Almost There

In my original plan this was the week the house would have come onto the market. That's why we have language like "original plan" so as to be able to distinguish it from the current plan or even from how things just come out. As it is the house could list next week, not bad as far as I'm concerned, but I think actually it won't. The realtor seems to believe that at this point we might wait for the first week of school. Too many shoppers and brokers away on vacation right now.

The last couple of days have been some of the hardest in the world of sorting. My sister and I had been accumulating all of the "kryptonite" in one room so as to be able to keep going. The last two days have been that room. Things like my parent's yearbooks, all the letters I'd ever written to them that they saved, awards and commendations, and hundreds and hundreds of family photos. Much more difficult than clothes or office supplies.

But, two days later and it's all gone in a "keep" box or to Goodwill or to trash. I think the hardest of all was to put mounted family photos in the trash. But in every case I have the photo and don't want the enlargement. Unfortunately, Goodwill isn't going to want even really nicely framed photos of my family - and the way my dad did them there isn't even a frame to donate.

The contractors, who were going to be finished last Wednesday, are still working. They've had to redo a couple of things and the weather didn't really cooperate with some of the exterior work so it's dragged out a little. We have a white tornado cleanup scheduled for tomorrow and thankfully the interior work is complete but for one item. Tomorrow they will work on finishing the exterior work and then the realtor is going to have to coordinate completing that one last item. Even with the delays I am pretty happy with their work and the interaction.

We'll see how I feel when I get the final invoice.

Looking back I can't think how this would have gone if... if I hadn't owned a truck and lived close enough to drive in... if my sister and my wife hadn't been able to take the time out of their lives too... if my cousin Susan hadn't been able to pitch in so much... if this had happened during the academic year instead of in my enormous break... if my boss and colleagues hadn't been so totally flexible... if "hot" wasn't the extent of the difficult weather... it's been tough, but I can't lose sight of how tough it could have been (and still could be).

We haven't done "to did" in a while, here's today's (and thanks to my wife and sister for the big pitch in):

• ordered the next "special" trash pick up - hopefully the last.
• called the appraisal person to set a meeting
• went looking for plastic tarps for the garage - failed
• went to the post office to forward the mail - failed
• hauled some trash for the special
• made a lunch date tomorrow with a cousin who's looking out for me
  
• placed some ornamental lights in the yard
  
• dropped off like a zillion wire hangars at the dry cleaner
• made a second attempt at the mail forwarding and succeeded
• ran some surplus medication for donation
• took my sister and my nephew to the airport
• tried to transfer my dad's iPass to my name - failed
• took a totally understated subtle birdhouse assembly to a neighbor's
• finished off the back bathroom
• staged the master bedroom
• staged the second bedroom
• straightened out the room we're using for cleaning
  
• completed assembly of some chairs my sister had recovered for staging
• hung curtains in the dining room
• hung curtains in the living room - decided we need another panel
• finished clearing the basement (out to the garage to sort tomorrow)
• Mrs. Boevers (among other things) staged the family room
• went for replacement light bulbs and that extra curtain panel

and yet, compared to other days it felt like I did very little.

Just a few hours left. Fingers crossed. Maybe some pics tomorrow.