Mike and I arrived back in Katy last night around 10pm. Mike had to go to Alaska after his Kazakhstan trip so had limited time to work on his folk's garage, sorting it all out in prep for selling the house. I have spent the last 4 weeks helping get them moved to their new digs, sorting, moving, re-homing and disposing of 55 years of accumulated household contents. But I don't "do" garages. Well, actually, I DID do part of it as my FIL had a workshop he had built in the attic. I sorted wood, templates and shop equipment accessories - and spent a lot of time with a 6hp shop vac getting sawdust off cabinets, floors, walls, cabinet interiors, ceilings (okay, maybe not the ceilings...I didn't have an extension that tall...) Who KNEW they were WHITE? They were yellow when I started. :)
Anyway, we finally finished on Monday evening. There are 10 bags of trash for Chris to go put out tonight for the trash man tomorrow. There are two Rubbermaid trash cans full of wood for Jason and Chris to pick through and get what they want, disposing of the rest. And there is one large moving box full of chemicals, pesticides and aerosol paints to take to the city specialty waste department by Chris. But all in all, the house is empty, repainted (not by us!), re-light fixtured (yes, by us and is that really a word?) and ready for a full-out clean by a specialty company so it can be put on the market hopefully this weekend. It was VERY satisfying to drive away at 8:30pm Monday night knowing it was DONE! I should have taken pictures but we were so tired after that "final push day" that I didn't even think about it.
So now we are home and I'm sorting through the minutiae of my own life - mail, bills, paper sorting, submitting medical claims, laundry, buying groceries, going to the laundry with shirts and getting back to "normal" (ha, that's a laugh...). It was an unexpected way to spend what I thought would be a two week visit with 3 of my 5 grands and 4 of my 6 children. But I'm glad we were able to help and even more glad that we were clearing for a MOVE and not a DEATH as is so often the case. It's much easier going through all the household items knowing they were just across the city in a new place instead of trying to sort through the house while sorting though grief. And now it's done and they can get on with their "new normal". We've moved so many times that I can do it almost in my sleep. But their last move was 23 years ago so it will take awhile for them to get on their new "auto-pilot" and not have to think about how to drive places and where something is in the new place.
Gotta go get the dogs now - they've been in their "unfortunate incarceration" at the kennel since July 23rd. I'm not going to win the "Doggie Momma of the Year" award for sure and wonder if I'll be brought up on "dog abandonment charges". They'll probably hate to leave the place as they get to wander out on ranch acreage, swim in a "lake", play with the other "inmates" and Shelby, who is a favorite of the owner (Denise) usually gets to ride on errands to the Post Office and bank! I'm sure they'll be bored once they get over the astonishment that NO I HAVE NOT ABANDONED THEM!
I hope to post some more photos of "way back when" of Mike's family. And I hope to post more often.
It's good to be home.
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