June 18, 2013

Our moving efforts certainly haven't been helped by the teaming rain that has been happening every couple of hours. We had to repack the boxes from the move sale yesterday and then put them on a table, tarped, for the AKF. Fortunately, Alan talked the AKF into taking just about everything -- all but the sideboard, the cat condo, and the dining set. This am, Alan lugged the cat condo to the curb and Dekalb County took it -- amazing since it was totally soaked and weighed about 75 lbs. Still trying to find a taker on the sideboard. The dining set we'll haul to the curb or we may still get a junk service to finish everything up.

Made an appt for an HVAC person to come look at the cooling system Friday and had a handyman do a walkthrough for a price on all the work needed before we can rent. He seemed very competent. Then had a lovely dinner with Tina Brownley at Bistro Niko. We are going to miss all our friends so much...

Today I decided to organize the house, starting with the guest bedroom. Grouped my clothes, photos, and then tried to create the authoritative car box of records. Found yet more stuff to shred.....groan.... After lunch at Marlowe's proceeded to the dining room and boxed all the books on the shelves! There are like 38 boxes of books. That's compared with a running total of 47 of housewares! Boxed all the glass I could until I ran out of paper. I think we should be in ok shape wrt boxing things up. It's all the sorting of the various drawers that will be a pain. Still, there is starting to be room in the house with quite a bit of furniture gone.

And, in an exciting development, we got our Dartmouth email addresses!

June 4 2013

Woke up at 5:09am this morning ordering tasks in my mind. For some reason, it was freaking me out that we had to empty so much furniture in order to sell it -- basically all the bookcases and the sideboard. And I just started feeling overwhelmed by everything that had to get done in what sequence. Maybe some sequencing work will help. This week Inventory storage with pictures if possible Research valuation for blocks, Lenox, stone blocks, Barbie, Breyer get small boxes for books talk to Catie hire mover -- any adjustment to quote? # boxes? #paintings especially from work? Vacuums? Shop vac? rent July-Aug space COBRA vet visit This weekend Empty attic Pack stuff from barristers bookcase Go through shed Speak to ladies on Sunday to confirm barristers bookcase, clock, dressers, Waterford, depression glass? faberge? Get tables from Barb, Teresa June 10 (last week work) Prep for sale Everything from both storage going to sale to 1245 Everything from bookcases and sideboard packed or put aside for sale Clean microwave select kitchenware to sell Take things home from work Arrange for big good will pickup on the June 13-14 set up sale June 15 --sale June 17 pack dishes, glassware Pack clothes -- mail some of it?? Storage emptied to 1245 Good furniture sold June 22 -- Celebration of Cats? June 24 Movers here Good will everything left

The moving sale

So, we survived the great moving sale.....barely. And only because we have the best friends in the world. Peter and Nick emptied my storage locker of the crap that I kept from my parents' house on Thursday and Friday. Various friends dropped off tables and coolers with water. On Friday, Marianne, Brian, and Ann Marie came over to help carry things out and arrange them. Marianne was the star of the show, categorizing and pricing every item.

Saturday dawned early at 6:30am. Anil and Tim arrived at 7am to help carry the last items out. And it turns out that Tim is a born salesman. He wouldn't let folks leave without buying something. And he usually managed to get them to take an extra item with them! Brilliant all around. We sold Alan's grandmother's bedroom set, my grandfather's iron bed, my grandmother's buffet table, the Waterford, and a lot of other stuff. Bookshelves did not move, much to my surprise and neither did the Barbies. But the Breyer horses, the Playskool blocks, and Chauncey all went to appreciative children.

All in all a huge success but not one that could have been accomplished without our friends.

