Quack, Quack, Quack... I Want My Money Back!

As a student of Early Childhood Education, I was required to take Children's Literature classes (and to be honest, I loved them!) Among the tales that I enjoyed while studying classic tales was Drakesbill, where Drakesbill goes to see the king, and swallows animals encountered on the trip, who later help him out. All along he repeats, "Quack, Quack, Quack, I want my money back!"
I think I am a modern-day reincarnation of Drakesbill!

And, here's the back story!

Among the objects I collected  from my father's apartment for the estate sale was this ceramic piece that we called "Italian Ducks". These were on the list of my grandfather's possessions at his death in 1990.

My cousin happened to see the picture on a blog post I put up about the Estate Sale.  She asked about buying the ducks. No problem. She deserves them as much as I do. Later, she was watching Jeopardy and the image for one of the questions was similar to the ceramic piece, and the correct response was, "What are Grebes". So, now we know the name of the weird looking birds.

After things slowed down around here I took the grebes and headed to a local FedEx office. I had all of the packing material needed, but, life was still rather hectic and I'd just as soon have the pros manage the packing of this piece.

After weighing the pottery it was whisked away and packed. The piece was swaddled in bubblewrap and plunked in a carton surrounded by crumpled paper. I paid the bill, while swallowing hard in disbelief at the cost (in excess of $86!!) But, heck, I didn't have to find a box, find packing material and put it all together. In hindsight, I sure wish I had taken care of things!

My cousin reported that the grebes had arrived, but were broken. What? Yikes! How tragic. The picture my cousin sent makes me want to vomit. What a travesty. 

Tomorrow, with receipt in hand.... with pictures in hand... I'll be heading back to the FedEx office... 

Quack, quack, quack.... I want my money back!

PS - Cousin has found a restoration company on the east coast and will be sending the grebe pieces to be put back together again. The bill will be handled by FedEx.... or else!

Stitched Together

When our son took the photos using the drone he accomplished three things. He took some still images of the house, he had the drone circle the house and take video footage, and he "mapped" the property, taking photos shooting straight down while the drone followed a regular path going back and forth on our property. The drone was programmed to take 116 shots, and later my son stitched those photos together to create an aerial image of our property.

Click on this link to see the image.

If you view the image online, instead of simply looking at the screen shot I have posted, you can see many details with amazing clarity. I was surprised by the tracks left from the truck when it removed trees in May. Those tracks can be seen on the left center portion of the property. It shows how fragile our Colorado high desert land is.

It saddened me to see the "road" through the pasture. This was created by traffic during our estate sale. Our driveway was too narrow for two-way traffic so we had no option but to cut the fence and route traffic through the property. We have used the drag harrow to try to "rough up" the tracks, and we have spread some dry-land prairie grass seed mix, but it will take years to recover, if it ever does.

You can zoom in on my vegetable garden raised beds, the green rectangle just south and west of the house. I was tickled by the row of bright green lettuce. Do you see the red Zinnia blooming? I had some packets of Zinnia seeds and planted them to fill in here and there in the vegetable garden. They are beginning to bloom and they look great!

Oh, and look, just east of the garden you can see the drag harrow and the scuffed up earth behind it!

From this view our land looks like it is just dirt, but looking at it from ground level it does have a lot of plant life!

And, speaking of plant life, if you zoom in by the house you can see the purple-blue clumps of Russian Sage, and in the flower garden in back of the house I can see the wild sun flowers, some day lilies, my purple Monardia, and even my Echinacea. Outside of the picket fence I cracked up when I saw the hose. At first I thought there was a line drawn on the map for some reason!

And then there is my not-so-round pen! When I set the pen up I used a rope attached to a metal rod to "draw" a perfect circle. This past fall Mr. Dreamy installed a weather station on one of the fence posts of the pasture. In order to keep curious horses from "playing" with the weather station, I moved two panels to block off the weather station, and closed up the round pen. I bet you can see from where those panels were taken! I can!

