Changing residences can be an intensely stressful activity for many people. And often enough, people do this when other things are stressing them out, too. A new job, marriage, divorce, an ill parent - all kinds of things can cause a move to be even more stressful.

While you may not be able to eliminate it, here are some ways to reduce this stress.

* Get a good dolly and a little red wagon (or wheel barrow). The wheel is considered one of the most important inventions of all time for a reason. It’s a good tool! Wheels make hauling easier. It’ll save your back and your weight bearing joints. If you’re no longer 18 and you feel things in your joints that you never did before, wheels are essential!

* Lighten the Load - or - Fall in love with your trash can.

There is nothing like a fresh start. And you can more easily get that fresh start by getting rid of things you don’t need and/or that you’ll never use.

If you are living in a house and have the space for it, I recommend getting a big ol’ dumpster and arrange for it to be hauled away when full. Get a good size one. We got one big enough to throw out a couch and an old, useless, desk. And we didn’t have to break them up into pieces either. Just lift over the edge and throw it in. Ahhhh….

* Go through your stuff and ruthlessly toss anything that you don’t think you’ll ever use. Sure, the packrat in you worries that just after you toss it, you’ll need it. I understand. Really. But if you’re honest with yourself, you know that there’s stuff that you’d call a four letter word (that I could use were this not aimed at being family friendly).

And don’t sweat it - that dumpster is begging for more stuff.

* Standardize your boxes to make them stackable. Go to a box store (e.g., U-Haul) and buy a bunch of their 16″ x 12″ x 12″ boxes. If you’re old enough to have a vinyl record collection, this box size is just about perfect. Consider some of their larger boxes, too, for things like dishes, toys and other things you have. Just remember, if it’s a big box and you fully stuff it, it’s going to weigh a lot more than a smaller box similarly stuffed. Where’s that dolly?

* Get wardrobe boxes, too. Makes storing your clothes a lot easier.

* Plan for a packing day. Especially for your dishes and stemware. If you have friends who can help you pack - invite them in for a pizza party to help you do this tedious and sometimes back hurting work. And, need I say it? Keep that dolly handy.

Be sure to wrap your dishes in something soft (we use big bath towels).

* Mark your closed boxes with the following information.

1 - The room it goes in
2 - Write the number of the box, followed by the word “of” as in “1 of “, “2 of ” etc. Once you know the number of boxes for a given room, you can write that number after the “of.” As in “1 of 9″, “2 of 9″, etc.
3 - Indicate if the contents are fragile.

* If you’ve hired movers, DO NOT let them move things like your computer or things that are irreplaceable if damaged. Move these yourself. You’ll take much better care of them than the movers will - even if you mark a box fragile for them.

* If it’s a big move, offer to buy the movers lunch. Fast food or pizza will do. They’ll love you for it, and will generally take much better care of you. If you have three people, that’s about $30 - well spent.

* Finally, be sure to give a good tip ($20 a person is a good minimum) — if they deserve it. If they were courteous and made a reasonable effort to be good with your stuff, they deserve a tip.

Follow these tips and you should have a much more pleasant move.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written, I’m so sorry to leave you hanging. The move was really tough, I didn’t realize how badly the heat will wear out my old body!

The last time I wrote we had moved our heavy stuff using Nationwide Movers who did a FANTASTIC job, and we still had to move the “left-overs” as I call them. Well, first, let me tell you about the moving crew. They came at about 9:30 a.m. and never stopped. They were on the clock and actually acted like it. They moved fast but were careful with our stuff. They wrapped everything in shrink wrap, I don’t know why they do that unless it’s to protect the surfacees but it did give me a sense of security. It ended up taking 5-1/2 hours but 1-1/2 hours was a break we had to give the crew because the garage door at the apartment wouldn’t open. There was some kind of a short in the electrical and since it was Sunday the maintenence man had to come from his home which was 45 minutes away. It ended up causing a work stoppage of about 1-1/2 hours during which we had lunch. Since it wasn’t the crew’s fault, we had to pay for the time they spent. Things would have been different if we had loaded the stuff to be stored on the truck first, but since it was on the back, we had to wait to open the garage.

After we got through that day, Brent and I still had to move most of the stuff that was in the garage and the attic. It really didn’t look like much but believe me, it was. The ReMax office we used to sell our house has a truck, I’d guess it’s about 15 ft long. They let all their clients use it, kind of an insentive to use ReMax. Anyway, Brent was off on Tuesday so we picked up the truck at 9 a.m.

