Two houses very near us both went on the market within a few days of each other. These houses are the same size as ours; 1144 sf. Our lot is larger and, in my opinion, a better location at the end of the street.

It is interesting how these homes were presented. Home #1 was polished and had much nicer pictures taken. The listing stated it had been owned by the same family for 30 or so years. The kitchen needs an update - I'm pretty sure that brown & yellow went out in the 70s.

I think the owner of Home #2 needed to get out from under the house quick. The house could've been presented much better. Clutter and fuzzy, dim pictures.

Still, both houses sold in less than 30 days.

House #1:
Sold for $380k (listed at $395k)

Front room looking into kitchen.


** See that big sliding glass door? In our house it's just a big window. Changing the window to French doors is on our home improvement To Do list. **

ETA: I just noticed the color of the paint in this room looks like the exact same as I painted ours!


Backyard





House #2:
Sold for $365k (listed at $350k)

Front room looking toward kitchen.




A Bathroom (The photo makes the grout look dirty to me, does it to you?)




I am going to update our home's value to $350k. This is conservative, but if we had to sell right away I feel we would easily get at least that amount. (Our house is much prettier than #2 and we could stage for pics as nice as #1.)

IF I value the house at $350k that gives us just over $100k in equity!

Do you like looking at pictures of homes for sale?
Have you been looking at sales in your neighborhood or town?

Our fair was last week. As in the past, our friend took us in for free (She has family that works for the fairgrounds - she gets passes.)

Our county has two fairs. The one held in our town is a smaller fair. It has "pay-one-price" admission. You pay at the gate and then all the rides and shows are paid for. No having to buy ride tickets or wristbands or seats for the concerts. It's really a much better deal and when you get in for free it's awesome.

My DD and I entered exhibits again this year. For DD it has been a good money making venture in past years. I find it fun and this year I made a few bucks too.

Almost all the junior exhibits have a $1 entry fee. This year DD entered three varieties of jam - peach jam, strawberry-lemonade jam and holiday cranberry jam. The peach and strawberry each won first place ($5/first) and the cranberry won second ($3/second). So her check was $13.



Almost all adult entries have a $2 entry fee.
I entered two photographs and a table setting. My black & white photo placed third and my color photo earned a Honorable Mention. No cash prizes for those placings.

My table setting was set to the fair theme this year - "Dog Days of Summer".



I am so excited because it won a first ($15) and the Best of Show ($25) for the table setting class.
SO, I spent $6 in entry fees and won $40!

As a plus when you enter in the fair you can get reduced or free fair admission. If we didn't have our friend get us in we could still save money by taking advantage of that.

Do you enter in your fair?
Check into it - it is fun and you could save money on entry or make money on prizes.

We had a string of beautiful weather here. Then yesterday afternoon the rain moved in and it rained steadily until 11pm. It was a wet and soggy Trick or Treat experience last night for the kids. That was probably for the best because it was a school night and everyone was home by 8pm.

Today the sun and blue skies are back. Tonight would make for a good Halloween night. It sure doesn't feel like November 1st when it's 70F.

Our Halloween spending was:
$27 - DD's costume (Bo Peep)
$16 - Pumpkin from family farm
$14 - 5lbs of Candy
$ 0 - Two bags of fake cobweb ($5 off reward coupon)
$ 0 - CD of creepy sound effects ($5 off coupon)
$10 - DD's class party (cookies and plates)
----
$67

We didn't buy DS a costume. DS wore a rain jacket that looked like a fireman's turnouts, dark jeans and his red "fireman" rain boots. He was given these things as gifts (birthday, I think) so we had them in the closet. It really worked out perfectly because it was raining!




I would have never bought the $16 pumpkin had I known how much it was going to be. We were at the organic apple and pear farm and they had a you pick pumpkin patch. DD picked a rather large pumpkin and she cut it off the vine. It was priced by weight and I couldn't re-attach it to the vine. Oh well, we won't make that mistake again.

It did make a very nice Jack'o Lantern. DD carved her.



It was the only pumpkin we bought this year. We grew four small pie pumpkins in our garden, we didn't carve them, but I did display them, and DD brought one home from her fall field trip. We used that for DS.


Because of the rain we only had a third of the Trick or Treaters as years before. We still have half the candy we bought. Oy!

Well honestly they're sh---y sheets!

Andiamo brand.
Ours were the 500ct 100% Egyptian Cotton.

DO NOT BUY!
------
Perhaps you all remember that DH was very sweet and bought a new set of sheets at the Linen Outlet's going-out-of-business sale a few weeks back. ($54) I was not impressed with them, but I figured we'd just use them. Couldn't return them for money back anyway because of the store closing.

After using these sheets for a month they are pilling all over the fitted sheet. I can only explain it like it feels as if I've got kitty litter or sand on my sheet. Blah! And the elastic is rather thin and does a poor job keeping the sheet in place.

I stopped at the store this morning and asked if they could do anything because these were the worst sheets I've EVER owned.

The head gal was like, "Oh no we can't do anything if you've USED the sheets. And, gee, I've never had anyone complain about that brand. You must have gotten a bad one."
"So maybe I did get a bad set. The store can't help me out with that?" I said.
She said, "No because you have already USED the sheets. All I can say is maybe you want to use a different brand in the future."

YEAH, YOU THINK!!!

I thought about sending DH in with them. I still have the zipper package they came in. Maybe he could get something done. I also thought about sitting out front of the store and telling people not to buy any of their crappy stuff. That might work, but then I'm using my time on a Sunday when I would rather be with my kids, watch football, drink coffee and be on the computer!