The Things You Find

There has been a pause in the showings of our house; last Thursday there were four, Sunday there was one, and there's been none since then. 

Our agent has been handling questions from two interested buyers along the lines of "How old is the boiler?" and "Why do you have a sump pump?" but the last four days we've had the house to ourselves, which has been a nice change.  We've been using the time at home to do more cleaning up. 

It's amazing what you find!

For example, in the corner of the basement was a pile of extension cords, thrown there when we didn't need them anymore.  I went through them all, keeping the ones with three prongs and all the power strips; this tangled pile is what was left and sent off to Goodwill.  How did we get so many in the first place?

Occasionally in our purging we find something that we really do need and have been looking for, like this HEPA filter for the bedroom air cleaner, worth $63.  I wonder why it was in the basement under a pile of old bathroom tiles.  

And every so often a real treasure is unearthed, like this note from my mother, found in a large stack of cards we received when Paul was born.

Seeing her handwriting and reading her heartfelt words of welcome for Paul took my breath away.