying he would buy the whole lot if he could get it cheap enough.

These things were my father's possessions, things he had cared about. As I fingered and looked at the large of array of items in the black box, I knew I couldn't part with them any time soon. Feeling both vulnerable and angry, I sent the guy on his way, curtly telling him they were not for sale. This man was only out to make money and I was not about to feed his greedy appetite.

Most of the people we met during the sale were kind and courteous, many expressing their condolences over the situation. As the weekend came to a close, we did negotiate somewhat on price and when it was all over, a healthy sum had been made which I promptly put into the bank to help pay the staggering monthly bills.

Once the house was sold, the taxes and utilities would no longer eat into my parents' savings. I was anxious to get the house back on the market. We briefly considered renting it out but decided against that because we couldn't be there to oversee things. In the hands of the wrong renter, our problems could be multiplied.

A Massive Move

As soon as the garage sale was completed, we talked about how to empty the house out completely. There seemed to be only two ways to go... have everything put in storage or have it all moved up to our home. Thankfully our house was large enough to accommodate all their belongings. If we were able to buy the house in Minocqua for them, the furnishings would be needed.

Either way, a moving company would have to be hired to pack everything up and transport it. If we utilized a local storage garage, there would be a monthly fee to pay and when the furniture was needed, it would have to be moved a second time. Common sense dictated it would be wiser to have it brought to our house where we could keep a watchful eye on it, and incur no storage costs.

Bill obtained quotes from several moving companies and hired United Van Lines to do the job the next month, in July. Company policy stated a family member had to be present both the day of packing and the day of moving. I knew I couldn't get time off in the summer from my job, and perhaps, more importantly, I knew that watching their house get emptied out would be painful for me, so Bill arranged to be there.

When the movers had questions that Bill couldn't answer, a simple phone call quickly set things straight. United's employees were quick and efficient, packing up and loading the truck with a great deal of professionalism. I was so glad my parents' house would finally be empty and our frequent trips to Sheboygan could finally end.

It was just past noon when the movers arrived at our house with my parents' furnishings. Everything that was boxed went straight to the basement where it eventually filled an empty 12' x 16' room, from floor to ceiling. In another empty section of the basement went Mom's prized dining room table and buffet, along with an assortment of other odds and ends. The only things I didn't store in the basement were a set of Victorian-era wingback chairs that Mom cherished and a sectional sofa that she had recently recovered, which had been in the family for nearly 50 years. While they were not in line with my taste in furniture, and looked out of place when combined with mine, I felt I had to keep these items in use, out of respect for my mother.

By the time the movers left, not only was the basement full of boxes but half of our large garage was as well. I hoped it would not be too long before we could get that spacious house for my parents and put everything back into use.

Finishing Touches

With their house empty, Sandy and her husband were able to properly inspect the house to see if anything was needed besides new carpeting. Thankfully only minor plumbing repairs and a few other little items needed some simple attention. Sandy sent me several carpet samples, all very light in color to make the house look even more spacious than it already was. I chose a light beige. After it was installed, Sandy took pictures so we could see how nice it looked.

We were all delighted, and surprised, at the difference the fresh, new carpeting made. With the house once again ready to show, we hoped it would sell quickly. After having an open house, Sandy was elated to hear many favorable comments and she felt sure that an offer would soon be made. Not many homes in the area had a basement so elegantly finished. Dad was never one to sit around and he had spent many hours and a lot of money making his home special. The fenced yard was immaculately cared for, with many mature trees and shrubs that he had planted as seedlings fifteen years earlier.

Mother Nature Speaks

The morning of August 6, 1998, was much like any other summer morning. As people ate breakfast and prepared for another busy day, the rumblings of thunder could be heard from a storm that was moving into the area. Soon the rain began falling, steady and hard.

This was not like any other storm, however. The heavens had seemingly let loose and a torrential nine inches of rain poured onto the city of Sheboygan in a mere two-hour span of time. What had begun as a typical summer storm quickly turned into a raging, out-of-control flood. Everyone was caught by surprise. Sheboygan had never experienced a flood of this magnitude before.

First floor apartments in low lying areas were totally flooded to within a foot of the ceiling. Many people needed to be rescued. It was amazing to learn how rapidly the waters could rise. One man, trying to escape by car, found himself submerged within minutes and had to swim to the safety of a tree.

The homes where Dad's house was located fared a bit better because they were on higher ground, but they too suffered damage. I was shocked to learn, however, that just a few blocks to the north, several foundations broke away and houses literally crumbled to the ground. The house next to my father's house sustained a devastating blow. The neighbor had just finished putting in a nice recreation room a month earlier. The flood waters broke through his exterior basement wall and flooded it with eight feet of water. I felt bad for his loss, but I realized, too, that because so much of the water went into his basement, it decreased the damage to my father's house.

Dad's basement was covered with only about six-inches of water. Enough to require clean-up efforts, but certainly nothing major like the neighbor's house and so many others that met with total destruction.

The flood did, however, require yet another halt on the sale of the house because now the basement carpeting was ruined and needed to be replaced. I phoned the insurance company to ask about compensation, but sadly learned that "acts of God" were not covered in the home owner policy. Federal aid was dispensed to the area soon after the flood, but others had suffered such massive damage we could not expect a portion of that.

So, once again, I authorized Sandy's husband to make arrangements to clean up the damage and get new carpeting installed. A month later, the house was finally once again in tip-top shape and could be shown to prospective buyers.

I prayed we could get the house sold quickly as winter would soon be coming and I didn't want it to sit unoccupied. While it held many good memories, I felt sad to know my parents would never live there again. Until the house could be sold, it was like an open sore, reminding me of what once had been, but would never be again. The permanency of my parents' impairments was something I accepted on the conscious level, but it would be a long time before the reality of it all could be absorbed.