Marti's Musings: This 'n' That progress

If you are tired of reading about all our 'chores' to get ready to hit the road, feel free to skip this post!  :-)

However, if you are a glutton for punishment - want to either re-live the harried life before hitting the road; or if you are living this crazy time of life; or if you are preparing to .... well, you get the idea.... read on!

We hit the ground running this morning - coffee and bagels to-go, and then a myriad of errands and chores.

I called Caring Transitions this week, and suggested they hold off a week before coming back to help.  For a couple of reasons - first I need to sort my clothes (ugghh) - you know the routine by now - keep, need-now-for-work, winter (for our northern living kids - they will store 'em!), and some dressier ones at my daughter's for when we stay near her and attend church etc, and then of course donate/sell/trash.  My goal today was to get through the clothes.  Yeah, well - 'the best laid plans' and all that -(Carol and her crew will be back next weekend to pack up the piles I make, and start staging the rest of the house).

Paul has a saying, now becoming a mantra these days:  "this house is breaking faster than I can fix it!".  Today, he had to repair the master bedroom toilet, as the bolt broke last night, and well?  That is a pretty important item to us.  (ha ha )  Then there is the kitchen cabinet knob that wouldn't budge last night, while I was changing them out - now he has to pull out his dremmel tool.  Then he and his buddy 'Paintbrush' - have found more and more spots that need touching up.

So, while we guzzled our coffee (for me), diet coke (Paul) and bagels, we made another Lowe's trip.  Yeah.  Again.  The FIRST Lowe's trip today.  HOT TIP:  Lowe's stock is about to jump up.  Pretty good indication is that folks clap when we walk into the store these days - we have spent a pretty penny these last few months.  So when Paul checked out today with 2 lonely toilet bolts, the clerk said:  "that's it?"  Yup.  For that trip anyway.  Of course, during the course of the repair, he had to go back and get a gasket.  sheesh.

After Lowes, we headed over to the local storage rental spot.  We are fast running out of room with the accumulating boxes.  Plus, I doubt the house would be very appealing with boxes and piles all over the place.    On top of that, the new carpet is being delivered Tuesday and Wednesday - so more preparations for THAT, now.  2 storage trips later, I can now park in the garage again, and finally I can start on my clothes.

Umm, after I finish packing the china cabinet (ran out of bubble wrap) - a must as the carpet-layer-people won't move breakables.  (can't blame them)  Okay - THEN I headed to the MBR to start on the clothes.
Only then I saw the jewelry boxes that I needed to sort (see above list, minus 'winter').  4 hours later that job is done (good grief!)  It was after 6pm by then, and we promised we would quit at 6pm.

A few more chores - laundry, more pile making - and dinner at 8pm.  As I type this it is 10:45pm and Paul is quietly snoring next to me.  My mind is still spinning, and I know I must finish the dreaded clothes chore.  Tomorrow is another day.

Thanks for visiting!  ~Marti

Notes From a Paint Brush

I thought I'd jump in here and give you an update since Paul put me down for a few minutes to take a breather.

I'm the paint brush that he's held in his hand for so long now it seems that I'm almost permanently attached.  I've been painting walls, ceilings and trim for days now.  I've even painted Paul's arms, hair and nose a couple of times.

The house may look perfect from the curb, but inside is a whole 'nother story.  There's paint cans and supplies all over the place.  Paul carries the supplies from room to room in a laundry basket.

Despite all the mess, I've made the rooms look pretty good, if I may say so myself.

Of course I've had to share some of the painting duties with a paint roller.  Paul says whoever invented the roller should be sainted, whatever that means.

Paul has taken care of a few other items on the list.  The deck in the back yard was pressure washed and re-coated with weather proofing stuff.

In the backyard is the reason Paul and Marti bought their house, a basketball court.  Thirteen years ago when they were house hunting there were quite a few nice homes to choose from, but only this one had the court.  Both their sons loved to play basket ball and they played many games when they lived here.

Since the boys grew up and moved away, the basketball court was pretty neglected.  The backboard was dirty and covered with mold and the net was green and rotten.  Paul got a new net and had a fun time balancing on a ladder while he struggled with threading the new net on the hoop.  I'm glad he didn't fall off because I was in his back pocket.  That might have hurt.

After Paul put on the net, it made the backboard look even dirtier.  With a moment of genius, Paul went and got the Awesome cleaner he uses to remove black streaks from the Journey.

He picks the cleaner up at the Dollar Store.  It only costs a dollar!

After using the Awesome cleaner on the backboard, with a little scrubbing, it looks as good as new.

