Preparations

So it turns out moving to California is fraught with details - selling the house, reducing our stuff, moving our stuff, moving ourselves, etc.


Our most immediate concerns have been with getting the house ready for sale. We sat down and made a list of what we'd like to do to each room, which took up a full sheet of paper, in two columns. Our target date to get the house on the market is the end of April. So we've been quite busy. We've replaced all the exterior lighting fixtures, the fireplace doors, and the bathroom hardware (details, details). And we've painted just about the entire house. Well, we hired some guys to do it; but we pulled the wallpaper from the two-story foyer - a dreadful job. So now we have new paint in the family room (and an emergent leak in the roof, sigh), and the entire upper floor (4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms). Only the kitchen and the basement stairs to go.


The kitchen will have to wait until we're done with some other tasks. I've replaced the countertops, which of course means replacing the sink, faucet and garbage disposal. That's almost done, and only required about 8 trips to StuffMart. We only had two days without a sink. I'm quite pleased with myself for a) tackling this job and b) not screwing it up. I think my engineer ancestors would be proud.


We also participated in the community yard sale this weekend. We had some tears and outrage from Thing 1 and Thing 2 ("You were going to sell my BOWLING BALL!!!"). Thing 2 retrieved a teddy bear, which he has not put down since. We didn't sell as much as we had hoped (~ $150), but the weather was rather cold. We'll haul a car load of stuff to some charitable organization, and try to sell the bigger stuff on flyers at work and/or Ebay.


The carpet installation has been scheduled and the electrician has been scheduled. That leaves the bathroom countertop and the kitchen flooring as the big remaining items.

Our real estate agent was out today (with his team of four underlings, in case you were wondering where that 5 1/2% commission goes). The had been planning on taking some pictures for some 'pre-marketing', but the house is in a shambles with the painters just out on Saturday and the kitchen in the midst of overhaul. On top of that, the weather decided to knock out our power about 15 minutes before they arrived. We talked about comps and set a listing price. When we get the blurb from Larryboy, I'll post it.

We've tentatively scheduled a move date for July 10. Lori has planned a 16-day trip across the country, with the highlight being a swing up to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and then a stop in Yellowstone. It should be great fun. I hope the boys have the stamina for it. We really need to find time to try to solidify those plans if we're going to do it.