The Wheels are Turning

We've had a busy couple of days.  We spent several hours with the prospective buyer yesterday, answering questions about the garden, the pond and the neighbors, while their home inspector crawled around the house checking this and that, the termite inspector looked around for evidence of those nasty insects, and their real estate agent just generally hung around to see how everything was going.  

Everything was going well and by this morning we had the inspection report with several items that the buyer wants us to address, either in repairs or in payment.  There were a couple of surprises but nothing that appears to be a show stopper.  

Today several surveyors prowled the grounds finding old stakes and other signs of property boundaries.  

Just to add some extra excitement, we've twice had visits from a couple in a fancy pickup truck who say they love the house, "have cash," and are going to buy it if anything holds up the current contract.   We've smiled nicely, referred them to our agent, and wish them well.  Our agent is coming over tomorrow morning, probably to nail down our answer to the inspection report, but --who knows?--maybe to talk about the cash buyer.  

Ah well, it will sort itself out.  And meanwhile, the wheels are certainly turning.  The day's mail brought several forms from the buyer's settlement company which we need to complete in preparation for the May 20th settlement.  We're moving right along!

Temporarily Homeless

Four showings of our house are scheduled for today: 10:00-11:00, 2:00-4:00, 4:30-6:00, and 6:30-7:30.   This is good but it also means that we don't have a home for most of the day.  To keep a positive face on our temporary homeless status we have made some fun plans.   

Ben and I are planning a walk on the Capital Crescent Trail, an eleven-mile mixed use "rails to trails" trail that goes from Georgetown to Silver Spring.  It's said to be the most heavily used rail trail in the nation, so we'd better look lively so we don't get run over by bikes and runners!   We can relax over a good lunch at one of the many great Bethesda restaurants.  We've never used the trail and rarely get over to Bethesda and, of course, being alone together is always a treat, so we're looking forward to our day.

I'm not sure how Ben is keeping himself busy in the late afternoon but meeting friends at the rock climbing gym is on the schedule for the evening.  I'm picking up Paul from school and we are going to catch the 4:30 showing of Robocop.   Paul's been dying to see it so getting to watch it ON A SCHOOL NIGHT surely makes up for not being able to sit at home on the comfy sofa playing video games for an hour or so after school is over and before homework begins. (I certainly hope he won't have much homework tonight!)

Keeping track of showings and being ready for them is a little project all by itself.  Agents use a service and we get robot-placed calls announcing that a showing has been requested for such and such date and time and "please push one to confirm."  Half the time they come when you're in the car and can't "push one," so you have to call back when you're free.  Then you get to talk to a real human to confirm. 

I'm surprised there's going to be so much traffic through here on a Thursday.  One is a repeat visit; not sure about the others.   Well, I see I have an hour to shower, dress, pick up the house and blast out of here.  Better scoot!

Listed!

You can read all about it here. 

Meanwhile Ben and I are relaxing with a drink and a steak dinner.  

I don't think I'll pack another box for a few weeks at least. 

Two Big Steps

We signed with our realtor Tuesday in a rather exhausting three hour session of talking, learning, and signing papers.  

Today we are finishing up the house photos so the MLS listing will be up tomorrow in time for the weekend.  Taking photos is easy enough --between the realtor and us we can get plenty of pictures --but getting ready to take the photos is hard work.  It means making the final push to get extraneous stuff packed up or at least moved out of the room long enough to get a streamlined photo.  

I quite like this uncluttered look.  I guess we'll be living with it while the house is on the market.  Maybe by the time we sell and move we'll be used to hauling the toaster out of the cupboard when we need it and picking up after ourselves constantly.  Maybe we'll be used to a streamlined life and will enjoy living that way in our new Boulder home.  You never know.

Over the weekend we decided to sign with Allied to do our actual move.  What a hard decision that was!  There's plenty of information online about the perils of long distance moving and apparently there is no fail proof way to get yourself moved across country; every method has its problems.   We got as much information as we could, had a few salesmen come look over our stuff and give us estimates, and finally decided we'd do best with Allied.   Wish us luck!

Almost There

We meet with the realtor Tuesday to list our house, so the past few days have been a burst of activity to get it ready to go on the market.  We're checking things off our "to do" like crazy and are feeling pretty darn good about it.  I moved all the fabric out of my sewing room and the shelves are now bare.  I quite like the new look but it comes at a high price; I can't do anything in that room except sit and admire the uncluttered emptiness.  

