I Will Never Be An Electrician

Amy decided to replace the broken switch in the kitchen.  Off to Lowe's she goes.  She comes home and begins the switch fix and BOOM, she gets shocked.  So then she goes to turn off the power.

I was watching the Giants vs Dodgers baseball game ~ but Amy was way more entertaining. There was alot of mumbling, alot of singing and alot of cursing.

Finally, "I am a mother effing genius!!!!!!!!" Then she decides to put a dimmer switch of the new pendent lights.  There is one already on the light over the glass topped table, so she took the plate off that so she could use it as an example.  So both are hanging off the wall. And somehow in the process, she has lost the switch plate. I looked.  Amy looked.  Gone.

Hopefully it will turn up today.....somewhere.  She will have to go back to Lowe's to buy a new switch plate.  And the other one will turn up.

Love, 
Leslie

Work Work Work

Today we staged the master bedroom AND Amy is going to move in to it and enjoy the NEW QUEEN bed!!!! She has cleaned out the small master that she has been sleeping and working in, so now it is just her office.

There is a photographer coming tomorrow to take 360 degree photos of the house so all knick knacks have to be removed, all photos have to be removed, all the silver is packed away (it has to be moved anyway to prevent theft), all the light bulbs have to be the same, no towels or rugs in the bathrooms and strangely enough, all the toliet paper has to be removed.  All the remotes have to be hidden.  Amy stashed hers in the laundry basket in the garage and wants me to remember where she put them.  Got me.

Oh and all dog bowls have to be hidden and there can be nothing on any of the counters anywhere.

I am waiting for Amy to finish in her office so I can take a photo.  The realtor is here to check out our work.  He said all little rugs must be taken up and all the runners ~ he wants to see the hardwoods.  That is all easily done, I think the hard work is finished.  Whoops, now he wants the carpet in the keeping room to go.  Work, work, work.

This is what Amy's office looks like right now.  The twin bed is gone. 

The office is now completed.  It will never be so neat or clean again!!!

That is it from us.  

Love, Leslie

Some Photos

I thought you might like to see some of the rooms in the house since we have down-sized:

Before

After

I could not find a Before but there are two leather arm chairs and ottomans gone, 2 cloth chairs gone and one leather sofa gone.

The new master bed room.  The mattress comes today, I think.  Anyway gone is the dresser, headboard, computer desk, painting table, two bedside tables and one large comfortable chair.

We have made huge inroads into making this a regular house. However, this is what the garage currently looks like.  It is the loading zone of the downsizing.  

The work continues.  Amy and I are making a trip to the dump with some stuff and then maybe pizza night.

Love,
Leslie

PS ~ has anyone noticed that Nancy looks alot like Princess Charlene of Monaco?

People Are Crazy

We have had some people come and look at the house.  We got three comments.  
(1) We don't like the birds in the upstairs room.  (Really?  They aren't staying if you buy the house.)
(2) We don't like that there isn't any furniture in the Master Bedroom.
(3) The screened porch is a little crowded.

Again, REALLY?????????

So, today Amy put the electric green wicker chair and table on Let Go and 7 people immediately said they wanted them.  Amy told them the first person who got to the house could have them and some guy sent his teen aged daughter.  This all took place in about 20 minutes.  Who knew?

Amy and I have done a ton of work ~ getting Mom's room and closet empty was a bear. Lori and Jim got some great furniture and Amy had some friends of hers come and move it to Chez Hardin.  Then they brought the extra furniture down into the garage which made it easy to unload.

The next big project is the attic.  As soon as we get the garage emptied out, Amy's friends are coming back and getting the furniture out of the attic into the garage ~ which will make it easy to unload.

My car is completely full of stuff to go to Good Will tomorrow.

AND ~ Amy sold her chandelier!!!!!! Remember the one in her house in Annapolis?  A couple bought it who are renovating a huge older home and they were ecstatic to find the chandelier.  So it has gone to a good home.

Much love,
Leslie

Boy is it Hot

That is Amy's mantra, besides "Let it Go" ~ and not the Frozen song either.  We are 95+ these days and it is sweaty.  I like it, but I seem to be in a group of one.