We quickly filled it and took it to the garage at the apartment. Then we went back for a second load. There was still a little room in the apartment’s garage but not much. As we started getting down to the last of the stuff, nothing was packed or sorted and it took forever. By the time we had the attic and garage empty, it was 8:00 p.m. and the truck was full again. I really didn’t think there would be room in the apartment garage and we had all this stuff. I called around to see if any of the public storage places would answer their phone, none would. We were in a fix.

Well, it turned out okay. For my gift basket supply business I have some inventory and most of that we had planned to put inside the apartment. We took most of it over in the first load and just off loaded it into the garage instead of taking it upstairs to the apartment. So, when we got to the apartment, we just moved all the inventory upstairs and that left room in the garage for the second load. Whew! The garage is as full as it can be but everything fit.

It’s now over a week later, we’re all unpacked inside the apartment, and I’m LOVIN’ it. It’s big enough for all of us to feel like we’re not on top of each other, we have a separate room for our office and our inventory (plus we use the walk-in closet) and it’s just so nice! Cleaning is a breeze! At the house it used to take me forever to dust and vacuum, yesterday I was finished in 20 minutes! I love it.

We’re going to be here until at least the end of October. We’re considering staying through November so Brittany can be close to school for another month, it’s quite a ways for her to drive from the new house, but we’ll see. We also have some neighbors who volunteered to let her stay with them, we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the closing on the old house ~ it was a cinch! Only thing that went a little wrong was on the morning of the closing (closing was set for 1:00 p.m.), Brent and I went over and did a little touch up painting. We had 2/3 of a gallon of paint left over from when Terminix opened the wall to see if there was any termite damage (there wasn’t any). We thought since that paint was a perfect match, we’d just do a light coat in the living/dining area to cover the dirty spots. Well, it ended up not matching and the walls looked awful. The buyers went to the house to do a walk-through just prior to the closing appointment. That was the first thing they asked about! Well, we knew we’d have to repaint so we told them we would and kept one key to go back on Sunday. It worked out great because they were going out of town the next day and would be gone through the weekend. We went in Sunday, repainted, and when we left, it looked great. I’m sure they will love their new house.

So next step in our process is to wait for the new house to be built. I called the mortgage company on Monday to see how things were going on that and they never called me back. I’m going to have to remember to give them another call. Also I think I’ll go drive by the lot to see what’s been done, Brittany has her first volleyball scrimmage of the new high school season out that way tomorrow, perfect time for me to drop by.

Whew! The biggest part is now over, we moved into our apartment and everything went fairly smoothly. The moving crew from Nationwide Movers was GREAT to say the least.

Right now we’re just picking up the left over stuff ~ like my computer! ~ so I don’t really have time to write, I just wanted to put a note to let everyone know we got moved. I’ll be taking down my computer here shortly and I’m not sure when I’ll get it set back up. I have the internet up and running at the apartment, it’s just that we have soooooooooooooo much to do.

We close on our house on Thursday, July 28, almost exactly two months after we “put up the For Sale sign”. I can’t believe everything moved so quickly! It’s been a whirlwind.

Oh, also, our salesman from the new house called me yesterday, she said they “scraped” the lot. She said that’s the first step, the form boards should arrive very soon and they’ll be pouring the foundation. Isn’t that exciting? Things are starting to move along.

Talk with you guys later!

I don’t know why I forgot to tell you about my battle to keep my phone number. It just crossed my mind and I decided you might want to know what’s going on.

Well, we’ve had the same phone number for the last 18 years. That’s a pretty long time and recently started to notice that a lot of my accounts reference my phone number to bring up my account. I started thinking how nice it would be to keep the same number but realized our phone carrier doesn’t service the area where we’re moving. They don’t even service the apartment where we’re going and it’s only around the corner!

I had set up a phone line for my business through Vonage last year and have had a really great experience with it. I notice sometimes it will “cut-out” and the party I’m talking to won’t be able to hear me for a split second, but I think that problem is with my internet service. My internet is with Time Warner Cable and they told me that I lose what they call “packets” in my internet transmission. They said they’d fix it but never have (I’m glad I’ll be moving to a new cable line at the new house!!). Anyway, I’m sure that’s what that problem is. Otherwise, the service is great, and CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!!!

