Lifestyle

Lifestyle

Random Things I’ve Bought (Or Have Thought About Buying) On Amazon Lately

This is not my home office. But I would like it to be please.

Can we all agree that Amazon Prime is sort of the best? I love it. Because here's the thing: when you live in a major city and don't have two very small yet very heavy people to carry everywhere you go, nipping out to the store for, like, envelopes is no big deal. But I live in the suburbs, and those two very small yet very heavy people live with me. In other words: there is no store-nipping in my life these days. There are only massive, vaguely hellish three-hour excursions to Bed Bath & Beyond during which I manage to buy exactly none of what I came for because by the time I get to the checkout line my children are Officially Done and I cannot exist in the store for one single more moment.

Anyway, Prime is great, and I've started ordering literally everything in my life from Amazon. Yesterday I was trying to remember the name of a product I'd ordered a couple of months ago, and so I started scrolling through my Recent Orders (as well as the products that I apparently occasionally "Save For Later" even though I have zero recollection of doing so), and goodness, are the things I buy there ever random.

Lifestyle

What To Do When You’re Stuck In The Airport With Kids

Guess what I got really, really good at last week?

Existing in an airport with a three-year-old.

When we came to terms with the fact that yup, our flight was leaving without us and settled in at 8AM with a good twelve-plus hours before we could even begin thinking about boarding on the horizon, I was not a happy camper. I mean, airports are fun for about twenty minutes when you're buying fashion magazines and eating Mounds bars, and then they become a whole lot less fun and a whole lot more Groundhog Day-ish (with a dash of The Shining thrown in), and you would just like to get on the plane now, please. I can't even entertain myself in an airport for that long; the idea of keeping my son non-miserable was intimidating, to say the least.

But?

Lifestyle

How To Win A Bidding War (And Whether You Should Write A Letter To The Sellers)

OK, so I think we can all agree: bidding wars ARE THE WORST. You get all crazy emotional, and start laying awake at night picturing your new life between your new walls, and come up with your highest and best offer, and then someone swoops in all WHEE I HAVE SO MUCH MONEYYYY and you can't even compete but you try to, and start offering more and more and more, and then don't get it anyway, and:

-> tears.

Anyway, I've been through a few bidding wars over the course of my life as a homeowner (six, to be precise, with another one on the horizon this week). I have also been on the other side, as a seller. And what I have learned is that there is nothing you can do to control the outcome (short of having unlimited reserves of cash, in which case that's wonderful and also you are probably reading the wrong website), but there is a whole lot you can do to tip the scales in your favor.

Are any of these things going to for-sure win you the house? No. But they will make it more likely, and "more likely" is better than "less likely," am I right?

Lifestyle

Let’s Talk House-Buying Logistics

Don't you love it when the word "logistics" is in a post title?

Doesn't that make you DESPERATE to read it??

But seriously: Enough people said that they want to know about how we're handling things like the great Rent vs. Buy debate, school choice, and home selection that I'm convinced that at least some of you will be able to keep your eyes from glazing over. (I mean, I certainly don't find this stuff boring - I think real estate is totally Grand Drama, and kind of the most fascinating topic ever, but I also get that I definitely didn't want to talk about, like, taxes and variances and school districts in my former life as a non-parent-y rental apartment-dweller.)


powered by chloédigital