Wheeeee!

[poliphilo]

A few entries back I wrote about wanting to "examine my life."

Thanks, Dag, you really landed me in it.

There's no more practical way of examining your life than by putting your house on the market.

All the stuff you've accumulated. Silly stuff. Sentimental. Bah: heave it  in the wheelie bin!

The estate agents want to take picturesof the interior and they're not going to do it with that chair in the frame. 

Oldham Tip-  here we come!

Ailz says that once you put your house on the market it ceases to be your home. 

Too true!

Life is suddenly moving very, very fast. 

I  like it.

Comments

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I went through the same process this early spring, and it was disquieting, but exciting at the same time.

Ailz is so right. The realtor has rearranged furniture and "blanded" down the house (I've put away all my interesting things)--she says, if people see your dollhouse, they don't see the wall behind it.

She's brought over pictures that make me gag, and she says they will appeal to most people.

Here's the clincher, the thing that gives me chills: on my porch she has placed a doormat that has flowers printed on it, and a little note:

"The place to be happy is here."

Every time I cross it, I shudder.

She's a family friend and a former realtor. I wouldn't hurt her feelings for the world. She is doing this for me because she cares about our family.

But she is so symmetrical! If there's a shelf with an object on display, the object must be just in the center.

So, like Ailz, I am philosophical: if she can sell this house, even with all the cloying sticky-sweet mottoes and paintings of rose-covered cottages, I can stand it.

For awhile, and then I will go crazy.

(I have at least the back porch. It's perfect.)

May we both sell soon and find new adventures!

Isn't this a wonderful surprise? This time a month ago, moving wasn't on your mind at all, was it?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Up until quite recently the move was impossible. Houses were so much more expensive in Kent than they are round here. But now house prices here have risen and house prices there are falling. We could even come out of the transaction with a small profit.

I'm amazed by the whole thing. I'd resigned myself to living here into my dotage.

We could do with someone like your realtor to come and prettify this place. We're doing our best, but we're just not capable of that degree of ruthlessness...

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I think her efforts are not essential.

You've redone your kitchen recently, and every penny you spent for that will come back in this sale. Same for me--I redid my bathroom.

She's correct about one thing--the fewer small things you display, the bigger and more appealing the rooms become.

I'm finding the hardest part (aside from seeing that doormat every day) is keeping the house impeccably clean--not one cobweb, she told me; not one scrap of paper out on the desk.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

P.S. I found Freecycle on the Web, and it saved me!

Freecycle is, I think, international. You can find a local chapter, and people who live nearby can see what you have to give away, and they will come and take it off your hands.

I met so many nice people, and they came promptly and helped me shove rickety cupboards and rocking chairs and tables into their trucks and vans, and I didn't have to take a single thing to the dump.

We emptied out, Kate and I, an entire tool shed full of (mildewed) old furniture.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hmm....

I must look into this. I haven't heard of it operating in this area, but who knows?

I've got Ailz looking into it now....

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about it, either, and only found out through an LJ friend, so I pay that forward to you!

Hope you have a chapter.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

OK. We do have a local chapter. Excellent.

And Ailz is in the process of signing us up.

Thanks for the tip. I like the idea of our cast-offs going to a good home.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Oh, good.

I even got rid of an old rusty bicycle by suggesting someone might want to use it for a garden trellis, and it worked! She spray painted it black (I supplied the leftover spray paint), planted petunias in the basket, and set it out in her garden!

I gave away bamboo poles for tomato stakes; white roll-up picket fencing for veg gardens, trellises; yellow chairs; two tables; a piano, to a little girl who was thrilled to pieces--I want an electronic big one with pedals next time; rocking chair; a 1940s bedroom suite with the veneer coming off; a pie-safe; bookshelves; dishes--and this all to many different families, all of whom were so happy to get them! Kate gave away cross-stitch fabric, and three people asked for it.

It feels good to share what is still usable, rather than dumping it for the landfill.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Once your landlords give you notice, your apartment is no longer your home. :\ We're going through much the same pruning process that you and Ailz are.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

To be ordered out of your home is horrible.

But the pruning is a healthy and invigorating process, don't you think?

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

But the pruning is a healthy and invigorating process, don't you think?

Yes, I think it will be. :)

[sina-says.livejournal.com]

best of luck with this exciting, harrowing process!

i'm not sure if you read my entries but i'm going to be doing going through a similar adventure at the end of july. it's comforting to know, though, that since i'll be moving into a much larger place i won't necessarily have to throw out as much.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We'll be down-sizing by choice. When I moved into this house 20 years ago I needed accomodation for 7 people and two cats. When we go down to Kent it'll just Ailz and me and a couple of bunnies.

Your move sounds really exciting. I like the sound of the "weird attic room".