If you know where to look along the fence line one can even see my bird houses. I have over a half-dozen to encourage our bluebirds. This year we had a few couples that managed to fight off the swallows and maintain ownership of their houses. It has been wonderful to see bluebird families in the yard. And, it has been fun to have this birds-eye view of our property.




https://www.mapsmadeeasy.com/maps/public/1332c3798b6e47e5bf2d4a43d042afb1

Twilight Slide Show

On Monday, past, we still did not have a signed contract. To expedite putting the house on the market our Realtor chose to get the photographer to our house to take pictures to use on the MLS listing. The listing was supposed to come out Wednesday. However, we had a contract on Wednesday, nothing went to MLS. We were given a link to a slideshow that had been created with some of the photos that were taken. I am in awe of our house. Is this our house? What fun to see it in this format.

Click HERE to see the virtual tour.

And, don't believe for a second that my house REALLY looks like that. It's amazing what some sort of wonky lens can do! But, I do get a kick out of looking at it!

Whose House?

Whose house this is I thought I knew

But that was before the contract fell through;

The deal was great, so it appeared

But they had to close first and my anxieties grew.

Passersby must think it weird

To discover the realtor’s sign disappeared

And then it was back aside the road

We won’t tell them it was us interfered.

Folks stopped to enquire, it was getting old

We couldn't say a second deal was on hold

We had to stay mum it was our secret to keep

But the counter was accepted, our house is sold.

We don’t have to show it, nor constantly sweep

We’ve been through a lot in the past few weeks

And all we want to do is go to sleep,

And all we want to do is go to sleep.

Just last week, on Wednesday, 7 days ago, a couple toured our home and made a full price cash offer.  On Friday another couple came through and upped the ante $20,000 above asking. The first couple countered. However, they had a contingency and they were having trouble with that contingency so we declined their offer. We countered back to the 2nd couple with the top price, and they accepted. 

Sky View

Our son, David, works for a commercial landscape company. They use a drone to map locations for their jobs and to get images of the properties where they have projects. Our son is a drone pilot for the company. He uses a variety of software to plan the drone flight and to map the results. He can program a flight from takeoff to landing and once programmed, the drone does everything on its own. Or, he can fly the drone manually, and by looking on an iPhone screen attached to the controller, he can tell the camera to take a picture. Once the flight is complete the data he has collected connects with other software and he can create maps and diagrams. Fascinating!
The other day he stopped by with the drone and took photos and videos. I was in awe of the entire process. I was also in awe of how adept my son is with all of this!
First he programmed a circular flight around the buildings on the property. He uses coordinates to tell the drone where to fly. He can tell it at what altitude to fly and how fast. Here he is showing me on the iPhone screen that manages the flight, what he has preprogrammed.

The yellow circle is the path the drone will fly. 

David takes the drone out of the backpack,

and attaches the propellers. 

Within minutes the drone lifts off.

Up, up and away!

This is a link to the video the camera recorded on the flight. 

The file is too large to upload to Blogger. 

https://youtu.be/OX5HGQwfzV8

Next, our son took over the controls, and while looking at the iPhone screen, selected individual photos to shoot. We Dreamers were enthralled with what he was doing. It seemed strange to sit on the porch and see images on the iPhone screen of what the drone was seeing, even on the other side of the house. 

And, here is what the drone saw:

The last program our son used required that the drone fly in a pattern, back and forth, from one end of our property to the other. The drone took shots periodically, 116 in all. David will "stitch" the pictures together with other software and create an overhead view of our property.

Here are two of the 116 shots. It will be very interesting to see the finished "map".

I enjoyed seeing the pictures of our property. I have always been fascinated by Google satellite shots, but these allow one to zoom in a bit more. I also loved seeing how at home my son is with the software and the drone. He has a unique skill set!

Countdown - Week 1

Tick. Tick. Tick. The hands of the clock are moving on, whether we are ready or not! This week has been a whirlwind. Just read on to see what I mean. You won't believe it!

Waaaayyy back in April I began the countdown; ten weeks of work to get the house show-ready.  It was just a guess. Perhaps more of a challenge I made for myself. We won't make it, but we will be darn close!

