HOUSE

Things Accomplished:

1. We now are the proud to-be owners of a Maytag refrigerator, black with an ice crusher and ice cube and water dispenser right in the door. Got a great deal, and have a rebate to mail in for a refund of the $50 delivery fee, and another one for a $100 gift card, since they had a special ending TODAY for if you buy an appliance you get a gift card for Home Depot (based on the price of your appliance). Yippee.....
2. We have been measured for carpet and laminate, and have paid our HEFTY materials fee, and will have it installed next Friday, 1/27, and possibly the 28th also, if it takes that long. Actually, since we used the credit card in the am for carpet, when we went to Home Depot in the pm, our credit card was not working until we called the bank to verify that it had not been stolen (unusual activity, seeing as how we don't usually buy $$$ in carpet and $$$ in appliances on the same day, or at all, actually)
3. We have an appointment set up to get our cable modem and digital cable with HDTV set up on Monday, 1/30.
4. We have an appointment to have the fridge delivered on 1/27. They will have to climb over the carpet guy if they are not early, but we warned each of them, so it will be fine.
5. We are pretty well packed, except for the bedroom. I will finish the kitchen completely today, then go buy some paper plates to use 'til the move. We ran out the other day and were stuck with napkins and tupperware lids that had not yet been packed. That sucked.
6. One more Goodwill trip. They have been the recipients of everything I can part with--clothing, knick-knacks, and even a pair of Waterford Crystal candle holders. They are just not my style, and someone will get good use out of them. I am sticking with my new motto--'be generous'. If in doubt, it is donated! We had a whole set of dishes that left. We have Corning plates that are impossible to break, and don't need more than the 15 or so that I kept. The others just take up space, and someone can now get a whole matching set of plates, small plates and bowls, as well as nice glasses and mugs.
7. Loan is all locked up, ready to go
8. House stuff is all ready to go, just waiting for our Escrow appointment to sign papers and be DONE

The Plan:
1/26 I am working either 8 or 12 hours (Did some switching to get the rest of the week off). We get keys officially at 9pm, but probably earlier. I am going to pack up a bag of paint supplies and take the bus home (if I get off at 3pm) or to the Windermere office (if I get off at 7pm), get the keys and head over to the house for some painting. They are leaving the colors of paint that are currently on the walls (I like a lot of them, but they were crappy painters and did not do a good job, so I need to do some touching up on some, and entirely new paint on others...). I will paint with caffeine assistance until Ethan is done with his overtime (around 2-3am), then he will come over and either drive me to the condo, or we will have some blankets and pillows pre-stashed in the car to stay the night.
1/27 Around 9:30-10am the floor guy is coming, and at some point the fridge guys will come too. I am really not sure what we are going to be doing this day (Friday). No real plans. Maybe bring some of our fragile stuff over, but one of us will stay at the house while the floors are being done (someone I don't know in MY house!). Either Friday night or Saturday we will bring the cats over. Oh...we need to break down the bedroom set Friday, in preparation for moving it. We had a really crappy experience last time, and don't want to repeat. It is SOLID wood and really heavy. Try as I might, I CANNOT lift parts of it with Ethan. Last time, we had to call a random friend of Ethan's (the ONLY one who I TRULY dislike, but so glad he could help out--it was POURING rain and no one else was in town to help us) to come help move things off the truck and inside, and everything got DRENCHED outside while waiting for help and it was just generally a horrible experience. I know I can carry the drawers and help with smaller parts, but this sucker is HEAVY!! Definitely a 2-guy project. And I do mean GUY. I am all for girls and guys are equal, but you can't beat those extra muscle fibers. Anyway, break down the bed so it is ready to go.
1/28 Saturday Move pictures/paintings on the walls, fragile stuff, the computer, small TVs, and the cats, if they don't come over Friday night
1/29 Sunday The BIG MOVE. Everyone Ethan knows has had him help them move, so he has a lot of 'moving karma' built up, and we are cashing in! We will pick up a U-haul early, and get going. We are enticing people with the promise of pizza/food and beer at the end, which should help. Maybe we will have the big TV set up enough to watch a DVD or something. We definitely need to get it set up by the end of the day, since we have the cable TV and cable modem guys coming in the morning to get everything going, and they need things where we want them to be. Also need go get the computer set up.
1/30 Cable modem and TV hookup, then we are officially done. After this, the focus needs to go back to the condo, and getting new carpet and repainting the walls. Karin, our agent is going to come buy with a designer to help with colors. They are going to 'dress' the condo with furniture to make it look nicer in pictures on windermere.com (for free since we are using her for both buying and selling). The wall colors are going to be chosen to look the best with the furniture, which will be chosen to make the room look bigger and nicer.

That is about it. BUT....we also have the NFC championship game on 1/22 to look forward to, and the Superbowl to anticipate. I have given the kitties Seahawks toes, and my toenails are also a lovely shade of green. We are ready to go!!!

Check this out......Songs 1,4 and 5 are pretty cool, as is 'Sweet Shaun Alexander' (to the tune of Sweet Home Alabama, the song played each week when he gets a TD)

http://www.kjram.com/main.html