Exceedingly Mundane

Let’s see… Monday 9/8 turned out to be a fairly quiet day. In the morning, I made the rest of the calls and got all of the utilities transferred over to our name (from the builder’s name) at the new house. The water association was a different one than what we are currently on, so I had to drive up to their offices and fill out the paperwork and give them money. I stopped at Kroger and picked up some food from the deli, bread, milk and cereal. We’re eating take-out, sandwiches and cereal at this point 🙂

Tim met with a realtor who had brought his clients to see the house, and he brought out a roofing guy. We knew the roof would be an issue, since it’s original to the house (21 years old), but has never leaked or given us a problem. The roofer guy said it was fine, just old and probably needing replacing. He is going to send another guy out to measure and make a quote to give to the client, who we hope turns out to be a prospective buyer and gives us an offer on the house.

Monday afternoon, I vegged… trying to grab more “calm before the storm” 🙂 I watched/skimmed some shows on the DVR and deleted them. We got busy after Tim finished working and got back into packing mode. I started on the food in the kitchen and he packed his guns and some guy stuff inside. We also packed all the shoes (yikes, we had more than I thought) and other odds and ends in the closet. Every time I think we’re about done, we find more to pack! I’ve still got books in one of the bookcases which Tim says I need to leave out so the house will show better, and it’s driving me nuts to not have them packed up! There’s also a lot more food and the last of the appliances (coffee pot, coffee grinder, toaster oven, etc), and then our clothes and toiletries. I’m just ready for it to be packed, then moved, and then.. unpacked! LOL!

We finally stopped about 11 PM Monday night and I went to read. Tim apparently stayed up working at work, writing a new program for something. He’s trying to get some projects turned in and stuff done before he is off for a few days. He’s going to take off the rest of this week (Wed-Fri) and then play it by ear as to how much he needs to be off next week. We’re very thankful he has a great (and very understanding) boss and they work for a really good company 🙂

Tuesday morning early, I got busy with more housework and cleaning (as we have another showing this afternoon at 3:30. I watered all my herbs and flowers, thankfully most of them are in pots and will eventually be loaded up on some truck and moved to the new house. I will probably need to pull out the sprinklers and hose again and water the grass, but I am hoping it won’t need it soon. I guess I’ll have to drive back and do that at some point, along with a huge cleaning session after we have moved everything out.

I had uploaded some photos of the perennials that are in our yard (but have now stopped blooming), so we could put out to show prospective buyers that the yard usually looks better than it does right now! I went to CVS late Tuesday morning and picked those up and also went to Dollar General and got more smaller boxes (to use in packing the food and pantry). After a quick lunch, I started back packing in the kitchen. I tackled one of the two junk drawers – and boy oh boy! I had no idea of the junk buried in the back! I was in the middle of packing when the realtor called at 2:15 and said “they are sitting outside your house, a little early, is the house ready for showing”? Um, hello, you said 3:30, so we thought we had another hour! Another fire drill, throwing things around, tidying up, turning on all the lights, then headed to the library (for the free wi-fi, since Tim is trying to work and finish a project before he’s off for the rest of the week).

After the realtor finished in the house, we headed home and Tim wanted to work some, but the blind guy we had contacted called and wanted us to meet at the new house to look at window treatments. We went up there and met him for a while, looked at shutter, shades, and blinds, along with some sample books and finally decided. We’re going to do plantation shutters in the great room, keeping room and breakfast room. We’ll do roman shades on the big back doors and over the kitchen window, and regular 2″ blinds in all the other rooms (laundry, bedrooms, Tim’s office and the ones in the hall looking out front). After that, we found more items for the punch list and met with the builder’s helper guy Spencer. We finally finished up about 3 1/2 hours after we got there! We called Suzanne and met her for a late supper at Majestic Burger. I had my regular thing, a grilled mahi-mahi sandwich on wheat and split some fries with Tim. Not healthy, but we’re SO not eating healthy right now!

So, Tuesday turned out to be another busy day! Wednesday, we close on the new house!

This past week turned into a week revolving around the old house. We got the sign up in the yard last Saturday while we were gone to Linda’s, and Sunday we had left the house pristine as we left for church. We hoped we would hear and have our first showing on Sunday, but all we had was a phone call setting up an appointment for Tuesday evening at 6 PM to show the house.

