This has been one of those weeks that pulls me up short and sends me out cross-country-skiing at night, pushing through the trails and trying to wear myself out, relieve the stress. Work is a pleasure - sales, closings, walk-throughs, attorneys, paperwork - important and mind-consuming.
One of my oldest friends, the woman who was my maid of honor at my first wedding, was suddenly felled, literally, by what now appears to be a severe pneumonia. She has been in the hospital since Sunday morning, hooked up to IVs, sedated so she can recuperate her strength (which thankfully had been considerable). She was unrecognizable on Monday when I first saw her, filled with fluids. By Tuesday she had color in her face, Wednesday she seemed more peaceful and they had ruled out swine flu, and today I am told by her daughter that her eyes open occasionally and she moves her limbs. A full recovery is expected, but she will be in the ICU for a while longer, probably into next week.
As things happen, her sadness and fear gave me an opportunity like no other. A friend texted me Tuesday night to say her baby was born, a sweet little girl. Yesterday I found she was in the same hospital, so between 1:00 and 2:00 I held this tiny, tiny newborn and chatted with her mother while she waited eagerly for discharge. Then I went upstairs to the ICU. But without my "little sister's" illness, I probably wouldn't have met baby Adie so early in her life.
So I ski at night.
I guess that is the weekly update, but for those of you willing to have read to this point I will return to the sane world of real estate in Skaneateles.
There are currently 100 active listings in the multiple listing service defining Skaneateles as both the town and the village. I realized this today - that the village is not a subset of the town, but a separate category. However, since not everyone places homes within that village code then there are homes in the village listed in Skaneateles. Got that? Confusing! But from here on I will check both areas. Currently only 5 single family homes appear under village, while 95 are listed simply as Skaneateles.
Listings between January 27th and February 3rd give you one of everything. In waterfront, there is a home for almost $800,000 about four miles outside of the village. If you want town, there's a re-list of a great renovated farmhouse for over $500,000. Too high? Try the mid-$100,000 starter home also in the town. The village representative comes in the mid-$200,000 range with few pictures.
There has been a very happy sale added to the contingent and pending categories. A house that has been listed for quite a while - records show well over a year, but I believe it's more like two years at least - went straight to pended. Hooray! Priced in the mid-$100,000 - we'll see what it closes for....
And yet again there are no recorded sales in Skaneateles or Skaneateles village, year-to-date. Last week the Post-Standard showed a grand total of 15 sales in the entire county - yikes! I will have closed two properties by this time next week, and I can't imagine that I'm alone. It will happen! Certainly as we close in on the end of the first time homebuyer's and the move-up incentives at the end of April others will appear.