Here is how this incredibly crazy week has progressed:

Monday:

• the junk hauler/mover came back to finish cleaning out the garage. All of our extra stuff is gone. Of course, within 30 minutes or so I realized things I needed that used to be in the garage: a water bowl for Bob, insulation hangars and a can of white spray paint. I wonder how many other things we are going to realize we have sold, given away or thrown out!

• 1000 square feet of carpet was installed in the finished portion of the basement, and up the stairs. It looks fabulous!

• I cleaned the upstairs. The sort of cleaning you rarely do for yourself but will do for others; the "scrub the baseboards with a toothbrush" sort of cleaning. Mr. Dreamy did a fabulous job of getting some stubborn spots out of the carpet. I contracted with a cleaning service to get the downstairs show-ready clean. They will be working next week.

• We had the septic tank pumped and inspected. We failed. (I have only failed one thing, one time in my life - and I really didn't fail it but was given a "0" on part of a French exam for talking. Hmmmm, imagine that! Darn you Mr. El Kodsi, you scarred my life!) We need to have the pipe replaced as it has sunk down where it connects to the tank and roots have gotten into the tank. Mr. Dreamy is working to expedite the repair. If I'm not careful, he will get the LMOS (lawn mower on steroids) out and begin digging himself!
• We selected our replacement Realtor. When we talked with Realtors in May realtors all came within $50,000 of each other on their estimates for a selling price. When we talked with Realtors last week they gave us estimates that were almost $100,000 - $150,000 less. Needless to say, we were quite discouraged. Then the last realtor met with us. He had done his homework to find truly comparable listings. With his research and digging, he said the house should list where the original realtors saw it listing. The other guys had simply plugged in "horse property, 10 acres, barn and 3400 sq ft house". The computer fed them matching listings that weren't really matching. The computer doesn't take into account the distance to town. The computer doesn't take into account upgrades done on the house. Also, there are very few houses like ours, that are for sale or that have sold recently, so to get "comps" the realtors had to move farther away. Even 10 miles makes a huge difference in price.
• I posted some more items that didn't sell on Craig's List. Who knew that a pile of concrete siding that had been sitting in the corner of the paddock for 6 years would be worth money?!

Tuesday:

• In the morning we got a call from our new Realtor. One of the couples who saw the house during the estate sale wanted to see the house again. He asked if we would allow a showing Wednesday morning. (Who asks to see a home at 8:30 in the morning?!) This meant that we Dreamers worked tirelessly (well, to be truthful we were totally and utterly exhausted!) for over 12 hours straight to clean, organize, rearrange etc. We can now walk into our bathroom. We don't have tons of extra stuff in our bedroom. The kitchen counter is amazingly empty of stuff! Additionally, the dumpster was leaving the next day so we needed to capitalize on it and load every bit of garbage we could find. 

Wednesday:

• We did not have an especially leisurely breakfast! We ran around picking up and cleaning last minute items. I vacated the house with the dogs and went to see my dad. Scott stayed out in the RV barn and got on the RV when the potential buyers came in.
• Our IKEA shelving system that was posted on Craig's List walked out the door, and I didn't have to lift a finger to help!
• Mr. Realtor came by to do a walk-through, now that the junk is all gone. He liked how I had "staged" the upstairs and felt confident that we could have the house ready for a photoshoot on Monday, the house will hit MLS on Wednesday and we will begin showings on Saturday, a week and a half from now. Yikes! That timeline is really scary. List making began: Things to Buy. Things to do before Monday. Things to do before Saturday. So, it looks like we might sorta, kinda, almost make my goal after all and will be "show ready" by the end of this week!
• A representative from the estate sale folks came by with a check. It far exceeded our expectations - even with their commission, labor expenses, food and tax taken out. Wow! Oh, and he bought one of the oil paintings!
• I took the IKEA shelves in the living room apart, well as much as I could without destroying them. We will be moving them to wherever. For now, they are in the garage. The living room looks so much brighter and larger without them! I also stopped by IKEA to see if one can purchase the chintzy backer "board" they use on the shelves, which would break apart if I tried to get it off. Nope. Not available, so the shelves will have to travel as they are. While there I bought some new towels to make our bathroom look more lovely than it is (if that is at all possible!), but Mr. Dreamy didn't like them so I will have to take them back. 

Thursday:

• The realtor stopped by and placed his sign at our driveway. Oh, my gosh. It is really happening.

Friday:

• I sent a text message to Mr. Realtor. I had some concerns/questions about furniture placement in the living room. I asked about his "staging" services. He called me back and said the house looks great and not to worry. Oh, and by the way, he heard from the realtor for the folks who came by on Wednesday and they are putting in an offer. He also wanted to ask if we would allow another couple to view the house in the afternoon. Why not? We Dreamers decided. So began another round of running around, picking up, putting away, wiping down and getting out of the way.
• Our driveway was sealed. This means we have to drive through the pasture to get in or out. This also means that the couple who came to see the house did not get to see the curb appeal of our home as they drove in the stately long driveway, viewing the beautiful new lawn, the freshly painted garage and front doors, the pretty flowers I had planted (both real and fake) and the newly mowed front pasture. Oh well! 
• It turns out that the folks who toured the house were also at the sale, at least the father and son were. The father had said he'd be coming back as soon as the house was listed. He wasn't kidding! At the sale he talked with both of us Dreamers and "toured" the house. He brought his wife back today. Their realtor indicated that they will also be putting in an offer! My first thought was that staging is hugely overrated! Both offers are coming from people who first saw the house during the sale when it was hugely cluttered and messy!!
• The CertainTeed siding we listed on Craig's List was picked up and is gone.

Saturday:

• I prepared an extensive, detailed list of the remaining paintings and sent it to a national auction company. I had to submit 5 photos of each picture as well as any details I had about it. It took far more time than I wanted to spend doing it.. but the list is finished and hopefully the paintings can be sent on for auction. Nicholas de Largilliere (1656-1746) painted this portrait of Ulrich Frederick Woldemar. It appraised for over well over $10,000. I am thinking my great grandfather had this piece and it has been passed down over the years. The other paintings/prints are not of this caliber.

• We continued to work on items on the list(s) to prepare our house for showings and sale.
• I took some time to pull some weeds and trim in the gardens. One of my gardens has gone wild! I can't even get to the back to pull weeds since the flowers are so thick. 

• Our realtor called. He said he had some good news, and....   some more good news, and..... still more good news. The Good News: The first offer came in at asking price. Cash! Only contingent upon the closing of the sale of their own house, which is 11 days out. More Good News: The second offer came in at $20,000 over asking! A partial loan would need to be acquired but shouldn't be a problem for the buyer. And, Even More Good News: The first offer was upped to $30,000 over asking, cash, closing on August 11 and they will let us stay in the house for up to two weeks after closing if we need the time. Holy Cow!!! I think we have sold our house! 

Sunday:

• We reviewed the contract, then discovered it was no longer accessible online. We thought it was because we had requested a change in our name, but it appears that the buyer was misinformed about their closing date. They are scrambling (I presume) to get things straightened out by 3 PM tomorrow. So we went from, "Yippee!!, we don't have to get the house ready for photos or stage it for showing!!" To hauling out the To Do list and getting to work again. The realtor has suggested that we not offer the house to the other bidder as he thinks, based on the swift interest we had from these first two buyers, that we should list the house higher and see where the chips fall. In the "Coming Soon" listing on Zillow he calls the house "arguably the hottest listing available." (And he said that before we had the little bidding war!) Hopefully he is right!

This was an incredibly busy week with events escalating to warp speed. Each time I typed something I would think, "What's next?!"  Talk about a host of emotions: scared, elated, terrified, worried, sad, anxious....

This is the end of my Countdown. We are almost there. Cleaning crew and photos tomorrow. The listing goes up on Wednesday and the house will be shown beginning on Saturday. 

