Lane Reconstruction

I'm feeling nervous.

A small brick wall has grown around our garden. Its about 4 bricks high, roughly made of old bricks and a mud mortar. It edges the public walk, and so meets up with the line of trees which surround our small garden.

I'm nervous that this wall will continue to grow. Many workmen stand gathered near the wall, riding on the exercise playground, mixing more mortar, smoking cigarettes.

It seems that the wall around the public garden across from us has come down as well, and I am hoping that they have moved from my low wall onto the next one.

I do not feel confident.

Today, light streams in through our french doors and our many beautiful windows, filtered by the tall trees surrounding our garden. It makes the kitchen feel brighter, makes the entire house warmer, and adds a lovely glow at the right time of day.

Should that wall rise further, we would look out our windows onto what would have clearly become thin bushes, only lightly masking the lumpy wall behind them. Our garden would no longer get any light. We would no longer have access to the exercise playground, and I certainly couldn't send the girls there alone. I would feel cut-off from the lane.

Still no work on our wall. The men seem to be working on the opposite garden now. Still, I am nervous.

Randy's Disappearance

Dave has been back in Shanghai for 1 week now. Through that time, he never saw a trace of Randy the Rat. It seems that Randy had ceased his battle, because the heat and the water both continued to work and a person could again walk down the lane without taking their life into their hands. (When I took the girls to school before we left, the Chinese workers in our lane very kindly carried the girls out on their backs.)

Last night, he left a roll sitting on the kitchen counter.

This morning, a whole roll remained on the kitchen counter.

Meanwhile, Dave decorated the house for Christmas this weekend. When he pulled down the box of decorations from a high shelf, he was showered with rat pellets.

At least he wasn't showered with a dead rat!

Update From the Front

Be wary of waging war on foreign soil. Our adversary, Randy the Rat, is Chinese and clearly brings the benefit of guangxi to his battle. He may be slowly starving to death, and periodically freezing, but he is well enough connected to wear us down as well.

Yesterday morning, workers awoke us at 6am by swinging pick-axes and driving jackhammers into the concrete in our lane. The picture below shows the progress by the time the girls walked to school at 9am:

See the green number 8 on the right? That's our house, our front walk. Our bedroom window faces this. Our front walk is, well, unwalkable.


The sewer line is being replaced. The workers, clearly directed by Colonel Randy the Rat, turned off our water and "forgot" to turn it back on for most of the day. When they needed electricity, Colonel Randy the Rat apparently gave them permission to connect to our power lines. It is possible that our electric bill will have powered the replacing on a sewer line for the entire lane. Wendy thinks this is unlikely, but I wouldn't put it past that wily rat.

He won the battle. We've left town. I'm writing from Chicago.
But he hasn't won the war. Wendy called the Pest Control Company back again, and they are under strict instructions to "do what it takes." We will return to a rat-free house. Or, at least, a house with a dead rat somewhere inside.

And I'm kidding - although I am writing from Chicago, its not because we couldn't fight this silly rat. He may be gross, but he hasn't managed to kick us out of our house. Dave's grandmother is very sick, and so we moved forward our home leave. On Sunday night, with the status update on Great-Grandma, we decided it was time to go home. We flew out today. The last two days were a whirlwind of packing, shopping, and making loads of phone calls. But this is certainly the right place to be right now.

The girls and I will be in Chicago through the holiday weekend, spend the next 2 weeks in St. Louis, and then return to Chicago for our final week in the states. Dave will join us on the way to Chicago, having spent 2 weeks alone (with a dead rat) in Shanghai. We will all return to Shanghai on Dec. 20th to enjoy a quiet family Christmas in our certainly rat-free home, having finally emerged victorious - I am confident.

War of Attrition

Our rat has not succumbed to any of our traps. He has not eaten any of the bright blue poison balls. He has not given in to the temptation of treats hanging inside a metal trap. And he has actually moved glue traps out of his way rather than step on them.

So we seem to have engaged in a War of Attrition - and our side has much greater resources.

We have removed all free foods. The bowl of fruit sits vacant and lonely on the kitchen table, while the refrigerator is full of chilled produce. The sack of flour rests neatly inside a Ziploc bag. Loaves of bread are stored in the oven. And bags of corn flour and chocolate squares rest inside an airtight box.

Every food in this house rests inside at least one air-tight container.

We rinse the dishes after dinner, and we take out the trash twice a day.

Unless he is eating the plaster in the walls of the stuffing in the couch, this rat must be slowly starving to death.

But the powers that be saw the starvation diet as too slow, and notched up our military strategy.

The heat has gone out in our home. Although the taps all run hot water, and the stove displays lovely blue flames, our radiators all sit cold. The outside temperature is 41, and the inside temperature can not be much higher than 55. We're cooking dinner now, which keeps me warm. And we've got thick blankets on our beds for later. We can stand the cold until the landlord deems it appropriate to send someone to repair the radiators (as a sidenote - I would expect immediately to be the appropriate time).

I just hope I'm not the one to stumble across a frozen, emaciated rat.

its in the house

11:50pm

The rat is in the house.

