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.