June 12, 2013

So, what's new. Logistics-wise, Alan tackled some of the attic boxes and I took a mountainload of paper recycling out to the curb tonight. College notebooks, dissertation notes, etc., etc. I took my College thesis into work and scanned it on the copier, along with all of my technical writing examples. The result? 4-5 boxes condensed into one. I did keep papers from College with my professor's comments (guess, in retrospect, I could have scanned those, too. Funny, didn't even occur to me.) Wow, I was a bad writer freshman year. Guess I really did learn something at UR. :-)

Baking supplies went to Marianne. Still more food to dispose of and I have basically stopped cooking. It's just too much. What to do with the spices? And spice bottlers from the container store? Jettison, I guess.....well, that means I have to do that tomorrow to wash them for Saturday.

AKF scheduled for Monday to pickup everything that doesn't go.

Antique ladies never called back so sent pictures to Kudzu Antiques. They are interested in some things. Need to finalize that.

Rented "chalet" 45 minutes from Dartmouth for July-August.

Had a panic attack this afternoon about everything to be done for the yard sale Saturday. Two friends stepped in to volunteer to organize the sale and wrote the Craig's List ad. Phew. It really is easier when you feel like you're not alone. :-)

That gave me the courage to come home and parse out the mud room which really wasn't all that bad. Just intimidating especially given that the entire house is in such disarray. I literally walk from room to room unsure of what to do and utterly unable to prioritize. It's quite humbling.

One the positive front, had a great dinner out with the Rusches last night at Kyma (grilled octopus, yum!) and tonight Barb took me to a girls night out at our old favorite Tavola. I will miss the Atlanta food. And, more importantly, our friends. :-(

I am tired.

June 9, 2013

So, progress since last time. Thursday, I finally got the lock cut off my storage locker and the next day Peter and I went by there and started going through things. I cannot believe the things I kept from Mom's. 6 boxes of Heritage books. Really? My baby dresses? A whole lot of quilts I didn't know about. Thumbprint glass, in addition to the Lenox china I did remember (Lafayette is the pattern, I found). And two boxes of Breyer horses. Barbies and barbie clothes. Some dolls that were my mothers. And a bunch of other stuff. Wow, really should have parted ways with some of this stuff before. Took a load home to sort through and did manage to discard about half the stuff. This morning Anil came over and he and Alan emptied out a lot of the attic. Down came boxes of class materials, clothes, linens, VHS tapes, old software, and books. Yikes. If there's one thing I do not want to see any more of it would be photos and books. I swear about half the cubic volume of our move will be photos and books.

June 2, 1013

And the countdown is on..... Lots to report since last writing. First off, last week we got quotes from three movers, all pretty different. I think we'll take the one in the middle, weight-wise. There was a variation of almost 1,000 lbs! And $1,000. Two had fancy iPad apps to do the inventory but the last one came in the house with a piece of paper, spent about 20 minutes and then said he had all the information needed. Oddly enough, that was the estimate I ended up being most comfortable with. I figure after doing this job for 20+ years, he probably knew our weight and cubic load before he even walked in the door. And the company is rated A by the BBB and has all the other good indications. So, it looks like June 24th may be the day.

Also met with an estate sale lady and she said we didn't have enough for a sale but that she could help me sell some of the antiques and furniture and collectibles. Fair enough. So, there will be a garage sale. June 15th, 8am. Hopefully, I can engage an army of friends to make it all work. That will leave a long week to donate and discard everything before the movers arrive.

So, packing has continued. Alan started on the books, DVDs, and CDs. He has found that you can sell all such items back to Amazon for store credit -- very cool! I need to call Eagle Eye books and see if they want to do a walkthrough the house. It appears the depression glass is worth nothing and will even be hard to unload. I may put some of it in the yard sale and see what happens. Then donate it, I guess.

Today, I took our potted trees over to Matt and Teresa. They will find a home for the beautiful dogwood, japanese maple, and red maple. Owe them our vintage 1960s globe, some photo albums, and pasta bowls.

Speaking of photos, OMG, will they ever end? It is impossible. Everytime I think I've got it all sorted and strategized, I find a new pile. Really has to stop.

