More About Yard/Garage Sales

Three yard sales in October of 2014 helped by several friends including their husbands who could price shop equipment. One in January with my Huntsville brother and Pharis helping to pull it off. Three in February. One unsuccessful one yesterday.

Discovered that books do not sell. Discovered that clothes do not sell. Discovered that selling large items works well with a virtual yard sell, but not at all in a yard sale, especially when the Strawberry Festival is on.

Just packed up those books and brought them to Lighthouse Ministries.

Many other items that didn't sell well also went to The Goodwill. Saving receipts for 2015 taxes. 

The last items I hoped to sell just sat there in the driveway yesterday and then I moved them inside the garage. One day I may be able to park in that garage before the house sells.

Dog not for sale

Anyone need something here?

Family heirlooms were given to my husband's family.

Yesterday during the yard sale when I did not sell anything for a change, my out-of-town brother-in-law Danny, married to my husband's sister,  came by for four framed paintings by his wife and one stitched family tree created by my husband's mother. They understood that it is time these get passed on to their grandchildren or kept by them.

While Danny and I  were standing in the front yard, two students I have substituted for came by and Danny heard me rap for them. Danny also highly complimented me for being an angel taking care of my late husband who had Alzheimer's. Yes it was a tough job, tougher than downsizing and getting ready to sell and move.

Happy I could go to the Strawberry Festival on Thursday and enjoy large, juicy strawberries on a stick dipped in chocolate. The high schoolers working in that booth recognized me and I rapped for their kin working in the booth.

Dale Carnegie once said:

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.

So many little jobs in moving. I am excited about moving closer to my family in Huntsville, Alabama, renting an apartment and having a landlord take care of things. I am excited about living more simply and enjoying my good health (so far) in my senior years and then having less distractions so I can work on my dissertation.

However, my house has to sell first. 

Moving, Part Two

Vinyl covered pool tables are so great for sorting papers and for cutting out quilts. With a pool table likely to leave the house, I started to get busy cutting out a quilt for the last grandchild of my late husband. This quilt is a huge challenge,--a Doctor Who quilt with a phone booth on it.

Two people dropped out coming to buy the pool table. I had accepted both offers for $400. The third offer from this virtual yard sale was for $425. Two couples actually came to look at the pool table on Saturday and I gave them the suggestion that they hire professional pool table movers which is how our 1972 pool table was re-felted and set up in our den. While they were interested, they called back and said there was too much involved with moving and setting up a pool table and so they would not be buying it.

My dear friend Sally is always thinking of me. In October she had told a professional about my pool table and he had offered me $1000 on the spot for it. I still had his card where it said "buy-sell-trade." Foolish me I said I wasn't ready in October. You see I was holding on to remaining in my house and the myth that widows shouldn't make any major decisions in the first year after the husband dies.

That very first week in January, before the house was on the market, I did have a call from a buyer's realtor--another connection from my thoughtful friend Sally. I didn't hear back (maybe it was too soon), and so I had my realtor call their realtor. My realtor, Alison Terry,  sent me this text:

The husband thought it was a great property, and the wife initially thought so also. But after discussing what would need to be done for their needs, they decided it was too large a project and more money than they had cash set aside. The agent indicated he might have someone else who would be interested. He will let us know. 

My hopes of a quick sale of the house were dashed.

However, with a phone call yesterday I did sell the pool table for considerable less ($250). Guess who! Yes, that "buy-sell-trade" gentleman above. Why the $750 less price? It turns out my great Montgomery Ward pool table doesn't have replacement parts any more (he already had purchased two of them since October). He will bring me cash and a professional pool table mover will come to get my pool table.

In another week my newly-retired-rocket-scientist-Huntsville-Alabama brother comes and works with Pharis. The big project is taking up the rug and painting the concrete floors. I have a month-long substitute job, but these two men will work on the project while I am teaching. Pharis has already been painting the trim outside along with other maintenance projects.

I hear Pharis and my brother will also play golf. 

Moving, Part One

I had three yard sales in October and got rid of my late husband's tools and I will have more yard sales because I am putting my house on the market.  I contacted a realtor, Alison Terry,  and she is like a real dutch uncle. The second day of January Alison put it to me:

You have too much stuff. 

Make each room look spacious. 

Take up the carpet and just paint the floor. 

I am thinking it will be like no one lives in the house. Where will I put the stuff I need when I move? If she's going to be my realtor, however, I better obey her!

My realtor. Alison,  is in my Toastmaster's club and she remembered when I did a speech on "The House That Cleans Itself".  She thought it would be all pretty when she came here. Wrong. I have clutter again after six months of being a widow and previously a hard year when my husband went downhill with dementia.  Plus the rug has bad stains that surfaced.

Just take the carpet up and paint the concrete. 

Now to take up the rug means I had to get rid of the large couch in the family room that stretched from the fireplace to the garage door. Where Ziggy is sitting in the picture is my late husband's "Archie Bucker" seat--his favorite place in the house.

Now you can't move the couch and the pool table outside for a regular yard sale. So I put both the couch and the pool table on three virtual yard sales on Facebook on January 3rd and have been so busy with FB messages since then. I decided that when I talked to someone, I would know; they needed to call me after I messaged them, not just comment on the Facebook group. I was asking $75 for the couch and $800 for the pool table. Within an hour I had a lot of interest with Facebook messages.   

Two couples called me from the laundromat and came by when a comforter was dry. They thought the two-piece couch had the third section in the middle and at one time it did, but my late husband and I had gotten rid of that piece. When they phoned, they asked it were curved and I said "yes" because I thought they meant the curving on top. So they didn't take it. I guess I misled them on the phone. 

But these two couples did thoughtfully help me. They put that couch in the garage for the next person. Then they helped me move furniture. First they moved the living room couch to the adjoining family room. 

Coincidentally the big TV my husband watched in that family room went dead the same day.

They took the big TV to the curve and when I returned from church on Sunday it was gone along with the remote control and instruction manual I also put with it.  I gave them the big TV stand--such nice young folk. And of course I rapped for them! Only I didn't remind them to secure the garage which is getting a new door on January 20th.

So now remembrances of my husband's favorite "Archie Bunker" spot where he watched that TV are gone. See HERE for how this spot was his favorite spot.

After that it continued to be an adventure discovering who would take the couch now in the garage along with the pool table. One husband came by when I was at church and opened the garage with my not being there. 

Breaking and entering--ya think? 

He told his wife it had holes and rips, which wasn't accurate and didn't take it, after she had told me she was first and scolded me for not letting her get a chance before the above lovely group.

I had Pharis come over and secure the property after that gentleman entered the garage while I wasn't there.

Sunday night another wife came by. She would send an email to her husband and they would decide. He said "no".

So it was offered to a family of four who decided to take it. The dad tied it down while the son showed me some karate moves. Nice family! Of course I did rap for them as well.

Meanwhile, several people are interested in the the pool table. Now a pool table is a huge project to move. It involves setting it up at another location. Stay tuned.

Selling the house and moving is indeed an adventure.