So, I decided I’d try to transfer my number to Vonage and use them from now on. That way I could keep my number even after we move to the new house which is way across town. Well, when I made that decision it was three weeks until the end of the month, only about 15 business days. I called Vonage and they said “no way”, it takes 20 business days. So, I gave up and decided to call Alltel to place the disconnect order the following week. In the meantime, I went ahead and set up a new Vonage number that would become our new home number.

The following week, now two weeks till the end of the month and only about 10 business days, I called Alltel to place my disconnect order. I decided to ask her about transferring my number. She called it “porting” the number over to Vonage. She seemed to think there would be no problem because it only takes them 3 days after they receive the request. I decided to give it another try and cancelled the disconnect order because the line has to be active when the “port” is done and then Vonage would disconnect my old service.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I did get a hold of someone at Vonage who put in the order for me even though there weren’t 20 days left till I had to disconnect. But in the meantime, I found out from Alltel that they won’t “port” over directly to Vonage, they use a third-party carrier. Vonageverified that but wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me who the carrier was.

Wow! I talked to Vonage again yesterday and persuaded the lady I was speaking with to EXPEDITE my order. She said that would help and it should only take a couple of days past the end of the month. She said if I have to disconnect before then, to have Alltel “remote forward” my number. Well, I haven’t called Alltel yet and who knows if they’ll let me do that.

I don’t know if this will happen but it sure would be nice to keep my same number. I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, if you want to save A LOT of money on your phone bill, try Vonage. Our home phone with Alltel cost us over $50 a month, it was usually around $54-$57 and that’s with NO long distance. We always use our cell phones for long distance calls because we have tons of minutes that we never use. Anyway, Vonage offers two plans and both include long distance to all the U.S. and Canada.

The first plan is the one I use, it’s the Basic Plan and it includes 500 minutes including long distance. It only costs $14.95 a month. You know, that’s going to save me $40 a month!! The other plan is an unlimited minutes plan and it’s only $24.95 a month. You have to buy a router which costs around $50 and you have to have broadband internet but you know, the money you will save by using Vonage will practically pay for upgraded (and tons faster) internet service.

Oh and with each plan you also get caller ID and online voicemail account. You just log into your Vonage account and all your calls are listed. Your voicemails are listed and you can listen to them online. You can also have the voice recording of your messages emailed to you, that’s what I do. I love it and having our home phone line on it will get GREAT!!

Anyway, you really should check it out.

Well, not much else going on ’round here except more of the same…packing. I am just getting sooooo bored with it, I need to “get on” with the moving part. But, be as it may, there are still things that need to get packed.

Brittany leaves today for volleyball camp at Texas State. We’re letting her drive herself up, it will be the longest distance she’s ever driven by herself, it’s approximately three hours. I feel confident she will be just fine, she’s a great driver, I just need to remind her that there are lots of Texas Highway patrolmen on I10 and they love to write tickets! She’ll be back Friday night, that means that this morning is the last help we’ll get from her for packing and you should see her room, it’s a MESS!!

There’s really not too much left that needs to be done. Brent’s off today so we’re going to run some errands like, buying a new filter for the fridge we sold (we’ve never changed it, yuck!), picking up that 10% off coupon for the moving company, and making a run to Home Depot for some last minute repair items.

Anyway, I found another good article that’s really relevant at this time, it’s a list of moving tips. Enjoy!

25 Tips for an Organized Move
by Maria Gracia

Worried because you’re moving soon? This really doesn’t have to be a stressful, chaotic time. Here are some tips to help you achieve a successful, organized move.

