Countdown - Week 8

It's been another busy week with other issues, besides selling the house, that have interfered with our work! Harrumph!!

A representative of the nursing facility came to evaluate Dad. She had some suggestions and we first had to see if a reclining wheelchair would be acceptable, and whether they could/would transfer Dad into it so he can eat in the dining room. The move took place on Thursday. It was a fantastic experience. The ambulance guys transported Dad from the back door of his building, down the sidewalk and into the Assisted Living facility. Dad smiled as he went down the hall, and was asleep before we hit the back door! Because the air mattress Dad uses had not been delivered, the staff later had to move Dad into the "geri chair" to swap out mattresses. He was all grins as we went on a walk around the facility. I think Dad is going to love his new digs and all of the opportunities he has to interact with other people. He has been confined for too long. All I can think of is Stephen King's "Misery".

Doesn't he look a bit like Don Corleone?!

In the "geri chair" heading out for a tour of the new place

It was my Stepmom's Birthday on Tuesday. I began working on a quilt for her while we were in Florida. When I returned home I put the borders on and quilted the quilt.

As far as house related projects go....

• The concrete guys came by. Oh my, did they ever work hard! They broke up over 300 sq ft of old concrete with a sledge hammer and an adze, hauling it to their trailer with a wheelbarrow.  I think they underestimated the scope of the job, but they pressed on, pulled in some more guys and on the second day the concrete was poured. That evening a thunderstorm came through and we Dreamers scrambled to cover the fresh concrete and keep the plastic from blowing away. 

• We finally selected the realtor we want to sell our house. We "interviewed" three and found it very difficult to choose. We finally selected the local Re/Max agent, strike that, we changed our minds. We took the go-getter from a smaller agency with better Internet presence. 
• We had another gardener type guy come by, but when we didn't get an estimate from him decided to go with one of the fellows who gave us the estimate last week. Mr. Dreamy had called a few other numbers but they all said they were too busy. Later in the week Rene stopped by to review the project, and brought in 2 yards of mulch.
• We changed out the chandelier in the hall, swapping a large shiny brass traditional chandelier for a smaller dark bronze fixture that is better suited for our "country home". Keeping with the bronze look, and getting rid of some more of the shiny brass, we swapped out the fan in the master bedroom. Since the hall chandelier is mounted 18 feet above the hall floor, we hired an electrician to do the work. I'm not a huge fan of the chandelier. I probably should have picked out something a bit larger, but.... oh well!

• Representatives from TCS, an estate sale company, came by to look at all that we want to sell. We visited a sale they had done nearby and liked how they worked. But, I have requested a consultation by another company to see what they have to say. We have so much stuff that needs to go! TCS said it would be a huge sale!
• I've packed 8 12 15 cartons for wherever we land with a real house, and 2 cartons designated for our RV lot in Florida. Mr. Dreamy says I'm being too harsh and need to bring along more things. I've also sorted bric-a-brac in the living room into a small section of "goes with us" and a larger sections of "get rid of".  I've just begun doing the same thing in the kitchen, but I can't go too far without knowing if we are going to have the estate sale before the house is shown, or after. It's a Catch-22 sort of thing: we have too much stuff and the house won't show well without removing a lot, and if we haul it out of the house we'd need to haul it back for the sale. However, if we hold the sale first we might not have enough furnishings for the house to show well. We meet with the realtor's "stager" next week and will have a better idea of which way to go. 
• Almost all of the things that can be moved in the basement have been moved. Hooray! And if we decide to hold the sale before putting the house on the market, it will all have to be moved back - ugh! But, I would rather not have people tramping around on new carpet.

At the beginning of the project (you can see my Stepmom's quilt on the long arm machine, on the left!)

What the basement looks like now! I can see how "empty" looks larger!

• Someone finally took us up on our Offer-Up listing for a free TV! We even loaded it in our truck and Mr. Dreamy hauled it to their apartment, about 30 minutes away. Anything to get the rear-projection dinosaur out of the basement!
• We Dreamers worked on painting the front fence. Mr. Dreamy did most of it, and yet I seemed to have gotten more paint on me than on the fence. I am a paint magnet!  We are painting it a rust color... it will hide the rust! We only have 5 more panels to paint.

Neither rain, nor hail...... Mr. Dreamy tries to beat the storm

• We are getting an estimate to have a leak in our bathtub repaired. 

One of my thrills for the week was having the representatives of the estate sale company noticing and discussing some pictures I have on the wall in the guest bedroom. One gal really liked a painting of a building, the photographer zoomed in on a painting on the dresser, and the other lady loved another painting. Hah! They were all paintings I did in the past few years!

I found this amazing as we have some excellent art on the walls, and only one of those paintings received a comment.