The first “fire” call came Monday morning. A realtor lady was ‘in the neighborhood” with clients and wanted to stop by. HELLO! Tim works from home and we are both here, actually living here. As in, I was cleaning, not dressed, had stuff out, etc. We put her off 30 minutes, threw everything in place, got ready and left. As soon as Tim texted her that we were out, she responded back that they had another appointment and would be an hour or more. Well. My goodness, why couldn’t she have told him that to begin with? We wouldn’t have rushed! Anyway, we packed up and went to the library for free wi-fi. She was supposed to text when finished but after 2 hours, we decided to do a drive by and sure enough, no cars. So, our first experience was not great! We got back, got settled in, and Suzanne came over around 4 to visit. She was having a bad day and didn’t want to be alone. Tim got another call, this time from the realty company we are using, but a different agent, asking to show the house around 6:30 PM. So, another lesson learned, a lot of people look around suppertime, so me cooking dinner at home every night is probably not going to work for a few days or a week or so 🙂 Anyway, Suzanne wanted to go with us, so we ended up going to McAlisters to eat supper and hang out. We did another drive by around 7:45 PM but saw the realtor’s cars, so we dropped Suzanne at her car and headed to Dick’s for Tim to shop. About the time we walked into Dick’s, we got a text from the realtor that they were leaving, so we came home not long after. Two in the first day, I wonder is that about normal? We have never sold a house before, so this is an exciting new adventure for Tim and I 🙂

Tuesday, I got up early to start watering. It took me nearly 3 hours to do the front and back yards. We had had an 80% chance of rain on Monday and didn’t get a drop, but no rain in the forecast for a while, so I had to water.(NOTE to self: you are going to love, love, love having the irrigation system at the new house, no more dragging hoses and sprinklers around, LOL!). The grass looks terrible, hopefully that won’t deter any prospective buyers from buying the house. Anyway, after some cleaning, laundry, running the dishwasher and cooking Monday night’s supper for lunch on Tuesday, we had the house ready for any last minute drop-ins. We had a call around 4 PM, and they wanted to show it last minute, so was really glad to be ready. All we had to do was pick up a couple of items, turn the air down and turn on every light in the house! We went up to the new house and stayed until both showings were over. Then back home for a burger and to veg out a bit in front of the tv.

Wednesday morning I got up early to get started on some housework and get a shower. I didn’t think to check my email for a bit but when I did, I was surprised to find an email from Tuesday night, from our realtor, with the first offer on the house! That was fast, as Tim thought it would be. Of course, it was a horrible offer, $10K under what we listed the house for, asking for several thousand in closing costs, carpet and some other items. Talk about lowball! The realtor also said she thinks another offer would be coming in on Wednesday. We had a showing after lunch on Wednesday, so we relocated to the library again. This was a shorter viewing, so we came back after about 40 minutes.

No showings Wednesday night or Thursday. Thursday afternoon, we met the builder’s help guy (Spencer) at the new house to do the punch list. We walked through everything and ended up with a page and a half of nit picky items. Spenser thinks the house will be ready before the closing date, it’s a shame that we can’t move up the date. They do have to put one final coat on the floors, so there will be another window where we cannot get in the house, boo. After the meeting, we swung through Sonic for corn dogs (for me and Suzanne) and a burger for Tim, then came home to watch the Saints final preseason game. Gail and Don arrived at the beach and FaceTimed with us, to show us the great house they are staying in over the Labor Day weekend with some of their kids and grandkids.

Friday, Tim got off work early… his company usually releases them early before a long holiday. He left to go play golf, but before that, we had a text from a realtor that they wanted to show the house between 4-5 PM. I’m really grateful for a couple of hours notice! I left and ran to Walmart and got some shelf liner for the new house and a couple of other odds and ends. I was glad to receive a text to let me know that they were done, and I could come back! I got home, pulled everything back out, changed clothes, and started cooking supper. So, of course, you see where this is going! I got a text from our realtor at 6:10, asking if another realtor could show it at 6:30. Yikes. I’ve never slung food around in a kitchen so fast! I got out at 6:28 and went to Home Goods to wander around and look for things for the new house. They had a ton of fall stuff and Halloween stuff, and not as much general house things as I would have liked. Tim finished playing golf and drove to where I was and we headed back to the house (it had been nearly an hour, with NO word). We found it empty, so we went in and made ourselves at home! I had to then pull out everything I had hidden, wash dishes, and heat up the food.

Now, it’s Saturday morning and this post is soooo boring! I *know* it’s of no interest to anyone but me, and heck, in two years, I probably won’t care one whit. But today, this week, it’s been an interesting week, so I wanted to document it. It’s Saturday morning, Tim is at the golf course and I’m enjoying some peace and quiet. I wonder if today we’ll have any surprise showings? I will start a new post, to get us through the long Labor Day weekend!

Last week’s milestones include getting a closing date from the builder, signing loan papers at the bank and meeting with a realtor to list our current house on the market. Provided nothing goes wrong, we are set to close on Wednesday, September 10. So, a little less than 3 1/2 weeks, or as I tell Tim daily, 23 days and counting. I started out with months, then weeks and am now counting down the days! LOL!

Let’s see, for my memory and to record all that is going on, here’s another long boring recap of last week.

Monday and Tuesday, I don’t remember a whole lot, so I must have just cleaned house, done laundry, etc. I might have packed a box or two, but I still have a lot left to go.

Wednesday, we had a busy day. Tim talked to the builder, got a closing date, talked to the bank and got the paperwork cycle going. I called a realtor and setup an appointment for her to come by the house on Thursday. Tim had to work again Wednesday night, starting at 11 PM. I certainly hope his work eases up some in the next few weeks! Thursday morning, we had an appointment at the bank with the mortgage lady to sign the loan papers. Then I ran to Kroger and did the grocery shopping for the week, then came back and straightened up the house before the realtor came at 1:30. We spent time with her and she pointed out almost every picture on my walls (not just family or people photos, but pictures of flowers and beach scenes that I thought I would leave up so it looked like a home and not an empty shell!), and had me take them down. Boy, my house is very sterile now! Late Thursday evening, we loaded up another load for the storage unit and took that. We also went by the house and were happy to see that they had started on the flooring. They haven’t done the staining/polyurethane, but had the floors nailed in. Friday was another busy day. Tim worked a half day. We met Don and Gail at Newk’s for lunch, then the guys went to play golf and Gail and I ran errands. We went to Target, Home Goods and Walmart, and also got a chance to go see Elizabeth’s room at school, which I had not seen. I like picturing where people are, where they spend the bulk of their time! We all went to supper, us, Don and Gail, Elizabeth and Suzanne. We let the guys pick, so of course they picked Dickey’s BBQ. After supper, we went back to the house to show them the flooring and everything that had been done, Don and Gail had not seen the house since it was in the stud phase, waiting on insulation! We got to meet one set of new neighbors, they were moving in that day (8/15) across the street. The husband’s name is Tim, so that will be easy to remember! And they have two kids who seemed like really good kids, so we are looking forward to getting to know them 🙂

It was really late when we left the house, so we talked Don and Gail into spending the night. They left mid morning Saturday, and we got busy cleaning out the rest of the office. Tim started late afternoon painting the office, the hardest room and the one we saved for last! I packed all the pictures and knick knacks the realtor made me take down and did some other odd jobs. I still have to Mr Clean Magic Erase all the kitchen cabinets this week, Tim is doing his BEST to get out of painting those, LOL! And I agree, because I don’t want to empty them this early. We still have some eating to do in this house 🙂

Suzanne came over Saturday afternoon late and trimmed bushes for us, then stayed and had a shower and ate supper with us. Sunday was church and our second visit to the Life Group/Sunday School. We enjoyed both! Current sermon series, “All In” and our pastor is in Luke 9. Our life group is doing 1 Peter 5. Last week was verses 12-19 and this week verses 6-8, which includes one of my favorites “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you”. After Sunday School (we do them in reverse, church first then Sunday School), we met Suzanne for lunch at Cazadores. I had the grilled tilapia, Tim had a molcajete and Suzie tried the spinach enchiladas. I *might* have eaten too many chips and salsa before food came out!

After a long lunch, we went home, changed, got measurements for blinds and headed out to run errands. Tim had an invite from Kevin to play golf, but he was tired and begged off (HIGHLY unusual). We went to Sherwin Williams and got more khaki paint for the office, to Lowes to get a blind for the kitchen window and have them custom cut a huge blind for the guest room windows (70 inches). We ran up to the new house, but apparently they didn’t work Saturday, since we didn’t notice anything from our last visit Friday night. After that, we came home and Tim had a good nap, since he had to work Sunday night starting at 11 PM.

