Garage Sale Success!

My friends' garage sale on Saturday was a success.  Aside from all the stuff we sold, the weather was phenomenal!  I don't know how we scored a morning high of 80 with a breeze but it was spectacular!

Friday was prep day.  I got off work around 1 and went to my apartment to prep things. 

Liz asked if we could go get tables from a nearby neighbor... here Liz is in my front seat - isn't she adorable in my Texas Rangers hat?

We got the tables from a neighbor's side yard.  They were sooooo long!  We were just laughing!  But we had to have them - we had to make it work.  And then there was a gecko on one of them - we tried to catch him but he was so fast -- and skittered down into my car, never to be seen again... I hope he got out - we left the top down and a door open for a while...

Then I called two friends with pick up trucks and we did two trips with furniture and a few other large random things. After that we settled in at their house and we priced everything.  Wow - it was a ton of stuff!  It went fast, though, and it was so fun to have time to sit and chat with Liz and get caught up.  And her husband shared a couple of beers with me...

I stayed up far to late after I got home - keyed up - and when my alarm went off at 5:30 it was painful.

I swung by Liz's, we threw the yard signs in the back of the car and hit the road (in the dark) to go put up all the sale signs.  We got home, threw all the stuff out on tables in the front yard and opened the doors:

We had a lot of help, gratefully - friends and family.  By 11 a.m. we were ready to call it.  I was fortunate and sold all of my big items:  my bed frame, my set of couches, (I sold my couches to the cutest couple!!) a big mirror from over my mantle, and an overstuffed upholstered chair.  I was pleased to get all of those sold - but another item of extreme satisfaction?  My ironing board and iron!  Ahhh, liberation.

When I got home, I rearranged all my plastic tubs of shop gear and camping gear, and the other miscellaneous tubs out of the bedroom and into the living room, into the newly claimed space.  I emptied corners that hadn't been touched since I moved in, and cleaned my apartment from top to bottom.  It feels GOOD.

I was nervous the week before the sale.  Sort of unsettled.  One morning I woke up really early and couldn't sleep.  I texted Nina, "I am irrationally anxious about selling my couches and bed."  I knew I could count on her - she replied back that while she "got it" - couches and beds are the foundations of our homes - they are what make them comfortable --  I needed to "bootstrap it and get the stuff out" that this is what it was going to take to launch our new lives.  It was just what I needed to hear.  She followed up with a note that we are in this together, even though I am in Dallas and she is in California.  And that we are making this happen.  She's right:  we ARE.

My mattress and box springs are on the floor now.  My living room consists of my area rug, my footlocker that doubles as a computer desk, and my television.  You know... the essentials.  lol

I still have more to go to fit into 112 square feet, but I'm honestly getting there - it's pretty amazing!  I'm super excited.  I.  feel.  free.

Happenings...

Hello, yes, I am here.  : )  I have been remiss in writing - and I thank those of you who have "poked me" with inquiries about my well being.  I'm awesome.  I'm super happy and thinking through house and life details, and getting lost in the details and options, and, apparently, neglecting to write blog posts.  Whoops.

 Several things are going on... here are some of them:

A big piece of news that is having a widespread affect on my life is that our big case at work settled.  We were set for a lengthy jury trial beginning September 30th.  We had mediated the week (?) before my Boulder trip, and the deadline for the final word on settlement was the day before I traveled.  But word didn't come.  Word didn't come for a full EIGHT DAYS - that's eight days of waiting to learn if (a) I could put my feet up on my desk and relax; or (b) I would be working 6-7 days a week through the middle of October - which would have left me less than 2 months of time to get my house move in ready.  Yeah, I know.    I wore my iphone out, checking my inbox for word.  Eventually over the weekend and into the following week I just turned my phone off.  There was nothing I could do to make word come faster and I was making myself crazy snatching up my phone every time my email dinged.  Anyway:  Settlement.  And that opened up an entire realm of new thinking...

 

I'm doing what I see as my "final purge" of possessions this weekend.  By Friday night I should be truly rattling around in my apartment.  One of my friends who was such a huge help to me when I had my sale just moved, and she's having a big sale.  So I'm helping her prepare, and I'm also putting a LOT of things in the sale.  My plan is to sell everything now except those items that will actually go into my tiny house with me.  There are a few exceptions - my professional life clothing, for example.  I can't get rid of that yet.  And my huge area rug, because my dog needs that for traction on my hardwood floors.  : )  But out will go my pair of sofas.  And my bed frame.  I've been systematically going through each drawer, cabinet or tub with an empty box nearby, and really examining items.  I'm asking myself if I've used the item since December.  How often have I used it?  Is it worth keeping?  Where will it live in the tiny house?  And then it either goes back where it was, or it goes in the garage sale box.  I'm accumulating quite a pile in the middle of my living room - it will drive me mad by the time it's time to tote them to my friends' house.  But wow, I cannot wait to reclaim the open spaces.  So, that's that activity.  The sale is Saturday.  I'm scrambling to be ready in time.

I continue to work on my website content.  I have a bit of editing to do, and a little more first draft writing.  I think we will launch in August sometime.  EXCITING.  I can't wait to see the design on screen!

As for my house, it remains in California.  I was having such a hard time getting it to Boulder - meeting resistance at every turn - that I decided to pull back and observe, and to ask myself why this task that I thought would be so easy breezy was proving to be so difficult.  Ultimately, although we found a workable plan, I pulled out and said "no."  It felt wrong.  So now the plan is to continue the construction with the house in California.  Do I have all of the details of that worked out?  No.  Am I freaked out?  No.  It will come.  My next steps are to get the final roof and window measurements and get material proposals for those items.  I'm going to try to schedule the installation of those items within a few days of each other, and travel to CA for the installations.  At that point - and with a front door - my house will be habitable for "camping."  And you can bet that I'll spend the night in it...  : )

Unrelated to this post - the girls working on the purlins...

I've turned my focus to plumbing.  I am such a visual person, and I've yet to locate a visual on the whole system in place in a house.  I'm looking at fresh water and gray water reservoir tanks, and trying to envision where they will live... I used 2x6" floor joists instead of 2x4"s so that I could have tanks in between the joists.  But again, for me, the details are hazy.  How do I access them?  Where are the valves?  Under the trailer?  Our the side?  Obviously up through the floor isn't logical... So, I need to put on my vertical learning curve gear and tackle this.  I can do it, I just need to take the time for it.

When I can't stay focused on plumbing, my mind drifts to my flooring - a dizzyingly fun storm of ideas...

Meanwhile, I'm lining up details for what my life will look like in 6-8 months; my apartment lease expires December 12th.  (Um, it is late July! Eeeek.)  I'm listening to my heart, and trying to be mindful of taking my brain with me in my decisions.  My path just keeps unfolding in front of me, and I am so happy to keep moving forward.

Thanks for reading...

 

 

My Life is a Story Problem

Have you ever been at a cross roads where you have so many options - that your life has so many possibilities - that you could honestly say, "Wow.  Well, I don't know - anything could happen"?  

I am there.

And that, my friends, is about how much sense I am making of everything today.

I can appreciate the beauty of having choices - I can. But ...  LOL  Oh my gosh!  I might be losing my mind.  Ahhhh.  At least I am maintaining my sense of humor, and my sense of adventure.  Both of those are alive and well.  I just have to laugh...

Don't you pity the girlfriend with whom I am having dinner tonight??  LOL