Sunday afternoon we drove over to a few open houses to get ideas for our new house such as trim work, paint colors, carpet, etc. The first house we went into was a model home in a new subdivision. There were flags out front, and a big "Open House" sign in the front yard. We opened the door and went on in. Right inside the door was somebody's pair of shoes. I thought, "Hmmm. Weird." I looked to the right and there was an office, nice and neat, complete with the fake plastic computer screen. Everything normal there. To the left was a small bedroom that was decorated for a little boy. Except, there were ALOT of toys and books and the bed looked like somebody had been jumping on it. On the dresser was a picture of a little boy and his parents and a couple of crayon drawings. And then I noticed on the nightstand there was a baby monitor. I thought, "Well, they went a little overboard with the staging." Continuing on, there was a small bathroom. At the sink was a red plastic "Cars" step stool that was totally distracting and little tacky amongst the other decor. I opened the shower to look at the tile work, and what did I see but a bunch of bathtub toys and soap and shampoo everywhere. I looked at Kevin with a "What in the world?" look and thought, "Ooooookay." We walked on into the living area and there were two women sitting on a couch, no shoes on, drinking coffee and watching tv. They looked at us kind of weird and Kevin and I both stopped in our tracks. "Oh my stars," I thought, "we have walked into the wrong house." Neither woman spoke to us and just kept staring at us. It was extremely uncomfortable, to say the least, and I could almost hear the police sirens coming up the street because I was certain they'd called 911 while we were checking out the bedroom and bathroom. Finally, one woman said hello and motioned for us to come on in and check out the kitchen. We walked through the living area (both women were still sitting there watching tv) and I looked out the back windows to see about 3 kids and a dog playing in the yard. The Chickies begged to go out and play with them and one of the ladies said, "Oh, sure! They can go out and play!" We hesitantly let them go outside to play. My eyes then veered over to the kitchen table and lo and behold was a plate with a half-eaten muffin and crumbs everywhere. I didn't even walk into the kitchen--I was too weirded out. We made our way to the master bedroom and once we got out of view I freaked out and whispered to Kevin, "THIS is the weirdest thing EVER. We've got to get out of here. I don't think we're supposed to be here! We'll be arrested!" He agreed and we walked back out to the living room. Kevin-- Mr. I-Am-Comfortable-Talking-To-Anybody-- kind of sheepishly asked, "Umm, is this an open house?" One of the women said, "Oh yeah, we live here in the model home because my husband is the builder and we decided to have some friends over for a playdate today. Here, let me get you some information on our homes." With that, she handed us a packet of papers and told us to go check out the upstairs and the rest of the house. Instead, we grabbed the kids from outside and high-tailed it out the door.
Is that not the weirdest thing? It was a very nice home in a really nice, expensive neighborhood, so I would think they would be a little more savvy as to how to have an open house. I almost want to call their office and tell them they aren't going to be selling many homes that way. The rest of the afternoon, when we saw a pretty home that wasn't for sale, we jokingly said, "Let's just go ahead and walk on in!"
Recent Comments