Swamped

Over the past 10 days, Jim and I have been busy signing, notarizing, and Fed-Ex-ing sales contracts back and forth between Michigan and Texas. For whatever reason, we were required to turn our home over to Jim's relocation company in order to complete our long-awaited house sale. I knew, though, that I shouldn't have mentioned publicly that we had sold the place and had a closing date, because one thing lead to another and our buyers backed out of the deal. We will find out on Monday if Jim's company will just pay us for the house, or if we need to put it back on the market. Either way, we have to get the entire house emptied and cleaned out ASAP. When I peeked around the other day at all of the closets and cupboards still loaded with stuff, I felt totally defeated. How would I ever clear all of that out myself?

Shortly after that, Jim phoned from Texas with the news that the roof of the house down there had a leak. Knowing nothing about clay tile roofs, he called a specialist. Fortunately, the news was not as bad as we anticipated - the roofer was able to fix the tiles without too much trouble. He is sending his bill in the mail.

When we bought our condo back in May, we knew the sale was "as is," meaning whatever needed fixing was our responsibility. The hot water heater has given us problems since we closed on the place, and after numerous parts and a gas valve cleaning, it was determined that we should just buy a new tank. It was recently installed, and I no longer have to boil water for laundry & dishes or run over to the house for showers. Hurray for working water heaters!

Unfortunately, the condo furnace (actually the part that runs the air conditioner) spent two days creating puddles on our laundry room floor last week. After 48 hours of alternately mopping up the water, then drying the soaked towels, I arranged for a repairman to come look at it. The leak mysteriously stopped before the guy ever came over. I wonder what that was all about?

During an unusually heavy downpour the other day, rainwater began to trickle from the tops of all three of the big westerly-facing windows in our condo kitchen. The seepage soon became a flow, and Jacob and I hastily placed towels underneath the windows and all over the floor. Feeling totally overwhelmed, I did what any wife would do - I sent out a whining plea to Jim in Texas to pleeeaaase come home this weekend to help. He hopped on a plane Friday afternoon and was back in Michigan just in time to accompany me to the wedding of a friend's daughter on Friday evening. (And that was tons of fun and a very nice break from the chaos that has ruled my life lately!)

We ended up having quite a productive day today. Right after breakfast, Jim and I attempted to reorganize the condo so that we could fit the rest of the things from the house inside of the unit. With the help of Jacob, Adam, Nancy, and Richie, we almost completely cleared the house and hauled box after box after box to the condo. I am finally confident that we will be able to empty the old homestead within a few days. What awaits me now are mounds of clothes and household goods that need sorting and their own place at the condo. Maybe I will even be able to fit the car into the garage before winter arrives.