See the big plastic tub in this photo? I moved a lot of my fabric into three tubs like this and there it will stay for a few months.  Never fear; I kept the crocheting materials out in case I just had to do something with my hands!

It was a beautiful day with more good weather promised for the next few days.  We got the porches swept off and the deck/patio furniture out again.  Oh, so nice to sit outside!  I was surprised to see these bulbs poking their way upwards.  

Three of our Koi had backed out of the fish cave enough so we could see their big tails swishing back and forth.  It won't be long before spring is here.  I do hope we have an early one so we can enjoy the outside of our house before we leave the first of June.

Last night Ben & I watched Enough Said, James Gandolfini's last movie.  The interaction between him and Julia Louis-Dryfus was fun to watch and the California scenery, homes, and beautiful weather provides some much-welcome eye candy.  With Paul we are now watching 1776, required for Social Studies at school, and surprisingly interesting and entertaining.  

To celebrate our accomplishments, Ben and I had some "bubbly" out on the screened porch tonight.  I'm really glad that we have found a wonderful house in Boulder already; I think it would be very hard to be getting ready to move if we didn't have a concrete idea of what was awaiting for us.

Blue Skies and Quimper

Isn't this a beautiful blue sky?  The weather was great yesterday with temperatures almost warm enough for t-shirts, a light breeze, and these beautiful sunny blue skies.  We were working hard on cleaning, packing, etc. etc. etc.  (will it every stop??) but made a point of breaking off in mid afternoon for a long walk.

The ice-topped water along the trail was both pretty and fun to mess with.

Oh, sorry, Mom! Did I splash you?

My goal for the weekend was to pack up the collection of Quimper pottery that I inherited from Ben's mother.  The realtor had suggested that we pack away any valuables we had and we needed to get them off the built-in bookcases anyway so we could finish that paint job, but oh, I was so not looking forward to this task.  Too much work and too much responsibility!  I watched several YouTube videos on how to pack china and in the end felt good about the packing method I devised; wrapping each piece in layers of paper, foam, and bubble wrap, putting them in small boxes within big boxes, and using lots of paper to cushion the space between the boxes.

The name Quimper refers to a town in northwest France (Brittany) which has produced pottery continuously since 1707. There were two major factories, Jules Henriot and Hubaudiere-Bousquet, and they eventually merged in 1968 and then were restructured in 2011 to form the company now known as Henriot-Quimper.  This tangled history makes identifying and dating pieces a challenge, and understanding what Suzanne collected and perhaps adding to it will be an interesting project for my retirement! 

Meanwhile I have the pleasure of simply enjoying the folk art beauty of the pieces. About half of what I have is plates. 

The rest are vases, pitchers, sconces, candlestick holders, and other pieces in interesting shapes.  I wonder if this one was made to hold rolled up towels?  Or a low flower arrangement?

 I originally thought this wonderful bull was made to hold small flowers, but when I put short-stemmed daffodils in it one year it looked odd.

By the end of the day this big packing job was done.

As you can imagine, our house and shed are filled with boxes!  I think I see a PODS container in our near future. We'll use one to get this initial packing out of here and then use another for the actual move in early June.  The plan is for PODS to store the first container here and then transport both containers out to Boulder.

I hope I'm smiling like this lady as I carry boxes out to the PODS container!

While I had been packing, Ben had been doing a variety of odd jobs on the "get the house ready to sell list."  To reward ourselves for all this work we had an early dinner at Ben's favorite restaurant.

Around Here

Onward!

Something Pretty

We've been caulking, sanding, priming and painting this weekend. Whew! Once you start looking for woodwork that could use some "touching up" it never ends!   We also continue to sort, discard, and pack.  In the midst of this upheaval our Valentine's Day flowers have been a real pleasure, a little spot of peace and beauty.

One Little Word: Onward!

Instead of making resolutions for the New Year I decided to join the One Little Word movement where you choose a word to be your focus for the year.   

My word is Onward!  The word itself is often used an adverb describing a type of action as in "Despite being overwhelmed by the amount of Christmas decorations she owned, she forged onward in sorting through them." It is also used as an adjective describing a noun as in "She was excited about her onward direction."  In both cases it means moving forward rather than backwards or stalling out altogether. 

