Pack Patch Paint

We got amazing news toward the later part of June: the new appraisal for the house came back with no issues! There was a flurry of phone calls, air high-fives, and congratulations on the team effort, with a lot of relieved sighs and forehead wiping going on. While this sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, I am rather embarrassed to admit, it is not. The loan officer probably thought I had finally lost it because I couldn't stop giggling when she called to tell me the news.

Title and abstract work commenced (when it's completed we can close), and I tackled this house and our possessions with renewed enthusiasm. Pack a little, patch a lot, paint. When I'm not tending to the needs of boys this is what you can find me doing. I snapped some shots of my progress; it captures just a fraction of the chaos around here. Five years in a small house with little boys does a number on walls...doors...everything.

Lots of spackling going on around here. Why did I hang so much stuff on the walls?!

This is the wall the boys' bookcase was on...

And after, no more nail holes or gouges!

Of course, no task is completed around here without a little help.

Our landlord had us put his For Rent sign in the yard this week, though he promised not to rent the house unless we actually move. Since then people have been driving by slowly, gawking. Unfortunately they are also knocking on the door now because he has told them they can "come over anytime" to look at the house. I've gotten messages about the house from people who know we live here. It certainly lends an air of urgency to our moving process.

In reality, I walk around the house aimlessly too often, grabbing things randomly to tuck into a box. I know I'm going to be frustrated with myself when I find the box of garden seeds (or don't find it) squeezed between the blender and a pendant light we never had installed. Just getting there seems to be the main priority at the moment. I'm often caught in a mental dilemma whether to pack some more, paint a little, clean somewhere, label Aidan's clothes for camp, or finish lesson plans. I can't quite figure out which is more important at the moment.

There are new house rules to facilitate a smooth departure from here. Games and toys with little pieces are forbidden...pieces found while moving furniture away from walls are put back in their proper places right away instead of being set up on the bread box for whenever it comes back out later. Moving-related quotes from Toy Story keep running through my head: "Has everyone picked a moving buddy? ...I don't want any toys left behind! A moving buddy. If you don't have one, get one!" And of course, "Keep your accessories with you at all times. Spare parts, batteries, anything you need for an orderly transition." Instead of stocking up on things the goal is to use up as much as possible. This means many more "pantry" meals and eating things on hand just to clean them up. And burning up candles even though all the candle holders are packed....

We ordered a dumpster for the end-of-our-lives-here cleaning. That's a definite bonus to moving: everything gets a good scrub-down. Even the necessity of things I opted to keep during the garage sale purging is being re-thought, and often they're tossed or given away. I finally cleaned the oven, folks. I should have taken a before photo, but I was too ashamed. It resembled a campground fire pit, with no exaggeration whatsoever. The last time it was used pre-cleaning I had to put fans in the windows to suck some of the smoke out of the house. Mea culpa. Six and a half hours of scooping out char and scrubbing: I'm scared to use it now!

Every day Eli comes home from work with more boxes. I'm so thankful for this, and it saves me so much time in hunting down and collecting boxes. The piles are growing again, and the garage is looking more and more like a warehouse again. Corners behind furniture are filling up with things that don't fit in boxes.

The totes I emptied while preparing for the garage sale are now being used as moving boxes.

We hope to have an updated closing date within a week!

Updated 7/8/16: closing date is set for July 15th...our 10th anniversary!