2012 January 21

This week we finally finished the last item on our list before putting the house up for sale!  This was our list:

• Replace water heater
• Replace the water softener
• Replace the Floor (carpet to vinyl) in the laundry room
• Repaint the entire interior
• Add a ceiling light to the walk-in closet in the master bedroom
• Remove the carpet in the master and second bedroom to expose the hardwood floors
• Refinish all of the hardwood floors (3 bedrooms, hallway, living room, and dining room)
• Resurface the driveway
• Paint the exterior trim
• Resurface the foundation
• Seal the wood deck patio
• Re insulate the attic to bring it to R38
• Replace the floor and slider vertical blinds in the family room
• and the biggest task of all, de-clutter the entire house.  This has involved putting our hands on every item we own and deciding what to do with it; trash, going with us, charity or give away, sell, and storage.  Looks like storage will be only six 15 gallon plastic storage containers half of which are mostly pictures and home videos.

We started this work in October 2010 and just now finished in January 2012.

The last item to do was the family room where Patty's 23 year old (February Birthday) son Chas made his room for the past 5 years.  We made that the last room to spruce up so he could stay there as long as possible.  So three weeks ago we had Chas move back to a "real" bedroom so we could clean up and remake the room.  The room had become the "Party Palace" for Chas and his friends.

Chas said that was the end of his childhood when the room was taken apart. 
The room came out real nice!

The open house is scheduled for next week Sunday the 29th.  We are going to try to sell it on our own first and see if we can save both us and the buyer some money.  We did our research and have hired a lawyer, advertised in several newspapers, and bought a very nice professional yard sign.

So with the last house task complete, we decided to go to an RV show in Edison NJ on Saturday the 21st of January.  We haven't had snow since the freak storm in October.  We woke up to about 4 inches and still snowing. 

We decided to go anyway even though the show was about 50 miles away.  This was Route 10 on the way.

 We stopped and had breakfast to wait on the plows to do more before we set out again.  Surprise, all of the plow drivers were also at the diner on break!