A Good China Day

8:30am
The family bed awoke, and Dave and Lilly bravely went downstairs to explore the various mouse traps set throughout the house.

9am
No rats or mice in the traps, so Dave made waffles, bacon and apples. We talked to Nana and Poppa via Skype.

9:40am
The landlord's contractor arrived. I had greatly feared coming downstairs first thing in the morning. I had no desire to see a mouse dying a slow death on top of my kitchen cabinets. My second fear was greeting and working with this morning's contractor. You see, a pest control company came to our home yesterday afternoon with a mouse-free guarantee. They left behind glue traps, poison pellets, and a big hole in the side of the wall that they refused to seal. So, after many phone calls to many different people, a contractor arrived this morning to fix the hole. I had no expectations that he would complete the job, but I was pleasantly surprised. He climbed right up onto the neighbor's higgledy-piggledy roof (none of us would have been surprised to see him fall right through) with a bucket of mixed concrete. And he tightly packed every pipe going into our home. He either sealed the mouse into our home, or outside of it. But he certainly left no holes. And he was done before we had even finished our waffles!

10:00am
With waffles and bacon chased down by grape juice, and the table cleared away, Dave took the girls out to color the lane with sidewalk chalk. They moved onto sports gear, and enjoyed a chilly autumn morning outdoors while I tried to make my first ever pie crust. I began work on it promptly at ten, cutting my butter into exactly 1/2 inch squares and measuring all of my ingredients just so to be fully prepared for this intimidating task.

11:30am
I followed every procedure, down to the last detail.

1:15pm
Everything went smoothly. The apples smelled delicious. The crust laid out well.

2:00pm
It even transferred beautifully from the tabletop to the pie plate. I began to pat myself on the back. Who says making a pie from scratch is so hard?

3:00pm
Wendy arrived to babysit for our Saturday date. I put the pie in the 375 degree oven. I began to clear up a bit, when I noticed smoke coming from the oven. I whipped open the door, and saw the egg wash dripping from the pie onto the oven floor. With cloth hot pads, I pulled the doughy pie back out of the oven and set it on the stove. I watced the bottom of the oven spew out smoke, and tried to come up with a solution. Nothing brilliant appeared.

3:15pm
A small shard of brilliance. Turned off the gas to the oven, used a wooden spoon and a wet washcloth and cleaned the base of the oven. Replaced the wet with a dry washcloth, and finished the mopping job. No more smoke - very nice.

3:20pm
I turned the gas back on, and waited for the oven to get back up to 375.

3:55pm
It didn't.

4:00pm
Dave and I left on our date. We left Wendy in charge of the pie. Now is a good time to remind you that Chinese people don't bake. They don't buy flour or butter. They don't have ovens in their homes. I had Wendy monitoring my first pie crust, which had baked for 10 minutes and then sat on a countertop for an hour. What's done was done.

4:30pm
Dave and I reached the Fabric Market. For a total of 3,750 RMB we began the tailoring process for 3 suits of Super 180s Wool suits with silk lining, 10 work shirts, a pair of jeans and a white cashmere scarf. That's about $500.

6:00pm
We reached our dinner destination, Yu Xin Sichuan Restaurant. It was a thoroughly Chinese restaurant, with red decor throughout, wait staff bustling around the many corners, partitions between every table, and a long menu full of photos. And nearly every food on the menu had been cooked with chilis. The meal was delicious.

7:30pm
We stopped at the video store on the way home. People don't rent movies in China. We buy pirated versions at full-blown stores with really interesting selections. Yu Xin was near one of our favorites, and so we perused. With a baby in my belly, we find ourselves watching movies more frequently, and so we grabbed movies freely. For 126 RMB we walked out with 9 movies and 1 season of Entourage. That's about $20 - heavy spending at the video store.

8:00pm
We walked in, and put the girls to bed. A very strange looking pie sat on top of the oven. We haven't tried it yet, as our bellies are still too full of Sichuan peppercorns. But by about 9:30pm...

Rats! continued

When we called the landlord about the rats, we said that a Pest Control Company would again need to come to our home.

She said we should get a cat.

After much wrangling between her and our agent, and then much wrangling between our agent and the Pest Control Company, a technician will arrive at our home at 1:00 this afternoon.

My understanding is that sticky traps are the most common form of mouse and rat control in China. This is where they lay out a very sticky piece of paper. When the rat steps on it, he can not remove his foot from the paper. My further understanding is that when the rat begins to panic, he may tear himself apart in fright.

I am not looking forward to such a greeting tomorrow morning.

Upon further research, I've learned that sticky traps are generally thought to be inhumane in the west. It can take a long time for the mouse to die, and our household will be forced to listen to the sad cries and struggles all night.

I told Wendy that maybe we will just leave town this weekend, stay in a hotel, and return on Monday... after she has already arrived.

She says I am weak.

Rats!

Well, we sort of expected it.

Tuesday night, as I lay in bed reading, I heard some noise downstairs. Worried about burglars or sleepwalking kids, I went down to check. All seemed in order.

The next morning, Lynne found teeth marks in the butter. And Wendy found a half-eaten apple.

