B.O.A.T.

Boaters love to tell everyone that BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand. They call $1000 a Boat Unit. That may well be true, but lately our house has been getting all the thousands broken out on it. Having the driveway graveled, tiling four bathroom floors, all new carpet, new A/C unit installation and a new hot water heater took several B.O.A.T. units. Whoever buys this house is going to get one nice place to live.

The For Sale sign is up and we officially have our house on the market. Way back in late 2010 we started to take little steps toward our goal of cruising on a sailboat. From the day Brenda said, "So, here is my timeline." we have geared much of our time toward this goal. Practicing sailing and reading everything we could find on sailing skills and adventure were the easy parts. Getting rid of our trash/treasure and updating the house were more difficult to get enthused about. We have nearly cleaned the house out, but we still have a mountain of stuff in the big garage to dispose of yet. We have decided to just donate it all except for our remaining furniture. We still need to have a place to sit and sleep until we actually sell the house.

Mike can't wait until the day he gets to advertise his big beautiful snowblower for sale. Three to four hours of snowblowing in the dark after work is not his favorite activity. Brenda on the other hand may actually miss her big riding lawn tractor. She always seemed content when she plugged in her headphones and mowed for 2 to 3 hours. It was her free time to let her mind wander as the grass clippings flew.

 

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A Big Step

We signed an agreement with our realtors last night to sell our house. For the past fifteen years it has been our home, retreat, playground and shelter. It has served us well and hopefully will make another young family very happy too.

We don't expect much interest or activity this late in the season, but you never know. All it takes is one family looking for a big country home. Almost all our work is done, but just like a boat there is always something that needs attention. We will continue to sell/give away our accumulation of possessions and touch up a few more items on the house.

Mike is busy drooling over some of the sailboat bargains that are passing by before we are in a position to buy. That Westsail 32 project for $11,000 and a Tayana 37 beauty going for a ridiculous price of just $23,000 are just teasing him. Pretty soon he can start the boat search for real. That will be the next really big step.

No pressure Mr. Realtor, but we really want to go sailing.

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Not my air compressor!

This past weekend Brenda and our son Matt set up a moving sale in our big garage. We have so much stuff to get rid of it is unbelievable. We hauled endless loads out to the garage and then threw open the doors thinking we would sell frivolously. Yup, sell stuff like we don't care. A nice change from buying frivolously. Bikes, toys, tools, furniture, knick-knacks, lights, gardening supplies, table saws, scroll saws and so much more.

I'm not one who becomes attached emotionally to things. My things are just that - things. It didn't bother me in the least to see my old cast iron tablesaw go out the door. I've made hundreds of home improvements and gifts with that old saw, yet I was fine seeing it bouncing away in the back of a farmer's pickup. Things were a little different though when I helped a nice gentleman load my big 220 volt air compressor on his truck. I didn't like seeing my air compressor leaving for some reason. I obviously couldn't take it with me, so why was I regretting its sale?

That big ol' compressor has blown up the tires on our kids inflatable toys, bicycles and later their car tires. I guess maybe it was something I associated with a wonderful chapter of my life that is now in the past.

The house is beginning to empty out quickly now, so lets hurry up and start this next chapter.

 

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Oh! This is real!

Last weekend we kicked into high gear on prepping our lovely home for sale. As you know we have taken our realtor's advice and tiled 4 bathrooms, dry walled and painted the stairwell to the basement, cleaned out the basement and are removing as much of our personal belongings as possible. This past weekend our daughter, Tina, came to help Brenda staging the house. This wasn't easily done as our house is one big honkin' mess right now. Toilets stacked in the showers, boxes of stuff everywhere, furniture in the hallways and just general chaos.

Tina did a nice job getting the main areas to look uncluttered and attractive. Poor Brenda just keeps watching all her stuff go on one of three piles. Junk pile, garage sale pile and storage pile. Just as Brenda was getting settled in the process our good friends Jim and Joni came along to push the project along. At one time there were three women in Brenda's kitchen cupboards sorting, cleaning and mostly tossing all the contents. Brenda looked sort of shell shocked for a while. There was a constant stream of boxes going from the house to our big garage creating what can only be described as a mountain of garage sale items. Two people with three kids sure do accumulate a lot of stuff over the years.

I took everyone out to a Mexican restaurant that had outdoor seating and a big cold margarita for Brenda. I think Brenda relaxed a little and adjusted to the idea that this clean out is necessary if we want to pursue our dream. Seeing all her treasures dumped on a pile for sale made the process very real to her. We aren't just talking about a dream, we are doing it.

Happy anniversary Brenda. 32 years sure have gone by quickly. I love you and I can't wait to begin this new adventure with you.

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