On 29 Jul 2003 13:42:01 GMT, RPC wrote:
Within days of my extended whine in this NG, we have a contract. Not full
price, but we're happy with it. Attorney/inspection still remain.
[snip]
Many thanks for all the sympathy and advice. Indeed, as Mr. Gerasimatos
perceptively predicted, what happened was that after weeks of rejection
we finally found a buyer with our taste, who really loved the house and
all the natural woodwork. Earlier, an agent visiting the house had
described it as "brown", meaning, I think, that she would have liked it
better if the woodwork had been painted over. So it goes.

This must happen a lot. While we were making plans to build our
current house, I went to open houses to get design ideas. One was at
a 1-story home that looked very out of place in its neighborhood. It
had a "mountain resort" look, with stained cedar siding and large
windows on the exterior, and lots of naturally stained woodwork on the
interior. All the houses in the subdivision were on large lots, but
the others were traditional 2-story brick homes with the interior trim
painted white.

I was the only person touring the house at the time, so I told the
realtor why I was there. He relaxed, took off his sales hat, and told
me about the house. Apparently, it had been custom-designed by the
current owners, who had to sell because one of them was gravely ill.
As I stood there admiring the stained window and door casings,
shelving, cabinetry, etc., another visitor walked in. Soon I heard
her complaining to the realtor in disgust about the "plain" interior
trim--"Why would anyone leave it looking that way? Why didn't they
*paint* it???" She only stayed a few minutes, before muttering
something about wasting her time and then walking out.

When we finished building our current house and put our other one on
the market, we were faced with a similar situation--our old house had
natural (unstained) redwood siding and stained (not painted) interior
trim. It was on a heavily wooded lot in a rural subdivision. We were
lucky--we had 3 prospective buyers within the first 3 days and a
contract signed by the end of the week. Our realtor told us those
buyers had been waiting for months for a "casual" house like ours to
come on the market. "Unique" doesn't always mean weird.

C. Brunner