Garage Sale

We had a "Man Stuff Garage Sale" today, getting the garage and workshop cleared out of old tools, automotive stuff, camping equipment, electrical wiring, nuts, bolts, nails, you name it, we had it for sale!

Isaac was our official greeter. As soon as a potential customer arrived, he beamed at them from his stroller and said "HI!"

When they left he said "BYE!" and waved.

At times there were so many people coming and going, he got his "HI"s and his "BYE"s all mixed up.

Most people who shop at garage sales are pretty honest, but one person slipped us some Chinese money with a handful of coins. Oh well. It'll come in handy if I ever go on a trip to China I suppose.

And there's always the guy who wants something for nothing.

YoungerSon was helping a man with some drill bits and electrical parts. The guy was giving YoungerSon a lot of bad attitude, arguing the price down, and rolling his eyes in a very nasty manner at every price suggestion. They finally came to a sort of grumpy agreement, and YoungerSon even carried the guy's purchases to his car.

Then the guy turned to YoungerSon and said "Hey, can I take a p*ss in your back yard?"

NOOOOOOOOOO!

It takes all sorts to make a world.

SOLD!

My house is SOLD!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The good part is that I won't have to put up with critical strangers tramping through my house every weekend, complaining about the lack of A/C, and what? No central vac? And no powder room on the main floor?? Well, what do they expect in an 115 year old house?

I've lived here for more than 30 years. My children grew up here. I have a lot of both happy and sad memories tucked into these four walls.
I have delightful neighbours, and we live on a pleasant tree-lined street where everyone knows everyone else, and I am very sad to leave this lovely old neighbourhood.
But the house is too big now, and it needs a young family to move in and look after it, which is exactly what is going to happen.

So now comes the hard work of getting ready to move.

First priority.... find somewhere to move to! I've been looking at houses, both resales and new but haven't found anything that really grabs me yet. I'll keep looking. A tent in YoungerSon's back yard might be a bit chilly during a Canadian winter.

Second priority.... Clear out the garage and workshop. There are 30 years worth of "man stuff" stored here. Tools. Spare parts for cars we haven't owned for years. Tires. Lumber. Poles for a tent we don't have any more. Scrap metal. Paint. Motor oil. Bricks. Garden equipment. Nuts. Bolts. Nails. Electric wire.

A lot of the stuff has been tossed into a rented bin in the driveway.
I had a garage sale back in July and we'll have another in September.
I've taken 6 boxes full of paint, motor oil, various automotive liquids and polishes etc to the Hazardous Waste Depot.
The local charity shop has been given boxes of kitchen equipment.
The Diabetes Association Clothesline truck has picked up 5 bags of gently used clothing.
I gave numerous boxes of books to the Library Sale last spring. And there's more destined for the sale in 2011.
I bought a new shredder and have filled 4 bags with shredded paperwork so far. I love shredding!
The scrap metal man is picking up next week.

It's really liberating to be getting rid of all this stuff.

One Thing Leads to Another....

Back last October I tore up the stained old indoor/outdoor carpet in the sunroom, and it looked like this:

But as there's no heat in the sunroom in the winter, it stayed looking like that. Can't glue carpet down in the freezing cold. Finally, the weather is warm enough to get the carpet people in.

And here is the finished product. I'm very pleased with it. (Just in case you are wondering, the bottle is there to hold the glass door open.) But unfortunately the electric staple gun was a bit too powerful for my electrical wiring and it blew a breaker in the basement panel. I went to the panel to reset the switch but......

........ it turned out not to be the breaker, but something had come adrift in the wall as half of the circuit was working and half was dead as a doornail. So, next step.... call an electrician. And worry until he arrives. And this is the result.

He's located the problem... a home wiring job gone horribly wrong in the switch for the laundry room lights and he's been here most of the day fixing it. He even found a couple of loose wires in the panel that I wasn't aware of. Hooray! But I know it's going to cost me mega$$$$.

Later: The lights are working again and the financial damage wasn't too bad, but now I have a big hole in the wall to repair and paint! As I said before, one thing leads to another....

Getting It Done

I know, I know, I haven't been seen in blogland for a couple of weeks.
It's just that I've been busy.
Remember my last post, all about all the jobs I have on my TO DO list?
Well, I've been doin' 'em.
First, we moved all the furniture out of the bedrooms. I ripped up the ancient blue carpet and the underpad, hoping that the hardwood floor underneath was in good shape, but it's stained and damaged. Not totally unsalvageable, but not by me. New carpet will be going down soon.

The ceiling, previously pale yellow, is now white, and the blue walls have been primered, ready for painting.

And this room needed lots of attention, with special emphasis on the orange 1960s plush carpet.

I found a tile floor under the carpet.... not good enough to keep, so more carpet will be covering it. Again, a yellow ceiling is now white.

Why all the renovations? Because it's time.
The carpets have been there since dinosaurs walked the earth.
And I'm seriously thinking of making a move to a smaller house.
I'll keep you posted.

