By Karna Bodman
When you read that title, I’ll bet you thought this would be an article about a new heartfelt, inspirational novel. No. This is a story about the challenge of actually moving out of your house. For the last month, that’s exactly how I have spent almost all my time: listing our California summer home, “staging” the house to look its best for the weekly agents’ tour where some 70 people came through, and we had to leave, with the dogs, for over four hours. (Thank goodness for dog parks!) Then deciding to accept the first offer although it was a bit under our asking price, of course. And even though we were selling it furnished and said we would be taking personal items, including the art, they included the art in their offer. We said no to that. Our agent then said there was other interest, and they should give us their “last and best” offer. So, they did come up a bit, removed the art, and we signed the deal.
However, that’s when the real work began with inspections, roof people, termite examiners, Fire Department inspectors (to be sure there were no trees too close to the house – and yes, there were) then receiving long lists of requested repairs (it’s an old house) and constant requests from the buyers to come in and measure for new carpet or whatever (when we again had to vacate).
In the process I happened to come across a terrific book, The Art of Happy Moving which contains a ton of helpful ideas (although I still would never consider moving to be a “Happy” experience). This book shows you how to stage your home for prospective buyers, how to discard your belongings and organize your packing and so much more.
In going through the tons of books I have collected, I realized I had almost all of the thrillers by one of my favorite authors, Vince Flynn. I recall meeting Vince at Barnes & Noble where he was signing one of his books, Extreme Measures way back in 2009. We got to know each other, and he graciously gave me a blurb for my first novel, Checkmate. Later when we met again I asked him a question. I said that in that first book there was a guy who worked at the NSC at the White House and a girl who worked outside. At the end of that story, they get together. So, I asked “Since their relationship is on a sure footing in that story and I’m now writing the sequel using the same characters, how do I keep the tension in that relationship going?” Vince said that he had the very same problem when his character, Mitch Rapp, fell in love and married a reporter with NBC. He said, “In my third book, I finally had to kill her off.”
I didn’t want to kill my characters, so in my next thriller Gambit, I created a triangle whereby there is a new character, a young widowed Vice President who takes a shine to my heroine and keeps sending the NSC hero overseas on assignments to keep him away from her. The “tension” here is which one will she ultimately choose?
Back to packing and moving. As mentioned above, I had to handle some repairs, including a small leak under our master bathtub. Last summer we had a disaster here when a heavy rainstorm created a roof leak and water poured down the walls destroying the area. We had to have the entire bathroom redone – new mirrors, new countertops, new fixtures, and they had to remove the tub to do all of that. This is how it looked at the time.
Meanwhile, in addition to working on repairs and shipping paintings, dishes, clothes and more all over the country to various family members, I have to go through the copy edits of my new thriller, Protecting Jess, that will be out next March. Busy times indeed.
Do you have any “Moving Stories” that you’d like to share with us? Please leave a comment, and thanks for joining us here on Rogue Women Writers.
Karna Small Bodman is the author of five international thrillers that have hit #1 in Thrillers on Amazon and won several awards, as well as a series of children’s picture books. Her books were inspired by the six years she served in the Reagan White House, first as Deputy Press Secretary, later as Senior Director of the National Security Council where she was the highest-ranking woman on the White House staff. On book tours she has given over 400 speeches and interviews nation-wide. When not writing or traveling, she is serving on several boards and swimming laps at their homes in Naples, FL, Washington, DC and Rancho Santa Fe, CA.
I can’t believe you had to go through inspections and repairs after the place was already sold. I’d be all like, hey babe, it’s yours now. You can do any repairs yourself.
When we were moving from my beloved Ohio to Florida, my husband got a job and moved months before I did. Since I had time to myself to pack, I tried to really go through and weed out ‘stuff,’ including making crafts instead of moving all the craft stuff. This included candle making things. The night before the house was to go on the market, I set some wax melting in a pan on the stove and went to a bedroom to paint the wall where I’d fixed some holes. Eventually I was startled to hear the smoke detector going off. I flew up the hallway, seeing shadows of flickering flames on the living room wall…the pan was engulfed, but, luckily, nothing else. Knowing better than to throw water on it, I partly smothered the flames with the thick newspaper I’d laid out to put the finished candle molds on, put the whole thing in the sink and used the sprayer to douse the paper to keep that from burning as well. Crisis averted. A bit of wax got down the sink, but it all looked fine.
Our real estate agent (my mother in law) said while she was showing the house the next day, the sink didn’t drain well.
Wow, I said. I have no idea why…that night I poured pan after pan of boiling water down the drain, and didn’ t have a problem after that.
I’m not allowed to leave things on the stove unattended any more.
I can’t believe you make your own candles, Lisa – in addition to your full-time forensic job and writing your great thrillers. Appreciate your commenting!
Truthfully, my candles were awful—not terribly attractive and didn’t burn well! I haven’t made one in a decade or two. But I still have all the stuff, just in case I feel like almost burning my kitchen down again!
UGH I thought when I saw the topic! But add in edits and…busy doesn’t sound like it covers it! Good luck, Karna.