Our new living room without all the sofas and chairs. Melanie is practically invisable on the carpet.

We had a pack of dogs the other night ~ the little brown one to the left is Chalupa.  She is an eight week old that Maren is dog sitting.  Which meant Lori was dog sitting.  Then Lori and Jim went to Cindy Horn's father's birthday party so Amy was dog sitting.

Chulupa was not cowed by ANY of the other dogs at all.

Jane is in Zanzibar.  Lori and I looked it up on Google maps.  It reminded us that wasn't there a M.M. Kaye book with Zanzibar in the title?  All I came up with was "The Road to Zanzibar" with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

Sunset in Zanzibar

And we got new pendants over the kitchen counter.  Tony installed one and since we are trying to sell the house, we got the other one changed.

Time to make my daily trip to Good Will and the Durham Mission.

Much love,
Leslie

Wow ~ I Have Been In Touch, But Not Via The Blog

I started this blog so I could keep my sisters up to date about our mom.  And then Mom found out about the blog and was "a bit perturbed" that I would not let her read it.

Then I got on her Facebook account and put pictures and stuff on there for her to see on her ipad.  And she liked that and so did other friends and family.

And then I got lazy about the blog.

My last post on this blog was Memorial Day.  Alot has happened.  

Mom had an episode of not feeling well and got to the point where she was unable to walk and help me help her.  I took her to Duke Urgent Care and then we went to the Emergency Room at Duke.  We practically moved in since we were there 26 hours.  Mom was at Duke for a week and then at a rehab for a couple of weeks.  And then she was discharged because she just could not participate in physical therapy, which meant that her insurance was not going to pay anymore.  She wanted to come home, and basically I had always told her that I would do my best to keep her at home.

So, I got her a great hospital bed and the oxygen (which she now was on 27/7).  I had a bed alarm so if she got up in the night I would hear it.  I had everything ~ we even got a ramp for the front, a hearing adapter to try and all the goodies she could want.

Mom finally came home as per her wish.  She loved the hospital bed!  She had wanted a good hamburger and Jim cooked hamburgers for my birthday and she was able to attend and eat a really good hamburger.  Which she liked.

She made it 3 days and then died peacefully in her comfortable hospital bed in her room in her house, which is exactly where she wanted to be.

Amy and I have done alot of talking and really feel that this house that was so perfect for Mom is TOO big for us.  So we have looked at houses.  We looked on Cape Cod, we looked at a sweet property in Minnesota but Amy says she cannot handle the winter.  We looked a fabulous properties on the Northern Neck of Virginia (where Mom and Dad had wanted to move for a time) but they don't have broadband internet capabilities, so we scratched the Northern Neck. (I do like a good pun!)

We looked in Boise, Idaho.  We looked in Western North Carolina.  And Amy found a house in a brand new 55 and over community 12 miles from here in Hillsborough, NC.  And there are a zillion pluses.  Dog park already built.  Small community of 70 different styled houses. A community center with a full gym that will be built.  Paved walking path around the community and it is an easy walk to old town Hillsborough ~ where Maren will be the new Assistant District Attorney in the Orange County Court House!!!!

All good!

Now we have to sell this house.  Which means we have to cleean up and declutter.  The master bedroom got painted today and looks great! The screened porch is getting painted on Wednesday.  

I have spent days in Mom's room ~ made multiple trips to Good Will AND there is still stuff to do in there!  It is mind boggling.

Now the bad.  DOWNSIZING!!!!!!  Everything must go ~ couches, chairs, china, books, plants.  We basically could set up someones house for them.  

But it is a good thing, just a little nerve racking.

So, here it is July 3rd.  We are staying home on the 4th so I can do some more gathering for Good Will.  Then, I go to Jacksonville, FL for a couple of days to see the Change of Command Ceremony for one of our favorites, David Whitehead, who is leaving as the Commanding Officer of a squadron to go to Memphis, TN to Millington Naval Air Station. Do you remember that Dad was based at Millington? I believe that is where he was coming in from Spain with a load of goodies and they dumped it all on the runway because Customs was waiting in the hanger.  Or maybe not.  I just remember that story.

Anyway, I guess we are going to make new stories.  I will try to be better about the blog.

Love, Leslie