The Great Lightening of 2019

Lighten-ing - not the cosmic kind.  The 'letting go of stuff' kind. 

The photographer just left and if we do say so ourselves, this house looks AMAZING.  Just don't open cupboards, drawers or closets.  And our garage?  Yikes.  Now that the pics are done, we can return normal things to their normal places.  My toothbrush back to my sink.  The toaster back on the counter.  Only for the pics is 'nothing on any surface' required.  Now that those are done, we can go back to normal a bit.  But wow.  It sure looks nice.  I hope our new house will look just like this daily - everything put away.  I can't wait.

It does feel so wonderful to feel this great 'lightening' - of stuff.  Of our long awaited home.  Things are moving and happening and it feels great.  Really great. 

The cleaning crew is scheduled for Tuesday but we're cancelling.  We've cleaned every nook and cranny and (as always) have identified a lot of things they never get to.  But that's OK.  I'm sort of looking forward to 'keeping house' as part of my retirement activities.  It's a good work out and you feel super satisfied to see things looking shiny and clean.  And even better knowing you did it yourself. 

After a lot of debate, we've decided to both head to Reno/Carson City on Friday morning.  We can load up both cars, get to storage, check on the house and enjoy a nice dinner.  J. will head home on Saturday morning.  The house goes on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) on Friday - signage will be up as well and a lock box in place.  H. is prepared to vacate the premises as needed on Friday to allow people to see the house - we're hoping he has a steady stream of people in and out -

We worry about leaving him alone.  We have our reasons for that worry - but we remind ourselves that he's getting ready to move to Houston so...he's going to have to deal.  And keep himself on the right path - all by himself.  Failure is not an option. 

Tomorrow, we'll work a lot in the garage - getting things squared away in there and returning things we stashed in the garage back in to the house.  Within reason.  It really looks nice and we want to keep it that way for the 'showings'. 

We've been joined by a family of doves - a mom, a dad and two babies.  They come down and hang out on the fence most evenings - wary and watching for cats but still 'visiting'.