The trip south on the Dixie Highway

We'll be taking I-75 all the way from Michigan to our new hometown in Florida. We left a little late today, but traffic was light and we were able to make good time. We're almost to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Makes me think of Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam doing a "Gone with the Wind" type episode. Bugs Bunny says "General Suh, the Yankees are in Chattanooga!" Sam says "What!!! The Yankees are in Chattanoogee?!!!"

Moving Day

It's moving day in Erie, Michigan. I just got home from picking up breakfast at Tim Horton's. The moving truck is in front of the house and they had already started bringing things out of the basement and stacking them up in the driveway. I didn't recognize the workbenches standing up on end and thought they were some kind of crazy crates at first.

The moving truck crew is a jolly group. They're joking around and having pushcart races in the driveway. I can't believe all the stuff that's coming out of the basement. Where am I going to put all this stuff once we're in Florida where I won't have a basement?

We were up last night until 1:30am packing. I'm running on pure adrenaline and coffee.

Spring Flowers

My garden in Michigan is just starting to wake up. This is the first spring that the rock garden daffodils and irises actually bloomed together. There are also a few crosuses here and there. It is the last time I'll see them.

Damascus House

We're packing night and day. As I'm emptying cupboards and closets I keep finding more stuff that I don't really need to move with us. I've been accumulating household items and clothes all week. Today I took a car load to donate to Damascus House in Monroe, Michigan.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

More Donations

I took another load of household items and collectibles to the "Discovery Shop" yesterday. Today I took non-perishable food items to St. Martin de Poers in Toledo, OH. They have a program called "Food Pantry."

Sold a Bunch of Stuff

I started getting responses to the ads on Craigslist.org and AutoTrader.com already! Last night we sold the truck. We'll go to the SOS to do the transaction on Monday. The ad had been on AutoTrader.com for only a few hours.

Today we sold 3 out of 4 items that were listed on Craigslist.org since yesterday!

American Cancer Society

This morning I finally got some of our furniture and equipment listed on Craigslist.org. I'm a little behind schedule with selling this off and donating household items. I wanted to make sure I got those things listed before this weekend's web surfers started browsing Craigslist. Then I listed the truck at AutoTrader.com. We had some response about the truck from the Craigslist ad last week, but it hasn't sold yet. The truck is the biggest ticket item I have to sell before moving.

After lunch I started putting together items to donate to the American Cancer Society's "Discovery Shop" in Sylvania, Ohio. I already had a lot of items collected that I forgot to take on Thursday. I was amazed at how long it actually took to physically get the stuff piled up, boxed up, and loaded into the truck. It took all afternoon. I got to the "Discovery Shop" 1/2 hour before closing.

When I got home I found some plates in the kitchen I was going to donate. Whoops! Looks like I'll be getting another load together. Maybe I can find a charity closer to home. It takes about 1/2 hour to drive to Sylvania.

Alfonse started packing his workshop. He said that he worked on it all day and it didn't even look like he put a dent in it.

Sorting & Purging

The whole house looks like this. We're sorting and purging this week. That means we're sorting our stuff room by room and deciding what comes along and what doesn't. This weekend we start packing.

I don't clean all my dishes, pots, and pans anymore. Sometimes they just go in the garbage dirty. Ha!

Empty this house!

It was a busy day. I really want to start emptying the house of things we're not moving. I had collected items to donate to the American Cancer Society's "Discovery Shop" in Sylvania, Ohio. The stuff was ready to go. After making a delivery in Monroe for work, I had a quick lunch, loaded the truck and hit the road. When I got back I found some clothes still hanging in the closet that were supposed to go.

We had a father and son come over to see the truck this week. They found my ad at Craigslist.org. That's a free online classified service. They have web sites for different regions and cities. I'm bummed that I've been too busy to list the other stuff we want to sell. I was hoping to list it all last weekend and sell it off this week.

A Shack by the Sea

A 4 day visit to Grandma Apple's place in Florida turned into 6 days. We had the trip scheduled back in December. It just happens that we sold the house in Michigan the week before. We had to find a house this trip to be able to close on the transaction in Michigan in March. Otherwise, it would get pushed to the end of April. We really didn't want to make the buyers wait that long, because we didn't want the deal to cool off and not happen at all.

After looking at houses Friday and Saturday we found one near the Gulf that we were ready to write an offer on. I was so excited, because it was about 10 minutes from the coast. After we got an insurance quote for about $6,000/year we had to let it go. It was a disappointment, but $6000 could buy a lot of hotel rooms on the beach. On Monday we started looking further inland. I was feeling really discouraged. After seeing a few houses that weren't cutting it we went back to the realtor's office and changed the search parameters again. It seemed that what we needed to have in a house was going to be hard to find in Florida. The house up north has a workshop in the basement for the electronics business. Our garage houses some equipment for the business and a classic car. In Florida the homes don't have basements and don't always have garages. By the time we got back on the road it was mid afternoon. We had been through so many houses that they seemed to blur together. We told the realtor that if we didn't find anything by the end of the day that we'd have to book another trip to Florida next month.

We finally found a house late Monday afternoon. The house is beautiful inside and is move-in ready. No harvest gold colored 1970's tile in the bathroom to rip out, or avocado green kitchen cabinets to replace. Yeah!! There's a big shed out back with electric that is perfect for the workshop. The garage is big enough for the equipment and the hot rod.

By the time all was said and done we had seen almost 30 houses in 3 days. It was grueling, but it finally worked out. We're real happy with the new place. Now we have to get back up north and start packing.

Ride of the Valkyries

There's a radio station in my head. This morning when I woke up I heard "Ride of the Valkyries" in my head. My heart was pumping wildly. I put my hands over my ears and tried to think of some other melody.

Then my thoughts wandered off to the next task of the day. We need to sell the truck but can't find the title. If we get to the Secretary of State office early there won't be a long wait.

Sometimes I sing or think of songs when I'm trying to get motivated to get out of bed in the morning. Usually it's disco tunes like "Get Up and Boogie" or some other happy dance tune. As I got into the shower hounded by Valkyries shrieking in my head I started singing "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the Sunshine Band to chase them away. "...'cause that's the way uh-huh uh-huh I like it, uh-huh uh-huh..."

Then I looked online and found that the Secretary of State office doesn't open 'til 11am today. I'll shut up now and let Alfonse sleep in a little.

Sold! ...Riding Lawnmower

This is very unusual considering we have about 12" of snow on the ground. Most people have their snowmobiles out for sale right now. We had the opportunity to get rid of it, so we did. Of course, the guy had to buy our house, too. Yippee!

Next weekend we're going to look at houses in Florida. I'm so excited! I've got butterflies in my stomach, because we have to vacate our house in Michigan by the end of March.

Snowed In

We cancelled the Open House for this weekend, because of the big snow. My driveway isn't too user friendly. I think we got 8-12" of snow this week. Alfonze dug 2 tracks for the truck tires. We'll clear more later if we need to. I can't tell were the pond is, except for a few plants sticking out of the snow.

Showing No. 2

We had our second showing today since putting the house back on the market on February 1st. I was trying to remain cool, but felt spazzy inside. I couldn't figure out where to put a box that was in the way and starting crying. I wish the constant clean up and showing the house was over, but this is just beginning of the next round of showings.

Happy Valentines Day!

Cleaning Up Clutter & Getting Organized

We had a showing yesterday. I'm in "show me the money" mode. The house has been on the market on and off for about a year. Showing the house has been going on for so long that I can't get excited unless there's an offer.

The clean up process before showings isn't just about mopping the floor and dusting for cobwebs. It's also about decluttering the house and getting rid of stuff. We've been on a mission to do this for the past 3 years. I'm always amazed how the clutter re-accumulates.

I like this web site for de-cluttering and house cleaning without driving myself nuts or becoming too anal. The motto is "take baby steps."

FlyLady.net

I like author Julie Morgenstein. I recently read her book "Time Management from the Inside Out." It has helped me not be such a spaz about seemingly endless To Do lists. Now I'm reading her book about physically organizing space "Organizing from the Inside Out."

My latest de-clutter project was organizing our office supplies. We had a lot of stuff from the old shop in Monroe that was stuffed under workbenches, on bookshelves, and scattered boxes. There were about 5 or 6 jars (Mason, mayo, mustard, etc.) stuffed full of pens, pencils and highlighters. These were used on the workbenches at the old shop. I've never seen so many 3" pencil remnants. 2 weeks ago I took all this stuff and put it in sorted piles (for writing, printing, filing, mailing, etc.) on my living room floor. I cleared the shelves in my office, which was also a hodgepodge of stuff, to accomodate only office supplies. I brought the supplies back into the office as I used them. The stuff left over in the living room was to be either put into storage or gotten rid of. When we got the call on Thursday to schedule a showing for Saturday 11am there was still stuff all over the floor. It's gone now. It feels so good to have lightened that load! I think I'm learning skills that will be useful down the road, too.

It's nice to be able to open a closet without having stuff fall out. :-)

It hurts to breathe.

I go out into the deep freeze anyway, because I have things to get done. It hurt to breathe yesterday, so I held my fuzzy hood shut over my nose & mouth. I think we are in for a heat wave. We're out of single digits and headed for 20's in a few days. Never thought I'd be happy to see 18 degrees!

I was looking for more sweaters today and realized that I already gave a lot of them away. Didn't think I'd need them much after we moved south.

Long Underwear

It's cold enough for long underwear. The temps are in the single digits and wind chill is below zero. It's so dry that my hands feel like paper.

Toledo Museum of Art

We went to the Toledo Museum of Art today. It is good relief from cabin fever in the winter. I always find something new to be amazed with every time I go. It is easy to get lost in the galleries.

We saw the Glass Pavilion for the first time. It is across Monroe Street. There is an umbrella stand in each building where you can borrow an umbrella to go outside to cross the street. I was a little surprised that they chose to display their glass in this way, because direct sunlight can be bad for glass. They had gray curtains to compensate. Some of the interior rooms were darker. There was a gallery where they had their collection that was not yet set up to exhibit. The pieces weren't all labeled, but it was interesting just the same.