And now, on a completely unrelated topic, I saw a possum in my driveway yesterday! I've read that these animals are common in the southern States, but some sleepy possums have hitched rides on trains and trucks and have woken up in Southern Ontario, where they are increasing in numbers. They are North America's only marsupial, with the babies being carried in the mother's pouch until they are three months old. I've never seen one in my neighbourhood before.

S. P. R. I. N. G......

It's definitely on the way.
We've had a pretty good winter, not much snow and very few of those unbearable -20C overnight temperatures. My snow tires have only had to negotiate snowy roads twice.
The birds are squabbling over married quarters in the 27 apartment birdhouse, and the tulips are struggling up through the cold earth to greet the sunshine.

And with Spring, comes all the Spring cleanup. I have to start making TO DO lists.
Like this:

1. Get my snow tires off... better wait until April, just in case.
   
2. Wash my house windows. I can hardly see out of them.
3. Change the clock in Bluebottle. I already changed all the others. DONE!
   
4. Continue with the De-cluttering Project that I started last spring. Look out eBay, Craig's List and Kijiji....
   
5. Take 8 heavy boxes of unwanted books to the annual Library Book Sale. DONE! Thanks for your help, OlderSon.
   
6. Book my handyman for a couple of necessary household repairs. Booking is done, repairs to follow!
   
7. Move some furniture, paint a couple of bedrooms, change some carpets, rake the back yard (partially done), clean out the garage..... it's a never ending litany of "stuff" needing my attention.
   

Decluttering Steps 4, 5 and 6

The Decluttering Project continues.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a giant yard sale in the driveway. I spent a week going through boxes and cupboards hauling out "stuff" that hadn't been used in years. Magazines, outdated computer games, toys, books, ornaments, picture frames, plus numerous boxes of school and university books and papers, you name it, I found it.
Both OlderSon and YoungerSon arrived with unwanted junk really useful items to dispose of, and we spent most of the previous day sorting, pricing and cleaning everything up, ready to get rid of it sell it to prospective customers.
Now that the kitchen renovation is complete, I've been replacing kitchen equipment so there were lots of kitchen items on offer.
We were out in the driveway setting up tables by 7:30am, and our first customer arrived soon after. Anything that didn't get sold by noon was divided into three categories:

1. "stuff" to be donated to the local charity shop
2. "stuff" to store for our grand 2010 yard sale (the whole street will take part I hope)
   
3. "stuff" destined for the garbage. The garbage was the biggest pile!

By the end of the day the garbage pile included a large desk, 4 office chairs, a box spring mattress base, 4 big green garbage bags stuffed full, and 5 boxes of recyclable paper and cardboard.

Next phase of the Decluttering Project is well underway.
The sunroom that runs the width of the back of the house has needed some TLC for a long time. The indoor-outdoor carpet is old and stained and the furniture had seen better days, so I started emptying it out.

The white sofa in the picture is now sitting on the street ready to be picked up on garbage day, and will soon be joined by another old sofa, a rug, 8 rolls of old carpet and whatever else I can find to throw out.

I spent the last three days ripping up the carpet... ugh what a mess. The foam backing had stuck to the plywood floor so I had to scrape it all clean with a shovel.

Black dust flying everywhere, thank goodness for my face mask and the shopvac.

Next step is to repoint some of the bricks, wash down and paint the wall, install a new back doorstep (the existing wood is splitting), and decide whether to put down more carpet or tiles. Then it will need new light fixtures and some new furniture. (Update: wall was washed ready for painting and new light fixtures were installed today, yippee!)

I'm really enjoying this. The place has been a home for outdated clutter for far too long.

It's Snowing Again!

The view from my bedroom window. Brrrr!

I've been continuing the House Decluttering project, this time the living room bookshelves get the focus of my attention. Our local library has an annual used book sale in April, so I've sorted about 4 boxes of books destined for that. Plus I've listed some for sale on Amazon and eBay. Wonder if I'll get any customers?
That's enough for today. Now I'm heading outside to declutter the snow in the driveway.

Decluttering - Step 2

The decluttering continues!
Here's my fridge. Do you think it's time to spring-clean the magnets and all the attachments? But I need them all.... honest!

I've always admired plants with a silvery hue to the leaves, as in the picture of the garden top centre.... maybe this is the year that I create a silver garden of my own. The pictures on the right at the top are of my home town in England... a little bit of nostalgia to make me feel homesick.
The horses pinned to the main door live just down the road from here... zoom in and you might be able to see the birds keeping their feet warm.

What's pinned to your fridge? Or do you have one of the new stainless steel variety that doesn't accept magnets?

Of course, I can rely on expert assistance in the kitchen when the cupboards need emptying....

.... and my helper is extremely thorough when it comes to sorting out the plastic storage containers.

There's so much decluttering going to happen round here I might have to get a huge garbage skip delivered to the driveway.

Decluttering - Step 1

The first step to decluttering the kitchen...... tidying up the cookbook shelf.


I received the Good Housekeeping Basic Cookery book as a school prize.... for Progress.