What are the average DOM in your area? Have you reviewed the comps lately? Is $200K the correct price? Normally, I think people are wise when they list at $175K instead of $174,999 if the $175K will catch two searches. I am assuming searches are every $25K in your area? In your case, I wonder if that is not a psychological barrier? Maybe this is a case where $199,999 would be a better price? Have you had ANY showings? Is there a lock-box? Fantastic 3 bd, 2.1 ba on a 3/4 ac wdd homesite. GR feat a fp, cath ceil & walkout to a 40x14 deck. Lrg kitchen w/isl & a bay window in brkfst area. 2nd flr offers a bonus rm that could be a 4th bd & a deluxe owner's ste w/ a walkin closet. Ok, I can normally read realtor speak but there were a few abbreviations here that made me stop and think. Make it easier for the buyer to know what you have. Beautiful 3 bed, 2.5 bath on .75 wooded acres. Large kitchen (although since when is 13 x 12 large?), great room with fireplace, cathedral ceilings & walkout to entertainment deck. Deluxe ownerÂs suite w/walk-in closet. Second floor bonus room. While my write up is bad, at least you can understand it! Are there any other features to play up? Wood flooring? And, update the pictures. The fall leaves scream "I've been on the market a long time!" And, loose some of the pictures. You want to entice, not show them the entire house. With this many pictures, there is little reason to view your place unless you connect through the photos. Leave them wanting more.

thanks everybody. My brother and SIl are never on time and never stick to plans, yes we usually invite them over at 5Pm when they have to be there at 6PM, LOL everyone is always waiting for them. being late is somehting I can kind of tolerate, but constant cancelling or not making plans at all is not something I can deal with. When they visit, SO just sits home 24/7 in hopes they show up or in hopes they make plans. It drives me nuts. My favorite story is when two years ago we went to a Thanksgiving party at my aunt's house an hour away, his DDs were visiting mom. They called SO on a cell phone and said they are dying to see him and cannot stay at moms one more minute, it was, let's say, 7PM, they said they will be over at 8PM and have desert wiht us. We left my aunt, drove for an hour, no one showed up. they showed up next day late morning!!!!! Their excuse was: we had no car but mom refused to drive us to your house because she was too tired and had some wine and it was too late to call you again. Those are legitimate excuses but why did they call and made these kind of promises? of course mom would not drive, but I bet they never even asked ahead of time. I hear you organic but at least minor kids can blame on their mom not keeping up wiht visitations, these women are grown, enough blaming on mom. especially tough times are around holidays. instead of fun times it becomes a constant drama. we (my family)aren't rigid or uptight but if let's say we have family Christams or any other major holiday celebration we know much ahead of time so we can plan. With his family, SO and DDs to be precise, we literally do not know until a day before what is going to happen, and we are talking about major parties or events that need preparation. His DD27 is getting married this summer and i certainly hope at least wedding is going to happen on a day that we are invited to. hahahahaha I guess I have to laugh about this whole situation.

If you are going to school full time, AND working part time...do the hours add up to less than working full time? Just wondering... I do understand that you want/need to finish your degree since you are very close to finishing. I also understand that you now have a home for your children, that you may or may not be able to provide without his help. I also understand how valuable it is to have someone to share your life with, and help you raise your children, instead of trying to raise them alone. Especially since he is a good man, who treats your children well. And "I get" that his children have a choice in their behavior, and they are making your family life miserable. However...as a parent, do you understand that if he turns his back on his children, he has failed in his role as a father and a parent? That these next 6 years are the most crutial years in the development of his kids, and will determine who they will be as adults? That as he chooses you and your children over his children (both he and his children will understand that he chose you over them) that will in and of itself create "issues" for both he and his children. Raising teenagers is enormously difficult for ALOT of people, even those with intact families. His children are acting out, of the anger and pain of what has happened in their life... I understand that you feel that they should not "win" and ruin what you and your fiancee' are trying to build...that their bad behavior should not be rewarded by getting them what they want...which is you and your children to leave. However, as a father and a man of integrity and honor...he must fight to hang in there and finish raising his children...whether he feels like it or not. Perhaps they do need to live with their mother...I don't know. But he should not give up on them because it is hard. And he is right in demanding that they treat others with respect, and that includes you and your children...but it also includes their teachers and others, or life will be hard for them...because in life, we must treat people we work with, and for, with respect, whether we like them or not. This is tough because their mother is teaching them one thing...but he needs to teach them what he sees as important...and do his best. The rest will one day be up to them. I wish you the best as you try and do what is right for you, your children, and your fiancee' (and his children). He is in such a tough spot because he loves you, and does not want to lose you...and yet his own children need him...but their behavior is destroying everything he wants, and the life you two are trying to build. But as the kind and good man you know him to be...which makes him a man of honor trying to do what is right...by both you and as a parent. What a hard, hard spot to be in. He will need to be strong, wise and walk through this. I wish you both better times ahead.

"Dogged does it" is my motto this year, because it's a difficult one for me, too; still, most people who've posted here sound like they're having a harder time than I am. Bart and I are victims of the same long-lasting drought: basically northern and central Italy have had way-under-normal precipitation since last summer, with summer this year arriving about five weeks early. So it has been hot and dry for a long, long time. Unlike bart I can get running water to much of the garden, and have a magnificent helper, DH, though unfortunately he's in the hospital right now (he's doing fine and should be home in a few days). So far we've lost only a few marginal plants. I feel like I spend my life carrying around pots of water, and figuring out how to lived in a reasonably civilized life using as little of the precious stuff as possible, as we have a severe water shortage locally, with no end in sight. Our temperatures and humidity don't get as drastically high as many of you say; on the other hand, we live in a largely non-air-conditioned world and one lacking in swimming holes (as a Florida native I feel this), so that the most comfortable place to be is usually indoors, or at least in the shade. I have a big advantage in that I don't usually water plants after the first year, so that my plants are used to periods of dry weather and don't keel over in a drought. And this is a congenial climate for a lot of roses, so diseases and pests are unsightly but not deadly (I have to say I'd love to have fewer rose chafers). Even bart's awful badgers, which we too have suffered from, make a mess digging because they're looking for those same grubs that grow into rose-devouring beetles. Some things balance out. I hardly get any flowers in summer, and this year nothing for sure, because it's too dry, but then the plants are tempered and sturdy and I'm not too worried about their survival. Mainly we're watering the plants that have been in the ground less than a year. The drought this year is so bad, though, that I am watering some established plants that aren't quite drought-tolerant enough: the daphnes; and some of the sarcococcas are looking weary; while a sun-baked phlomis has scale; and so on. In the big garden we definitely need more trees, but they don't come just for the asking. Our native soil needs a lot of amending, so we amend, hugely. But it takes years to get everything to work. We've been busy on this garden for about fifteen years. This year if we can just get most of the plants through the year alive, it will be a success. Growth? Progress? Ha.