1. USE A MOVING CHECKLIST. Make yourself a moving checklist outlining everything that needs to be done before, and after, your move.
2. LEAVE IT BEHIND. Avoid moving anything you don’t really need. It is expensive, time-consuming, and physically unnecessary to move things you won’t be using. If you don’t use it now, you most likely won’t use it later.
3. GET RID OF CLUTTER. Dispose of broken tools, old toys, old clothing and other items that you no longer need, before you move. Give usable items to charity or hold a garage sale.
4. DON’T SKIMP ON YOUR MOVING SERVICE. Choose an experienced moving firm with an established reputation for good service and reliability. Choosing someone that is unreliable or inexperienced will waste more time and money than you can imagine.
5. ENLIST ANY HELP YOU CAN GET. You will get a lot more done, with some family members and friends helping you pack and/or unpack. If your children are old enough, they should be helping too.
6. BOX IT. Get boxes in assorted sizes. Be sure they’re clean, in good condition and have covers so they can be closed and sealed with tape. Start collecting them from your local merchants, or purchase them from your moving company. Liquor boxes are excellent. They are sturdy and contain dividers making them ideal for packing glasses, goblets, vases, etc.–but make sure these boxes have lids. By the way, an easy way to store boxes so they do not take up storage space is to open both ends and flatten them out. Cartons can be resealed with tape as you use them.
7. USE THE A-B-C SYSTEM. Everything you pack does not have to be unpacked the first day in your new home. If it contains essential items, mark it PRIORITY A. If the contents are important, but not crucial, mark the box PRIORITY B. If the box contains out of season items, holiday items and other things you won’t need right away, mark the box PRIORITY C. Then, unpack in A, B, C order.
8. WRAP IT. You will need plenty of wrapping paper and heavy- duty tape. Anything wrapped in newsprint will most likely be soiled from the ink and will require cleaning after unpacking. Movers use unprinted newsprint. For items you prefer to keep clean, you can purchase this packing paper from your mover. Kraft paper, tissue paper and shock-resistant corrugated paper make excellent wrapping materials and may be purchased at most major department stores, craft stores or your mover. These papers also make excellent cushioning and lining material.
9. MARK IT. Felt pens are ideal for marking boxes with information such as its contents, destination room, fragile or this side up.
10. LABEL IT. As you’re packing, place removable, colored, circle stickers on your boxes to easily distinguish kitchen items, from bedroom items, from bathroom items, etc. Use a different color for each room. If necessary, make a master list so you’ll know what is in each box. If you can go to your new home ahead of time, you may wish to stick a corresponding colored sticker on the door, or door frame, of the room that the box will be delivered to.
11. LIGHTEN UP. Cartons can be handled easier if they do not exceed 50 lbs., fully packed. Keep this in mind when you’re packing.
12. ROOM BY ROOM. Pack on a room-by-room basis, keeping the contents of each room in separate boxes. This will eliminate confusion and save time when you’re unpacking.
13. PACK EARLY. Even if you only pack two boxes a day, in thirty days you will have packed sixty boxes. Start in areas where the goods are not in frequent use such as the cellar, attic, garage, etc.
14. ORDER ADDRESS LABELS. Order address labels before you move into your new home. They will be great to have on hand when you need to indicate a change of address on anything. Leave a few behind with the people who move into your old home or apartment so they can forward anything that gets delivered to them for you. Give them a few bucks to cover any postage costs.
15. MAKE A SURVIVAL KIT. Make a survival kit for your first night in your new home. This should include items that will get you through the night if it’s too late to unpack or the movers didn’t show up. Helpful items to include might be: non-perishable food, can opener, paper plates, plastic utensils, bottled water, a flashlight, a few towels, sheets, toiletries, a blanket, toilet paper, pen/paper, a few small games or magazines and a change of clothes for everyone.
16. HAVE SOMEONE WATCH THE KIDS. If you have children, especially young children, it might be a good idea to have someone babysit them while you are doing anything that involves your move, such as packing, unpacking, etc. Your kids won’t be interrupting your progress and you’ll accomplish more.
17. USE THE ONE ROOM RULE. Set up ONE room in your new home as quickly as possible. This way, you’ll have a quiet retreat, free of boxes. You and your family will then have a place to go when you need a break from all of the unpacking activities.
18. MAKE IT PET SAFE. If you have pets, be sure you have a plan for when the movers arrive. Perhaps keep your cats in the bathroom with the litter box, or put your dogs in a fenced in yard. Also, take care to do what you can so your pets feel comfortable in your new home. Bring their favorite toys, give them attention, and don’t leave them alone for long periods of time for the first few days.
19. MAKE THE FIRST NIGHT SPECIAL. Make the first night in your new home as special as possible. It can be take-out Chinese food, or pizza, but you may sweeten the evening with flowers, candles and music. It will really make a big difference and will help you to unwind and de-stress.
20. DEVISE A PLAN. Before you begin unpacking randomly, sit down with your family. Discuss a plan, including where things will go, who is responsible for what, etc. It will help things run smoothly.
21. HAVE A TOOL KIT ON HAND. One of the most important things to have on hand when you’re setting up your new home is a basic toolbox that includes basic tools and hardware, such as a hammer, screwdrivers, nails, hooks, etc.
22. FUNCTION BEFORE FORM. It is best to first arrange your furniture, and then unpack accessories and personal items.
23. GET READY FOR BED. As soon as the bedroom furniture is delivered, set it up and put the sheets on the bed. You’ll be grateful that everything is ready for sleeping later on tonight when you’re really tired.
24. LET EVERYONE KNOW. Inform everyone that you’ve moved with simple postcards, or e-mail for those family members who can receive it.
25. GET ACQUAINTED. Once you arrive at your new home, schedule some get acquainted days on your calendar. This is a great time to figure out where the supermarket, bank, post office, etc. are and will give you a chance to get familiar with your area. If there is a tourist bureau in town, stop by and see what events and opportunities your town will be offering.

