Friday, August 29, 2008

TAKING MEASURE


Three years and three months into building our business, we are ready to pass it along. Our five-year timeline has been thwarted by unanticipated success. The whole shebang goes on the chopping block next week, not a day too soon.

On the seventh anniversary of building our house, we will be ready to list it. I wish we could claim that we built this house knowing it would fund the foundation of the rest of our lives. Instead, we were tired of renting and wanted to provide a more stable home base for the kids. As a bonus, this house doubled in value and allowed us to start a business that quadrupled in value in just over three years. Our nest laid a nest egg.

Five years after bringing Isabella up from Fort Lauderdale, we have her ready to sell. Her toe rails are glistening. The garage will be in a few days. The fuel and tank have been cleaned. The stove is working. the tachometer is working. It's possible she will bring close to what we paid five years ago.

Our belongings disappear by the day. The desk chair is gone with an overall outlay of $149 for 8 years of use. The princess jewelry, gone. Two pairs of Doc Martens, sold for about what I paid for them 12 years ago. The Jerry Garcia doll shipped to Florida today. Our original artwork has a home until Casey's ready to provide a permanent one. Two rooms are almost empty and will be once we have the energy to have a garage sale. Half of my clothes have been distributed, the stained glass window sold.

The photos have been sorted, tossed or filed, ready to ship to Chip's mom. My old files have been sorted and mostly trashed. At least half of the CDs are on the iPod. The yard is looking more like a landscaped lawn, less like an overgrown lot. The excess wood under the house is loaded and ready to take to the dump.

We're tired but thinner, exhausted but motivated, closer and wiser than we've ever been.

TODAY:
--shipped the Jerry Garcia doll and the Doc Marten boots
--got the Fender Stratocaster boxed and ready to put on Ebay
--had the fuel and tank cleaned (!)
--passed along financials to the business broker

No comments: