Getting rid of 20 years of stuff...

The condo is almost empty...


We are heading to Birmingham, AL tomorrow in order to deliver a bunch of our "stuff" that has been bought by family and my sister's co-workers.  Tonight we will head over and load up the Element - very likely in a Jenga fashion.  There's a lot to cram into that car!  Fortunately the seats come out.  Molly and Libby will be going without their crate, but that means they will be snuggled in our laps for the 6+ hour trip.  So they will be happy.

My sister (Beth.  I have 4 sisters) sold several of my remaining paintings (did you know my first degree was in Painting?  Yeah, don't feel bad, most people don't).  That sale was a big chunk of money that went into our Adventure Fund! She graciously agreed to pick the paintings up in the 'Ham and take them back to Oklahoma with her.  She'll be in AL for Thanksgiving, and I hate that we had to adjust our plans and head up early.  We'll miss her and her fabulous family.  And I will miss our pre-planned/yet-now-defunct hula hooping lessons!  I need some of her mad hooping knowledge.

The rest of the stuff we are taking has either been purchased via the virtual Estate Sale we had on Facebook (ok, we had several FB sales over the past year) or items we want to store for the long haul.  We have very little we are storing: a rifle that Mark got from his grandfather, some random things from when I was a baby, some china cups I got from my great-grandmother.  Most of the heirloom type items have already passed to our daughter, Britney.  I know there are people out there that take true china dishes on their boats, but that's not us.  We don't use it on land, we are certainly not taking it out to sea.  We are double-walled-stainless-steel kinda folks.  And wooden plates.  Of which we have 6.  Space is at a premium when practically everything you own has to fit into 300 sq feet.

That leaves a (full...) filing cabinet, an umbrella stand, an outdated, yet fully functional printer/copier, and my sewing table that are still for sale.  There are still some wall hangings (mass produced, not my own art), a few clothes in the closets, random dishes in the kitchen (ew, and condiments in the fridge), etc, that will need to be hauled off to Goodwill.  (I really prefer the Salvation Army, due to the reduced overhead vs Goodwill, but will admit I'm too lazy to drive across town 800 times to deliver everything that we are donating.)

After we get the car packed tonight, we will still need to bag up as much as we can and get it dropped off when we get back to Georgia.  I'm trying to get the condo empty so the Universe will know we are done with it - and we can get a contract already!  Sure, it has not really been on the market long, but I feel like it will stay in our lives as long as we need it.  So we need to stop needing it, asap.

Speaking of Real Estate contracts - we have a signed offer on the first rental we listed.  Woooo!  So send out those good vibes.  We want it to close without a hitch.  The offer is even above our original list price - because, well, that's how we do things.  ;)

If you're doing the math, that means we still have 2 rentals and the condo to sell before we go.  We have friends that may be interested in one rental.  The other - well, I guess we will get to work on it after the first of the year.

Custom Wave Pattern

I'm having some struggles with the dodger that I'm building - but really it's a struggle with my pride.  I want it to be perfect and I'm having to come to grips with the fact that the stitches look like a 5 year old was running the machine.  I'm seeing the silver lining here and calling it Custom Wave Embroidery. I won't show you the mess on the back.  And yes, I've adjusted the tension, smoothed down a burr on the shuttle cock, etc.  Strataglass and I are not friends.  I cannot wait to be done with this dodger and move on to the screen walls.  They should be (better be!) a breeze after sewing the dodger.

So that's it.  That's what's been going on the past few days. Time to get to work, and then over to the condo to get back to work on that dodger. Have a great weekend - and thanks for following along.