I have to explain the deleted post

Something unusual happened that we suspected might have been bit of "shenanigans" on the part of another agent.  Not ours.  It wasn't serious, just a bit odd.  We wrote about it and published it, but then on second thought removed the post.  We feel you have to be very careful about what you post on the internet.

No damage was done.  We will never really know if what happened was a coincidence or misunderstanding.  But again no harm was done.  It did make an interesting post however!

Clean

Just a quick note this morning!  If I could have kept this house as clean and orderly with everything fixed and painted, I would never have wanted to sell it and go on an adventure.

But, at least for me, keeping any house clean isa full time job.  I just don't know how some people do it.

I have a sister who has a perfect house. No husband, but a perfect house.  I would rather be me.

Random Pictures from this week.

When Al puts together a post he usually have a series of wonderful pictures he took that day.  Butterflies, farm fields, Pheebs the dog. All "eye candy" for sure.

When Judy posts she almost always shares the pictures she has taken of the birds and beasts she sees on her daily trek around the wildlife preserve she is at. They are always delightful. As are the pictures included in so many of the blogs I enjoy.

I take pictures too, and here are a few from this week:

A repair guy inside our septic tank fixing the baffle and some deteriorated cement on the walls. He looked like an alien with his tight head covering and hazmat suit.

One side of the garage.  Clean with a freshly painted wall!

The other side.  It really is an improvement over a few weeks ago.

A part of letting go.  Custom license plate covers with my web site URL, in the trash.  

Mr. Moose is ready to go!  I bought him many years ago on a ski trip in Canada. I should have taken a before picture. He had long red skis,  ski poles, a ski cap, and a wintery red and white neck scarf.  Now he has sunglasses, a sun-visor, a backpack, trekking poles, and hiking boots. He will be our dash mascot.  

After our very busy days, I relax by doing original plastic canvas needlepoint.  Last month, when I was working on my grocery tote, I struggled with roses. I think I have them figured out. 

 I like to make functional things. This is the inside of one of four closet doors in the Alfa. When it is closed, there is about three inches of space between the door and the plastic drawers.  Hanging something with pockets on the inside of a closet door, is not an original idea, but this is my version.

Each panel is a small pocket.  I'm not sure what will fit in them, but I'm sure they will fill up.

There is enough room on the bottom of the door for another set.  I have decided to make two larger pockets there.

This week I took a large box of coral, we had in the attic for many years, to the auction house. I had tried to sell it on Craigslist with no success. Seeing it  brought back memories of the large marine fish tank we had at one time.  It inspired me to start exploring tropical fish designs, and making the next two pockets with a reef motif.

These are two 4" samples.  If I do two more I can make a small kleenex box cover with them.  Functional of course.    I think I'll make some seahorses and an octopus. This is my therapy.

My life may be busy, but I still find time for some color. 

A Good Day

Recently I read a comment from someone who said they had not posted for a long time because they had been dealing with an illness and didn't want their blog to become a "pity party." 

When I talk about how much we have to do, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. I use my blog in part as a "public" diary.  It helps me to write about things that I am doing.

So, I really slept well last night. 

Today was a good day.  

We both worked hard and got much accomplished.  

I am physically tired tonight, but it is  a good tired. 

Once again, thank you for your supportive comments.

That's all.  

Good night.

A hard day

Every day lately seems to be a hard day.  I lay in bed at night and think of a dozen things I want to do the next day.  Then somehow, the day slips by and I have not accomplished nearly as much as I had hope to.  Yesterday I finished up sorting thru the last of our photographs and got them boxed up for storage in my daughters attic.  Did I say "sorting"?  That would imply they were is some sort of order.  No, culling would be a better word.  I got rid of a lot of duplicates, faded or out of focus images, and pictures taken from the windows of moving vehicles.  I took a lot of pictures out of sticky albums, and took the pages out of many more.  Just the pages, without the binders take up less room.  The final result was one medium tote and one smaller box.

I have also finished going thru 25 years of house repair and improvement receipts. The good ones will go with us for a final evaluation someday in the next year. 

So with those two big paper jobs out of the way, (they have dominated the dining room table for weeks) I decided to start cleaning the room.  Someone suggested taking the approach of attacking one room at a time and when it is done, sort of close it for use and move on.  This is what I'm doing. 

In a way it is good to have a deadline. If we waited until everything was done we would never put the house on the market.  For now I have com to terms with not having time to get rid of everything I want to get rid of, or finish all of the little jobs we want to finish before listing.  So, now I have a list of "must do now" and what can wait.

I'm not sure we can finish the must dos, but we will try.

I thought I could get the dining room floor scrubbed today. We have several large plants that have leaked water onto the tiles over the years and I have to try to get them clean.  But all I could get finished today was to get the room ready by moving some of the furniture out.  Oh well, I should be able to finish it tomorrow.