About the Author: Maria Gracia, founder of GET ORGANIZED NOW!, specializes in helping people get better organized to live the kind of stress-free life they’ve always dreamed of. She can help you organize your home, your office and your life!

Want to get organized? Get your FREE Get Organized Now! Idea-Pak, filled with tips and ideas to help you organize your home, your office and your life, at the Get Organized Now! Web site. http://www.getorganizednow.com

Well, we made it back from Salt Lake City in one piece. The trip back could have been better, there was a storm in Houston and we couldn’t land so they diverted us to Austin for more fuel. The storm moved into Austin and that airport closed as well. They had us sit in the plane on the tarmac for 5-1/2 hours and that’s after a 3 hour flight. Finally the time the pilot was allowed to fly expired and they didn’t have another pilot to relieve him. They had to put us in a hotel overnight. We were starving and tired, we got our pizza at 2:00 A.M. and conked out. We took a flight home the next day. Thank heavens Brent was on vacation and we didn’t have to be home for anything.

Other than that, the volleyball tournament was fun. Brittany’s team came in 11th place in the Open Division, that’s the elite division. They were hoping for better and probably could have done better but their coach was sick the entire trip and never made it court-side. He actually had to go to the hospital twice while we were there. I’m sure that had some kind of impact on the quality of their play. But 11th in the country at Junior Olympics ~ that’s pretty good I think.

Now Brittany’s on to her last year of high school volleyball and then in January she’ll be off to Texas State to play in college. She’s really excited and ready to “get on with her life”. We’re going to miss her something terrible but we’re also super excited for her as well.

As for our move, well, it’s moving along. We spent the weekend filling up our 10x10 storage space with stuff we won’t need to look at for a while. Other than that, we packed and packed and packed. I spent most of Monday on the phone getting all our utilities scheduled to turn off at the house and on at the apartment.

Yesterday was Brent’s day off and we went over to look at the apartment, wow, are we going to be squished. We measured and we’re not sure if our living room furniture will even fit! We decided to let the master bedroom be our office, it has a pretty big walk-in closet that we can use for inventory and such. The room we’re going to be in is just a little smaller and it too has a WIC (walk-in closet, that’s the abbreviation I see on all the house plans I’ve been looking at) too.

We also decided to hire a moving company to move the big stuff. We only called the local companies, do you want to know what they cost? Well, if you’re looking, shop around, we almost paid 25% more than we needed to.

First I called a company called All My Sons Moving and Storage. I looked them up on the internet, apparently they are a franchised chain because they are all over the country. When you get the stuff in the mail it makes you think they are only local, but they aren’t. They advertise how they’re “family owned and operated”. Okay, maybe they are family owned and operated but it really makes me wonder.

Anyway, I talked to Suzanne on Monday. She seemed really professional but told me it would take between 11 and 12 hours. That should have been a clue, there is no way on earth it will take three movers 11 to 12 hours. She recommeded a three man crew and that was fine. She said there is a $100 trip charge and then it’s $99 an hour after that with a one hour minimum. They do all the normal stuff like wrap with blankets or shrink wrap, move dressers with the stuff still in them, and re-assemble furniture at the new location.

We’re moving on a Sunday, that’s Brent’s only day off. Suzanne said they don’t like to use their men on Sunday but to not let that deter me from calling back, she felt we could work something out.

I then called Two Men and A Truck. They are probably the same as far as size, they are a franchise as well. Anyway, they charge exactly the same but he said it would probably take between 5 and 6 hours. Now sounded more reasonable as far as how long it would take. He said they’d charge and extra $60 to move the piano and another $60 to move the big screen TV. Okay, that’s resonable too. Sunday didn’t seem to be a problem.

