The Move

Sure has been busy around here!  Ultimately I find myself delinquent in sharing my stories.  So let’s catch up.  The following was written on September 24.  Today is September 30.  Sheesh!!!  I hope to do better!!!

September 24, 2021

We are DIY people.  Ordinarily that pays off.  We save money; we learn something and we get to use our brains and brawn — gifts God gave to us all.

Movers were scheduled to start this past Monday morning, September 20.  Lucky for us though, we had access to a van that belongs to Solidarity Sandy Springs.  We used it and saved a little money hauling two loads of boxes and crates to Cody’s house on the prior Saturday and Sunday.  Talk about aching backs!!!  Afterwards neither of us could barely stand up straight.  Also the weather did not cooperate.  We moved that stuff in a steady light rain. 

As scheduled then, four very healthy young men appeared on our doorstep Monday morning and were surprised to see there were only a few boxes and 6 or 7 pieces of furniture plus a very heavy washer and dryer set to be loaded.  They were probably thinking . . . oh boy this is going to be a good job.

They drove that half-truck load belonging to Stan and me to Cody’s house but could not unload it until they moved her entire household from her basement to her newly renovated house upstairs.  Most of the furniture and lots of the boxes were too large to move via the interior stairs. Rain was steadily pouring.  The guys soon were soaked and the move was nasty, indeed.

Surprise, surprise!  As the movers started carting Cody’s items to the upstairs, we learned that during the torrential rain that fell about 10 days ago, Cody’s basement encountered a slight flood.  Some boxes were wet.  Mattresses had wet spots.  Stored rolled-up rugs were wet on one end.  A bag of winter coats and a bag of shoes were soaked.  We panicked for a while and then Stan rented two powerful floor fans and set them up.  We rolled out the rugs and put stuff under them to allow air to circulate over and under each one.  We put beach towels between the mattresses and their box springs to wick water from inside the mattresses and then raised them up on blocks every next morning to let other fans circulate more air around them.  The fans blew for 3 solid days.  As soon as the washer/dryer was installed again, we started washing coats and everything else that was wet or damp.  In brief, we miraculously saved the mattresses, the rugs and some coats.  Some coats, however, and all the shoes—all very smelly—are goners!

Note:  Never, ever expect anything less than the unexpected.

Switch-o-change-o!  Cody was a resident at our house for the past two months while her house was being renovated.  Now we are residents of Cody’s house.  She was off work for Monday’s move day but had to return to the job on Tuesday.  Stan and I went to work!  We spent the week unpacking and putting away Cody’s kitchen and anything else that did not require her personal attention.  And we organized our stuff in the basement.    We are very cheap labor.  But you know, we figured, the more of Cody’s stuff we could put away, the more our stuff we could store.  The kicker:  Cody may never find her kitchen things but she can just ask me.   I know where every item is stashed.

Our three-day estate sale began yesterday, September 23.  On the third day, everything will be 50% off. Yikes!!!  — No worries.  We have learned there is a strategy to estate-sale company’s pricing.  Everything is priced very high on HIGH on first day; second day it’s 25% off which is more palatable to some buyers.  The real sale and decent pricing begins on the last day . . . 50% OFF!  Boom!

Once the sale started on Thursday, we had virtually little to do.  The mad-rush was over.  All was in the hands of the estate sale company.  During the break, we had lunch with our beloved Pastor Dave and his wife, Sharon.  What a pleasant escape.  These two are among the most delightful, down-to-earth, yet angelic people we know.  It was an amazing couple of hours.  Pastor Dave and his wife, Sharon, were simply just Dave and Sharon.  We were just us.  It was a very relaxed time among friends on a cool but sunny day on the edge of Lake Altoona Georgia.

Curious as to how things were going, we stopped by our house mid-sale and thought, wow, there is a tremendous amount of our treasured things left . . . furniture, crystal, etc.  We had a feeling  there would be a huge load of items going to charities on Monday and probably an even larger load going to the dump.  But no, by end of sale, all furniture was sold and only odds and ends were left.

OK, to catch up.  September30, 2021

We closed on the sale of our house today.  It is a done deal.  Goodbye, you sweet house that has been home since early 2001. 

To prepare for closing, a charity came to take leftovers from the estate sale.  We spent the next three days doing a top to bottom super-clean and also patching and painting nail-holes and gouges made by shoppers and movers. The house was left in pristine condition.  I wish I had been so lucky as to move into a house that’s been left so clean by its former owners!!

Most people would simply have hired a cleaning crew.  Nope!  Not me!  Until today when we the sale closed at 1 pm, that house was ours and I would settle for nothing less than perfect cleanliness for presentation to the new owners.   As of this moment, the house we have called home since January 2001 is now the Copeland’s home.  To Miles and Gloria, we wish you great luck and immense happiness.

Tonight, though, thanks to Cody’s hospitality, we have a nice bed and a roof over our heads.  Otherwise we are homeless. . . but very happy.

Panama and a nomad’s life, here we come!