One Way to Clean A House

It appears that people like to  come and look at the house on Sundays at about 10am. Okay. 

We thought we would clean up last night after we got back from Elon, but we were so late and we met Lori and Jim at Melos for dinner and then were so tired we watched some baseball and then got up for the cleaning.

Tony was the best because he got out the ladder and somehow managed to clean out the crazy 2nd floor window above the front door.  (Why do they do that?  They are impossible to clean!)

He also blew off the porch and deck.  I vaccumed the upstairs and cleaned the bathrooms, dusted and Amy did the downstairs.  And we were out by 10:00am.

We go to the Hilton Hotel because it is shady and no one bothers us.

Poor Bennett fell off the seat in the parking lot and tore his dew claw ~ but I didn't know it until we got home and I saw the crime scene in the back seat!!!!!!!

These are from Elon University yesterday:

Saying goodbye to Jane

This was the coolest gadget ~ the girls ordered it from Elon and it was delivered to the room ~ a microwave above a freezer above a refridgerator.  All one piece, one plug!  All I could think of was that crazy beer commercial puppy monkey baby!

Jane's roommates set up under her bed.

Amy and Jane 

Elon did a beautiful job with the family picnic ~ they had hundreds of students and faculty everywhere to help.  Tony says when he took Jane on the first day, they were directed to her dorm, students unloaded and transported everything to her room while he parked the car!  It was great!

We have been in contact with Carolyn and she says they were already for whatever Hurricane Harvey brought and were doing alright.  I understand the Houston was flooded like crazy, so hopefully San Antonio does not have the same horrible flooding.

Love, 
Leslie

Back To School

I have been following family (cousins and nieces) who are all going back or starting at colleges.  

Val goes back to NYU this weekend ~ a sophomore!  Where does the time go?????????

Mike's daughter, Madeline, is starting at Texas A&M ~ Commerce, which is 50 miles north of Dallas (close to her grandparents).  

Tony and Jane just left to get Jane set up at Elon University.  

It is all of a sudden, very quiet in the house.  

I just got off the phone with NFCU because SOMEONE used my credit card to purchase an ipad pro from Best Buy on line.  I know this because I called Best Buy and I got the shipping address and what they bought.  Since the transaction is pending, Best Buy is stopping the shipment to the address, which Best Buy also gave me.  And yes, I looked them up on Whitepages Reverse Address Look Up.  I kind of want to go see who they are.  But I am not.

The sad thing is, the charge occured on the same day I used the card when I went to the dentist.  I had not used the card for 6 days prior.  But, the name on the address where the ipad pro was supposed to go is not a name of an employee at the dentist.  I know, I am playing junior detective.  

Have a beautiful day!!!!

Love, 

Leslie

Do I Really Need 4 Cake Stands?

I am going thru the kitchen cabinets today ~ packing what we want to keep and getting rid of what we do not need.  

It is a tough job, but as you can see, I have my supervisors.  There is alot of snoring going on though.  

I have finally realized to recycle the AMAZON boxes for Good Will and save the good boxes for our stuff.  It is a small thing but I think it is smart.

On the fun side, Jim and I went to see DUNKIRK last night.  Wow!  What a visual movie! And OMG what a nightmare!  There are really only 200 words said through the entire movie and I understood only about 25.  Darn those British and Scottish accents anyway!  I need closed captioning and/or subtitles inorder to watch the BBC!  But, it was truly worth seeing. I understand that Emma has seen it 3 times already!!!!!!

Jane is back from Zanzibar and we got a postcard, which I love!  I am looking forward to hearing about her travels.

Ok, back to work.

Much love to ALL!!!
~Leslie

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