Still down to the wire...

Why did I let my guard down and start thinking that things were starting to come together and go smoothly????  Nah, more obstacles.

This is the 3rd day Mitch is working on the rewiring.  He was only supposed to replace the outlets which were black with white ones.  I have no clue why half the house is without power now and he can't figure out what went wrong.  We still have over half our list to complete before the open house on Sunday, and we've already lost 2 days with this wiring problem.  I say if he can't figure it out by noon tomorrow, we'll have to figure out where to get the cash and bring in an electrician!  Sigh.

At least on a more positive note, while roaming the aisles of Home Depot and passing the bathroom cabinets, it reminded us of how we were shopping for new fixtures just a short time ago (seemed like forever ago) and realized just how far we've come already.  Just gotta keep the faith.

Down to the wire - literally!

All photos were taken, virtual furniture added.  Wow!  The house looks really gorgeous, I almost want to live here!!!  (nah, my RV will be even nicer).

Now lots of little things to make it all perfect for the open house in 5 days, one of which is replacing many of the outlets.  Unfortunately, Mitch discovered a huge problem with the wiring in the house, so what should have taken a few hours has now turned into a full day with probably another half, possibly full day to finish rewiring everything.  Cause was a lot of crossed wires which we didn't know about until we added a chandelier, which blew a fuse when we turned it on upstairs and off downstairs.  Then discovered a whole bunch of things were on the same fuse which shouldn't be.  Plus had to add some GFI switches which took extra time.

2nd to last round of purging

Much of the stuff that we were a little undecided on were hidden away in closets and drawers and cabinets.  Unfortunately, said closets etc. look like Fibber McGee's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9FGC68YcwM).  Since people will be open closets and cabinets next week, our work is cut out - to do the next round of extreme purging so that everything is all neat and organized.   Bought a whole bunch of storage containers last night.  This will be good practice for the RV anyway.

Really closing in now!!!

OMG, how did we get to this point???  All the room are nearly empty except the kitchen set and bedroom, which we need (and we left the recliner in the living room).

As many repairs as possible have been made.  The only drawbacks now, which we'll take a hit on price for, are the front steps are ugly and the driveway needs repaving.  We even had a landscaper come in today to clean the leaves and gumballs left over under the snow as well as pare back some branches on the shrubs.

The house is being listed this week - Thursday, March 20, 2014 to be exact.  Photographer is coming for the shoot and we expect the photos will be on the internet and MLS listings by Wed. 3/26.  Having an open house 1 week from tomorrow -- Sunday, March 30th!!!

My realtor feels very confident that we'll get an immediate offer.  From her mouth to God's ears!!!  I'll let you know!  Meanwhile this week means putting away all the last minute clutter laying around.

As for the rig - I found a used model that I absolutely fell in love with and really hope it all works out.  It's smaller than we wanted, but it's a top of the line and the floorplan is just perfect for us.  It's a 2006 Excel Limited 33RSE model and is in combo with a Ford F350 dually.  So it's all ready to go, except not boondock ready, so we'll need to install a genny and solar panels.  But it could fail inspection, or it may not be generator pre-wired, which may be deal breakers.  It's also located in So. CA.

But one step at a time.  I just can't believe we're at this point already.  Starting to get a little scared though.

We're getting close at last!!!

OMG, how did we get to this point already?  Seems like I've been doing nothing but complaining about one obstacle after the next, but it looks like we sign the papers to list the house in 2 weeks (March 20th, 2014)!  Almost everything that we're not taking with us or that Mitch needs a little extra time to figure out is or will be gone by then.  The rooms, except for our kitchen table and bedroom set will be completely empty.  In fact, there's this awesome online service in which you provide them with photos of your empty room and they insert virtual furniture, so it appears that the house is nicely staged.  Then when buyers come to look, you can just say you've started moving since the photos were taken.  Personally, for me, I find I'm too distracted by the furniture - I can't envision my own stuff in a room and rather find myself judging what's already there.

So this weekend someone is picking up our dining room set.  Monday the couch goes in the dumpster.  The last remnants of contract work (garage door openers installed, some sheetrock to cover a huge hole in the garage, and restaining the stairs) will be done on Monday.  Then we just need to do a few paint touchups in each room, and remove the remaining clutter (which will be put in boxes neatly on the shelves lining the garage).

So we're almost there!!!!  Unbelievable.

Didn't get the job offer

As my previous posts mentioned, I was kind of hoping for this outcome.  However, it's getting really scary now as money is very quickly running out and the house still isn't ready to be listed.  Mitch's work has been picking up more lately, and I can't do any work in the house at all because everything left is all his stuff, which I can't identify so I don't know if it's something he needs or not.  I'm also having a really hard time finding placements for the cats, which we've decided cannot come with us, nor can we show the house with them around.  However, we don't want them to live in cages at a shelter, and even if we did, the shelters are overflowing and only taking in strays and at risk animals, not surrenders.

Feeling very frustrated and scared right now. 

Frustrated with cleanup project

First, nothing on the job offer front, so no update there.  I kind of feel very relieved especially since I have another potential new lead.

Very frustrated with M.  Seems every time we work on cleaning up, we get into a huge fight.  I have to give him credit (again) that he has mostly given up his pack rat mentality and is willing to part with many things that he doesn't think he'll need for his work.  HOWEVER, now he's decided to go green and instead of putting everything in the dumpster that's still in our driveway, he has to take photos and put stuff up on Freecycle (one man's junk is another one's treasure).  We could have the place totally cleaned out in a day or 2 if we throw everything away.  He doesn't seem to understand how much extra time it's taking to list each and every item, respond to the emails and mark it and set it aside for pickup.  Ok, I'm kind of doing the same thing, but putting stuff in boxes for pickup by a local charity, so it doesn't take up any of my time.  I'm beginning to feel like we'll NEVER get this place cleaned out and listed, and it can so easily be done within a week.