Is this really happening?

I am moving in 19 days. I am leaving the house where I’ve spent two happy decades, raising my family. In 19 days I am leaving the place that has been my home, my castle, my sanctuary, and will no longer have the right to walk in its front door.

I don’t think I have been this emotionally labile since my teens. One day I am weepy and morose, the next I am manic with excitement. Some nights I lie in bed and my heart starts to pound and I can hardly breathe and have to get up. Other nights I fall into a coma of emotional exhaustion. Moving has made me bipolar.

I got to go into my new house yesterday, for the first time since being its putative owner. It is completely different than the two previous times I had been inside, when I was merely eying its potential. This time I was looking around at rooms that are mine. Luckily, I still loved it. A lot. That made me giddy with relief and glee. This is going to work! I am going to be able to bond with my new castle.

We just need to get through the moving days first -- and there are three of them, really. July 7 the movers come and box everything up except our beds and essentials. July 8 we move. July 9 the movers return to unpack for us and we clean and hand over our current house.

You’d think no one in the world but me had ever moved, wouldn’t you, the way I’m carrying on? Sorry, can’t help it. This is my moving experience, and this is my blog.

19 days. 19 days.

Still Daddy's Girl

Happy Father's Day from your Pussycat!

Going...going...GONE!

We sold our house!!!!!

Strangers Keep Wandering Through My House

It is Sunday afternoon, and I’m just sitting here at my computer passing the time until we must vacate for today’s open house. We did a good buff-up of the house this morning but it didn’t take long as we’ve been keeping it up very well all week. (There’s a concept! Keeping the house clean all the time!)

We’ve had some interest this week in a couple of private viewings and a reasonably well-attended agent’s open. There’s already been one building inspection conducted by a potential buyer. We are not accepting offers until tomorrow, so as not to exclude any interested parties who might attend our first general open house today. But we are feeling cautiously optimistic that we won’t be in this state of discombobulation and unnatural cleanliness for long.

Chaos reigns

Oh, the chaos! But it is almost over. We’ve had a bit of a week from hell, with chaos in my house, chaos at my office, and chaos in our poor exploding brains, but today is the wrap-up day, at least of the house stuff.

Yesterday the Got Junk truck came and took away many cubic yards of life detritus. That felt very, very good. Today our driveway was tarred or sealed or I don’t know what you call it. All I know is black stuff went on it and it looks very fine. We also have today our handyman Ziggy (that’s his real name, and I must say it does suit him) doing all the final bits and pieces of repairs here and there. Once he’s gone, I can get in and do a thorough clean (much easier to do when most of your belongings are either junked or in a storage locker!), and we’re ready to receive the buying hordes!

As of this time of writing, we have not yet appeared on the MLS website, but are assured it should be “any minute”. We are already featured on our realtor’s website, which I am not going to post here in case crazy people decide it would be great Saturday night entertainment to come deface our splendid new driveway, but if you are friend not foe, you can call or email and I’ll give you the link. The pictures do look fabulous!

The sign is to go up on our lawn tomorrow, and that’s a big psychological thing. That makes it very real indeed. Possibly a bit lump-in-throatish. I have lived in this house longer than any other in my life: nearly 20 years. It is where I raised my children from babies to adults. It has seen a huge and important segment of my life go by. We are leaving wonderful neighbours. However, we are only moving a couple of kilometers away, and it’s a great and exciting new beginning of the next phase of our lives.

But first, I must clean!

The House Journey

Well, blog people, you've shared with me the frustrations, disappointments and ultimate joy of being a househunter. Now come with me as I travel on the journey of being a vendor!

The euphoria has worn off and reality has set in. Our house goes on the market next weekend and we are working harder than people our age (and condition!) should have to. We can contract out a lot of stuff, but no one but us can box up our life.

Every day we get up early. I spend the mornings cleaning out closets, cupboards, drawers, nooks, the basement, and boxing and bagging up stuff to go to the storage locker (or dump) so that when we show our house, it will seem as if we have no stuff and therefore people will be terribly impressed by the masses of room in this house. I then spend the afternoons and into the evenings doing my paid work.

SRH spends all day doing repairs, weeding the garden, pressure washing things, boxing stuff up, and working the phone to hire people to do what we can’t. This weekend we had a guy paint the inside of our garage so that it’s now so sparkly white you could be forgiven for believing it to be an alternate dining area. In the next few days we have a guy coming to resurface our cement stairs and sidewalk, a guy coming to repair two bathroom sinks, and a guy coming to do miscellaneous other handyman chores. SRH also spends a great deal of time and energy slinging ant poison about because it’s that time of year and the little buggers keep trying to come in and take over and make our house look infested and seedy.

Trying to pretend you’re something you’re not is exhausting!

I had to go out and buy a blow-up bed. We are currently only using two of our four upstairs bedrooms as bedrooms; one is my office and the other a TV den. We were told that at least three of them must appear to be bedrooms because apparently house-hunters are generally of such low IQ that if they don’t see a bed in the room, they will not be able to imagine it could be used for such a purpose. They will look at our large house and say sadly, “Oh, only two bedrooms! Such a pity! We’d have bought it if it had only had one more!” So the couch in the den is removed and replaced by a blow-up bed resting on a couple of large suitcases, all covered by a cheap bedspread. Pillows, a table, a lamp, and voila! Instant "bedroom".

It was suggested I buy a blow-up doll to put in the blow-up bed, perhaps sporting a blow-up cigarette and the Kama Sutra open on the bedside table, but I think not.

TA DA!

Now, my blog people, I want you to hear the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey in your head right now, please. (Otherwise known by its original name, Also Sprach Zarathustra.) If you don't know what I'm talking about, please go find it on YouTube and have it playing before you read further. Ready?

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!