That gave him an idea.  He wasn't happy that the grout around the tile in the Master Bathroom, it looked dingy, so he tried the Awesome cleaner on the grout.  A little scrubbing with some old toothbrushes and the grout looks brand new.  Another little thing to make the house look more appealing to a buyer.

But Paul has not done everything on the house himself, he has used some contractors to do certain jobs, like re-coating the driveway.  I'm glad he didn't do it himself, because he probably would have used me somewhere to touch up something and that would have been the end of me.  You can't wash tar off in the sink.

So it looks like it'll be a busy weekend with me putting more paint on the walls and Marti changing the cabinet knobs on the kitchen cabinets and prepping things for the new carpets that will be installed throughout the house next week.  Paul wants to have the last two rooms done before then, so I'll have lots of work to do to get it all finished.

Hopefully Paul will be so happy with the results of all my work that he'll take me along when he and Marti hit the road full time. :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Marti's Musings: What a weekend!

After a pretty horrendous week at work, we spent the weekend with the Caring Transitions company knocking out lots of work prepping the house for sale, sorting, packing, trashing....some of you know the drill....for the rest, and those who will going through this in the future - well here is our progress thus far.

As the last post showed, our new Corian counter top and sink combo came in, and was installed on Friday.  Saturday night we ran to Lowe's to sign off on the new carpet order.  The price was pretty good - and that should be in in 7-14 days.

Saturday at 10AM the Caring Transitions team showed up.  Wow!  Carol and Marcie  hit the ground running.  To maximize their effectiveness they split up and each tackled a task.  Marcie hit the kitchen - asking what I wanted from each cupboard and drawer.  Piles started: keep, trash, RV, sell.  By the end of the day, the kitchen was 'staged' - and now ready for show. (amazing, huh?)

Carol and I headed to the basement.  We had done some work months back (think pre-fractured ankle for me), when our daughter came up and spent a week sorting through a lot of stuff stored there since we moved in.  You know, the toys, boxes from collections on display - not touched in the 13 years we have been here.

Carol and I then had to open (dreaded) Christmas boxes and sort through the stuff I had put aside as "keep".  Actually, truth be told, it wasn't all that hard to part with my Christmas things.  Many things I cared little to nothing about.  But anything I really liked, is put away for our future home, or given to one of the kids for their enjoyment.  All of the decorations and ornaments that they made as children are now heading to their own homes to add to their collections.  It actually felt good, sharing and passing on!  It wasn't traumatic because I felt I was "giving" - not throwing away.  A huge difference for me.  There were, of course items not saleable and they were trashed - we filled the pick up truck's bed twice with large bags of cast offs. 

At the end of day one, an entire corner of the basement is now "sell" area - and the "keep" corner grew larger (but not NEARLY as large as the "sell" corner).  The empty box area was growing by leaps and bounds.  Yeah! 

Day two was pretty much of the same, except Marcie was traded out for Thomas.  Thomas is an energetic young man, expert at packing, hard working - and so handy at running boxes up and down the stairs.   Today the focus was on finishing the basement.  The piles have now become labeled boxes.  Sorted by each child, storage, RV, trash (yup, we filled the pick up truck again) - and the ever growing "sell" corner. 

We also packed up the china closet.  That needed to be done in anticipation of the new carpet arriving anyway, so that filled the last hour of the productive day.  The basement is now divided up, areas for the estate sale, things to divvy out to the kids, or put away for later.  The decision to keep some things didn't come easily, but our memorabilia, the irreplaceable and sentimental pieces - I just was not willing to give it all up!  And my daughter has put aside part of her attic for my storage.  My son has agreed to take some boxes, too - so it will work!

And Paul?  He was busting his hump doing things around the exterior of the house.  Painting, replacing some wood planks, painting doors, cutting the grass, edging, trimming, repainting the foundation walls, spraying for weeds, painting window sills, fertilizing gardens, painting - Oh!  Did I already say that?  Yeah, he has a paint brush permanently attached to his hand, and sample paint on his leg, arm, hat... ya know... but as he said:  "It's the little things that will make the difference" - he is definitely going for the WOW factor.

So, here we sit - exhausted  (as Paul says:  "Even my hurts have hurts") - but feeling satisfied and so grateful to Carol and her crew.  We have made huge progress this weekend.  Trying to work full time, and get this all done?  Impossible.  Our time line is about two weeks to get the house on the market (the carpet install should be the last piece)- after that it is all in God's hands. Once we sell, I resign - and the games begin.

And...then we're off! :c)