Things are really starting to move along around here with the house sale and upcoming move. We have about 4 weeks left before we need to be out. Here’s what’s going on.
The house sale continues to move along. We had the inspection last Monday and there was a long list of small things the inspector would have liked to see fixed or changed. Because we came down a bit on the price, we had already agreed with the buyers that we would not be fixing any little stuff. So, the 2 things they asked us to fix were some electrical wiring in the basement that looked wrong, and some ants the inspector saw. Rob got an electrician friend (they asked for a bonded, licensed electrician and he is) who fixed the small problem in a few minutes and a local exterminator who sprayed all around. Those receipts were forwarded to our realtor, and so that’s all done. Now it moves on to the appraiser, then the bank finishes, then we sign.
Rob spent hours calling around looking for a storage unit. We wanted it May 1 and need a huge one. Much to our surprise, they are few and far between and he could not find one. He is on about 10 lists up and down the Willamette Valley, from here to Salem. Seriously. On Friday, one of them called, and we took the unit offered, but it is much smaller than we really need, so he did not remove himself from the lists. In addition, this place will be watching out for a bigger one and maybe we can switch over–yuck, or get 2—heaven forbid. At this point, we will do what we have to do. We are at that point.
They made him drive and rent it. They would not do it over the phone. (Can you tell it’s our first time renting one?) Such a learning curve!! We will take van loads every Sunday and Wednesday when we go to church to get started moving things. We took a load yesterday.
Shop/barn/gardening/bikes/tractor/extra cars/lawn mower/animal item such as cages/etc. go to my sister’s.
Canning/clothes/freezers/food storage go to my aunt’s and Rob’s mom’s garages
Furniture/household items to to storage unit(s)
In the meanwhile, the sewing room is completely packed, thanks to my mom and aunt. We did that Tuesday. Load after load continues to go over to my brother-in-law’s farm and more will go this week. We are taking farm items, Rob’s shop equipment, fencing, fire wood, tillers, and eventually, the tractor and all it’s implements. Until we know if we can get property or not, we don’t want to sell those things.
This week’s plans: This will be the last week I teach piano. I will work on Monday and Wednesday, and have a recital on Friday. I will need to spend several hours in preparation for that, along with several appointments and activities for the kids. Starting next Monday, my calendar is pretty empty, on purpose. I will squeeze a few moving things in this week, though.
Rob and I generated a loose plan last night, which we will add to as we think of other things that need to be done. The items for this week so far are:
B-finish working, have the recital, do appointments on Friday for kids (2), start packing the canning, continue organizing gardening things in garage and greenhouse and move more over to Rosalie’s, work in the garden over there part of 1 day, upstairs bookcase, upstairs closet (mostly done already), wash and change sheets in camper because I’ve had a friend in there all weekend, put in a few more food items I noticed were needed, keep weeding out clothes as I come across them that I think I can either donate, or pack away for a few months (I worked on this already this week and came up with a bunch), plan menus that use up more food from storage
R-make many, many phone calls organizing things and doing whatever necessary to keep the sale moving along, notify friends and family that May 22 is the big day where we can use all hands on deck, take loads of wood and items from barn over (several times, which takes a couple of hours per load, at the least), reserve a U-Haul for May 22, get more boxes if we run low (liquor store boxes often have dividers so I might need more for the canning), take a load to charity shop with odds and ends we find, burn debris (he and a friend cleaned outside and burned a lot on Saturday, but there will be more), work in shop, haul away several pieces of extremely old furniture we are not keeping
Both–completely empty sewing room of packed boxes, take down sewing tables and reconstruct in storage unit so more boxes can be stacked on top (huge, sturdy tables), I think we will be able to stack very high on those without danger of collapsing boxes or bins if we put one on top of the other and put boxes under each layer (we can try to see if it works:) ), carry down and burn extremely old dresser, fill van twice and take to storage, take girls to dance class and have our weekly “date” while we wait, try to get meals cooked amidst this chaos (joint effort), drive L to work (2 hours of driving per day) most days, get J to do some schoolwork and P to do her homework,
As far as I know, no one is coming to help this week. We are saving them up a bit, now, so we don’t burn anyone out before the big moving day. On that day, we will hopefully have everything packed ahead of time and it will be a matter of loading trucks and trailers with the furniture and boxes and hauling it all away, then cleaning. We have a little longer than the 21st, but that is the last Saturday before we have to be out, so that’s when we will do it since more people can come. During that last week, at some point, we will move our daily living into the camper so we can still function while the house is torn up.
