Slightly less stressed (at least about the house)

Well, I talked to our lawyer yesterday, and he confirmed what our agent had told us. Even said that 10 years ago, visits after signing and before closing weren't commonly included in the agreement. And that he'd never let a client of his sign a purchase agreement that included a walkthrough within 48 hours of closing. Apparently he sees it as buyers planning to whine about stuff and try to get the house price dropped at the last minute.

In his experience, sellers almost without exception take pride in their houses and hand them over in good condition. If they don't, you're stuck bringing a lawsuit afterwards.

We finally heard back from our agent today, after calling last night for an update and calling again this morning (as she asked us to) because we hadn't heard from her. As of last night, she hadn't heard from his agent, but said he tends to ring her back later in the evening. This afternoon she finally heard from the agent, who said he'd get in touch with the seller (why does all this drag on for so long when they surely have each other's cell numbers?) today. And finally she called back late in the afternoon to say that he agreed to the $1100 for the furniture and mirrors, and will take the light fixture.

Since she'd originally planned to negotiate a drop in price on the stuff in exchange for him having the light fixture, which was supposedly "expensive", it doesn't seem that she was at all successful at negotiating anything for us. At least we're now paying the original price for the stuff and not having to pay more and keep the bloody lamp.

And although they turned down a request for a walk-through, the reason the seller gave was that he was having painters in to touch things up and having the house cleaned this week, so that gave us a better feeling about the whole thing.

Other than that, my cold is still lingering. And my tightenings (guess I can now call them Brax.ton-Hicks?) seem to be picking up again. Some are lasting longer than 30 seconds, though nothing is painful. When I went to pop in my progesterone supps last night, my cervix felt shorter than usual, and softer and broader than usual, and maybe more open? I sure hope I'm not going to deliver just after 32 weeks! But the tightenings aren't particularly regular, still seem to come and go, and don't generally last for all that long. So I'm going to try to keep my cool and believe that all will be ok. If they become more regular or stronger, I'll just head to L&D to be assessed for preterm labour. Here's hoping I don't have to do that!

Here the belly is in all its 32-week glory. Sorry for the bad photo.