One family project

During our visit I organized the items in our crawl space (did I mention that I kept a spreadsheet containing all the box numbers and their contents?) and made a schematic of where everything is located.

-

Mom wanted to reduce her desk in size and move it from the hall to their bedroom.
Here are the happy carpenters getting ready to saw apart the desk.

UHaul arrives in Ohio safely

We finally arrive in Ohio late Monday night, visit with family for a bit and fall into bed. My sister Sharon and her husband Carl put and addition on their home and we are storing our stuff in the crawl space underneath. The crawl space is about 5' so my Dad made a couple of rolling work benches that saved our backs. Also we 'hired' our nephew, Robert and two of his friends to carry stuff out of the truck, thru the breezeway, down the stairs to the basement, then up 4 cement block steps into the crawl space. In this picture we have just opened the truck, Mark, my brother Bob and Roberts' friend Cody were available for this photo....

Char and Chris

and let's not forget Char and Chris....

UHaul visit Marvin and Char

On our way to Ohio we stopped in Kansas City to visit Mark's Uncle Fred and Aunt Yvonne the first night (Saturday, August 16th), then continue to Illinois to visit Marvin and Char. For those of you have followed this blog from the beginning, Marvin was our cabin sole guru and put in weeks of effort with Mark to make it beautiful. After which, I put in hours of sanding and varnishing...I'm still glad to have that task behind me!

The tired packers go to dinner

On Thursday we go back to the house for the final clean-up of the garage and make the final trip to Jack and Karen's with all the cars and trucks full. Have I mentioned that Jack generously gave us use of his workshop to store stuff until we are ready to load it on the boat? And the spare bedroom as well?

Not much payment for all the hard work but we did go out to dinner (on us) at Jack's favorite dive bar. (I suggested the Mansion, but he wanted the Moose...)

DONE....but not gone

The morning of the 13th, I got up at 4:00 AM and started cleaning out the fridge. The cleaning lady was arriving at 1:00 PM. and the new owner at 5:15 for the final walkthrough. Karen and Jack arrive late morning with two grandsons in tow. We used those young muscles a lot that day and were very grateful they were available. We were done in the house about 3:30 - I as packing the last few items just ahead of Susan (the cleaning lady).


Every square inch of that truck was used...the barrel chairs were the last to go (Mom wanted them for their living room) and the guitar pick shaped glass top from the living room 'coffee' table was stuffed in the memory foam from the bed and Mark jumped on the handle of the truck door to close it...whew! I don't know what we would have done without the considerable help of both family and friends...

Almost done....

Here we are with the truck, it is almost loaded. But there is space so it means we aren't quite done yet....

Keeping the help refreshed

Rose worked her butt off but had to leave on Saturday August the 9th just 4 days prior to our due out date of Wednesday the 13th as we were closing on the 14th. Our friends Jack and Karen come over every day to help do what needs to be done. Here, Mark helps Karen to a beer as she is (you aren't going to believe this one!) is washing engine parts. Oh, and have I mentioned that we had daily temperatures over 100 degrees during the first part of August? And, the day after the move was totally done it was only 88....figures.

No such thing as TOO may Ziploc bags

Rose was very patient with me but had fun at my expense. Here we see she is taking exception to the number of Ziploc bags (the Ultimate Storage Facility) I had. She also made me realize that I was more of a packrat than I thought - drat! She really helped me really clean out file cabinets and paper work not needed for years.

With Roses' help (and maybe many years of therapy) I hope to squelch this of behavior in the future. I am making progress, this years birthday cards were tossed the trash yesterday and not filed in the 'Cards and Letters' pendaflex....in fact, I don't even have a 'Cards and Letters' penda flex in my new filing system!

Cleaning the attic til midnight

One Tuesday evening we went to a favorite spot (Gloria's) for dinner to celebrate Bob and Roses' 32 ond anniversary and Mark and my birthdays. Dad and Mom sent cash for the occasions. We had a great dinner and a Rose and I had couple glasses of wine while Mark had beer.

When we got home we decided that we had not worked hard enough that day so decided to clean the garage attic. The next day (Wednesday) was, in our neighborhood is 'big' trash pickup day.

As you can see, we had 'big' trash to contribute.

This sailboat will be safe

During the packing endeavor Rose and I learned a new trade - how to make boxes. I must admit that my Dad was instrumental in showing me how to construct boxes a few years ago. I took the lesson to heart and between the two of us we became really proficient at the task.

We had some huge sailboats that needed special care in packing and we had no boxes big enough, so had to make our own.

