Staging our House

The papers have been signed to sell our house and nowadays that means a stager comes in and re-organizes the entire house. Our home is now supposed to look like a model home with nothing personal visible. What a distressing ordeal it was for us! After a couple of hours, the stager left and we were so distraught we couldn't even eat dinner. We had no idea this process would be so unsettling. I have lived in this house more than half my life and most all my adult life - far too long, it seems. We even discussed if we should be moving at all, but we know this is the time for us and waiting will just make it harder.
On the bright side, we were walking around the property yesterday and finally saw some real signs of spring. Our daffodils are now in full bloom and our native woodland wild flower - trillium - even appeared for us yesterday.

April?

April is a generally a great month, but it sure doesn't seem like April this year.
It usually means the weather will start improving, but not this year. Our first daffodil barely had its yellow head unveiled yesterday and it got snowed on today. It was just reported on the news that March was the coldest March on record - it was more like a typical February. Today proved that when we woke to more snow. Hopefully, this is the last of it for this year.

Regardless of the weather, April for us always starts off with Mark's birthday - yes, he was born on April Fool's Day and he is 22 years old today - in case you are reading this, Mark ...Happy Birthday!

Today is also the day our grandkids returned home after visiting for a few days. We had a great visit with them, as always. A trip to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was the high point of this visit for them.

Our new driveway was supposed to be poured last week, but got rained out. They are going to try again tomorrow.

Our house is scheduled to go on the market later this month - life may never be the same for us. The stager shows up next week as we get ready for the listing.

More news as it happens.....

Spring Break

This week is spring break for Mark, so he is here for the week before heading back to Boston this week-end to finish up the academic year. We have no big plans, just hanging out and enjoying the time together.
We continue to clean up and clear out. We tackled the garage last week - what an ordeal that was! We thought it might take a couple of days, but ended up taking a full week. It is finally done and looks great.
This week we are having the driveway jack-hammered out and re-poured. Thirty years of wear and tear, freeze and thaw had taken its toll. Now all we need is a dry (no rain) day to get the new cement poured. For anyone who knows about Pacific Northwest March weather, you know that dry days are few and far between.
The grandkids are coming for a few days and we're really looking forward to that.
More as it happens....
We've been told that we don't keep our family blog very well updated, so we'll try to improve.

The Moving Process Has Begun

Yesterday we had two realtors come over to our house and today another one will come. We are interviewing different realtors and will decide later this week who will be our listing agent. It didn't help that we had more new snow and temps in the low 20's, so one realtor parked in the street and walked down our snowy driveway to avoid possibly getting her car stuck. The landscaping and roof could not be seen, but the two here yesterday will be back later this week and hopefully they'll be able to see a little more.
The house needs to be in 'ready to show' condition now. We've spent the past year getting rid of a lot of things we don't need any more - what the real estate world has coined 'clutter'. so after 30 years in this house, we are ready, but unfortunately, the real estate is very poor. Oh, well, we'll just see how it goes. If it sells, we'll move, if it doesn't, we won't. Once our chosen realtor posts pictures, we post a link to them. Stay tuned for more updates.

Great Wolf Lodge

Our main Christmas gift to Drew and his family was a night at the Great Wolf Lodge here in Washington. This past Thursday was the day they picked. We drove down to visit them and see what this place is all about. What an amazing place! It was so much more than we thought it would be. It is not only an indoor water park, but also a great lodge, with restaurants and lots of activities for kids and adults. JJ's favorite was the electronic scavenger hunt. Hannah liked the water part features. Both kids loved the kid cabin they had in the room with their parents. It was complete with video games and bunk beds. If you are interested in visiting one of these lodges, here is the link: www.greatwolf.com

We had a fun visit with them all. They drove 3 hours east and we drove 2 hours south to meet and spend some time together. Can't wait until we move. Some realtors are coming this week for some preliminary talks on getting this house on the market - the worst housing market in my life time.

Spring is in the Air

It seems that every February we get a few days of sun and warmer temperatures. We just had those days. It makes such a difference. The daffodils are peeking through the soil, John started on the annual chore of pressure washing the decks, I got out and pruned the apple trees and rose bushes, the 100+ fern on the property are getting cut back, and we even got the roof cleaned. This morning, we are back to our usual rain, but our little taste of spring was fun while it lasted. We have often had snow and wind storms in March, but hopefully, this year, we'll be spared.

Drew is over on our side of the mountains this week-end, so we're meetimg him for dinner later today. He's our family tax whiz, so we are going to pick his brain, since we are not at all happy with out potential tax bill.

Winter Sunset and a Grease Pot

This is an odd pairing of topics, but it's just what came up today.
To start....John took the sunset picture at our house a few days ago. In the winter, the sun sets behind our house - in the summer it sets more to the side (west) of our house. This time of year, the setting sun rays stream though the back windows and flood the house with sunshine. The picture turned out great, so we thought we'd post it. Today it is snowing again, but the sun was nice was it lasted.

As for the grease pot......Anyone remember grease pots that were kept next to the stove in years gone by? When I was growing up in the 1950's, my mother kept one next to the stove. After cooking bacon for breakfast, she would pour the residual grease in the pot. Then the next time she was frying eggs or cooking green beans, the grease was used in the place of butter. As we became more aware of health issues, the grease pot was packed away.....never to be used again. My sister found it and recently gave it to me as a gift, since I had the matching salt and pepper shakers that completed the set. The threesome now are displayed - but not used - in our kitchen. I thought it might bring back memories to others, too.