Calm Between the Storms

This is like a hurricane.  I have not spoken from the heart about the thoughts that concern us and the mixed emotions associated with a life-change like this. 

The storm is coming.  In the early days after we committed to this plan our thoughts became crazy.  While we know this endeavor is exactly what is good for us, there is a mountain of unknown.  How do we get all this done? What if we overlook a critical something?   Do we have the energy to sort through every single item we own? What if the world’s economy changes like it did in 2007-2008?  What if our money becomes worthless? (Good grief, that’s a stretch but still a pretty horrendous thought!)  What if we get stuck in a country and cannot get home – or access our US funds?  What if one of us becomes ill or injured?  What if world-wide borders close? What if one of our daughters or Tessa needs help?  How can I let the silver, china and crystal I saved for and cherished all these years be sold to strangers?  How can Stan let his tools and his beloved Mercedes SL 550 go to other strangers?????  What about the boxes and boxes of greeting cards and Christmas cards I’ve saved all these years?  Can we bear to leave our lovely church family or our Solidarity family??  Or our neighbors, our community, our house, our garden!!  Is our relationship strong enough to be together 24/7 for the next five or six years?  — Oh shoot, that’s an easy one, we are good.  It’s only been 47 years that we have been together so far.

We have lost a little sleep, for sure, thinking about these things.  But we are very positive, optimistic people. Things will simply work out.  We have worked literally fulltime for the past month following to-do lists, making new to-do lists and going through every single item we own in our house.  We have visited doctors, made appointments for re-visits next April, and we’ve ordered the meds we need for 6 months. We have looked at every file and every photo, (shed a few tears and shared memories and laughter), and have virtually touched and examined every single thing in this house.  We have now made a neat stack in our garage of items we plan to store–it’s much larger than we pictured. We have a pile in our bedroom and bathroom of clothing and items we need in order to simply operate for the next few days—it too is a far bigger pile than we imagined.  The rest is for sale. At this point, we’re simply ready to get this stuff done.

Tomorrow, September 20 is a big day.  A moving company will pick up our stuff in the garage.  They will drive it to Cody’s house.  Then they will transfer Cody’s furniture and stuff from her basement where it has been since her whole-house renovation began earlier this summer.  Once her stuff is moved upstairs, our stuff will be moved from the truck to her newly available basement space for storage.  Could this more complicated?

The eye of the storm.  At this moment with the piles and plans in place, our next few days will be a bit more calm.  I think we are in the calm between the eastern rotation and the west side.   The eye of the storm.

We’ve never worked with an estate sale company before – particularly since we are not deceased.   But they do an amazing job. I’ll post a few photos of how they arrange and stage things.  Right now I am so happy we decided to go this route.  I surely don’t know what things are worth, i.e., what is surprisingly valuable and which deeply loved items might actually be junk.  But they do know about these things and they know how to merchandise the stuff. Take a look.

https://www.estatesales.net/GA/Atlanta/30328/3038508

This unexpected more relaxed time has given us an opportunity to work at Solidarity Sandy Springs again – boy, do we love this place. No one asks those who come to shop their name, address, income level or it they are documented. If a person needs food, Solidarity is there to fill their sacks. We also support MUST Ministries which serves the purely homeless and the temporarily displaced.  Earlier this week we cooked a hot meal for the people served by MUST. The next day we helped the Solidarity folks move donated furniture to set-up a household for a needy family in our area. What a joy!! I hope we find places where we can serve in Panama and in all our travels.

The other side of the storm.   Storm 2 is coming; the back side.  Oh, this is the part I truly dread.  Once the sale is done end of day on September 25, we will have three or four days to get rid of the items that did not sell –hey I have seen the aftermath of an estate sale and it is quite disturbing.  What a mess!   How sad that will be.  This will also be the time we need to patch nail holes, touch-up paint and do a general clean-up so our house is ready for the next owners.

Thinking of the new owners, Stan and I have moved quite a few times.  Our home in Atlanta is our eighth address together.  This home sale is the very first time we have actually been introduced to the new owners.  They are lovely, very likeable people and will fit into the neighborhood like a wonderful pair of kid gloves.  We could not have hand-picked better owners.  But it is weird.  I mean, this house still feels like OUR house but a couple of times we have been  asked to leave for an hour so they can bring in a contractor for quotes on the changes they want to make to the house (WHAT CHANGES??).  To the new owners, the Copelands, I write this tongue in cheek and I hope you appreciate the humor in it.  You will make changes.  You will make this place your own.  We’d love to see photos of the changes you make. It is, after all, your prerogative to make this property become the Copeland’s home.  We wish you the very best and hope you love living in this house and love this neighborhood as much as we have. Still, at this point, it just feels weird.   We are going to miss this lovely, just right place we have called home since 2001.