Up to 30 inventoried and labelled boxes but there's probably 8 hanging out around the house. We need to get some smaller ones for books. I have a hard time lifting the 12x12x16 small boxes. Discovery of the day? Lowe's moving boxes have handles, which eases transport but allows for the introduction of dirt. Home Depot's do not. Same price.

On a semi-unrelated note: Having a tape gun matters.

Oh, and we still don't have a place to live from July 21-August 26. :-) Worst case scenario we board the cat and stay with friends in Calais, which would be an hour fifteen commute one way.

To do:

Contact Eagle Eye Vet appointments (claws clipped, Rabies cert, sedatives) July and August housing.... Any pet care needed for LB?

May 22, 2013

After waking up panicked, I'm beginning to feel a little better. Three movers scheduled for next week and one estate sale planner. A second will call Tuesday to set up a time. Got through most of my office, separating out what I'll need immediately in VT. Still more pictures -- yowza. I'm not sure everything will get sorted before we leave. It would be really nice to have that done and off to be digitized so that they didn't have to travel in the car. Likewise, many notes and letters from my parents and grandfather -- won't have time to go through those. Maybe in front of the fire one cold Vermont night. :-) Committed to selling all the depression glass and to keeping the bare minimum of wedding presents. (How did we end up with five clear crystal bowls and four decanters??) Also jettisoned all but one of the pottery bowls. Feels good, feels very, very good. Off in the morning to VT for a little time off from the Georgia heat and from the craziness of the move-tossed house. Oh no, it looks like it's going to rain the entire weekend. :-(

May 20, 2013

Not as much progress today, it being a work day. Did manage to call two estate sale people and talk to one. Apparently, the things that sell are actual antiques, costume jewelry, nice clothes and shoes, quality furniture, kitsch, and the like. Hope we have enough good versus crap stuff.... At home, decided we were keeping the bird houses. Also, Alan went through his clothing and selected stuff to sell. Progress. :-) No boxes packed today, though. :-(

May 19, 2013

Argh, my back is killing me. I've been working more or less nonstop since 10am this morning. Cynthia stopped by then and helped me get organized. We started the inventory -- there are three categories -- deep storage (green), temporary storage (pink), and for the house (purple). I'm grouping the boxes by category for easy load onto the truck. So far, I'm up to 22 boxes, containing (from yesterday) camping gear, Christmas decorations, linens, and (from today) books, knick-knacks, more linen, kitchen pots, and the Kentucky Derby glasses. Watched The Contender (Love Joan Allen!) and the Bruins-Rangers game. Not a good one for the 'Gers. Also boxed up most of the framed photos. Took out three bags of trash. Now, just ordered some Greek delivery (gonna miss delivery!) and sitting back with 60 minutes. Looking around, it's hard to see the progress, although I know that progress is being made. :-(

May 18, 2013

So, I decided to set up this blog to document our efforts to leave Atlanta, our home of 24 years, for the wilds of New Hampshire. As you might imagine, in that timespan we have accumulated many, many things and despite my periodic attempts to purge, there is a LOT of crap in this house. Not to mention the storage locker filled with things from my parents' house that I haven't looked at in the 15 years they have been housed there. Or the storage locker Alan rented down the road to deal with the house being too full. Luckily, we are both determined to reduce, reduce, reduce. We're going to rent for a year, so we will get rid of alot of our furniture -- all the grad school stuff and anything with wear and tear. No point in paying to move bookshelves either. What is this blog supposed to accomplish? Mainly it's for me, to let me feel like I am actually accomplishing something even though it's hard to see the difference. We've basically been on this journey for a little less than two weeks and in that time, I have gone through my books and thoroughly purged them -- very little of grad school left. I've also gone through my clothes and selected those for good will or resale. If I haven't worn it in a year or it doesn't fit, out it goes. Today, I got the camping materials out of the attic, sorted through them, and got them boxed up. Then I filled up three suitcases with warm clothing; we can check those bags when we head up to Quimby's later this week. And I filled up three boxes of quilts and blankets. More to go but it's a start.