CLEARING HOUSE

With 11 days until we move, I was wondering if that left enough time to sell our few bits of furniture and household items on craigslist. Previous items we've put on there just, well, were on there.

Wonder no more. The answer is yes. This afternoon I went on a Craigslist frenzy and listed 13 items.

People must sit there hitting reload, because before I was finished listing, I started getting emails, followed by me running around unceremoniously dumping stuff out of dressers and end tables. The place is a wreck. AWESOME! I'm lovin' it.

It's now come to light that Chip has a secret obsession. See that little chest we no longer own? Three drawers were FULL of change, not of the copper variety but silver and gold. Yes. Gold dollars, rolls of them. Seems the economy forced some of our customers to pay with gold dollars, so Chip started stashing them. I haven't counted yet, but I'm surprised our chest of drawers didn't buckle under the weight. (Yes, that's an exaggeration, but I couldn't lift the little chest without emptying it.) So here I was collecting little useless items I have to give away on Facebook while Chip was hoarding gold coins. Shut up.

We've cleared out so much stuff around here that it took me a good long time to find something to dump all the change in. And I continue to use, sell, give away or eat everything in the house.

Chip's laughing at me for eating oatmeal in July.

UPDATE:
--We got word that our house appraisal is good. There was a slight cause for concern as the market fell that the offer would be higher than the appraised value. One more hurdle cleared!!
--Chip has the next two days off. We're hoping to paint Isabella's decks, although at the moment we're having a thunderstorm.
--Gave our friend Yvonne some of my winter clothes for her move north to graduate school. Stay warm!
--Yvonne's moving out -- we're moving in -- to her apartment -- on the beach road. Yay. Our last touch down before the water, and it's one house away from the water.
--Still annoying my Facebook friends with Tammy's Shopping Channel. The boxes are piling up.

GRADING OUR WORK

I read the beginning of my blog yesterday. It has a very short TO DO LIST:

1. Sell the wine shop
2. Sell the house
3. Sell the current boat
4. Buy our cruising boat

That list written on July 19, 2008, looks remarkably similar to today's TO DO LIST! I have procrastination tendencies, but at face value, a four-item list and eight months to accomplish it?

Of course, those four items are just the titles of very long to-do lists containing hundreds of items. On those lists, we're not doing so badly. Last July seems like five years ago if measured in what we've accomplished, and for my own enjoyment, I think I'll hit the highlights.

We went through all the steps necessary to put our business on the market, and when the listing expired this month, we went the extra step of understanding the details and numbers well enough to speak intelligently about them. Our guerilla marketing plans go into effect next month.

The house looks awesome. We now have three empty bedrooms. The living room, kitchen and master bedroom are staged to look like a model home. We sorted, preened, pruned, tossed, resorted, sold and gave away enough stuff to fill several houses. The CDs were all uploaded to the iPod and sold in a garage sale. The books were sold on amazon.com or donated to the library. We sold everything from a desk chair to a pocketwatch on Ebay. We're now lean and ready to move on out as soon as someone else wants to move in.

Isabella, the boat we're selling, looks beautiful. I refinished the toe rails in the blistering heat of August (what was I thinking?), and we've got almost all the exterior wood looking great. The canvas needs two more zipper pulls, which arrived in the mail today. The bulkhead is refinished, the engine starts effortlessly, the hand pumps work, the electrical wiring issues are solved. She even has her own web site and is advertised on Craigslist.

We've shopped extensively, electronically and in person, for our cruising boat. Once we've sold two of the three things mentioned above, we're ready to buy an Island Packet. The good news is that in the intervening months, the prices have dropped almost 40%. That might make up for the fact that our house has also dropped in value -- just not 50%!

When I look at lists like this one, I'm ecstatic that all but two or three of them are DONE.

Since we can't measure how close we are to our goal, we can at least measure what we've done to prepare. Could we have done more? Maybe. Would it have made any difference? We don't know. All I can do is say, "Well done," and start on tomorrow's list.

HOPE IN THE WATER

People often express concern about us "leaving home" or "not having a place to come home to." Many think we should keep our house instead of selling it.

But Chip and I have a common bond: we were each the rambling sheep in our family, the only one of the herd that left the fold, that wandered outside the pasture to have a look around. To us a house on land feels less like being grounded and more like being tethered. Sure our house is comfortable. It's home in the sense that it's respite, a sanctuary from whatever is buffeting the four walls. However, it has never been our center, the place that holds our attention or our dreams. It has only been for us a place to safely harbor the kids on their trip from childhood to their newly found adulthood.

Neither of us feel any sense of loss in leaving this house. On the contrary, it's like shedding a burden that no longer has to be maintained, mowed, painted, cleaned or vacuumed. We can both be perfectly content living in a studio apartment, a tiny house, anything until we're living onboard.

The concept of home has always been an elusive one for me, but when I imagine moving into our new boat, putting away our clothes, making the bed, stocking the tiny kitchen, checking the lines one more time before going to bed, the moment when my head rests on the pillow brings with it an enormous, overwashing sense of finally being home. Finally, finally home.

Here I am on the road again
The song began and then in the end
I'll be standin' by the sea --Western Highway by Gerry O'Beirne

UPDATE:
--two appointments to show the house, one today and one tomorrow
--sold many more things on Ebay
--listed the boat on craigslist Annapolis and obx
--have an appt with a lawyer Monday to talk about offering owner financing on the store