Anyway, I had Brent call these guys back on Tuesday and at All My Sons he got a different person, not Suzanne. This guy was a jerk, there was no way he’d schedule a move for Sunday. So, they lost our business. He then called Two Men, he got a very professional young lady and was going to go ahead and book but because the move was on a Sunday, the price went up to $115 an hour. Brent hesitated and told her he’d call her back.

We were sitting there thinking about the situation when it dawned on me that the lady at our storage place said she’d give me a 10% off coupon for a company she recommends. Well, that’s not chicken feed so I picked up the phone and called her. She gave me the name of the company, Nationwide Moving and told me to talk with Servando. ( http://www.nw-movers.com/ )

Brent called and thank heavens he did. Servando was very professional, his company did all the things the other two companies did, you know, blankets, etc. They use a 26′ truck which is bigger than All My Sons and they were sooooooo much cheaper. There is no difference between the regular price and the Sunday price, they charge $85 an hour!!! Wow, there’s a ton of money saved. Then Brent mentioned the 10% coupon, and wow, they take off another 10%!! Also, there’s no extra charge for moving the TV or the piano. We were blown away, I sure hope they do a good job, I’ll definately keep you updated. We move on July 24th, I’ll post a review as soon as I get my computer back up and running. If they are good, we’ll be using them again when we move to our new house!

So anyway, the move will probably take between 4 and 5 hours at $76.50 an hour plus a $100 trip charge. So $500 should cover the entire shabang. I’m so glad I remembered about Nationwide. Now I have to remember to go pick up the coupon.

Well, we’re packing and getting things done around here. It was important for us to get our formal living room furniture sold and we did that. Yea!! Other than that, not much happening. We’re still thinking we’ll need more storage space but at $9.50 a sq ft, we’re hesitant to get more.

We’re going to Salt Lake City this week for Brittany’s last Junior Olympics National Tournament. She’s graduating in December so she won’t be playing club volleyball next year, she’ll be going off to play college volleyball instead (Texas State). So this will be an exciting tournament for all of us. However, it does take a week out of the time we have to get ready for our move.

The buyers want to come by on Saturday and take another look at the house. I told them fine, we’ll out of town so they can stay as long as they want. The husband has been up in Boston the entire time his wife has been negotiating the purchase, he’s never even seen the house! This will be the first time for him to see it. I’m really glad the contract is signed at this point, I’d hate for him to walk in and want to back out. At least we have the contract in place, that will keep them from doing something so stupid, plus, they’ve spent a lot of money up to this point. I’m sure they’re really excited.

Anyway, I need to spend the last day before we leave cleaning the house, I want it to look good when they come tomorrow. Also, I have St. Vincent de Paul coming to pick up 30 boxes of office and household goods along with a desk/hutch and a chest of drawers. We’re going to just leave it on the driveway for them tomorrow when we leave. I sure hope they come!! And it would be nice if they come early so the buyers won’t see the stuff sitting there. Oh well, there’s not much I can do, if the stuff’s there, it’s there.

I still haven’t gotten back to read any more of the Doghouse to Dollhouse book, but I think I’ll take it with me on the trip and finish it up on the plane. It’s a great book, I keep telling Brittany she needs to read it. She is so interested in real estate, it’s really kind of cool. The book is an easy read and I think she’ll enjoy learning the stuff it discusses. I’ll update you when I get back.

Brent and I decided it would be best if we sat down and calculated a timeline and I’m glad we did. When we actually looked at the calendar, we saw that there’s only five weeks until closing. When you take away the week we’re going to Salt Lake City for Brittany’s volleyball tournament and the last week so we can do a little painting and cleaning, that leaves only three actual weeks of work time we have before we have to move. AHHH!

So, here’s the timeline:

• June 25th - Rent a storage room. Apply and hold apartment.
• June 26th - Sign contract at new house. Go to construction house and see how all our funiture will fit. If anything is left over we’ll know we have to put it in storage or sell it.
• June 26-July 1 - Pack, pack, pack.
• July 2-7 - Salt Lake City, Volleyball Junior Olympics Tournament
• July 8-10 - Brent is off, get some moving to storage done.
• July 13th - Buyer’s mortgage approval deadline.
• July 24th - Moving Day!
• July 25-29 - Clean house, clean carpets, paint touch-up in living/dining area.
• July 29th - Closing Day!

The timeline is basic not including a lot of detail but it got me out yesterday working to get stuff done. I got our apartment picked out and I filled out the application. I chose an apartement with a garage, it cost $65 more but I figured we could use it for storage and it’s cheaper than the same space at a private storage facility.