As I think of the year ahead I see a lot of endings.  I'll end a job I've enjoyed for the last seven years and a profession I've loved for forty years (really? yes, and that doesn't count working in a library during my college years!)  We will leave a house we have rebuilt to our tastes and flourished in as a couple and a family during almost three decades.   I will leave many friends and family members who I will miss greatly.   But endings bring new beginnings with new chances for onward movement, and that's exciting to anticipate as I begin what I hope will be the last third of my life.  Onward to Boulder!

To get there, however, is going to take a lot of work.  I'll admit it, packing up and moving is daunting.  Of course we'll hire movers, but before that someone needs to go through all this "stuff" and figure out what is worth moving and somehow get rid of the rest.  Since an embarrassing amount of this stuff is mine and I want (need) control over how things are packed and labeled, that someone is me.  Both Ben and Paul have their roles in this process, but I'm the lead person in this aspect of the move and I know from clearing out and cleaning up my mothers house that it will be both physically and emotionally hard.  But it can -- and will-- get done!  Onward to sorting, discarding, packing…whatever it takes!

There's another kind of work to do before we leave -- getting physically ready.  Once I get there I want to walk, hike, and bike in the great outdoors resource that are so readily available.  Being in better physical shape is key to enjoying all the area has to offer.   Onward to eating better and exercising more!  

And once we are settled in our new city we face the the challenge of building a new life.  I'll be retired and while that has great appeal, I've generally found work to be engaging, exciting, and stimulating, not to mention a good source for developing friendships.  We've deliberately chose a house located within easy reach of activities and people but it will take some creative energy to figure out what I want to do with this new abundance of unscheduled time and to create a network of supportive friends.  Onward to finding new ways of learning and growing and connecting with others without the structure of work! 

When I talked over these ideas with Ben he said that if he was going to pick a word he'd choose Refocus.  I thought it was a perfect match for Onward.  Onward to refocusing our lives!

Yes, Onward! is my watch cry  for 2014.  

View from the Bedroom and Dining with Friends

It snowed lightly yesterday afternoon and evening, making our activities quite festive.  Yes, it was cold, but as I keep telling my Maryland friends,  it's supposed to be cold at Christmas.  I loved the crisp air and we all were excited as the snowflakes fell.   

Here is the view out our bedroom windows  this morning.  We're on the second floor and have two sets of big french doors leading to balconies, one facing West and one facing South. 

This is the view from the West:  

Looking out this balcony: 

And this is the view from the South,

which Ben would see if he looked out the balcony window behind him.

I have just roused myself to clean up the bedroom so I could take some more pictures to show you.

The second story contains only the master bedroom and bath and four huge closets. It was added to the house in the 1980's and was designed by an architect who described his style as "sacred architecture."  This is such a Boulder-type idea and I love it.   Note the pyramid ceiling, the skylight directly over the bed, and the east facing little window.  It is like a tree house up here. And the last two nights I could see stars through the skylight while I lay in bed.  Very cool.

Ah, but I was going to tell you about how we walked --yes, walked -- to Dot's Diner to meet our friends Leslie and Kent for breakfast.  We have known them many years and usually see them when we come to visit.  It was great to catch up and get some settling in tips.  After breakfast we walked over to the house and Kent helped Ben get the gas fireplace started, which made the living room very cosy.  

In the afternoon we walked downtown to see the Christmas Revels show at the old Boulder Theater.  I'd never been to a Revels show and it turned out to be three hours of fast moving songs, dances, and one short and very funny play, generally Christmas related.  We all enjoyed it and maybe sometime soon I'll post the video Paul made of me up on stage helping with the performance of the Twelve Days of Christmas.   

We've been dining out with Ray and Paula each night, having some wonderful meals at Boulder's best restaurants.  

Raymond is the creator and owner of Cocktail Punk which makes bitters, liquid flavorings primarily used to enhance cocktails but also soda (I love Ray's aromatic bitters dropped into Goslings Diet Ginger Beer) and coffee.

It was a thrill to see Ray's bitters featured on cocktail menus.

 Being a player in the Boulder restaurant scene means that Raymond knows everyone, from the waiter who he calls by name to the restaurant owner who sends over special appetizers to taste.  It's all great fun.

Well, I must get up and walk the two blocks over to the tiny food coop which is also supposed to sell coffee and yogurt to find something for breakfast.  I'll leave you with this photo of the old Boulder House, all lit up for the holidays.