Gypsy - Gone

The morning after the sale we had the opportunity to sit and relish our coffee. We didn't have to take the dogs to camp. We didn't have to move things. We didn't have to do a gosh darned thing. I have forgotten what mornings like that could be like. However, after some time that instinctual thing that sometimes happens kicked in. For some reason my mind picked up on the fact that only one dog had wandered by recently.  I called out for Gypsy and heard nothing. I had fed the dogs in the morning, and let them out, but I didn't recall seeing her afterwards. I stepped onto the back porch and called. I neither heard, nor saw, a dog. Then I noticed that the gate to the paddock had been left open. We never leave any gates open. The dogs could get into the paddock and from there, into neighboring pastures, since all of that fencing is simply 4-strand wire. Uh, oh. Gypsy was being a gypsy and had evidently wandered away. Very unusual for her, but perhaps the turmoil surrounding her little world was too much. She does tend to be a bit shy and there have been lots of people in and out and her house has been in upheaval for weeks. Perhaps she crept away for some quiet, or, she has also been known to squeeze through the gate to forage for food. We Dreamers went out into the back and began calling her. (However, since it was a Sunday morning around 6 AM we hesitated to call too loudly!) Regardless, we didn't see any movement of a white-tipped tail in the prairie grass. There was no dog running up to greet us. We came back to the house and continued with our coffee, but to be honest, our minds couldn't settle. We Dreamers had terrible thoughts. There are coyotes around here. What if she wandered upon a kill near their den? Since we did have some rain there is a pool below our barn, and maybe she was stuck in the mud. Maybe she fell into the ravine by our neighbor's barn while chasing a bunny or a deer, and couldn't get out. What if she had gotten caught in stickers. She is "the princess" and if she gets one little sticker in her foot, she won't move. We decided to drive around the streets surrounding us to see if we could find her.

Mr. Dreamy pulled the car around from where it had been parked, down by the barn, out of the way of the sale. We climbed in and headed out to the road.

We saw some cows. They were quietly eating. Gypsy wasn't there. She was not trying to herd them.
We saw a dog sitting quietly in his driveway. Gypsy wasn't there. She was not playing with him.
We saw some deer here, and some deer there. They wouldn't be standing there staring as we drove by if Gypsy happened to be around.

We were more than a bit discouraged. My heart was pounding. All we could do is return home and wait....
and worry,
and imagine every kind of terrible thing that could happen to a dog,
and worry that she might be in pain,
and wonder what could have happened to her...

Our address and phone number was on her collar. I peered into the few cars that drove by us, looking to see if there was a dog in the back seat. We hadn't gotten a call... but, as Mr. Dreamy pointed out, it was still earlier than 7 AM on a Sunday morning. We'd have to wait.... and worry....

I was already stressed. The taut string around my gut was being pulled just a bit tighter.

After driving the streets closest to our house we returned home. Defeated. Mr. Dreamy pushed the button to open the garage, out trotted Gypsy! Evidently she had followed one of us out into the garage earlier, and we hadn't noticed that she wasn't with us when we came back into the house. We certainly felt a bit foolish having "lost" a dog, and imagined every awful, terrible, no good thing that could have happened to her, only to find that she had wandered into the garage and had been locked out of the house. Yeah, we felt a bit foolish, but a whole lot relieved!!

Countdown - Week 2

It has been a busy week with everything focused on the Estate Sale. There isn't a lot we have done besides shuffling items for sale, moving them from here to there and back again, cleaning things, fixing things, hiding things, pricing things....

So, here's a list of this week's accomplishments:

• I put in a few extra hours on the long arm machine to finish a king-size quilt. The machine had to come down before the sale. I will use the backing to bind the edges until I find my sewing machines and my fabric, and have time and energy for sewing on a real binding. 