I also got a 10x10 non-climate controlled storage room rented for $95 a month. I got a special on the first month, it only cost $25. It’s expensive huh? I think we’ll move some stuff there and if we find we can get it all into the garage, we’ll just drop it.

Anyway, all this is costing some money. This closing better go through as planned, I don’t know if we could make it through finding another buyer. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Wow! I was so excited this morning when in my email there was a note from Jeanette Fisher, the author of the book I talked about on my last post. She is a really sweet lady and said she read my blog from the bottom to the top! She’s working on a new book the explains how to use “Design Psychology” to prepare your house for the market, that’s what I really need right now, but I’ll also need the Doghouse to Dollhouse book as well when we buy our “fixer-upper”.

I just want to post her other websites for you, there are even more articles and tons of info on those sites. She even has two newsletters ~ of course, I signed up. I’m really becoming a big fan!

Here are the links:

www.sellfast.info - Sell Your Home For Top Dollar - FAST!
www.joytothehome.com - Live in a Home Designed to Support Your Happiness, Productivity, and Well-Being
www.designpsych.com - Designs For Happiness

At the DesignPsych.com site I found an article about using “Design Psychology” for designing your office. I thought it would be relavent since today was the day I absolutely HAD to tackle cleaning the clutter out of our office (which is actually our formal dining room). Actually, the article is more for after we move and I set up a NEW office but it gave me incentive to get this one cleaned up so we can get this house sold.

Speaking of working on the office, I took a “before” picture but I’m embarrassed to post it until I have the “after” picture to go along with it. I only got HALF of the job done, can you believe it? I spent at least 6 or 7 hours on it. But you know, it was Brent’s desk that gave me such a problem and took so long. He’s a “stacker”, he had things stacked that dated back to 1998, yeah, 1998. I brought in one of those big outdoor trashcans, it was empty when I started, it’s almost FULL now. Unreal. My side wasn’t that bad, I’m messy but I do my filing and trashing like I should.

Anyway, even though I only got halfway around the office, the part where I sit is nice and clean now. It really feels great. Not tommorow, but next week I’m going to tackle the bookshelves behind me and all the stuff that has accumulated in front of them. It shouldn’t be too hard, I can just pack a lot of the stuff in boxes and put one of those big labels marked with a “C” on the side (see previous post “Starting To Pack Already?“).

We’re liking all this home repair stuff so much that Brent and I decided that when we sell our house, we want to buy a “fixer-upper”. We’d like to move in, fix it up and sell it within a couple of years hopefully making at least $20K. So, I sat down at the computer the other night to see what I could find in this area in the way of foreclosures.

I used the MLS at the Gary Greene (realtors) website, pretty handy little tool. It lets me sort by location, price, size of house, anything really. I also searched Google for the term “foreclosure” and found a site called www.foreclosurefreesearch.com. It’s a subscription site where you can search by location for foreclosures that are for sale. Without a subscription it will only tell you the price, street name and zip code, but then you can take that info and search on the MLS and most of the time the property that you’re looking for will come up.

Anyway, I found two properties that are in our price range and the MLS gave me the addresses, so Brent and I headed over to take a look see.

OH MY, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!!!!! The first house was soooooooo unbelieveable! I can’t believe that people (as opposed to animals) actually lived there!

We didn’t think we’d be able to go in because we weren’t with our realtor, we just thought we’d look in the windows and walk around the house. The front didn’t look so bad, it actually had some landscaping and there were a couple of really nice trees. We noticed as we walked around to the back that some of the siding would probably need to be replace. When we got to the back it started to become apparent that the property probably wasn’t well cared for.

The back yard had series of decks that, I guess, the last homeowner built. You could tell he didn’t know what he was doing. The ugliest thing was the patio cover, to be honest, it looked like he layed plywood on poles and poured tar on it. It definately would have to be taken down. The back door had about a foot of its bottom missing. The garage was full of crap, there was so much trash in there that we thought we’d have to rent one of those roll-off waste containers that contractors use ~ and we’d probably fill it.

Looking in the windows you could just tell, it was awful. I think the house was 28 years old but the cabinets in the kitchen looked to be 128 years old. Everything was DARK, the kitchen cabinets were dark, the den had dark wood paneling, the carpet was at least 28 year old scuptured carpet that was dark brown. In the den there was one of those “seventies” free-standing metal fireplaces ~ UGLY! It sat on a brick base, it would definately have to be removed. The den had been tiled with ceramic tile but all the way around the room there was wood floor border that was about 1-1/2 feet wide. The tile was a cream color but in four places there was a big square design that was about 4x4 feet big, one on each wall. Who in their right mind would do that to a house?

