The reality sets in....

The reality of selling the house was smacking us in the face as we looked around our once beautiful home now filled with boxes. We’d spent the time after our return from New Orleans trying to balance the packing/moving of our old home with the outfitting of our new home. John moved the RV to the Winnebago dealer outside Providence to get warranty work and satellite TV and radio installed. In between, he made trips back and forth with the Saab filled with boxes and “stuff”. Meanwhile, I was back home packing.
At 7:00 pm as 60 Minutes was starting, John finally pulled me away from the packing process and I resigned myself to not finishing all that I had planned to pack. With 125 boxes filling the house, it was time to stop and let the “professional” finish the job on Monday.

October 7, 2002
The packing crew arrived at 9:00 and started the arduous process of packing the kitchen, pictures, mirrors, clocks and lamps. A crew of 4 was working until 7:00pm. The kitchen packer spent the entire day just packing up the kitchen. At the end of the day, they still hadn’t begun the crating or inventory.

October 8, 2002
A late start for the moving crew. Our experienced (older) crew chief was out and the owner’s son was in his place. The discipline of the previous day was severely lacking as we had four 20 somthings handling the process. With assurances of completion by 6 or 6:30 pm, we let them work at their own pace. At 6:30, John, Martin and I pulled out the wine and beer and ordered some take-out food. At 10:30 pm, they finally called it quits with the pier mirror still uncrated (the crate built was too small). Exhausted, we headed to bed in our empty house. Thank goodness for the Murphy bed.

October 9, 2002
Time to clean the place. John, Martin and I started cleaning first thing in the morning. By mid-day, John was getting woosy from the oven cleaning fumes and all of us were pretty depressed. Feeling sick, John headed for bed and I made an appearance at Rick and Jim’s for cocktails. Looking around the house without all it’s furniture and accessories, it began to look a lot like a box with foo-foo plaster and nice paint. All of our hard work renovating this beautiful home - and tomorrow, it would be someone else's home.