Houses

I hate to go so long without blogging, but there hasn't been time for a few days. The focus is on houses: selling ours and finding another one.

We have had lots of showing for our house. An Open House today. Lots of activity here.

We've narrowed our house hunt to two houses in Auburn. We couldn't go wrong with either one. We'll make a decision this week! It will be nice to be able to picture in my mind where we will be.

I have house showings down to a science now: turning on lights and music, opening doors, wiping down counters, loading the dogs in the crate in my car. Where do I go? Hmmmm. Let's see. If I have an errand then I do that. I've been known to park at Sonic and read a magazine (limeade and onion rings, anyone?) Today I went to Target and wandered, buying a few things I couldn't live without (face cream, hair products, a couple of shirts).

Another showing tomorrow. Hoping for an offer soon. Once you know you'll be moving, you're just ready to go. I know I am.

Off the subject, but did you see the new show Touch last week? LOVE IT! They had me at Fibonacci Sequence! Gotta love the Fibonacci Sequence.

It's How We Roll

Mickey is still recovering from his surgery, and still has to be confined to a crate. When we have a house showing, or we have to make a trip to Auburn for house hunting, he must come along. (Can't leave a post-op dog to take care of himself!)

He doesn't really like this tiny crate - see how sad he looks? But it works well for car travel because it has a place on top to run a seat belt through. That way if I have to suddenly stop, the crate won't fly off the seat. He tolerates it pretty well, and if I'm really lucky he'll go to sleep. If I'm not really lucky he'll start howling along to the radio. (Gotta have some music on the road!)

I always take along his food, water, and some treats. Yum! His favorite part of every trip!

Box of Quilts for Tornado Victims!

More tornadoes around here earlier in the week. 2 dead, 100 injured, 500 homes gone. Coincidently I received a big box of quilts Saturday donated for last year's tornado victims. Thank you to Debbie E. and the Crossroads Christian Church quilters! I've decided these newest tornado victims have the greatest need now, so the quilts are being picked up today to be distributed.
How sweet! Children have added their hand prints and names! I know these quilts will bless lots of people who are in need.

Today's agenda:

9:00 am Home Appraisal

9:00 am Termite Inspection

10:00 am Home Inspection

11:00 am Home Appraisal

It will be a busy morning, but I'm glad all these things are happening in one morning!

Living in a Clean House

The house is immaculate, still. I may need to run a duster over a few things, but other than that, it's all good. The problem: I can't find anything! I've hidden and put away and now I can't always remember my hiding places. Nothing important is lost; it's just little things like a certain receipt, or nail clippers, or doggy chew bones. They'll all turn up eventually.

Our real estate agent spent over three hours yesterday taking photos for our listing. It seemed like a long time, but after seeing some of the photos I can say it was worth it. He's done a great job of showing off our house. The listing should be on-line Saturday a.m. The lock box will also be installed and the sign will go in the yard. Whew! Let the showings begin!

We will probably decide which Auburn house to buy in the next week.

So what am I feeling? Hmmm. I really can't figure it out. I'm excited. I'm scared. I'm optimistic. I'm overwhelmed. I'm tired. So tired. I know everything will work out because everything always works out! But I'll be glad when everything is over and we're all settled in our new home.

Amazingly enough, I've gotten a lot of sewing done in the last few days. I'm on schedule to finish the current quilt top by Monday. I need to add borders on another top, too. I'd planned to quilt my own quilts for the book, but with a relocation looming, that's not going to happen. So I hope to send off two quilts to a wonderful quilter next week. I know she'll do them proud!

If You are So Moved....

I entered "Patches" in a contest sponsored by Aurofil thread - yes, it's the only thread I use! If you would like to help a girl out, please go HERE to vote for my quilt. If I win some yummy thread, I'll be having a giveaway here on my blog, so you can have some Aurofil yumminess, too!

The move. Ahhh, the move. It's keeping us busy. We've interviewed two real estate agents and selected the one we'll use. We've decided how much to ask for the house, which is much less than we would like to get, of course. Know anyone who wants a great deal on a house in Vestavia Hills, AL? Send them my way!

Tomorrow, a local charity is coming over to pick up the large pile of stuff that is filling our garage.

Thursday, the moving company will come see all our belongings.

The great news is that I have made time to sew every single day since Thursday. That makes me very happy indeed. I'm hoping to finish this quilt top for the book by Monday.

Today is a dreary, rainy day. Perfect for stitching. So I'd better get back to it! Cheers.

Roasted Fresh Vegetables

With all the hoopla (a.k.a., moving) going on around here, we haven't been eating as well as we should. So this weekend, I've been doing something about that! Last night I roasted a big pan of yummy veggies, along with some garlic, olive oil, and seasonings. It was wonderful with a chicken casserole and wild rice. Okay, so we splurged and had a bit of peppermint ice cream for dessert. Yummy meal! And luckily there are plenty of leftovers.

Yesterday I finally got around to cleaning out the bookcase that needed attention - what an improvement! I should have take before and after photos. But I didn't.

I also found more time to sew. Oh, that made me happy!

Today we have a real estate agent coming over to walk through the house and decide what price he'd set for it. We have another such assessment on Monday. Hopefully the house will be officially listed for sale within a week. Thursday someone from the moving van company will come over to look at our belongings; I may need to have some smelling salts available for him! Yes, we have a lot of stuff!

I'm reserving this afternoon for sewing!

Back in the Studio

Today I sat here. Yay!
And worked on the pile of loveliness. Yay.

I love being back at work. I lose track of time. Concentration takes over. Stress filters away. It's just me and the fabric. What a wonderful feeling.

I did get the door cleaned and primed. Today I'll get the paint out and attack it. I never got around to cleaning out that bookcase, but today I'll tackle that.

