Painting

The first day of painting was exhausting — but we got a lot done. Our friends Dan, Elizabeth, and Carolyn came over to help, because they are wonderful people and amazing friends. They were awesome, and thank god we had their help. Painting 10-foot-high walls is hard, Barbie. The walls in my old home are 9 feet, but that extra 12 inches is killer on your back. I think we’ll be investing in a taller step ladder.
We taped off and primed the walls of all three of the “must paint” rooms, which was a pretty awesome accomplishment. Just the having the primer up was a HUGE difference. The rooms were really strong darker colors, which can look great but just didn’t work in this house. They made the rooms look too dark and too small, and the color overwhelmed the really interesting features — like the cool woodwork, french doors, and nice windows. If you’re looking for locksmith services, you can check out Low Rate Lockmsith in Carmichael .We’ve picked some more serene lighter colors, which should make the rooms brighter and fresher, and today we start painting those.

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For a very short time today, we outranked Lance Armstrong

The seller’s agent for our new home was a bit late to our closing, because he has Lance Armstrong and Robin Williams staying at his house for race weekend. His house is a block and a half from ours, BTW. During our closing, he got paged that they had arrived at his house, but he had to stay for us to sign everything.
So for about 20 minutes, we were slightly more important than Lance Armstrong. Aren’t you glad you know us?
Also — WE HAVE A HOUSE. Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continue ReadingFor a very short time today, we outranked Lance Armstrong

Two Days

Stephanie and I close on the new house in just two days–Friday afternoon. We’re so excited; it’s like Christmas.
We’ll be at the new house all weekend painting, if you’d like to help out– we could definitely use a hand, and we’ll give you some food and drink. Plus you’ll get a first look at the new place. Shoot me an e-mail and we’ll give you directions. We probably won’t finish this weekend, so we’ll be working on painting through the week and the weekend of June 3rd, too, if you have time then. Also on June 3rd the pod will be delivered to the new place and we’ll need help unpacking it.
We have at least three rooms to paint — library, living room and dining room. If we get to it, we want to paint one of the upstairs bedrooms as well, cause the grey that it is currently is just crap.

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The Pod is Packed

We finished packing up the pod last night, and even got it mostly full. We managed to pack my entire library in it, as well as lots and lots of other stuff. It will get whisked back to the warehouse today, where it will reside for the next two weeks. I have to say this is a handy option.
So what’s left in my house is essential stuff, stuff that wasn’t completely organized or easy to pack (tools and hardware fall into that category), breakable stuff, and large furniture. I still have lots of packing to do, but at least I have some sense of completeness going on, finally. And I have the hope that we can minimize the cost of moving the rest of my stuff.
This weekend I’ll be cleaning and packing more, but I’m hoping that we’ll have time to go see The DaVinci Code. Gotta go see a movie that’s pissing off the religious right, just to balance out the karma from the gore-fest that Mel Gibson put out.

Continue ReadingThe Pod is Packed

The Schedule

Friday, May 19 – The pod gets picked up from my house.
Friday, May 26 – We close on the new house.
Saturday, May 27 through Friday, June 2 – Painting, painting painting at the new house. (help wanted)
Saturday, June 3 – Pod arrives at new house to be unpacked. (help wanted)
Wednesday, June 7 – Movers come to move my larger furniture to new house (help wanted)
Saturday, June 10 & Sunday, June 11 – Packing and moving Stephanie’s house (help wanted)
Saturday, June 17 & Sunday, June 18 – Packing and moving Stephanie’s house (help wanted)
Updates — we’ve been packing up lots of my stuff and loading it into the pod. Wednesday, Elizabeth came over and helped us, and we got a massive chunk of the library packed. Last night we finished almost all the rest of it. I estimate there are just three more boxes of books to pack. Tonight we need to loaded all the rest of the boxes into the pod so it can be picked up tomorrow morning.

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it went okay…

I managed to get the house in some semblance of order yesterday, despite still feeling a bit wobbly (and I still feel that way, actually.)
I don’t think either of the people looking at the house were interested, unfortunately. But it’s in better shape, and if I do some more organizing, packing, and cleaning tonight, I’ll be further along.
I need to call a mover, and I think I need to pursue some other ways of advertising the house.

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help wanted

Someone e-mailed me with a name of someone who would pack stuff for a reasonable fee — but I can’t locate that e-mail now. If it was you, could you send it again?

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When things go horribly wrong

I’ve been sicker than a dog this weekend; I spent all day yesterday throwing up. Today I don’t feel much better, and I have two different sets of people coming to see the house tonight at 6. They will be seeing the dirtiest, most cluttered house in the city, without a doubt, because I didn’t get much of anything done in the packing and cleaning department.
I know that I shouldn’t feel upset at a friend of mine who offered to help this weekend and then flaked out on Sunday. It is nice to offer and she did do a lot to help earlier in the week. But I was really counting on help on Sunday and she really let me down. If I had known she was going to blow off helping, I would have called someone else, but by the time she told me, it was too late to call anyone else.
On top of that, the weather is really killing me. I’m so sick of rain.

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life updates – packing and moving

We’ve been really busy lately packing and cleaning my house in hopes of getting it ready to show, hence very little writing here. We took a truck load of stuff to Goodwill, and have been packing lots. This morning a Pod will arrive so we can begin unloading my house of all the clutter. They’ll haul it away and store it for a month until we’re ready to move into the new house.

I’ve had a couple of calls and a couple of e-mails about seeing the house so far. Please pass along the info to anyone you think might want a fun DIY project.

Also, I still have some furniture for sale (bunk beds, a double bed, a coffee table) if you’re interested. E-mail if you are.

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Furniture for Sale

In addition to my house being for sale, I’m also selling some furniture to “scale down” for the new place. Click on the link to see pictures of a couple of nice beds and a coffee table we won’t have room for at the new place.

Sold
My Old Coffee Table
Continue ReadingFurniture for Sale