• We interviewed realtors. Back in May we "hired" a realtor. We never signed her contract, and she never pushed for us to sign it. She never did much of anything. We were disappointed. Mr. Dreamy stopped in her office and felt she was very unprofessional. He was uncomfortable and he struggled for 2 weeks about what to do. Finally he decided he couldn't work with her and he called her to tell her so.  We talked with 4 realtors. 
• We received an unsolicited bid on the house. However, because of the situation with the Realtor, we felt we might be painting targets on our backs for a lawsuit, so that is why we began the interview process again. It's a nice feeling to know we have one bid on the house and can turn around and sell it immediately! (Additionally, should his second bid be high enough, we might not have to pay the full 3.2% that selling realtors normally receive.) After 5 interviews, a few that were excruciating, we hit upon what we hope will be a fabulous Realtor. 
• Our house-sitter extraordinaire came to take her horses off our property. What a circus! She came with two horses in her trailer. She offloaded one, and loaded sweet Zoe. Off she went to one location. Then she came back to get the two that were here, destined for another location. One that she had just offloaded and the other, Lady Bug, who has been living here for the best part of a year. Everything went well until Lady Bug decided, uh, uh... I'm not getting on the trailer! Ugh. Poor house-sitter spent almost 2 hours working with LB to get her to load. Meanwhile, her other horse, who had loaded on the trailer like a champ, was getting anxious and was pawing and kicking. Crazy times! I was able to help for about 30 minutes, but then we had a realtor come by to meet us so I had to leave. My mind was on the horses, not the realtor's presentation, if you want to know the truth! Finally, I heard a truck engine, heard a whinny, and knew our house-sitter was heading out. I wasn't sure if she had Lady Bug on the trailer, or whether I'd find a dead horse in the paddock. (Just kidding. I know that our house sitter would never hurt a horse.)
• Ready or not, the dates for the Estate Sale came. We had three long days dealing with lots of people. The first day cars were at our gate by 6 AM. The sale didn't begin until 10!

6:12 AM

9:40 AM

It was funny to see the hoard practically race into the house to find treasures they had seen online. We had a pretty good first day, according to the company. The second day was quieter, but we had people coming through all day. It was very strange to see people wandering around holding my things. Plenty of people inquired as to whether this was an emotional issue for me. "No", I replied, until a woman began to collect some of the Boyd's Bears figurines. She asked me about them, I explained that my sons used to give me those pieces as gifts... then my eyes welled up. What a surprise to find I reacted this way and had no control over my emotions. After she left with her new collection I pulled two figurines off of the shelf that had a special emotional attachment, and I felt better. 

• During the sale days the dogs experienced day care at Club Pet, which is less than a mile from our home. Tucker used to go to doggie day care for socialization. I don't know if Gypsy has ever been. They reported that both dogs played independent of each other, and would occasionally check up on each other. Tucker was so tuckered out the first day that he turned around one time and slumped down in the car seat, before I could even back out of the parking spot! Gypsy didn't show a whole lot of excitement about returning. Playing with other dogs isn't really her "thing". As I type this, on Sunday morning, Tucker has come over to inquire about going to camp! Poor guy will be disappointed today; No camp!
• I delivered my funky western/English/Australian saddle to a delightful young lady from South Dakota. She was in town for a wedding and was thrilled to get the saddle. She was particularly interested in the saddle because her mother, an American Indian, rode English and her dad was a rancher, who rode western. She thought the saddle was symbolic of her parents and their marriage. I loved her explanation.

• After the sale we sorted through the left-overs, piling things we decided to keep in selected corners of the house and marking them with flagging tape. We hired a service to deliver items of value to a charitable organization, chemicals and electronics to appropriate facilities for disposal and to toss everything else in the dumpster. 

They were absolutely amazing. Sean, LaDonna and Michelle worked practically non-stop for over 9 hours. They worked miracles. 

 Basement on Friday morning - day 2 of sale

(Photo from security camera)

Basement on Sunday

One benefit of the estate sale is that we had realtors come by to "shop". Perhaps they weren't all that interested in our things, but they were very interested in the house. What a great way for them to get a foot in the door, literally! I had a small deck of business cards in my back pocket by the end of each day. A few of the realtors came back to shop... with clients in tow. We were told by one of the realtors to expect a bid from her clients; they have just sold their larger home about a mile from us and are ready to move forward with a cash offer and a two-week move-in. OMG! Could life get anymore stressful?!! So, we continue to work on sorting and packing and we wait to see what the offer might be. 

California Dreaming

This week's theme song is sung to the tune of "California Dreaming", but of course, I had to change the words! Sing along...

