A Moving Post

The big day has come and gone. The U-Haul was loaded and is now on the highway, heading south to a storage locker in Salmon Arm, BC.

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We are so fortunate to have friends to help. I don’t know if we could have loaded it on our own!

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Stuffed to the gills.

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My house is so clean and pretty…and empty.063

 

This was a wonderful family home for us. There are good memories here.

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Lots of love and good spirits reside here.

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My lilacs, which have never bloomed well, are full of blossoms this year. Their farewell gift to us.

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Goodbye Muffin and Dinah, my sweet kitties. I will always love you.

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The people who have bought it are a young couple. This is their first home. They are expecting a baby girl this fall. Somehow that makes it easier to leave.  I hope they enjoy this home as much as we did.

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Goodbye, Dear House!

 

Taking a Break from Packing

I’m taking this week off work to do the final packing and cleaning of the house so that the boxes can go straight into the U-Haul next Saturday. Today I took apart the bed and did some cleaning.

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My other job this week is to get us moved out to the cabin at Fox Lake, where we’ll commute for the next 4 months.

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However, you I can only pack so much without taking (multiple) breaks, and so I took a break to finish this disappearing 9-patch quilt top.

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Only it isn’t finished after all…it’s too small! So I will have to take some more breaks during the week to add an extra rows to the bottom and sides to bring it up to a good usable lap-size. The fabric is from 2 Kate Spain Cuzco charm packs that I paid full price for ($12.50 each) at my LQS. jeez, I hate paying that much for a charm pack! But since I’ve never EVER seen Kate Spain in there, I just had to buy it. I also bought 6 bright solids to use with them.

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and then I did a little garden walk to see how everything is growing.

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First roses of the summer!

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Perennials are coming along.

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Rhubarb  is ready to pick.

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This is Michael’s dog Zeus.  They are staying with us until Michael finds a place. Just so you know, it is 28º in the shade today. So why is this  black dog lying in the hot sun? Beats me!

I better go and get back at ‘er! I want to get a good start on packing the bathroom before going to band practice tonight.

Stay cool, eh?

Moving in Stages

I suppose I could also call this post The Stages of Moving, lol!

Yesterday I sorted through my clothes into summer-clothes-to-wear-now, summer clothes-that-are-too-small-but-will-fit-next-year, fall/winter-clothes to send South and fall/winter-clothes- to-wear-this-fall.

Clothes going South in the U-Haul in three weeks got packed into boxes and stacked in the family room with the rest of the packed boxes.

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Everything I am keeping here has to fit into two rubber maid trunks. Clothes staying with me got packed into a big rubbermaid trunk. Hats, shoes and my handcraft projects go into the other rubbermaid trunk.

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I am keeping about 1/4 of my clothes and the rest are going South where they will wait in storage for me to join them.

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It makes me think about why I have so much stuff if I can so easily live without it for the next 6 months.

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I packed up my sewing nook, too. Now everything is gone except for a few projects to finish over the summer, my sister’s big quilt that I’m hand quilting and some knitting. It’s going to be a long six months without my sewing room.

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Here’s Misty, checking everything out for size.

Kelly and Michael drive the U-Haul out in only 20 days from today. Wow!

Just Write {4}

Mr. C. ( for considerate) went away last week to do some training in Vancouver and then off to visit family and friends for a few days. It was so nice for him because he really needed the break. It was considerate of him to do that, too, because I took the opportunity to take that week off myself. I stayed home. All by myself. Everyday, alone in the house. Because I had a goal…to get the house ready to sell.

It is a big job, physically and emotionally. What did I do in my 10 days? I unpacked every cupboard and closet, washed it inside and out, and sorted things into 3 piles:

  1. Things I want to keep but can live without for the next 6 months
  2. Things I want to keep but can’t live without for the next 6 months
  3. Things I no longer want to keep.

The things I can’t live without until we move went back into the cupboard.

The things I want to take with us but don’t need in the meantime were lovingly wrapped in foam and/or tissue and packed into boxes for moving.

Everything else went into the give-away pile.

Over that week I touched literally everything that I own. I packed away dresses and clothing into boxes.. I boxed up books. I boxed up dishes. I even boxed up a few bits and pieces of my sewing room. My closets and cupboards now look wonderfully inviting…spacious and sparkling clean.

I got onto my hands and knees and wiped the dust off the baseboards. I washed scuff marks off of the walls, I took the photos off of the fridge and looked at each one before packing them away. I cleaned the blinds, I cleaned the tops of the cabinets, I wiped the dust from the tops of the windows. I used Old English oil on the kitchen cabinets, rubbing them until they gleamed like satin.

I wrapped up a memory with every item I packed. I started the process of saying goodbye.

Maybe it is a bit like cleaning and preparing the body of a loved one for burial. Gently touching and caressing and cleaning and in this way preparing both of you for the transition from life before to life after.

Oh, my beloved little house –  this is how I am preparing myself to say good bye to you.

 

This is my 4th installment of Just Write, an exercise in free writing your ordinary and extraordinary moments. I am linking up with The Extraordinary Ordinary. (Please see the details here.)