Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Ch. . .ch.... ch. . . ch. . . Changes!


Wow, there are a lot of things happening for us right now. . . . .

1. We've scheduled an Estate Sale for this coming weekend and what an incredible amount of work this requires. I realize that the company I hired is supposed to take care of everything, but, we still have to go through everything to make sure we want to sell it. There are several thing that we had overlooked thinking that we had searched through everything. Yesterday the people were here to begin setup of the sale, while they were unpacking they pulled out boxes and boxes of basketball cards that my kids have saved from when they were little. My husband and I went online to see what a couple of them were worth we came across one that was valued at $300! The problem is that there are thousands of these cards and they aren't priced, they aren't our cards to sell, and neither of my kids has the ability to research prices right now. We've decided to just pack them back up and take them to someone we know who deals in cards to see what their value is.

2. We're still packing to move down to our condo downtown. This has been fairly difficult only because both my husband and I are sick right now. Packing is not my favorite thing to do, I have a tendency to under pack and my husband over packs. Hopefully we'll be able to balance this out. I've recently learned that the small storage unit we have at the condo is not accessible right now due to asbestos in the area of the unit.

3. We've found a renter for our home and will be meeting with the realtor this evening to review the contract. This has been incredibly fast, yet, we had three families a day coming through our home to look at it. This renter will be moving in on the first of December so we need to make sure the house is in top shape for that to happen.

4. Our furnace needs to be repaired. We knew this was coming, but, my husband and I have been tolerating the furnace problems. Today they came out and quoted a minimum of $500+ to replace a few parts and bleed the lines. I'm crossing my fingers on this project because I know it could go into a lot more expenses than what is being quoted. We'll have to wait and see. Thank goodness we have that $1000 emergency fund though.

5. We'll be having Thanksgiving at our new home. I hadn't been planning on it until one of my sisters called to find out where we were meeting. I'm aware she has nowhere to go so I invited her to join us for dinner. After inviting her though I realized I needed to invite my other sisters also. It ends up that we'll be having two of my sisters, my brother in law, one of my sons, and possibly my granddaughter for dinner. I only have place settings for 4 at the condo so we'll be using paper plates (at least my husband and I will), and some plastic silverware. Fortunately we do have enough seating for everyone and we have an amazing view to look out at while we eat. (Photo on post is the view from our front window)

Both my husband and I are starting to get a bit excited about moving, and we're very tired at the same time. Of course there remains to be a lot of things to do, not just in the packing, but in the unpacking and furnishing of the condo. Our furniture from the large house doesn't translate into this smaller space and we're short one bed, some living room furnishings, and an area rug on a concrete floor. Additionally, there's a bit of construction work remaining to be done and we'll need to put up some window treatments for the neighbors across the way.

I'm most especially looking forward to reducing our monthly overhead expenses! Fortunately the cost for heat is included in our association fees and we are only responsible for our electrical expenses.