A HUGE Job!!

One of the first things I had to do when we got here was go to the bathroom. Interesting, huh? Well, while I was on the throne I started looking around, trying to determine what had been done in that room. I had no idea how the huge job was going to take place.

The house was so packed with junk, boxes everywhere. The boxes were filled half with stuff and half with garbage. Every drawer, closet and those boxes was full of something and had to be sorted. So we just opened something and started. If there was a set of something it was spread all over, part here and part there. Everything had a chip or broken leg. Everything was filthy. There were shelves on the walls everywhere covered with dirty, chipped teenager-style knick knacks. I found the missing handle to the antique dresser drawer in a box in the garage.

Uncle Eugene was an artist and his favorite subject was nudes. Apparently he started doing nudes early in life, probably right after his teens and continued up to his death. Everywhere you turned there were more nudes. So we had to get them all together. We also gathered up the other artwork so we could all look through it and pick out what we liked.

We sorted and finally started having a garage sale 2 days after I got here. We had the sale every day for the first week and averaged about $300 a day, not bad. I advertised on Craigslist and Friday we had a $1000 day, Saturday was about $600. Our sales are going well. We need to make this money because we need to have the house painted inside and out. I can do the inside but I'm not touching the outside - it's black with hot pink trim. It also needs a window replaced and a couple thresholds repaired/replaced. The dumpsters we've been filling cost $100 a piece. The gardener costs nearly $100 a month. There's trash, water, power, and cable to pay for. But tomorrow is our last sale day, thank goodness, we need to get the house painted and get rid of this junk that's left.

I've been removing shelving and nails from the walls and filling holes. There were 2 walls of wallpaper that had to be stripped. Then the carpet will be pulled up. Dad took care of lots of trash before mom came out. The gardener took down the avacado tree that was attracting rats. My brother in law, Pearce, and Rick did a bunch of tree trimming. Pearce also plans to replace the broken, rotted window in the dining room.

So - the work continues. Mom will be leaving Thursday and I hope to leave Saturday or Sunday, as soon as the painting and carpet are done.

As much as I hate to see the old place go, it's been in the family since '65, it'll be great to be done and I can go back home to my soft life. I'm sore.