Now, it’s Monday morning and we’re at 23 days and counting. The glass people are due this afternoon to change out the front windows and also one of the breakfast room windows that we ordered. I’m hoping for rain later, as there’s a good chance today, a slight chance tomorrow and then no rain in the forecast for a week. It’s going to get HOT after this rain moves through, they are predicting 99 and 100 for this weekend. Yikes. Our unseasonably cool summer is coming to a screeching halt about the time we need to get ready and move!

Maybe one day I will do a blog post that is not diary like, just me being able to keep up with what is all going on. I know it’s going fast and a blur and want to get most of it down. I imagine it will be like that for the first few weeks in the new house too, but maybe one day things will get back to “normal” on my blog, whatever normal looks like! 🙂

Have a great day, if anyone actually read this!!

Another block of time has passed since I was able to update the ole blog. Let’s see…

I spent all of last week getting ready for the garage sale for my dad. We had gone down and filled up a UHaul with the remainder of items from his house. It’s empty now. We had the garage sale last Saturday. We put out a few things we had here to donate, and actually made almost $100 for us, in addition to all the stuff we sold for my dad. What didn’t sell, we boxed up to donate. And we took 6 or 7 bags of books to the library to donate. I had gone through and cleaned out three bookshelves and put them out to try to sell. Only 5 or 6 books sold, 3 of them being my mom’s old “Bell’s Best” cookbooks. Oh well. I read almost exclusively on my digital readers (stand-alone Kindle or Kindle app on my iPad), so I felt like I should get rid of a lot of books.

Saturday was the garage sale, and then last Sunday, we went over to see my father-in-law. My dad went with us, and all of Tim’s family was there to celebrate Mitchell’s big day (a couple of days late!). We had steaks with all the trimmings, and cake with strawberries and whipped cream, and a great time visiting. We got to meet Brittany’s new boyfriend and even see Zack, so it was a good trip.

This week flew by. I started this post on Monday and attempted to work on it on Wednesday, but never got very far. I actually deleted it by mistake, so I had to start over!

Wednesday, Tim went to Zack’s district golf tournament, held at Tim’s home golf course, and drumroll please… Zack won! So he will get to go back to the state tournament to defend his 3A golf champion title again this year as a junior! Tim and Mitchell went to cheer him on, and Tim was so very proud of him! I imagine he’ll have a much bigger gallery at the state tournament in a couple of weeks 😀

I went Wednesday afternoon to visit with my dad, pick up a couple of things for him at Walmart, stop by the library to get a book for me (Six Years by Harlan Coben) and a couple of movies for us to watch (Argo and Snow White and the Huntsman for Tim, and IronMan 2 for both of us, as a refresher before we go see the new one in May). I also ran to Sam’s Club and made a big run on household stuff. Thursday, Gail came down and we all went over to Ridgeland Pointe for “Family Night”. Basically, we visited with my dad in his room for a bit, then went down to the dining room and had dinner with him. Tim came home starving and had to eat again! LOL! He said, he could never live there, they don’t feed you enough, hahaha! I noticed that both my dad and the nice resident, Ms Myrtis that we shared a table with, neither of them ate much at all. I guess by the time you hit your 80’s and 90’s, you don’t eat as much as we do now, LOL!

Today (Friday) was spent on the road. We picked up Dad this morning and went to Hattiesburg to meet with a realtor. Tim had talked to her several times and emailed a bunch, and told my dad that he was pretty satisfied with her. So we met her at the house, went over a ton of things, and signed a contract for her to sell the house. She is going to have to oversee a ton of work (cleaners, painters, people to replace fixtures, install new appliances, etc) and then put it on the market. She hopes to have it sold in 3-4 months, but we signed a 6 month contract. I hope it sells then! At least there’s a bright light at the end of the tunnel – we’ve moved my dad, got him new doctors, got him settled at his new “apartment”, gone to the house to get items for family members, sold furniture, and moved everything else out to sell. The house is empty now, and ready to be cleaned and gotten ready to sell. We’ve come a long way since February 15!

Tim has a busy weekend ahead – two tee times at the golf course, and a busy night of work this weekend. Me, I hope to catch up on some shows on the DVR, do laundry, read and maybe even watch a Harry Potter movie 🙂

P.S. I don’t often talk about current events here on my blog, but this has been a very news-worthy week. The bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, then the huge explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. So much sadness and sorrow 🙁