Today was ... OMG! I don't have better words at the moment, after 2 nights of about 2 hours sleep each. The first was my usual under stress. Big "performance" the next day and staying awake to practice what I needed to accomplish so I covered everything I wanted to teach and how I wanted it say it, not to mention taking along samples to illustrate successes and failures. The presentation? Making wind chimes, the fun way. There was a big audience and lots of praise for what was taught. I expect more use of kilns in the club.
Nuff said.
Last night? It starts with prepping for the moving sale, three days worth. Little got done over night, despite Rich's assurances. He fell asleep. I didn't much. I have already packed my 'white noise machine", aka hepa filter by the bed, so now I can hear what's going on in the rest of the house. The TV was on. Deciding I might as well be useful, I packed another box, vacuumed in the library after brushing and scraping termite tunnels they used to get to the books to munch on, and did a bit of painting the mostly bare bookshelves where wood boards painted without primer first (not my decision!) now showed yellow knotholes and tracks where books lifted off after sitting for 12 years took slivers of paint with them leaving brown stripes. Since I was spray painting, this required opening a couple of windows and flipping on an exhaust fan. I was still tired, but not sleepy, something that wasn't helpful whatsoever.
I woke up Rich, after a short discussion with Steve as to whether we should put off the sale another day or get busy hauling stuff out and just start the sale hours late. The few hours idea won, I woke Rich, and now energized he dove in to organizing and moving merchandise. I started hauling out "pretties" which needed a table braced against a sturdy wall so things wouldn't wobble and break. Boxes worth. More boxes. Other items overlooked and discovered later.
Steve had decided to grab a nap while we were getting things ready, and I woke him just before Rich loaded the sale signs in the car and I drove him around the neighborhood to place them. It's been cold here for our usual winters, and our sale was likely the first of the season to take advantage of a snowbird customer base and warm weather. It went gangbusters! In fact, we've been "closed down" for two hours and the customers are still coming and buying! The sign is down, the car in the driveway, but on they come.
That's not a complaint. I'm just tired and my feet ache.
One of the first morning customers came up to the car while we were loading the signs in it. He offered to buy the house today. No questions asked. Doing my best to be polite while we were getting delayed from doing our sign duty, I pled exhaustion as a reason I wasn't up to making that kind of a decision right then.
My real reason was I had arranged a realtor to come out to the house, tour it, and sit down with me to sign the contracts hiring her. We've been emailing for a couple weeks now. With my father being a realtor for many years, I have a great respect for the job they do and all the pitfalls, economic and legal, they can keep us out of. Me and some random nobody? Not a temptation. Besides, this realtor had been highly recommended by our new next door neighbor.
Now that I've sat down with her, filled out a bazillion forms in exquisite detail listing all the things we did to this house to fix and repair things, plus the when and who of them all, I was even more impressed. Luckily I had been keeping track of what and when, as well as most of the whys. Photos helped, since my cameras put in the metadata giving dates. Holly was impressed at how prepared I was.
Holly had some very firm opinions, aka answers to my questions, about what to spend or not spend more money on in order to get the best price for the house. For example, we have three rooms with painted concrete floors and area rugs. Dogs and shoes have worn some of the paint in places. She said do not repaint the floors. Let the new buyer decided what they want to do: paint, carpet, tile, etc. She suggested I not do the bathroom remodel until she heard first that it was starting Monday and was half paid for, and second it included repairs to make the room functional again. We discussed the gas fireplace in the lanai. It has not been used since we bought the house, except by the gas company each year we return when they turn on the gas to check everything lights properly and won't explode. It has been "yellow tagged" to prohibit use for the last few years since something somewhere is plugged up. Holly again advised we let the new owner decide. But an exterior light needs wiring replaced now that the old wiring doesn't quite reach far enough to connect. She recommended two different choices in the area to fit that.
We covered leases and contracts, what is assumable by the new owner - or not if they so decide - and she got all the information on those things. For example, the solar panels are on a lease agreement, not an outright purchase. The termite treatment has an annual contract to reinspect and spray if necessary, also assumable. The satellite company, same thing. Services are available, new owner can decide.
She knows we have family coming to assist loading up everything, or nearly everything. There will be more cleaning, reassembling things taken apart to fix, and all the other last minute things with a move. Steve and I just called our doctor's office to cancel late March appointments and find out how to transfer medical info to new docs we don't even know yet, and he'll have to change insurance since his is an AZ only plan, along with who knows what all else. We'll be here after they leave for a few days, with Rich to help load the last bed and chairs for example. There'll be other last minute stuff like hiring a dumpster, final cleaning and packing, etc. Here's where she made the most strongly worded request, a demand (for our sakes) if you will. Houses sell better when empty. Since we have a place to go, likely with several stops on the way, we should get out of here before it goes on the market. Period. She set a date for the house to be empty, and she does mean EMPTY! As she put it, everything goes in one of three places: packed to go north, either sold or to a thrift store, and when neither of those work, into a dumpster. We need to be out of here on March 3rd!
So let me repeat: OMG!
By the way, just while writing this, four more shoppers stopped to shop our sale. $20 here, $15 there. The sun is setting, Steve is napping in his chair, I'm thinking about some food as well as organizing the last of the last things to be done and in what order. At least the chore of buying ratchet straps got done yesterday while running another errand, so I don't have to repeat that. Not painting floors takes that several days off the list. There will be extra food to pack than we planned during our last grocery pickup but perishables have a recipient. But I have to squeeze an oil change and new tires into the next couple weeks, and... and... and...
I need a nap!
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