It's oh, so cold here today. Brrrrr! The challenge in this is taking little Mickey out the front door to potty. Lucky for me, he gets right down to business. He's doing great though. He wants to run! But I hold him back. His gait has improved; he still has a limp on one of his rear legs, but it's much better. I can't believe he's almost 4 weeks out from his major back surgery - what a busy 4 weeks it has been! Luckily, Mickey is now used to being confined to the crate while all the cleaning (or sewing) happens.

Hubby is sick with the crud. Poor hubby. He's home today and hopefully a long weekend of rest will cure him.

We have two different real estate agents coming to see our house over the weekend. The relocation company we're working with is sending them by to each set a price for the house. Then we can decide what price we want to set and which agent we want to use. The house should be officially listed sometime next week.

My New Best Friend

The Shark Steam Mop. Meet my blogging friends. Blogging friends, meet my Shark Steam Mop.

The Shark Steam Mop has been by my side a lot this week. We are best buds now. And my floors are totally clean. Steamy clean. Clean, clean.

I only have a couple of minor things left before we get the house on the market:

1. Clean out one bookcase.

2. Do touch up painting on one door.

Sigh.

Tomorrow I plan to sleep late if the doggies allow. Then I will relax over my coffee. For. A. Long. Time. And then...

I will SEW!!!!

(I may take a break at some point to clean out the bookcase. And paint. Maybe.)

Chandeliers

I was looking through some of my house hunting photos. I discovered lots of chandelier photos. I'm not sure why I kept focusing on light fixtures since they're so easy to switch out if you don't like one.
But I did.
Again.
And again.

Strange. Not sure what I was thinking. And I missed taking pictures of some important stuff. Oh well.

I had to miss quilt guild today because my mother and I both had to go to the eye doctor. I'm trying to get all my routine doctor appointments out of the way before the move. Two down. Two to go. I ordered new glasses this afternoon.

Tomorrow I need to take my mother to visit my dad at the nursing home. Then the rest of the day will be spent dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning the floors. By the end of the day Tuesday, the house will be ready to put on the market. Triple yay! By the time Thursday rolls around, the plan is to spend the day QUILTING!

House Hunting Begins

Here's a quick photo of the Auburn condo. Don't worry - that polka dot settee will not be staying with that rug! The "real" furniture will not be delivered for a few weeks, so we put the settee there so there is something to sit on. The rug will stay. Love the rug!

We looked at 7 houses today. Whew! After a while, they start running together. I tried to have a system to keep up with everything. I took along a notebook and a camera. I wrote each address on a page of the notebook. When we arrived at a house, I took a picture of the address I'd written down. Then I took other pictures of the home. Next house, another picture of an address, with house pictures following.

So when I got home tonight, it was easy to tell which pictures go with which house. I also took lots of notes on each home. This process helped tremendously!

I'm sure we'll look at more houses, and we need to get ours on the market. But we saw some great homes today!

Fabric Goodness!

Oooo Laaaa Laaaa! Yumminess! Look what came in the mail today!
I'm practically dripping with drool! Isn't this the most fun charm pack you've ever seen?
It's a late Christmas present (and well worth the wait!). I also got another charm pack with it. It's wonderful, too. I'll share it soon.

A Little Shopping Spree!

A good friend gave me a gift certificate to our local quilt shop for Christmas. The store has one big sale on Dec. 30 each year. I couldn't resist! I bought yardage of these two lovelies for quilt backings - they were marked down to 75% off! And with my gift certificate, I practically got them for free!
Little Mickey got his staples out on Tuesday. Doesn't his scar look great?! He's doing very well. His walking ability is improving every single day. He's feeling so much better, but now that he's improving he HATES being confined to the crate. He has one more month of solitary confinement.

We're going on our first house hunting mission this weekend. There are so many houses available in Auburn that seem to fit our wish list, so we are optimistic about finding the perfect home. At the top of the wish list is a flat yard, front and back, with only a step or two down from the house to the back yard- good for little doggies and people!

Of course, a room for my studio is also a top priority. I want a large room, hopefully with a big closet. I also want a big wall for my design wall.

I want at least two bedrooms on the main level so that if this is our retirement home, I can move my studio downstairs when I'm too old to climb those stairs. Plus when my mom comes to visit, she can stay on the main level.

We're almost done getting our house ready to put on the market. Since we did so much remodeling last year and the associated cleaning out, this hasn't been as bad as you might think. Thank goodness! In a few days, I plan to get back up in my studio to finish some quilts!

Happy Birthday to Elizabeth! My baby is 22 today!

After 29 years in Birmingham...

We're Moving!!!

Yes, we are. We're moving. Found out the week before Christmas. Still sinking in. We're moving. Yes, we are.

Hubby has a new opportunity in Montgomery with the company he's been with for about 30 years - yay, hubby! Proud of you!

But we're not moving to Montgomery. No, we're not.

We're moving to Auburn, and hubby will commute. Yes, he will.

Hubby and I went to college in Auburn. We met in Auburn. We fell in love in Auburn. Yes, we love Auburn. Yes, we do.

No, this doesn't have anything to do with our buying a condo in Auburn for Daughter 2 to live in. Coincidence. She will still live in the condo. We will buy a house.

Oh my. What a year this will be! You see why we've been cleaning closets, etc? Gotta get current home appraised. Gotta put current house on the market. Oh my.

I will miss my Birmingham friends, but I'll come back often to visit. Yes, I will.

Bowling!

I did a bit of "bowling" over the weekend - an overnight trip to Atlanta.
To cheer for our team.
With the daughters (along with hubby and SIL).
One of my favorite moments (besides our team winning): hundreds of little Chick-Fil-A parachutes, complete with little cows, falling from the domed ceiling.

Happy New Year!