Home at Last

OK, so I took some pictures on the way south but somehow or other my camera has gone MIA. I know that it made it to Sanibel because I took pictures crossing the causeway! And I'm sure it made it inside the house. But where it is, I can't say. I can find everything else--but not my trusty little camera. So, you will have to do with narration and no pictures of our trip. The above picture is a picture our daughter took the day before we left.

Tuesday morning was crazy. We had a 9:00 meeting with an insurance man, then went to the Post Office to mail some boxes for Karen. Then to Salvation Army to drop yet another load of stuff we would love to keep but didn't have room for. Then home to load the remnants of a water bed into the Escape--wooden sides, drawers etc. The bed was not ours! It belonged to Bill who lived with us the whole 35 years we lived in this house. We didn't know he was getting rid of it until the day before the move. So it all had to go to the landfill. Karen and Chuck went while I did the last minute vacuum job and cupboard checking etc. When they got back, we loaded Karen's stuff into the car and took off for the Detroit airport where we dropped her. Then on over to my brother's to drop a box of stuff for my niece. (more on my brother in another post)

We got back to Findlay about 4:30 and started packing everything into the car. Fingers were crossed the entire time but everything made it into the car just as the raindrops started to fall. At 5:15, we said goodbye to Bill, got into the car (with a few tears being shed) and headed south. We drove through rain showers but nothing serious.

Chuck drove first but I took over just outside of Cincinnati. I have to admit--I don't like driving at night. I don't like driving through large cities. I don't like driving in the rain. But wouldn't you know, all three things took place. The night driving wasn't so bad and I have driven through Cinci before but just as we hit the city limits with nowhere to go except straight ahead, the heavens opened up and POURED!! Needless to say, I white knuckled it through the city. It finally let up before we hit the bridge. I stopped at the first rest area in Kentucky and let Chuck take over. We only went about 5 miles though when we decided to stop for the night.

We were on the road at 6:45 the next morning and drove without incident all day. We made it to Gainesville, Florida where we spent the night. We both were awake early the next morning and hit the road about 7:30. Again, the drive was without incident and we arrived on Sanibel about noon yesterday.

The first thing we did was turn on the air conditioning! Then we unloaded the car and unpacked a few boxes leaving most of it for today. We went to Jerry's, a local grocery store which also has a very good restaurant--killing two birds with one stone. So, after dinner and grocery shopping, we headed back home to crash!

Today involved more unpacking, trips to the post office and bank, and out to CROW to pick up cages, say hi to everyone, catch up on the news, tour the new hospital, and get some work assignments. On the way home from CROW, I did stop by the beach to remind me of why we made this move. All I did was see the waves, smell that salt air, and hear the birds and surf and I knew. I was home!!

Heading South

Sorry my blogging has been so erratic lately. But I've been BUSY!! This weekend we went to my son's house on the other side of the state. We got home after midnight last night. Today was clean house, move our tenant to his new house, take stuff to Salvation Army, help my daughter pack boxes which she is sending back to her home, have dinner with friends etc. Tomorrow we have a meeting, go to the dump, vacuum one last time, take daughter to airport, come home and pack the car--and head south!

It is hard to believe that 35 years of living in this house comes to an end tomorrow. It has been a good house full of happy memories. I know that the new owners will love it as much as we have. But, now it's time to enjoy Sanibel and become a fulltime Slacker like some others I know. Not naming any names, mind you.

So hopefully, I'll get back into a regular routine of blogging once we settle in, unpack, and take some time to just relax.

Auctioning Off All (Well Most) of My Worldly Goods

Yesterday was our auction sale. I had been moving stuff out of the house to the barn for a few weeks now so I was getting used to living without a lot of stuff.

Trent, the auctioneer, and his helper showed up at 9:30 am. She went right to work setting out the items.Trent had asked if he could bring a few things from another guy to make the sale a little bigger. I had said, "sure". Apparently a few things turned into the guy's whole household! Trent was a bit upset to say the least. He promised to sell my things first since it was my sale! Since the sale didn't start until 5:00, he knew that it would be dark before the sale ended.

Once Trent and his muscle got back they started hauling stuff out of the house.The two rows of stuff on the left side of the yard is my stuff. The two rows of stuff on the right is part of the other guy's stuff. Kind of gives you an idea of how much stuff the other guy had! Trent started the sale promptly at 5:00. He started with my glassware then moved on to the front yard for the furniture.
He finished up with my stuff and then moved on to the other guy's stuff. When I talked to Trent later, he said that my stuff did pretty well--not so good for the other guy. It would appear that people were either tired or it got too dark because they couldn't even give away a bunch of his stuff. A gorgeous sofa sold for $15!! Sure wish I had needed a new couch.

