Welcome to

Now, every room in the house is upset.  Even in the rooms which are not being changed there are piles of stuff in temporary exile from  their intended homes.

The kids have moved the bedroom furniture upstairs.  It now residing in the dining room.
The office furniture is downstairs but not yet set up because the carpet will not be installed for another two weeks.
The spare bedroom is empty except for the bed and we have discovered some unexpected difficulties with wires and walls which will make repainting it a project.

This is exactly the kind of atmosphere in which I most need my usual sanctuary.  My escape has long been to my office where I can retreat from the general chaos into a chaos that is at least of my own creation.  But my office is gone forever - to be replaced with a guest bedroom.  (Thinking that the bright yellow front room downstairs will ever become my escape is folly.  It’s not going to happen.)

Even though one of my Big Fun Scary Challenges is to cure my computer addiction I am resisting this change.  Mostly, I think, my problem is that I have nothing to replace my morning ritual with.  I would like to sit and read for an hour or so, a cup of tea at my side,  a dog curled up at my feet.  That’s not currently possible.  The only comfortable reading chairs are in the living room.  Hank’s morning ritual is to watch tv while doing his stretching exercises on the living room floor.  Though I used to be able to read with the tv on, I no longer can.

So the stress of having the place a shambles whilst simultaneously having no place to retreat is really getting to me.

And Tommy called yesterday.  He’s back in the hospital.

Please pass the Prozac.

I am not a mother myself.

My birthmother abandoned me.

My adoptive mother is long dead.

So mothers’ day for me is nothing but sadness.

Step one - prepare SeptemberHouse for sale.
Major work:

• We have emptied and repainted the downstairs front room - formerly a storage room. Currently the guest bedroom furniture is in there but we plan on swapping Lee’s computer room for the downstairs room. Lee is shortening some new curtains.
• We are having a bunch of work professionally done. The whole front entrance, door and transom area is being replaced as are the shutters on all the windows. Indoors, the upstairs interior doors are being replaced and the living, dining, bath, hall and kitchen are being repainted. We’re tearing up the badly laid carpet on the stairs and in the hall.
• The contractor has been hired and already the shutters are up. Indoor painting starts tomorrow. We have picked out the new front door and side lights.
• The foundation landscaping on the west and south sides of the house is being redone. One landscaper has given us an estimate and another is supposed to call today. I’m waiting for that call now.
• We are doing a huge clear out with which Susie (eldest daughter) is helping enormously. She’s done a lot of grunt work already and is taking piles of stuff away for a yard sale in the fall.
• When the contractor is finished his work the kids are going to schlep furniture up and down the stairs. Hubby and I are going to rip up the carpet in my office, repaint, and turn it into the guest bedroom. The downstairs room will be carpeted and turned into Lee’s office.

Staging:

We have gone over the house with the estate agent and she has suggested a number of things, most of which are addressed above. We’ll need to compile a punch list for staging. but that will come after the major work is finished.

Our target date for the Open House is June 15th.  Of course, Mercury will be retrograde.