November 15th

On this date back in 1991, Jim and I sat excitedly in an office, jotted our signatures on scores of forms, and were handed the keys to our brand new house. Now, eighteen years later, we are preparing to put our not-so-new-anymore home on the market. And, if I thought that cleaning and organizing our stuff for inspectors, appraisers, and movers has been annoying, I must say that I do not look forward to shining the place up for potential buyers. Especially because we will have to keep everything sparkling and tidy for any spur-of-the-moment showings. I rearranged our linen closet last night and discovered that we had over 25 sets of sheets hiding in the dark abyss! That makes me a bit apprehensive to begin the purge on the rest of the neglected closets, boxes, and storage areas that hold almost two decades worth of our odds and ends. Yikes!

We are purchasing a house in Texas this week, too. Jim will be in Houston for the closing, but I will have my share of duties to fulfill here in Michigan. Besides handling all of the banking transactions locally, I also have to sign the paperwork that is allegedly winging its way to me via express overnight mail as I type. I will have a few hours to add my signature to everything tomorrow, then drop it off at the post office for its overnight return trip to Houston. Jim has promised to take pictures of the new place after he gets the keys. We do intend to re-carpet and paint before we move any of our furniture there, so any photos I post will definitely be "before" shots. Too bad that November 15th fell on a Sunday this year. It would have been uncanny if we could have closed on our Texas home on the same date that we bought our current house back in 1991.