Local wildlife, more visitors, and the art of persuasion

My cousins Györgyi and Jancsi are here from Budapest, and haven't seen the DC sights since they were here in 1980.  So, of course, we brought them to see the Bungalow on Sunday morning.  Needless to say, there were more than a few raised eyebrows as we walked through the place.  My mom's side of the family tends to go with Courtney in the whole renovation scheme of things-- let someone else do it, and buy once it's done.  We took them on the path that starts at the French Colonial and goes around to the English Castle-- the kids call it the "secret passage."  Saw a whole bunch of wild raspberries, although Györgyi decided it'd be better not to eat any, lest they not be edible and cause her to go to a hospital in a foreign country...  (Anyone from the area have any idea whether they're good?)  En route back to the Bungalow, Abby and the kids happened upon a deer grazing in the bottom of the glen.  Startled, it ran straight up the incline, right past the house.  We had seen a couple of deer last week when we brought Donna by, but that was at twilight from across the glen, and this was midday right down there.  After his close encounter with a few deer on Teddy Roosevelt Island a few weeks ago, Isaac's gonna think he's the Deer Whisperer!

Tracking the deer in the glen in front of the Bungalow

It's funny how we've become the Welcome Wagon for the Colonial.  We liked Jason and Ashley so much (or at least the idea of them) that any time we see people looking at the place, we feel it's our responsibility to encourage them to move in.  As we came back from meeting Bambi, there were two different prospective buyers checking out the place.  (Not to mention the woman we met while heading to the path earlier in the day, who probably thought we were nuts for going right in with "hey, are you interested in buying this place?")  I gravitated toward one of the prospectives, a younger woman from Michigan who just moved here after a failed stint in Arizona; I told her about how the previous offer fell through, and offered to give her our finance guy's contact information.  Abby gravitated toward the other, a man who liked the house for its artistic qualities, and had enough cash on hand to be uninterested in the financing aspect of it all.  (To recap: I went to the woman from the Great Lakes, and Abby went to the artsy, rich guy.  Figures!)

Isaac in Forest Glen

In actual house news, Rory reports the plumbing and electrical subcontractors came out late last week, and the HVAC guy is coming out tomorrow.  Mohamed sent the plans he drew up, and we are trying to set up a time midweek to meet and discuss final room layouts.  I really hope to have this all done by Wednesday, when we leave for Buffalo for a week for Courtney's wedding.  And to top it all off, another set of cousins showed up in DC this morning, announced only about 12 hours previously.  Fingers crossed on getting stuff done!

Yellow House Back on the Market

So there are three houses right next to each other, with our house being on one side, the Windmill house in the middle, and "the Yellow House" on the other.  An army surgeon (Richard) from Walter Reed has bought the Windmill house, and is in the process of fixing it up (solo!) in order to live in it with his wife once they retire.  The Yellow House was put under contract the day we saw the Bungalow with our realtor, by Jason and Ashley, a married couple a few years younger than us; he was from Charlotte, but was a Bills fan whose parents were originally from Buffalo; she was from Jersey, and went to West Point.  Anyhow, I just emailed with Jason and it turns out they have dropped their offer because no lenders were willing to work with them, on account of the house being attached via one of those elevated walkways to the condos.  The first thing I thought was "uh oh, Abby's gonna be upset that the Yellow House is back on the market."  Called her up-- yep, that's the first thing she said.  But the renovations would cost a heckuva lot more than ours, and who knows if we would have had the lender problems as well.  (We had enough issues as it was.) 

So, if any of you want the yellow house (Becky?!) it's up for grabs again!