We had planned on going to San Francisco to see a race, but it turns out there will not be one.  It would have been nice to take a day off, even if we can't afford the time, but it just isn't going to happen.

Today we had the septic tank pumped and inspected.  With the inspection, the cost was double what I paid a few years ago!  Good news is the leach field is good and the system is healthy.  Bad news is there are a few "minor" repairs needed and the estimate is for another hunk of change. They charge $150 an hour for work inside the tank. But it has to be done, so the guy will be back on Friday to do them. I have been assured it is best to get these things taken care of in advance.

The dreaded "pest control" inspection will be done on Friday.  We have done so much work already, I just don't see what they could find to report.  Actually there are a couple of very small things still on the list that might be cited.  

For now, I am just so tired, and yet I know the hardest days are yet to come.

We have decided if we don't get everything on the must do list finished, we will postpone our trip.  It will mean losing our reservation, but we can still go somewhere for a week or two.

This post has been full of "I" did this and "I" did that.  Craig has also been working his butt off.  I really do appreciate him.

We keep Checking things off!

Although throughout this process of getting the house ready for the market, Craig has been resistant to having a "to do" list, we finally have a working one that we have been listing things and checking things off. We wrote it together one day, and have been adding to it as we think of things that need to be done. I must admit the additions seem to outstrip the check offs at this point, but I feel the tide will turn soon.

In addition to a bit of repair work, Craig checked off "box and ship his books" and "pennies." Pennies? For forty-six years Craig has tossed his pennies into a cup on top of his dresser each day. When the cup got full they were transferred to a large container in the back of our closet. One container, two containers, five containers have moved with us and gathered dust over the years. Since they are a bit heavy, they can't go with us in the Alfa. I hauled out the containers several weeks ago and we both rolled pennies. I know we could have taken them to a coin sorting machine, but Craig wanted to roll them.

He took them to the bank on Friday. All 231 rolls. Grand total $115.50. I'm sure glad we have other retirement savings!





The books? It took him most of Thursday to pack them into nineteen 1.5 cubic foot boxes. Each weighed slightly less than 40 pounds. 

He sent them via Media mail so the postage cost wasn't too bad. It was a little less than $350 for all. Craig is happy they are going to someone who wants them. I'm wondering what his nephew's wife is going to say when those all those boxes are delivered.

This week is going to be very busy. We met with the realtor again this afternoon, are having the carpeting put in tomorrow, having a septic system inspection on Wednesday, and a termite inspection on Friday. Plus we will be doing as many smaller jobs as we can. 

If all goes well, we plan on taking a day off Thursday and going up to San Francisco to see an America's cup race. Sweden, New Zealand, and Italy are vying for the challenger position. The boats this time around are huge catamarans. I hope we can get a good view of them from the land. We are not sailors, but we have always had an interest in the America's Cup. We have seen the boats in San Diego and Auckland, and are looking forward to seeing them in San Francisco.

UPDATE: Thursday's race has only 1 boat in it! We don't know when we'll go!

A day away from all this work will be very welcome!

Although the house is not yet "on the market" we did sign a listing agreement today. A very important part of the marketing strategy is getting photographs done and doing a virtual tour for the web listing. By signing the listing agreement we are getting the ball rolling in that direction. Our goal is to have the house ready before we leave on our trip August 10th. If it is not, we may delay, but I think we can do it!

Thanks for the support and encouragement

All of your supportive and encouraging comments are much appreciated right now.  I have been blogging about this, the end of our sticks and bricks time, in part to relieve the stress and also to encourage anyone who is thinking about it, to get started.  Hopefully this will also show them that this phase will pass and we will make it to our goal of becoming full time RVers.

I was thinking about my blog this morning and came to the conclusion that this process is somewhat like a long illness.  It is with you every day, some days seem harder than others, and your friends and family get tired of hearing about it.   Like with an illness, we have had help from our doctor, the handy man. I do know, in my heart, that we will get thru and recover fully. 

Today (Wednesday), I finished my jobs by 1:00 o'clock!

 

Looking down on the garden, from the deck, before spreading the bark.

Craig cut and emptied the bags, and I spread them with the rake. 

It took less than an hour to do the job!  Big improvement!

This is the collection of paints and stains I dealt with today.

More:

I didn't take a picture of the empty shelf or space on the floor, but they have been sorted, emptied as needed, some put out to dry, and loaded up to take to the hazardous-waste place on Thursday. The motor oil has been poured into plastic containers, and I hope the HW people will tell me where to take it.  The rest of the van space has been filled with "to the dump stuff"!

Meanwhile, Craig went out and got our new smoke/carbon monoxide alarms as well as 40 boxes into which we will start packing his science fiction collection, to send to his nephew. He also installed the alarms, but grumbled that the California guidelines on where to install them are quite a mess.

So after a busy, but productive day, we indulged in home made Buffalo chicken wings.  I know, high in fat, but oh so good!

Do you enjoy an occasional forbidden indulgence?