All the grass is brown, and the sky is blue.

We have lots of flies, and mosquitoes too!

Things would be much better if I was in El Sobrante,

California dreamin’ on a burning summer’s day...

Packed another box, put some things out for the sale,

Began to think of moving, then it began to hail.

California sounds much better,

She began to wail,

California dreamin’ what would this move entail?

All the grass is brown, and the sky is blue.

We have lots of flies, and mosquitoes too!

Moving to El Sobronte seems the thing to do,

California dreamin’ I can’t wait to move...

California dreamin’ I can’t wait to move...

California dreamin’ I can’t wait to move!

In last week's countdown I mentioned that Mr. Dreamy had flown to California. We are living another example of "Never say Never". After getting caught in the 2007-08 downturn in real estate we didn't sell our SC home for 3 years. We said we'd never buy another home without having sold the home we live in first.  On Saturday our son went to a home we saw online and gave us a FaceTime tour. The house had several features we liked, including the possibility of parking the RV next to the house, and the house would be about 35 minutes from the grand child(ren).  But it didn't totally float our boats. When our son returned home he poked around on Redfin and he sent us some links to other homes that might work for us. We fell in love with one of the houses. As they say on TV, the house "ticks all our boxes!" 

It has RV parking. It has a 3-car garage so Mr. Dreamy can have a workshop. It has an extra bedroom for me to use as a sewing room (and it has a few more, so friends can come sew with me!) It's 25 minutes from our son's house, and shopping is convenient. 

After looking at it online in pictures and in a virtual walk through, we thought that it might be worthwhile for Mr. Dreamy to see the house himself to determine if it is as perfect as it looks online. So... he went online, got tickets, arranged for a car rental, arranged for parking at the airport... and off he went. In addition to the dream house Mr Dreamy looked at 5 other houses we had explored online. None of those would work for us... but the dream house was/is perfect.But then reason prevailed. What would make us think that a 5-bedroom house was reasonable? Why would we want a living room, a dining room, an eat-in kitchen, a family room and an office? 

Who would take care of the property while we were off traveling, or living on our lot in Florida. Nah. It didn't add up. So, we gave up our opportunity. 

But, dreaming about living in that house and location was a nice diversion from the pre-sale insanity in which we are living!

The ABC's of the TCS Sale

TCS is conducting our estate sale beginning Thursday, July 13.  I thought it would be fun to create an ABC book of some of the items that are included in the sale.

A is for Antiques
Some are older than me!

B is for Bronze
We have two or three.

C is for Couch
Come have a seat,

D is for Decorations

What a mess! Will it ever be neat?

E is for Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why do we have him,  I ask?

F is for Feathers
Robert Shields made these masks.

G is for Glass
Both round and flat,

H is for Powder Horns
of horn, wood and brass.

I is for Italian ducks
My stepmom thinks they are weird.

J is for Jewels, but mostly just Junk!
For your wrist, neck or ears.

K is for Kites
They will fly high in the sky.

 L is for Linen and Lace,
Some yellowed as years have gone by.

M is for Money
Bills, quarters, pennies and dimes,

N is for Nambu
A metal alloy with a shine.

O is for Old News
Where did we get all this stuff?

P is for Paintings, Pewter, Porcelain, & Purses too,
We are having this sale because enough is enough!

Q is for Quilts
Between mine and my moms, I have quite a few.

R is for Rug Beater
That's a chore I wouldn't want to do.

S is for Silver,
Would you want to polish these?

Tis for Tools and Toys
... and one that fits both categories!

U is for the Ugly Dog Trophy
That our sweet Monty dog won,

V is for Volcanic Ash in Blown Glass
that really sparkles in the sun.

W is for Turned Wood Bowls
Scott's prolific and they fill every nook

X is for Xeric
as in this Colorado gardening book.

Yis for Yachts
Yes, I'm almost done!

Z is for Zapper
Zap those bugs! Hey, it's fun!

If you'd like to see more pictures click on the link for TCS sales at the beginning of this post.
If you want to buy something, let me know!