Hi, you sound really organized. So happy that the sale is progressing.
Took the liberty of looking up a closest PODS storage for you, I had mentioned it a while back here but maybe your forgot or weren’t interested at the time.
Here’s the link http://www.pods.com/eugene.aspx. You said you were on a list for Salem so found a site in Eugene.
Don’t know if that helps. I’m not affiliated at all but used their service when I moved from my house. I found the local office to be extremely helpful. And they will store the container in their secure warehouse for a fee that was a lot cheaper then a regular storage locker. I could even access my unit with a phone call and they’d pull it out of storage for me for free,or as part of the monthly storage fee, depending how you look at it.
Your post said you’ve been having trouble finding a unit. What I really liked was that they delivered the container to my house to load. And then they’d pick it up as part of the price. It saved me the cost of renting a moving truck.They were always on time and very professional and polite – and, btw, amazing drivers of a very big truck.
Love your blog. I found you through Brandy’s website.
Cheers, SJ in Vancouver BC
Thanks so much. Rob did find that very same company in Eugene, but the cost is much more than some of the other options, which is why we are trying other options first. The reason is that we are so far from Eugene, Rob says. He SO wanted to do that option. I had told him when you mentioned it before and he has also heard of it. Today, he was able to find a place that would deliver a semi truck trailer to my sister’s farm for a lower price than we though. BUT, they won’t move it once full. so we would still have to move things back and forth. They all have their pluses and minuses, but we are trying to save as much money as possible for the new house, since we are on the edge as to how much money we will have and if it is enough to buy a house. It all seems like a lot of work to me, but we will do what needs to be done:) Thanks for the nice encouragement.
This is my second try at leaving a comment. I wanted to tell you about PODs storage. Here’s the link – http://www.pods.com/eugene.aspx
They will deliver a container to your house and your fill it up and then they’ll come back to pick it up when you’re ready. For me, it turned out cheaper and easier then a traditional storage locker. I didn’t have to rent a moving truck and I had up to a week, I think, to fill it up.
Sorry if this a duplicate post but it didn’t look like the first on went through. SJ
No problem. I’ve done that before as well. I’m not sure why it seems like the comments don’t go through sometimes and they actually did, and other times it seems like they did go through, but they didn’t:) For someone who didn’t grow up with computers, to me it’s actually still amazing what can be done with them!
I hope you can find the right size storage unit! My your canning looks great!! When we get back to selling our house (on hold right now as we decided to hope my husband can retire and we can move out further from here) we are going to not agree to fix up little things either. ants are common, and glad your electrical problem was easy to fix and quick! When we moved here, we didn’t even have a home inspection. We eventually found problems, which my husband fixed himself. I think that should be part of home buying/ownership. I would have a home inspection for our next house, but mostly for our buying decision….like one would take a used car to a mechanic before buying! I find people are so picky buying homes these days which is surprising since they hardly put any money down on the home, we are finding! I guess I am very opinionated in my older age! I hope the rest of your spring/summer feels more like a vacation after all your hard work, Andrea
I was so glad the issues were easy to address. We were worried for the same reason–our house is great, but the inspector was able to find a long list of little bitty things wrong with it. I’m glad we didn’t have to fix them all–we’d be here next Christmas:)
Whew! Sounds exhausting, but I’m glad that you will have lots of help.
So glad the inspection we to fixnt well with only minor things to fix. I’m sure that has to be a relief.
Hope everything continues to go well. Looking forward to hearing what He has in store for you in this new adventure.
Thank you. It is a relief!
Oh my goodness Becky, your family sure is busy! When we put our home on the market years ago our realtor advised us to rent a storage unit before we ever listed it and clear most of the stuff out of our home to begin with. Just bare bones furniture and kitchen stuff was left in the house. It made it look bigger, and with 3 kids under 3 year of age, it really helped to not have as many toys to pick up every day!
Debbie,
We put SO much in bins in the basement for the same reason. I know the actual packing will take a long time, but we’ve done so much sorting already that I know it will be easier than it would have been!
Everything is moving forward. Getting done and headed toward completion. I can’t wait until you start looking for the new home.
I have a feeling I will be a VERY motivated shopper after about 3 days in that RV with all of us:)