February 14, 2009

• PhotoPost: Moving February 2009

  

  I met with Virginia, the escrow officer, at 3:30p.m. on Friday, February 13th, with a certified check for $11,881.15. (By far the biggest check I’ve ever written). It’s the middle of the largest recession/depression since the 30s, and I’m almost done buying the largest thing I’ve ever purchased. Here is a PhotoPost concerning my move preparations so far.

  

  I took this photo today, Valentine’s Day, in the morning. I’m standing in the living room of my current rented home, which is now filled with over 100 packed boxes, and most of my furniture, awaiting the close of escrow, which should happen on Thursday, February 19th. As soon as I get the keys, I plan to borrow the company truck to shuttle some of the lighter boxes and “fill items”, my electronics (like the 300 disc CD changer fulled with discs, HDTV, etc.) and more fragile items into the new place. I wanted to start moving today, but I can’t put anything of my own into the new home until escrow closes, because my insurance doesn’t start to take effect until then.

  

  I posted this and the image below to my photoblog on January 28th. Here is my bedroom before I started to move. The curio cabinets to both sides of the bed are filled with collectibles. The shelving above the bed used to be in Joel’s room, and I inherited it when he passed away, and used it to good effect as a bridge between the curio cabinets.

  

  Here the same area has been stripped of collectibles, which have been neatly packed, and the shelving. The empty curio cabinets and shelving units in my bedroom are now ready to be moved into the living room staging area.

  

  Here, in a photo taken this morning, the furniture (except for an old speaker I’m using as a bedside table) has all been moved to the living room. My closet (and the closet in the media room) were completely cleaned of stuff over last weekend, which was my roommate Mike’s last weekend in the place. He moved out on Tuesday, Feb. 10th, owing me $60.00 for back payment of the cable bill, another $99.00 in unpaid rent for the three full days after the 10th for which he hadn’t previously paid, and about $250.00 that he has owed me for a while. I’ve told him that if he can get three or four able bodied 20something friends of his to help me move next weekend, after escrow closes, then I’ll shave about $250.00 off what he owes me, and he can give the money to his friends who help when he gets some.

  

  I haven’t mentioned this in a blogpost, but on Friday, Feb. 6th, I took Spike, the calico cat, into the Humane Society shelter for adoption. She was really antsy over the past few weeks, making a big nuisance of herself, and defecating not only on the carpet, but she peed on some of the stuff I’d already moved to the living room,  including some books. I’d had enough, and had tried to get her “adopted” earlier without success (the “kitty adoption agencies” only want kittens, not 18 year old cats). I felt grieved a bit after dropping her off, but I really didn’t miss her too much the week she was gone.

  Malcolm, pictured above, the other cat, was to go with me to the new home, but I’m having second thoughts. She’s entirely too needy now since both my roommate and the other cat are gone. She meows night and day, and even though I give her enough kitty love and take care of her food and toilet needs, she has begun to foul areas which are not to be fouled, and I don’t want her to mess up my new place. I plan on taking her to the shelter sometime next week. After my operation, which I will schedule as soon as I’m situated in the new home, I might get a little black kitten and call her/him Malcolm Jr.

  

  Here’s a bit of a surreal photo taken last weekend. Gumby, relaxing in my living room lazyboy chair, is a 6 foot inflatable plastic figure I’ve had since the 80s. He had sprung a leak, so I tossed him in the trash, but for a moment or two, he looks like he’s a bit “deflated” after helping me pack. 

  

  The living room area this morning. Boxes are packed up against the south wall. Most of the furniture in my place has been moved to the living room staging area awaiting movement to the new place. I only have my bed and clothing in the bedroom, and my HDTV, computer desk and comfy chair in the media room. Recently, I bought one of the Netflix viewers, and I can stream movies and TV shows to the bigscreen TV from the internet. I’ve got all the entertainment I need until I move next week. Sometimes I do find I need something that’s already been packed, but I’ve labeled everything pretty well , so haven’t had any trouble yet.

  

  This Gumby is cardboard, and is standing sentry for the boxed belongings against my wall. The boxes are piled two deep, with heavy stuff on the bottom, and light stuff on the top. Those tripods are for my still and video cameras.

  

  On Sunday, February 8th, I spent about two hours at the new home tagging items that I want the current owner to take, and letting him know which items (like the vintage microwave) I intend to keep. Over the past two weeks, the plumbing under the mobile home has been replaced. All of the damaged skirting around the home has been fixed. (I understand a family of raccoons made the place their home when it was vacant for a year.) The plywood covering the hitches had to be replaced due to dryrot, and some of the roof had to be repaired. At first the current owner was only going to pay $500.00 for repairs, but my realtor convinced him to go up to $1500.00.

  

  As part of the $1500.00 in repairs, the toilets in both bathrooms are being replaced. Here is the old toilet (different colored tank and bowl) and it’s replacement sitting in the master bedroom. I took this shot this morning at about 7am. It’s been raining quite a bit on and off the past few weeks, but it looks like my new home will be ready for me to begin moving in by next Thursday. I have all next weekend. (when I intend on renting the moving truck) and the week after, including Saturday the 28th, to get all my stuff into the new home and to completely clean up my present digs, on which I hope to get most of my $1600.00 security deposit back.

  

  The proud owner of “My Little House” standing under the carport next to the kitchen door this morning. It’s been a VERY BUSY couple of months. I spent nearly an hour and a half signing paperwork with the escrow officer yesterday. Can you tell I’m happy  ? After coming back home after breakfast, I began cleaning out the garage. I’ve tossed a lot of old magazines I collected. I’ve sold some furniture on craigslist (which could be the subject of another blog entry in itself). It’s great that almost anything I cart to the curb on weekends seems to disappear (including television sets, old furniture, boxes of magazines and books, etc.) I also have been taking lots of stuff to the Goodwill.

  I intend to be settled by the end of next weekend. Then I schedule my hip replacement replacement surgery (my referrals are good till the end of March) I will get rid of the other cat so I don’t have to worry about having someone feed her when I’m in the hospital. Hopefully in some future time I will be able to rest a bit. I can’t begin to explain how tired I’ve been, and how much it hurts me to be doing as much physical labor as I have, but it’s going to be entirely worth it in just a few scant days……..

  • 2:09 pm
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