I won't know how we did until sometime next week but at least that is out of the way. It was kind of sad but I just keep thinking how much happier I will be when I finally settle into my Sanibel home.

Today was spent cleaning house, UPSing 5 boxes south, and making some phone calls.

Tomorrow we head up to Detroit to pick up my daughter at the airport then head to my brother's house to visit with him and his 3 daughters and their families. Trust me, this is a momentous occasion. I haven't seen my brother nor spoken to him in 9 years. He "disowned" me for reasons I will never understand but his daughter's made him see that it was time to put an end to this ridiculousness!! I am so excited. Wish me luck.

Getting Ready for the Auction

This is what it looks like when one is getting ready to sell all (well almost all) of one's worldly goods.

Thank You St. Joseph

Need I say more?St. Joseph has done his duty so he has been unburied and sits proudly on the sign!!

Wordless Wednesday-No Words Necessary

I know you are all busy checking out everyone's Wordless Wednesday but take the time to bookmark me and drop back to check out my blog. I am a retired Special Ed teacher who now spends most of her time on Sanibel Island, Florida volunteering for a Wildlife hospital rescuing and rehabbing wildlife. I even dumpster dive for injured Raccoons!! I am also the proud grandma of 5 wonderful grandkids and brag about them often!! I also have a blog called Branches and Roots where I talk about genealogy and my ancestors. OK, enough about me. Back to Wordless Wednesday.

Enjoy more Wordless Wednesdays at Wordless Wednesday.

Busy as a Beaver

I have been busy, busy, busy lately. We went up to Michigan on Monday to see friends from 50 years ago. Mr. Snowbird and I met in a YMCA Young Adults group called Coffee Breakers. Many couples met and married from that group. We all had kids and raised our families. Then about 10 years ago, some of the group decided to get together once a month for dinner. We have tried, when we are in Ohio, to make the hour and a half trip up there to have dinner with our friends. We know that we won't be making too many more so we went up on Monday, went out to dinner with 11 of our friends, spent the night with our friend Bob, then came home yesterday. I immediately went to the barn where I put the finishing touches on yet another garage sale.

This morning, the appraisers came to look at the house. A couple of hours later our real estate agent came to have us sign yet another paper and to introduce us to our auctioneer. We then spent a couple of hours with Trent going through stuff that will be auctioned and just talking. My garage sale is tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. Not only do I have a garage sale on Saturday but at 8:00 AM!!--the inspector, both real estate agents, and the buyers will arrive for the inspection. Ugh!! That is supposed to take a couple of hours. IF all goes well, the Sale Pending sign will go up and we will be good to go. If not, then I don't know what we do!

We are going to go up to Detroit again on the 31st to see our friend Alex, who we went to Ireland with, at the Detroit Highland Games. We will then go on up to northern Michigan with our friend Bob who has a cottage up there. We'll spend a few days having a much deserved R & R before we head back to the craziness of closing, preparing for an auction and the auction on the 1st of September. Our daughter is coming from Sept 3-8. Unfortunately, the cupboard will be bare when she gets here but she can help me clean the house, see her friends, etc. Then we are OUT OF HERE on September 12th and will head home to Florida.

So, as you see, we are Busy, Busy, Busy!!

We Have A Buyer!!

Well folks, two weeks and one day after the sign went up, we are going to be able to put a Sale Pending up on the sign. Every person who came through wanted the house. One gal gave us a bid but it was waaayyy under what we wanted and she wouldn't budge. Another gal wanted it and had the financing but lost her job. Another liked it but didn't feel she could do the necessary work that is needed to update it. But her nephew came through on Tuesday and gave us a low offer yesterday. We countered and he wanted to come through again last night. Our agent called this morning and said that he was still waiting to hear from him. Late this afternoon, he called back and said that he had been working all afternoon on this. The guy made an offer and Greg said we were as low as we could go, so he made a little higher offer and Greg said no. Finally the guy got the message and took our offer. So---if all goes well, closing is August 14th and we are out of here Sept. 12th. In between now and then, we have a lot to do. We will be having an auction to get rid of most of our stuff so that is next on the agenda. I can't believe that it only took two weeks. I don't think Greg does either. All I can say is "Thank you St. Joseph"!!!