We put out a trap last night. Apparently we should have had Wendy help. We used cheese (just like in the cartoons, right?). Apparently Chinese rats, like most Chinese people, don't particularly like cheese. Wendy said pork would work better. We'll see.

So this morning I came down and ate breakfast on the couch. Hearing a noise, I looked over and saw a long tail scurrying up the wall.

So the exterminators gave a bid today and should return tomorrow to begin the extermination. This is China.

Closing time

One last thing we had to do before we leave for Xian and Yunnan: sign a bunch of papers and stick them in the mail so that we can close on our house "in absentia" while we are in rural China. Next week, it should be signed, sealed, and delivered. No celebrations until we see the check in our account...

Under Contract

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers - our house is UNDER CONTRACT.

With a little luck, some practical steps and the hand of God, we will only make 1 more mortgage payment.

Whoopee!

We Have An Offer!

After sitting on and off the market since mid-September...

After originally trying For Sale By Owner nearly 2 years ago...

After holding crummy renters and then sitting vacant...

After I began to lose faith...

We have an offer on the sale of our house.  Will keep you posted...

Back on the Market

We put our house back on the market today.

We put it on the market in September, a few short days before the market collapsed and the worldwide economy began to fall.  We took it off at the end of December, after a scant 4 showings to an even more pitiful 2 different people.  It sat empty, lonely and bored for the past 2 months and now appears fresh (and cheaper) on St. Louis' listing service.

We put our house back on the market today, and I've got that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Such a wonderful house should not be so difficult to sell.

Second Shot

A woman who toured our house last night, has asked to come back this evening with her dad. She really seemed to love the house last night, and so we're very hopeful that she and her dad love it this evening and we see a contract soon. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Home Sales

This is the first time I've ever sold my home.

Sure, we moved when I was a kid. Each house was my home, and we sold each house. But the sale was all in my parents' hands. I was busy dealing with the trauma and excitement of MOVING. This time, along with MOVING, I'm also selling my home.

When we decided to buy a house, I wasn't fully on board. Everyone said "buying a house is a great investment" and "interest rates are so low, you'd be a fool not to buy now." So we searched. But I told Dave that I was only interested in buying a house if I fell in love with it.

I fell in love.

And 6 years later, I still love my house. It's expanded from the home of a young couple into a home with a dog and two children. It's grown a retaining wall in the front and a brick patio in the back. We've painted every room and placed the perfect curtains and artwork. This is my home and I love it.

And selling my home is so demoralizing. I think I will be like this as a parent, as well. When my daughter isn't invited to the cool kid's birthday party, I'll hurt for her. When people tour my house, and decide not to buy it, I'm sad. This is a beautiful house, I want to tell them. How could you not fall in love with it?

Open House Post-Mortem

A quick note to update you on the open house last weekend.

After two weeks of scrubbing every inch of our house, shipping the kids off to spend days with their grandparents, and boxing up numerous items - both that we use and that we don't - we held our house open for 8 hours of our last weekend. And the results? Six groups came through - 3 on Saturday, and 3 on Sunday. This was feeling very discouraging until the last group on Sunday, who expressed very serious interest. That made it all feel worthwhile - it only takes one, right? They said they would be out of town for the week, so we're yet to be troubled that we haven't heard from them. But if there's no word by the middle of next week, we'll probably start biting our nails.

Please pray that God keeps control of this situation. Our specific prayer is that it sells fast, preferably from the Open House. But we are holding it open again in a few weeks, and willing to rent as well.

Prayer Request - Open House

Attempting to sell our house ourselves, we are holding it open on Saturday and Sunday. Our prayer request is that we will be able to accept an offer after these open houses. We can be patient with a lot, and are willing to be totally flexible with other people's needs. We just don't want to keep our house continually ready for showings. The stress of that with two young ones is something I hope to avoid.

So please pray that the Open House will go well this weekend. That word will spread to the right people, and that we will have a good showing. But also, please pray specifically that God will bring people this weekend who will buy our house, and we won't have to do showings.

Simplify, Schmiplify

We're holding our house Open to possible buyers in a week, so we've been busy scrubbing the floors, making the furniture smell nice, and putting into boxes the things we don't use everyday. Those of you who have been following along for a few months will know that I expressed excitement about the chance to simplify my life. Well, so much for that. Last night, as I boxed up items from the bedrooms, I placed boxes into two piles. On the west side of the hall were the boxes I definitely want to keep. On the east, I piled the boxes of garbage, recycling and donations.

Sadly, there were many more boxes on the west.

Maybe its good that I started with the girls' bedrooms. They are relatively new rooms, and haven't had the years to accumulate stuff piled in corners. The stack of the boxes on the west side of the hall will hopefully serve to inspire me. Maybe as I clean out the closets this afternoon, I'll end up with more boxes on the east.

As far as China updates go, there are none. We've still heard nothing. Soon we'll start making out own decisions - purchasing airfare, arranging accomodations, setting up shipping. Since Uncle H-- is unwilling to provide parameters, I suppose he'll just have to live with what we decide.