Hola!

Hola!
Que tal?

I've surfaced again for a day.

Barely.

What have I been doing the past month?

Packing. Throwing stuff away. Negotiating.
Supervising painters and carpet people and sprinkler people and adult kids and dogs and storage units.

All to end up with this:

It's a sign!

Yep. A "For Sale" sign in front of the house.

I have stripped every bit of personality from a house that we have lived in for 18 years.

Now it is a blank beige slate.

To get to that blank slate I have had to tackle kids rooms....

 Bunny's room 

 It looks like her suitcases threw up.

I will say this was a few days after she returned from college. 

It's not usually this bad.

 After one solid day of cleaning. 

And the Big Guy's room .

Looks like Carlos is probably hunting down some varmint. 

I quit going into this room years ago.

After new carpet, new paint, LOTS of packing and cleaning.

The Big Guy did a fabulous job of pulling it all together- 

even though he did push his deadlines a LOT

Red wallpaper in the kitchen.  I liked it. But apparently it doesn't "show well".

I love this pic.

Bunny in heels doing laundry. 

Won't she make a great housewife??

She probably has on her pearls, too.

Anyway, that red kitchen is not "appealing'. 

Also, way too cluttered. 

See what it looks like ready to sell? 

This is the professional picture off the realtor's page. 

See? Blank slate. 

Pack and pack and pack.


Getting ready to move or sell requires a lot of "decluttering". Also sorting, decision making, wrapping, lifting and cleaning.


When I put No. 20: Move on the original 60x60 list I didn't really know how that would work out, I just knew that I'm a peripatetic sort and a change would be fun.  I thought I had satisfied that challenge sufficiently by relocating to Colorado for a few years, even though that was pretty much just part time.

I had no idea it would eventually end up being a full fledged, clean out every single room and handle every little item kind of move. But it is.

And that's cool. It's a ton of work. I mean, a TON. The adult kids aren't too happy about it but they are adjusting and actually being helpful when it gets to the "clean up your room and get out of the house" part of the showing process.

O! And in the middle of getting this house ready to sell, there was a quick trip to Florida (less than 48 hours) to move Belle and her furniture out of her rental house.
Because, you know, I had not had enough fun packing and moving in Texas.
It started with a delayed flight, then a cancelled flight, a flight rebooked into another city two hours further away, monsoon rains, more furniture and stuff in the house than I had been led to believe and ended up with some amazingly sweet helpers ("Straight up thugs" Belle said but in the end, they emptied our truck and stacked it into the storage unit in ⅓ the time it would have taken us and much neater and more organized than we could have ever hoped for), the use of a truck that saved our behinds and the realization that you can do the impossible if you just put your mind to it.

 Belle has always said she wanted to be a trucker.

Pretty sure I don't have a future as a moving person. 

I will say Belle and I loaded 98% of this truck ourselves. 

I have the bruises to prove it. 

And this is her storage unit.

I swear we did NOT think everything would fit. 

But it did. 

And where am I going to move TO? Who knows?!

I can only cross one bridge at a time. For now that bridge is selling the house.

Stay tuned.