The little guy will go back to Florida with us and hopefully his good vibes will protect our house down there from any and all hurricanes!!

Now I REALLY Believe!!

Mr. ReMax called this morning and said he had an offer on the house!! But not to get too excited :(

He came right over and explained that the lady had offered way under what we were asking so he came up with a counter offer which we were happy with. She will have until Monday to make up her mind. And apparently the other couple liked what they saw and are checking out financing. So, the sign goes in on Thursday, 3 showings on Friday and an offer plus another possible on Saturday. Not to shabby St. Joseph!! Greg laughed when I told him I had buried St. Joe. He said, he believed too. He had a house on the market for over a year then the lady buried St. Joseph and they got an offer within the week.

Oh and did I mention that if she takes the house, he has it in the agreement that we don't close until the end of August and don't have to be out until the end of September. I was SO relieved when I heard that. I was in no way ready to be out of here in 30 days!

I Believe

The sign went up yesterday. There was a showing at 10:15 this morning. I had an 11:30 doctor's appointment (which ran an hour late!!). While I was in with the doctor my cell rang. When I was able to check the voice mail, it was Mr. Snowbird telling me not to come home because we had another showing at 1:00. (I've spent my fair share of time at the mall today!). About 3:00, Mr. ReMax called to tell me that the 1:00 wanted to bring her parents through at 6:30. Woot!! So, we decided to go out for dinner. We got back about 7:10 and the people were still there. We parked down the street out of sight of them but not out of sight of the house. The parents spent a lot of time walking around the house checking out bushes etc. The prospective buyer spent a lot of time with the real estate agent (not our guy) but another ReMax agent. They didn't leave until about 7:35. I'm HOPING that this is a good thing. I believe, St. Joseph, I believe.

The Sign is in the Yard

Well, there you have it. The sign went up today. I was gone all day and it felt rather strange when I got home to see the sign in the yard. Then when I walked in the door, Mr. Snowbird told me that Greg had called and said he wanted to show the house tomorrow morning! Whoa!!! And I didn't even have St. Joseph planted yet. So, after giving the house a quick straightening (I cleaned like a mad fool yesterday), I gathered up some utensils and St. Joseph and headed outside. I dug a hole near the sign and planted St. Joseph, head down, facing the house. I said a little prayer to St. Joseph and it is in his hands (or feet) now. I know--it doesn't look like I buried him very deep but the ground was hard and with all of our getting rid of everything under the sun, I had no garden tools so I had to use kitchen utensils. Not the best thing to dig holes with!I then realized that I had never, in the 35 years we lived here, actually gone around the entire house and taken pictures of it. So, that is what I did. I thought you might like to see what we have for sale.


Want to buy a house???

I Swear This House Has Ears!

Ok, so Mr. Maytag came out today and replaced the 30 plus year old hose in my washer and got it working just great. So, I did a load of wash--finally. And guess what? Water all over the floor. Not from the machine this time but from the drain pipe. This has been happening on and off for awhile but nothing big. So, we go downstairs and there is water all over the basement floor. The water had backed up in the basement sink and poured all over the basement. Ugh!! So, we call a plumber. Well, thank goodness, Mr. Plumber is a lot less busy that the Maytag Man and came right out!! Maybe Mr. Maytag needs to do a new commercial. Apparently he is a lot busier than he advertises. Or maybe all those 30 and 40 year old machines are going bad now and he is a lot busier fixing them. Anyway, back to the flooded basement and Mr. Plumber. He looked around and knew immediately the problem. Our house is 106 years old. Some of the pipes have been replaced but apparently one section hadn't and still had the 106 year old pipes. Apparently they were mighty clogged. So, Mr. Plumber kindly replaced the 106 year old pipe and hopefully that will do the trick. I'll believe it when I see it--or don't see it (water that is). I swear this house knows we are trying to get rid of it and is rebelling!!

By the way, I did talk to Mr. ReMax Man yesterday and we will sign the contract when we get back from Ireland. Oh, did I mention I'm leaving for Ireland on Monday for 12 days. Can't wait!! 12 days of not having to think about cleaning, selling, floods etc. Nothing but good Irish food, scenery, entertainment, and yes--adult beverages!!!

News and Good News

So, the Maytag Man was supposed to call us today. When he hadn't called by 11:00 I called the store. The lady at the store said she would call MM and have him call me. About a half hour later, I got the call. He said he would be here soon and sure enough he was. He was a bit "iffy" when he saw the age of the machine but he looked at it anyway. He found that the drain pipe which should be a fexible rubber was very rigid and had broken. The good news is he can order a new one and will replace it in a day or two. Yay! At least I don't have to haul my laundry to the laundromat before we head to Ireland next Monday!

The other good news is I think we have decided on a Real Estate agent. We had a visit with the ReMax Man last Friday. I was impressed with him from the gitgo. He seemed very interested, measured all the rooms, gave us a folder with his bio, neighborhood houses for sale etc. Yesterday the ERA guy came. He didn't measure anything but seemed interested only in the fact that we had termites 10 years ago and have been termite free since. I think he is a bit gunshy because he sold the house next door and now the buyer has discovered that termites have been busy in the house for quite awhile now and is suing somebody. He gave us nothing and we even had to ask him for a business card. ReMax has a resident auctioneer who can handle selling our household items. ERA guy knew next to nothing about auctions. Both are supposed to get back with us this week to tell us what they think we can get out of the house. As I said, even before they call back, I am going with the ReMax guy. I just feel that he will do a better job for us. We may have a sign in the lawn by the end of the week! Guess I had better get St. Joseph ready to be planted, huh.

Murphey's Law or Do Machines Have Ears??

Murphey's Law states that What can go wrong--will go wrong. Ok, I accept that. But, I also think that machines have ears and let you know it when they can!!

We had our first appointment with a Real Estate Agent (Greg from ReMax). Things went great. He seemed like he really knew his business and his mother was actually a Real Estate Agent too. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. Of course, he went through the house and asked if we would be leaving the appliances. Yeah!! We don't have room in a 34' trailer for all that stuff. He asked about our washer and dryer and we bragged that we had only had 1 repair call on our almost 40 year old Maytags.

OK, so after he left, I put a load of laundry in our almost 40 year old Maytag washer. About an hour later, Bill who lives with us, came upstairs and asked if I knew that we had about 2 inches of water in our utility room!!! Luckily our utility room is about 2 inches lower than the kitchen so the water was contained in the utility room. Apparently our almost 40 year old washer had no problem filling with water but did have a problem with spinning it out. So the water just kept pouring in and had nowhere to go but on the floor! Argggggg. So, we opened the back door and swept most of the two inches of water out the back door. Then I had to empty the machine by hand--after I had removed the soaking wet laundry from the washer and the soaking wet laundry which had been sitting on the floor waiting to go in the second load. Once I got down to the point I couldn't scoop the water out, I had to take a cloth--soak it with water from the machine--and wring it into a bowl. Again and again. Once that was all done, then I had to mop up the remaining water from the floor. Ahhhh, all done. Until we went to the basement and realized that much of the water had seeped through to the AC/Heat vents and was now dripping into the basement. Soooo, then I had to clean up that mess.

Now, how often have we seen on TV that the poor Maytag man has nothing to do? So, we called to get his services. First of all, they said that we hadn't purchased our machine from them. Well, hey, do they keep almost 40 year old records? Then they said that the repairman would call us back and schedule an appointment-----next Tuesday!!!!! So, if the Maytag repairman has so much time on his hands, what is he doing until next Tuesday?

I thought when we came north that I was done with having to run down to the laudramat. Guess not!!

Thanks!

I just want to thank all of you who commented with tips on selling a house. I really appreciate it! I signed up online with LifestyleMoves Realty Referral. Through that, I had two agents call me. One is from Remax and one is from ERA. They both have webpages and look pretty good. One actually sold the house next door to us so I need to talk to our new neighbor. Both guys sound pretty good over the phone. One is probably in his 40's and one is late 20's. I was more impressed by the late 20's guy on the phone. We have an appointment with one on Friday and another on Monday. Then we decide. We are going to Ireland June 8th and will be gone for 2 weeks so I don't want to put the sign up until we get back. (And of course when the sign goes up, St. Joe goes in the ground head down.)

Oh and for you Bob the Builder fans--he had promised to buy a light fixture for the bedroom that he "painted" last summer. When we got back this spring, guess what? No new light fixture. So, we went out and bought one and called him to come install it. Of course, no answer so Mr. Snowbird left a message. And of course he hasn't returned our call yet. More on the Bob the Builder saga later.

We did need some gutter work done so we called a Gutter Guy. He didn't return the call but showed up on our doorstep the next day. Then returned a couple of days later and fixed everything. No muss, no fuss, no Bob the Builder saga. Now that's the kind of contractor I like!!