Only 4 Days To Go

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Happy Sunshine!!

Had a harrowing storm yesterday in Spokane, which then tracked north....to Sand Creek Rd!! Good thing Mike & I decided NOT to stop for dinner and drinks at our favorite hang out - Northern Ales.

It's funny that when a storm like that hits, the first thing we think of is whether or not there's a tree down on our driveway either keeping us in or out. Well, at least this time, it was still daylight and it wasn't cold, rainy or snowing!!!

YUP!! A nice big tree was down over the driveway. And, guess what?? We had sold ALL of our saws at the auction we had last Saturday so.....thank goodness the new owners had left some behind in one of their load drop offs and Mike knew where they were.  AND, they had gas!!! Yippeee!!

So in pretty short order we were back up at the tree and Mike began sawing away - oh, Thank You Jeff that the saw was also sharp!!  I helped only by picking up the limbs and tossing them off the driveway.  Mike did ALL the hard work!

It's now Sunday, July 22, 2012....

Even though we had a contract on the house by early May, there were still a few contingencies to it so nothing was "for sure".  So until we had actually closed and it was a done deal, not a word of our plans were uttered except to a few very close friends who've actually known from the beginning. And, of course, family knew. Thank You Alan & Linda, Mike & Leslie, Kim & Randy, Tina C and Tina M for keeping mum on the news!

One BIG reason we didn't want to count our chickens before they hatched was that if word got out AND it didn't happen, my business would have suffered. As it's turned out it's been a terrific time for my business and I'm going out with a bang!

Once the closing of the house took place with all parties present at the table, the real work needed to begin. It had been agreed to that we would be completely out of the house on July 25th. Needing to deal with 37 years of stuff was going to take detailed orchestration!

We scheduled an auction for Saturday, July 14th; we began sorting and deciding what to keep, what was going to whom, and where would we store the few things we wanted to keep. It's been a painful but cleansing process.

The several days before the auction was spent bringing as much as possible out of the shop onto the lawn, setting up tables of stuff, sorting tools and just plain realizing how much we had and wanted to dispose of. Then came the rains!! Storms of a magnitude that we hadn't seen in years especially at this time of year!!

So, even though everything was covered as well as could be, we didn't sleep for several nights while listening to the hard pouring rain and wind.  AND, the worst was the night before!! Truly an unbelievable storm!

But with the morning dawning the clouds parted and the sun came out and people began to arrive by 8am. The previewing was supposed to be a 9am -- HA! People ALWAYS show up early. Well, they came and came and came! At one point, we had well over a hundred people here. But best of all, they bought and bought and bought!!

At 6pm we finally just stopped! Everyone was fried after a very long hot day. But the coffers were full! And, very little was left!!  A truly successful day!! Thank You to all who contributed to our day and thank you to those that came to say hello and goodbye! So many of our past clients came and it sort of felt like a "client appreciation" party. Nice, very nice!!

Well, today will be spent like yesterday and the day before....packing, doing a little real estate, washing for one last time, cleaning as we go, packing some more. Our dear friends, Alan & Linda, are due to arrive to help today. That will be much appreciated!

Ciao for now or now I must start saying Hasta Luego!!