In our next life Rose and I may be come 'house packers'!

Time out with the girls

We did get a chance to go out to lunch with the 'girls' shortly after Roses' arrival. If we had known how hard we were going to be working we might have stayed out longer.

As it was, we had lunch at 'Houston's' with Mary and Vicky. Rose enjoyed her first ever 'Veggie Burger' then continued on to another establishment for a glass or two of wine.

Fun was had by all.

...the packers learn

The first task Rose and I took on was determining out how to pack all of our pictures and canvases for safe travel and storage. Mark had wisely asked that I save the dunnage from Dell computer boxes I obtained from work prior to retirement. The Styrofoam came in very handy along with the shrink wrap he bought but I thought we 'did not need'. (Now, where is the crow I need to eat....again?)

Notice the house goes to 'trashed' status...again as the packing begins.

Rose to the rescue

Much to my delight my sister-in-law, Rose offered to fly to Dallas to help us move. In fact, Rose said she would only come if or when we had some work to be done. I jumped on that offer like a duck on a June bug. She flew in on July 29 and left August 9 - 65 packed boxes and 35 crated canvases later. Needless to say she was a god-send.

Time out for a tooth ache

I put off seeing about a needed root canal and one Thursday my tooth began to show signs of distress. Popping ibuprofen 3 at a time all weekend by Monday morning my face was swollen so I showed up at the dentists' office without an appointment. When I got home with 2 prescriptions and orders to come back on Tuesday all I wanted was my bed...

Much to my surprise, the stuffed animals all had toothache bandages wrapped around their heads.....even in pain I had to laugh.

Bilge work continues....

Most of the time I am flat on my stomach drilling holes. Did you know that it is impossible to drill through fiberglass when you have the Makita driver drill in reverse? Also, I am really glad that I cleaned and painted all the bilges a few years back!

Bilge work

My wonderful neighbor Angie and I celebrated with a bottle of White Star Champaign the day the varnish booth in the upstairs bedroom was dismantled. Too bad I did not get a picture of that happy hour! We signed the contract to put the house on the market on July 11. I told the agent that I needed until the 15th to have the house ready for showing....well, darn it all wouldn't you know they showed it one day early (much to my near panic, but my other dear neighbor Megan came to my rescue thank heavens). And, the first lady that saw it made and offer and bought it! So much for my worry about the real estate market.

Now that we have 95% of the wood projects done we start on the plumbing for air conditioners AND getting ready to move. Here I am in the bilge cutting holes thru the bulkheads and epoxying the same for the copper tubing runs.

Table installed (open)

For your viewing pleasure, here is the table in the open (aka dinner party) position. Though truth be told it has been installed about 2 months now and guess what? It has been in the closed position the entire time unless we are showing it to one of our sailing buddies....who woulda thought?

Table installed (closed)

Tra-la! And after months of work the table if finally on the boat. And just so you know, it was worth it. In the folded position (shown here) we can get to the back of the settee and into the storage underneath with little fuss. Not to mention that it looks so much nicer that the old table.

Table to the varnish booth

The table is done and I have applied about 8-10 coats of varnish to all visable sides. Now it is time for the varnish booth. Though I have now been 'trained' on how to apply varnish via a spray gun Mark is the expert so I allowed him to apply the 3 final spray coats. (OK, so I begged him.). Mark tell me that now I can help him restore and old car when our travels take us back to land.....not sure that I want to but we shall see.

Electrical Panel Cabinet installed

And here is the finished product (minus the actual panels of course....). Next step is to cut the holes in the cabinet doors for the electrical panels...then of course the wiring begins in ernest. Though we have been pulling wires for newly installed items as we go along.

Electircal Cabinet on the wall

We dragged the new cabinet to the boat and hung it on the wall of the Nav Office. Wow, what a tight fit...it always amazes me to see how closely Mark makes the wood fit the spaces.

Electrical cabinet varnish

As summer gets under way the varnish booth moves once again to the dining room. The electrical cabinet is too big to be hauled up and down stairs safely so the house once again become topsy tervy. (I wonder if this is spelled correctly...spell check no help here!) Here I am with the unwieldy thing in the driveway sanding it in preparation for another coat of varnish

New Stereo Shelves done

And here are the shelves done. One more item deleted from our punch list!

New Stereo Shelves installed

The shelves and cabinets are done and installed on the starboard (right) side of the main salon. We used all the components from our home stereo on the boat rather than buying new. They aren't exactly water proof but they should be out of harms way in any event...