As we were walking around, I just happened to notice that one of the doors seemed to be not quite closed, so I pushed on it. It opened! Wow, now we get to see the inside first-hand along with all the filth.

The kitchen cabinets were just plane gross. They were not usable, the kitchen would have to be gutted. The big walk-in panty was scary. It was hard to touch anything, actually, it was unbelievable. The tile in the den, ahhhh, it wasn’t laid straight. You know how tile has uniform grout lines, not this job, and a lot of the tiles were loose and/or broken.

A lot of the windows were broken. The doors throughout the house were dirty, hanging crooked, had rusty door knobs or had holes in them. The walls were filthy. The carpet was the oldest stuff I’d ever seen, do they even make sculputured carpet any more? And multi-shades of brown?

The upstairs was the worst. At the top of the stairs the attic stairs looked like it was going to fall out of the ceiling. There were holes in the walls, it looked like they had a mad teenager that went around punching walls. The bathroom apparently was situated in the floor plan so that some of the attic was beside it. Well, the wall in the bathroom, that was between the bathroom and the attic…it was torn out, you could just walk right into the attic, the wall studs were still there. And whoever did that terrible tile job in the den, well, they attempted to do it again in the bathroom but most of the tile here was broken and loose.

This place was unbelieveable.

Anyway, I did some research as to how much a house that size would sell for in that area. It’s a nice area but since the houses are old and there’s a really nice master-planned development just down the road (that’s where we live now), most of the houses are priced from $55 to $65 per square foot. This house had 2475 sq ft., so if I use the average, it prices out at $148,500. The bank that owns it is asking $119,500 (what a laugh!), that only leaves about $30k for repairs to get it to market value. There probably more than $30k in repairs and then there no profit for us. I’d estimate $30-$40,000 in repairs as long as the foundation is good. Hmmm….I wonder if the bank would take substantially less…like $70- $80,000?

Still, I don’t know if we’d be able to do what needs to be done. The house isn’t liveable. It’s not like we’d be able to move in and repair it in our spare time, we’d have to live somewhere else for several weeks while it was being cleaned, the carpets were being changed, the kitchen cabinets were being replaced, and on and on.

I really liked the house, but I think we’ll have to pass on this one. Next time we go looking, I’ll be sure to take my digital camera so you can see what we come across. That reminds me, several years ago we looked at some foreclosures as an investment, one of the houses we considered had a gunite pool that had come out of the ground ~ pictures are a must ~ I’ll be sure to get some next time !

The other house was very much so fixable, but it was such an ugly floor plan that I wouldn’t even think about buying it. And by the way, we found an unlocked window and was able to get in that one too.

Saturday was my day to get the front bedroom (the one that used to be bright yellow) back in order. Several years ago we had converted it into a TV room so Brittany would have a place to take friends and we wouldn’t be displaced to our bedroom. I also didn’t like her taking boys into her bedroom, this was a great alternative.

Friday night Brent helped me put the furniture back in place (remember, that’s the room the painter painted off-white), put the blinds and curtains back up and hook up the TV / Stereo. On Saturday, it was my job to clean out the closet, put the art back on the walls and make the room look liveable again.

That closet proved to be a challenge. It was where I had kept all the keepsakes from Brittany’s childhood. Her baby book (that was very INcomplete), tons of cards from when she was born, her baptismal gown and other stuff like that, her “pink box” (which was a cardboard box where we put tons of her elementary school work) and all sorts of “stuff” was in there. I also found a box of Barbies. They belonged to my older daughter, Stephanie. She claimed them before she moved out but never took them with her.

I decided since this was stuff that I wouldn’t need any time soon, I would go ahead and pack it for moving. I’m going to use a system for packing where I mark every box with a colored letter. Every box will either be an A, B, or a C. C boxes are boxes that don’t need to be unpacked quickly after we move. This closet was filled with C items.

As you can probably imagine, it took me some time to get through all the stuff. All the stuff had to be looked at, it all represented a memory. The funnest thing I found were letters from one of Brittany’s 5th grade boyfriends, Jerret. They still go to school together and are friends, I had to read them.

Finally, I got everything packed and marked. I moved the boxes back into the closet. The room looked GREAT! Here’s a pic: