Did Someone Mention Crazy?

The other day I mentioned that things have been a bit crazy here as we prepare to make our way out of the hurricane box my insurance company has defined in our policy. Well, karma or life or whatever it is, decided to show me that, where there is a little crazy, there can always be more.

On Monday we started installing lifeline netting on our boat.  Lifeline netting can usually be found on cruising boats that have either kids or pets. We have the latter and would like to keep them on board, especially after Madison's little adventure off the dock the other day.  While the videos and instructions all make it sound easy, it took us most of a day to do about 2/3 of one side of the boat.  Getting the spacing right and working around curves and hardware can be a pain.  I don't even want to know how many times we threaded something, didn't like it, unthreaded, and retried.

All we managed to install the first day

So, on day two of what was supposed to be a half-day project, we were making better progress and completed installing the same amount of netting that took us all day Monday in about 3 hours.  It was at this point that I needed to go find some clips to allow me to unhook the netting where there are gates in the lifelines (being able to use the gates seems like a good thing). I went to every hardware store in town (two towns, four stores actually) but couldn't find a plastic clip I could use to tie to the netting.  Finally, I found a set of cheap bungee cords at a local Dollar Tree and decided to scavenge the plastic clips from those cords.

Trying to figure out proper spacing during the install.

While we were out shopping, I got a call from our realtor who told me the appraisal on the house we are selling had finally been done (we previously had to alter the contract due to the inability to get an appraiser out in a more reasonable time frame...I guess they are busy in Denver these days).  The good news was that the appraisal came back at the sale price, so we had cleared the last big hurdle before closing.  The bad news is that, as late as it had been, the likelihood of an early closing was close to nil.

Of course, about 15 minutes later I got another call from the agent telling me they now think they can close on Friday.  This Friday. Oh no!  We were suddenly in a panic to see how we could get the paperwork sent to us, signed, and returned to Colorado in time for a Friday closing (for some reason, Colorado doesn't allow for electronic signatures and only blue ink on paper is acceptable).  Oh, and did I mention that some of the documents need to be notarized?  We come up with a plan to have the title company email us the documents so we could print them here, sign, and then next-day mail them.

So, netting project on hold, we start searching for options to print the paperwork and find a notary. We even bought a printer in case we couldn't find another option. Fortunately the resort we are staying at has a business center (a computer with printer) and even has a notary on staff, so we thought we were in good shape.  Well...until the package from the title company arrived (conveniently at 7pm local time...or 5pm Colorado time).  Included in the instructions was a note that it had to be printed on legal-sized paper.

Naturally, the business center doesn't have legal paper.  We run around looking for legal paper and the only office store in town (along with the other big box stores that might have some) were out. About this time I felt like I was banging my head on a brick wall. Then we found out that while the local Staples didn't have any legal paper in stock, the copy center could print them for us. (I guess the copy center doesn't get their legal paper from the same source as the rest of the store). We get the documents printed out and make our way back home for the night.

The next morning we look over the documents and find a number of mistakes.  Did I mention that we had an appointment with the notary at 9 am...which is 7 am Colorado time...and before the title company would be open?  How is it that a title company, whose only job is to get legal paperwork details right, does this one task so poorly?  Adding to the pressure is the fact that, if there is any hope of closing on Friday, the paperwork needs to be Fed-Ex'd that day.  We postpone the appointment with the notary and make a bunch of phone calls to the title company and the realtor.  We finally get a hold of Equity Title Associates, and they tell us they will get the missing papers to us in 15 minutes. After not seeing them for one and a half hours, we call back and suddenly the missing paperwork doesn't exist because they are waiting for information from the lender.  Then the story became that they are working on it and will have it to us shortly. Finally, we are able to procure the missing paperwork, get everything signed and notarized, and make the trip over to the Fed-Ex facility we found to drop it all off.  We can only hope we found all the title companies mistakes and the closing goes off as planned.

Now, where were we?  Oh yeah, back to the netting that has been hanging half-installed on the boat.  We finally managed to get all of it installed, and it only took 3 calendar days. We are also working on plans for the trip north.  It doesn't seem like we'll have much time to do any sightseeing as we head north. With all the misfires trying to get the hard-top bimini project going, I'm trying to find someone north of Cape Hatteras where we can spend a few weeks and get the top made.  If anyone knows of a good welder or fiberglass person on the coast anywhere north of the Carolinas, let me know.

Hopefully that will help keep the dogs and gear on board.

As a tropical depression passes us by (earlier than normal and threatening to be the first named storm of the season), we continue making plans to head north starting in just a couple more days.  Yeah...just a bit crazy.

Definitely Not Home Anymore

My wife and I, with my parent's help, have been putting in long hours the last several days trying to meet a deadline with our house.  The realtor was scheduled to come on Wednesday to take pictures for the MLS listing for our house so we could put it on the market today.

Proof it is for sale...the realty sign

If you have ever seen our house you know that, while we aren't dirty people, we don't keep the house spotless. There are just too many things to do in life to spend hours every day cleaning a home.  And since we owned a home that...in true American fashion...was way bigger than we needed, over 18 years we accumulated a lot of stuff to fill that space.  Not necessarily useful stuff and, if I had it all to do over again, I doubt I would have bought much of it...but we were busy being good American consumers. It has been quite an undertaking to move completely out, clean it all up, and get it ready to sell.  And we almost made it by the time the realtor arrived with his camera (the images here are mine, not the realtor).

Living room and hall

Family room

There are still a couple small piles of stuff in the garage...mostly extra packing boxes and cleaners...but we should be done with it all today.  Then we need to re-pack and re-evaluate what has been earmarked for transport to the boat while we spend a day or so at my mother-in-law's place.  I think we may have just a bit more than will fit in the Prius, at least if we intend to fit ourselves in it as well.

Master bath

Master Bedroom

If you happen to know of someone who wants to move to the Denver metro area, we know of a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house they can buy and move in immediately.  It has a number of upgrades to make it more energy efficient, including being one of the few in our neighborhood to be built to the Ideal Energy Home standards of the day.  I know our utility bills are about half of some of our neighbors. If we had stayed, we probably would have added solar and tried to see how close to net zero we could get.  Unlike many of the houses of the period, the lower level of this house is all brick for lower maintenance. The neighborhood is desirable and is supposed to have good schools (our dogs didn't use them).  Since it is early spring, you can't tell from the pictures but the back yard is actually a nice retreat to hang out in during the summer.

Update:  It appeared in the MLS mid-morning yesterday.  You can see it here as long as the listing lasts.

The backyard retreat

So, wish us luck as we make the move to the boat...if the wheels don't fall off the Prius trying to get us and the stuff across the country.

Getting There

I think we are finally getting a handle on the house. It still amazes me how much stuff there is once all the big items are gone.  Thanks to Freecycle, the mattress, dinette chairs, and a number of other things (all were offered and taken by the nice couple that responded to the mattress ad) are gone. The pathfinder is also gone now, so we have more limited means of hauling than we did before.

Most of the rest of the stuff that is left has been boxed and moved to the garage.  There is a small pile of stuff to keep (either boat or storage), a larger pile of stuff to donate, another large pile to recycle, and a small pile of trash.  Oh, did I mention that today was trash day?  Our trash service comes with the cans and this was our last pick up. We had hoped they would not show up until the afternoon...so of course they were here by 9am.

After getting the house cleared, in came the steam cleaner.  Our real estate agent said our carpets were fine and replacement would likely be a waste of time as the new owners would probably want to replace them with their own choice anyway.  So, we rented a Rug Doctor and, after vacuuming, steam cleaned the carpets.  For as old as they are, the carpets still look fairly decent...a surprise for builders grade carpeting.

Speaking of surprises, one of the vacuums we borrowed (not the one pictured above) was sure one.  With all the advertising and the price tag of Dyson, I found that the one we tried using was terrible.  It was less effective than a refurbished Hoover WindTunnel vacuum we picked up at Big Lots for about 1/10 the price.  And all those claims about design innovations...well...I think my wife summed it up best: "This thing was obviously designed by someone that has never actually used a vacuum".  I could say that the Dyson sucked...but normally a vacuum should and it didn't seem to do that either.

As of this morning all of the rooms are empty except the kitchen.  And we need to get that cleared out and cleaned up quickly as the real estate agent is coming over to take pictures to create the listing. Everyone says it is a good time to be selling in the Denver market, so hopefully we will get it sold soon.  In any case, we should be heading for the boat in the next few days.  Yay!

Aaaaaagh.....

Sorry for going radio silent for a little while.  It has been quite hectic around here.  We had the nice going away party last Sunday and it was nice to see my old friends and make some new ones.  Of course, as dizzy as I've been recently, I totally forgot to take any pictures while I was there (doh!).  I do want to thank everyone who stopped by to wish us well.

Some "provisions" we were given during the party.

Since the party we've been running around like the proverbial headless chickens trying to get rid of stuff.  It still amazes me how much cruft we have to deal with.  The only furniture we have left is our mattress lying on the floor in our bedroom, one table, and a couple dilapidated dinette chairs.  It kind of reminds me how we first started living out of college...not a lot of furniture.  The difference is all the small stuff though...man you can accumulate a lot in 18 years.

Many trips to every imaginable donation place (Goodwill, ARC, Habitat for Humanity, etc.). A trip down to the metal recycling center with old computer carcasses (steel cases, motherboards, hard drives...all separated of course), fence stakes, buckets of hardware, and other metallic things we couldn't find a home for or reason to keep (it is amazing what they will recycle..and depending on what you have there is some money in it..between our two trips we made $125).

Boxing up the things we want to store like picture albums, heirlooms, paperwork.  Decided to buy a small fire safe to store some paperwork in lieu of paying for a safe deposit box for some necessary (but not exactly valuable) paperwork.  Then stashing these boxes with nearby relatives.

Spending some quality time on eBay and Craigslist trying to get a few more dollars for some of our better "stuff".  Our mountain bikes are now sold, so we will be looking for some possibly folding ones once we get to Florida.  Running to CarMax and EchoPark to get appraisals on our old Pathfinder (which should disappear later today...after we cart the table my computer is currently sitting on to Goodwill).

The almost gone Pathfinder...and house...I hope.

And yesterday we met with the real estate agent.  The sign is hiding in the garage, and we are prepared to list the house.  That should happen early next week.

The sign waiting in the garage.

The goal was to be cleared out by last Tuesday...but this isn't any different than any other plan made by a cruiser...a wave comes along and wipes away any trace of that plan scribbled in the sand.  Now I guess we will see if we are on the road by Easter.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Twang Goes The Dock Line

They call the act of heading off cruising "cutting the dock lines".  Untethering yourself from your previous land-based life as it were. Well, that twang was the sound of another dock line of ours being cut. Not the last one, but an important one nonetheless. You see, yesterday was my wife's last day at work.

Goodbye card signed by her coworkers

I think this was a particularly tough day for her.  She's had this job since shortly after she graduated from college and has spent the last 23.5 years there.  She has seen a lot in her time there (personally I'm not sure how anyone can watch laws being made for that long) and made many friends there. And given she had no less than three going away gatherings at work, I'm pretty sure that (as the above card stated) she will be missed there. But this morning she no longer has to drive to the office.

A bit more picturesque than the average office building
(Picture by Chris Gonzalez, released under GFDL)

I didn't really realize it until recently, but the way we divided up our tasks was probably more difficult for her. While I was living and working on the boat, she was in Colorado wrapping things up here.  So, while I was seeing positive progress (albeit sometimes VERY slow progress), she mostly dealt with things going away.  Fortunately only a few more days remain of those tasks, then we all head back to the east coast and to our new floating home.

After the party, of course.

A Game I Surely Will Not Win

It's a game every person that moves from being a dirt dweller to a first-time cruiser plays.  And based on the blogs I read, it is a game that no one who plays ever really wins.  That game?  It's called "Will I need this?" and it is played as you try to downsize your life from your relatively large stationary home to your new and much smaller floating one.

To win this game you need to figure out what you should sell/give away/throw away, what needs to be stored with family (hopefully very little), and what will be needed and can fit on the boat.  It is a game we have actually been playing for a while.  It started when I first drove from Colorado to Florida to move onto the boat.  It continued as we planned and held our estate sale.  And it continues today as we try to empty the house of the last of our stuff and prepare for the final move onto the boat.

To make the game a bit more challenging, I added an additional rule to our version of the game.  Everything we plan to take to the boat needs to fit in the Prius that we intend to take on the drive back to to the boat.  That includes the two human and two canine passengers.  I figure this way we definitely won't arrive at the boat with more stuff than will fit on her.  After all, I've been living on it for the better part of a year so it already has many of the necessities for day-to-day life.

This is a challenging game.  You know there are some things you will need, there are other things you think you would like to have, some you can do without, and there are others that fall under the "what was I thinking when I bought that" category (anyone that ever owned a bread maker want to chime in here?).  These needs and wants are stacked against the very limited space available to store things on a boat.  Because, lets admit it, if you are storing your canned goods underneath your sofa, you just don't have an excess of storage space.

Some things are easy...while that clothes dryer might be nice, it definitely won't fit and I can't power it from the inverter (so, it left to a new owner just a few hours ago).  The ski rack, while it might fit somewhere on the boat, isn't exactly useful on a sailboat. But what about our bicycles?  They are hybrid bikes (part road and part mountain bike) and have quick release hubs so they can partially collapse for storage...but not as much as a folding bike would.  They are likely more comfortable to ride than the folding bikes...but would definitely be more difficult to dinghy to shore.

Some clothes we definitely want to take. Swimsuits, wet-suits, t-shirts, and shorts generally make the cut...at least a few good ones.  But do I need a dress suit?  How about a nice sports coat...and where will I store it on the boat if I take it.  I've never been much of a dress up kinda guy and Colorado is pretty casual, so I've only needed these things on maybe a dozen occasions my entire lifetime.

There have been a few things I've already lost this game on.  When we had the estate sale, I sold a heat gun and had to buy one for the boat.  Same with a car buffer and a few other tools.  And with the colder temperatures that I wasn't expecting to be around in, some sweatshirts needed to be acquired in Virginia and Georgia as well.  And there are other items that I already carted across the country that I have yet to use on the boat.  Don't know if I will...but haven't thrown many of them away just yet.

In any case, we keep on playing the game. Pairing down the things we need in hopes that our choices keep us from getting rid of too many items that we will later have to reacquire. And just as bad, carrying stuff half way across the U.S. just to toss it in a few months on the East coast.

Under The Weather

Sorry for going silent for a few days.  It wasn't my intention...but neither was getting sick just after getting back to Denver.  I'm now two for two on getting sick after returning to Denver.  It must be the combination of my sinuses (having become accustomed to humidity when I'm on the boat) being thrust into the very dry air of Colorado and being stuffed in a small metal tube (airplane) with a few hundred fellow humans (some of who I'm sure were sick...like the guy sitting in front of me that coughed and hacked the whole flight).  In any case, I've been feeling pretty lousy and not getting too much accomplished...including writing.

I have managed to get a few things done, though.  I decided on a new cell phone service and handset and will do a detailed write up on that once I have a chance to use it.  I do hope it works well enough because, if it does, it will be half the price of our current service with T-Mobile and give us a bit better coverage.

I would also like to get a waterproof camera that can take some decent pictures and video for the blog. Trying to decide if the low end GoPro Hero would work, or if the Fuji FinePix XP70 would be sufficient, or if I really need to spring for the better GoPro cameras that are 3 to 5 times the price.  Looking at sample pictures and video online, I think I may be leaning toward the Fuji even though it is only good to 10 meters below the water.

      

I've also been trying to help go through what is left in the house and divide it up into the categories of take, store, sell, donate, and trash.  The take pile will definitely be small, as it will have to be carried back to the boat in the Prius (along with the two of us and the dogs).  I figured that would be the only way we would be able to get back to the boat without having more than we can store on board. The store pile will be some paperwork that we need to keep and a few sentimental items that will be stored with family.  The rest all needs to depart the premises soon so we can get the house on the market and head back to the boat.

This would all be easier without the pain and head congestion, but I will try and push on so I don't further delay our departure.  Wish us luck.

It's Not Home Anymore

Coming back to the house in Colorado this time has been a very different experience than the previous trips. Yes, it was great to see my wife and the dogs again.  But it just didn't feel like home.

Since I was last here my wife has continued to get rid of all our "stuff" and the house is pretty empty.  In addition to everything that found a new home during the estate sale, now several other larger pieces of furniture were now gone.  A large entertainment center, the piano, a coffee table, and even the entire bedroom set were no longer here.  It almost reminds me of our first apartment...you know, the one you move into before you ever owned any furniture.

The ghost of living-room past.

The family room is empty except for a couple boxes.  The kitchen is the most furnished with a card table and couple of ratty chairs taking the place of our old dinette set (however, the cupboards are pretty empty, so no entertaining or complex cooking can be done).  There is one sectional sofa in the living room...and it is promised to a friend once we are ready to leave.  My computer sits on a TV tray stand that is also promised to someone else.  The lamp, the dog beds, and the computer are all that is really still ours.

In our bedroom there is only the mattress laying on the floor, an old tube television set with HD converter box, and some boxes and laundry baskets that contain some clothing and serve as makeshift nightstands and dressers.  The only other items that can be found in the house are a few odds and ends we need to take to the boat (like clothing and some tools) and stuff that will be donated to various charities or given to friends over the next few days.

Having been my home for the past 18 years, this space now seems quite foreign to me.  It feels like we are camping in the ghost of our previous home.  But it definitely isn't home anymore. I can't wait to get back home...to the boat.

Not Looking Forward to Today

This evening I'm heading back to Colorado.  This is a good thing.  The goal is to do the last few touch-ups to the house and get it on the market, then pack up the car and bring the wife and "kids" back to the boat.  I should be psyched, but I'm not.

Don't get me wrong, I am really happy about the goals for the trip and finally taking that next step to be full time cruisers, but the immediate day's events are not happy-making. I'll be leaving the somewhat warmer temperatures I finally found in Florida and flying to Denver, where the forecast is for temperatures in the 20's and snow.  While the temperatures are far from what I'm used to these days, I think flying is what I'm dreading the most.

Long gone are the glory days of flying, where it was a treat to take an airplane to a destination.  These days, flying seems to entail sub-human treatment.  Getting to the airport hours early for the government mandated colonoscopy, being packed into a metal tube with no amenities (I'm waiting for the day that they charge extra for seats, seatbelts, and make the toilets coin-operated), and taken to your destination by pilots (or at least the first officer) that probably makes about what that guy at McDonalds makes for asking if you want fries with that.  I wonder if I'll have more PIC (pilot in command) time than those up in the front of the plane.

MadTV was pretty close on the subject.

Just checking in online for Delta seemed foreboding of the experience I expect to have.  It first gives me the option to change my seating assignment.  On both segments of the flight I'm stuck in the middle seat so I take a look.  In the first hour-long segment, the only seats available are some sort of premium seat.  For a mere $19 I could get one more inch of legroom.  The second segment was even worse, there was only one other seat available, it was also a middle seat, and for that one inch of legroom they wanted $69.  This business model of "we will make you suffer until you pay us a lot more" really needs to stop.

Oh, and then after checking in they wanted to know how much they could pay me in flight vouchers if they needed to bump me from the flight.  Unfortunately there was no "screw you, I'm never planning to take your abusive airline again" option.  If they were willing to refund the ticket price in cash, I may just go rent a car and drive back to Colorado.

I really wish I still had my plane, it is the only way to fly these days.  Cruising along at the leisurely pace of 5 knots on the boat is far more appealing.

As for the snow...I guess I'm just not looking forward to it.  Snow is all pretty when you have nothing better to do except curl up next to a fire and sip cocoa. But anymore I feel about like the guy in The Diary of A Snow Shoveler toward the stuff.

In any case, stories of boat projects will probably be a bit sparse in the coming weeks, but I'll try to find some interesting stuff to post about.  Wish me luck.

Estate Sale Day 3 - A Little Faith Restored

Sunday was the last day of our estate sale. We decided to do something we found fairly common in the estate sale business, we made Sunday a half-price day.  Most items, there were a very few exceptions that were specially marked, were half off the marked price. This doesn't necessarily get you a lot of cash per item, but it does help move a lot of stuff out the door that wasn't moving at the marked price...at least that was the theory.

I think we were finally getting the hang of running the sale as it was our smoothest opening of the three days.  Signs were all out well before the start of the sale (we retrieved signs each night since there are people that will deface or remove signs...calling them street spam...and we didn't want to spend more money to replace the signs), we had time to walk the house and make sure everything was in order, and get an OK from everyone that we were ready to open. It also seemed like there wasn't quite as big of a rush on the Sunday and that helped.

Overall, I don't think it was as busy all day, but we still had good traffic (better than our typical garage sale).  One thing happened that day that helped restore a bit of faith in my fellow man.  A lady had come in on Friday and purchased a jewelry box.  She came back on Sunday to return all the jewelry that was apparently in the box.  She said the jewelry looked like family heirlooms and wanted to make sure we got it back.  Most of it didn't have sentimental value, but was real gold and silver and we appreciated getting it back.  We gave her one of the pieces as well as a stuffed animal one of her children liked as reward for her honesty and integrity.

While we didn't get rid of as much stuff as we would have liked (much of the nicer furniture remains), I think we did all right. If you recall, the estate sale companies thought we would gross between $7000 and $8000 leaving our cut at about $4500. The first day of the sale we made over $5000, the second and third days were a bit over and a bit under $1000 respectively. This put us right at what the companies thought we would get without taking the 40% loss and we still have a few big items to sell.

Would I do it again...well...that is still a good question and I don't know if I would.  But the past couple days we have spent a couple thousand dollars on the boat so it is nice having that extra money...but that is the subject for a couple other posts.

Estate Sale Day 2 - Continuing The Purge

Day two was a bit more organized than day one.  I started putting the signs out a full hour before the sale started...with an added note on the sign in front of the house that read "Open @ 10 am". When I got back, we had time to walk through the house and make sure things we didn't want to sell (or have stolen) were hidden away behind locked doors. There were a number of people waiting as we opened, but I don't think quite as many as the day before...which was a good thing.  Adding that all three of us were there for the start I think made it a bit less hectic.

Attendance was still pretty good for the second day of the sale.  I think it probably helped that it was a Saturday so all those with real jobs during the week could finally attend.  It is only a guess, but I presume more people stumbled across our signs than came because of the online ad after the initial morning rush.

We were able to sell a number of items that I originally wasn't sure we would sell...like one of our artificial Christmas trees, our patio furniture, a computer monitor, and a work desk. Sometimes it amazes me what sells and what does not sell.  Someone found our stash of a few garden tools we needed to keep to clean up the yard and asked if they could buy the cheap, broken, duct-taped-together leaf rake.  Someone else dug out our stashed half package of toilet paper that was guarded by a baby gate and a "Nothing for sale here" sign.

There didn't seem to be as many people that were rude in their negotiation efforts that day. On Friday we encountered several people that were obviously looking for things they could get cheaply so they could resell them on Ebay.  When they realized that we wouldn't sell a collectable item for 1/10 of its actual value (we were priced below typical market prices), we would get snotty comments on price (and the item would often sell for the marked price just a little later).

While we didn't recoup as many freedom chips as we did the first day, we did OK and managed to clear out a fair amount of stuff.  Unfortunately, some of the bigger items (furniture) do remain.  Wondering get if we will have to figure out another option for selling that.  One more day to go and the estate sale will be done.

Estate Sale Day 1 - Disappointment With Humanity

After getting to sleep at 4 AM, we awoke at 6 AM to prepare for the first day of the sale.  We make some coffee...a lot of coffee...and continue pricing things, moving items around, and actually creating the estate sale signs that you saw in the last post.  My wife makes a run to McDonald's to get us something to eat before the show started (not a great option, but about the only option we had for something quick that early in the morning).

I left the house about 20 minutes before the start of the sale to put up signs and there were already a couple of people parked outside waiting for the sale to start.  I ended up miscalculating the amount of time it would take to put all the signs up and I didn't return to the house until 20 minutes after the sale started.  When I returned it was a zoo.  Cars were lined up and down the street. Apparently advertising the sale on EstateSales.net can bring in quite a crowd.  Hope it didn't bother my neighbors too much.

In our exhausted state, no one thought about doing a walk-through of the house before we opened the door.  As it turned out, I had left my laptop running so we could continue pricing items when I was distracted with making the sale signs.  It wasn't until someone tried to buy it that my wife realized it was still sitting out and rescued it.

Sales were very brisk throughout the day and we made a majority of the entire sale proceeds this first day.  We didn't even have time to stop for lunch (or even notice lunch time passed by).  The 60" LED flat screen TV, home theater with custom speakers, stainless steel gas grill, front loading washer, futon, one bedroom set, and other miscellaneous items were sold the first day.

Unfortunately it was not all good news.  Even though we had three people running the sale (the estate sale companies only planned on two), theft was an issue.  Two of us tried circulating through the house to answer questions and prevent theft but it apparently wasn't enough.  While I was busy demonstrating the home theater equipment to a buyer, I noticed that a rare CD collection (KBCO Studio C Box Set, numbered and one of only 200) was missing.  Later in the day we found a few boxes that used to contain items but only the empty boxes remained. And a few of these items were priced less than $1. The camera bag that went with a 35mm camera I was selling also walked away (I kind of wonder if it was used to smuggle the Box Set out).

One of the more disturbing things we found was discovered after the sale closed the first day.  In addition to the computer being left out, the old digital camera I was using to take pictures for the estate sale site was also left out.  The camera itself wasn't stolen, but the compact flash memory card was missing (you know the old, "big" by today's standards, cards).  Really?!?!  Why would someone take a 64 MB compact flash card...here you can buy a 1 GB card for a little over $6?  Other than pictures of the sale, my wife had taken pictures of some of the items she was selling so she could remember them and now those are lost.

So, while we got rid of a lot of stuff and recouped a fair amount of our freedom chips, the thievery put a damper on our excitement. Guess I forgot that not all people are as good as most of the cruisers I've met.  All we can do is hope that karma catches up with the thieves one day.

Getting Rid Of Our Stuff - The Estate Sale

As is usually the case, by the time I get to write about an event it has come and gone and so it is for our estate sale.  But let me take you back to the beginning of the process...

When I came back to Colorado to help wrap things up, one of the big items on the list was to sell all our stuff. Having lived in our home for about 18 years, we certainly managed to collect a lot of stuff (I guess George Carlin was right).  Looking around our house, and after dealing with my father-in-law's estate, we thought it might be a good idea to hire an estate sale company to come help us get rid of everything.  Yes, indeed, there is an entire industry devoted to getting rid of your stuff...wouldn't George be proud.

While looking for estate sale companies, we quickly found the EstateSales.net site and decided it might be a good idea to check out how some of the businesses run the sales.  So, one Saturday we found a few sales from the companies we were interested in and went to check them out.  Some were better than others, but the basic idea is that an estate sale is kind of like a garage sale, only on a larger scale and more organized.  They also seem to generate a lot more traffic than the usual garage sale.

We came up with a short list of the companies that we liked that seemed to be doing a professional and organized job and started giving them calls.  A few of them were not interested since we wanted to remain in the house during and after the sale (having to stay in a hotel for a week or two as the house was set up was not an option).  A couple others came over to the house to give us their pitch and look around at what we had for sale.  The estimates on how much they thought we could get out of our roughly 2000 square foot (186 square meter) home was between $7000 and $8000 U.S. This is where we found out that the companies would take 40% of the proceeds as payment.  Doing the math here...the fee for the sale would be around $3000.

Since I'm no longer employed, we thought it would be nice to keep that $3K ourselves to put toward the boat improvements.  I also found out that EstateSales.net and other estate sale advertisement companies allow private individuals to advertise sales on their sites and to their subscriber mailing list.  We pondered the potential loss we might have being less experienced in pricing for the sale.  In the end we decided it is unlikely we would be off by more than $1000 so we would do the sale ourselves.

We started digging through our stuff, throwing away the trash and cleaning up the stuff we wanted to sell.  We moved around furniture and started to set up our house and all our stuff for display.  We learned some tricks from the estate sales we attended like how to use a board and a couple small waste baskets to make a second shelf for your displays on folding tables. And we learned what the standard prices are for many smaller priced items like clothing, bedding, CD's and DVD's, flatware, stemware, and kitchen utensils.

We spent several weeks slowly going through stuff and separating it into:

• Stuff headed to the boat (the smallest group)
• Stuff headed to storage
• Stuff to sell
• Stuff to donate
• Recycling
• Garbage

You don't realize how much stuff you have acquired in almost 20 years until you try to go through and sell it all.  It didn't take too long until we realized we were going to need more tables.  This is where we also found out that renting banquet tables at the local rental places ran $10 a day per table.  That can get pretty expensive when you consider the amount of time needed to rent the tables (in addition to the 3 day sale, the set up and tear down time makes it a pretty long rental).  This is where having friends comes in handy.  I pleaded for help from a few friends and one had tables we could borrow for the sale.  Thanks Tom!

We planned on a little over a week to get everything set up and really turn our home into a showroom for all our stuff.  We set up the ad on EstateSales.net including a preliminary list of items, a few pictures, and our terms and conditions of the sale (Cash only, no moving labor provided, everything sold as-is/where-is, etc.).  Half way through the week, we realized we were not going to be anywhere near ready and ended up pushing the sale off by a week.

Not how our master bedroom usually looked

We continued to set up tables in our house, clean and collect like items together (it is recommended that you put similar items together and in the rooms they are used in as that makes for a more organized sale).  Kitchen appliances and cookware in the kitchen, dishes and decorations in the dining room, entertainment related stuff in the family room, etc.

Living Room or Showroom?

We bought some white corrugated plastic signs from the local quick sign shop and a really fat permanent marker and made signs for the sale.  To keep the signs easy to follow, they simply said "Estate Sale" in big letters and a big arrow indicating direction and in smaller print the hours of the sale (10am to 4pm for us).  When we used to go to garage sales, we found an arrow was far more useful than writing the address on the sign (who memorizes where every street in their part of town is) or a list of contents at the sale (usually too small to read as you are driving by).

After getting a lot of the stuff set up, we started going around and pricing items.  For cheaper stuff we generally took our best guess on prices.  For more expensive things or items we simply had no clue on, we checked retail prices as well as the sold prices of items on Ebay or similar sites.  The general rule of thumb we were using for pricing was to price items that were practically new at 1/3 of retail and reduce down to 1/10 of retail for more used items and a little below the bottom line Ebay price for items of a more collectible nature.

We had a few surprises on prices.  For instance, my wife had a Beatles White Album vinyl record and I had a hunch it might be worth a bit more than the $2/record standard price.  I checked and they can go from thousands of dollars down to a few dollars or so.  The pressing and condition of the one we had put it's price at $20~40.  I had purchased an electric bass guitar my senior year of high school and, as it turns out, the guitar is apparently pretty rare.  Ovation made the Celebrity BC-2 guitar and apparently it was a flop so the best information I can find says they only produced them for a single year.  I was having a hard time finding information on it and most of that was in forum threads that usually started by asking questions related to their existence or legitimacy.  I found one thread that indicated someone found a beat up one in a pawn shop, bought it for $100, and then sold it to a collector for $750. And the one I have is in near mint condition.

The day before the sale we were busy pricing items and still digging out more for sale.  We worked through the night to try and get everything ready.  Finally around 4am the morning of the sale my wife and I decided we should try to get at least a couple hours of sleep before the sale started.  So we pushed all the stuff that wasn't even close to being ready to sell into the closets and bathrooms, blocked them off and went to bed.

Were we ready for the sale....no.  Were there things out that were still unmarked...you bet.  But we were out of time and needed to push forward.  In one of my next posts, I'll cover how the first day of the sale went....it was definitely interesting.

It's been a MONTH?!?

Wow.  It's been almost a month since my last post...and I was sooooo planning on picking up the pace on the blog posting front. I thought things would slow down a bit, but that simply hasn't been the case so far.

I'm actually writing this while taking a brief break from the mad push to get ready for our big estate sale. Originally my wife and I were planning on hiring an estate liquidation company to come and do the sale, but in a "oh...I can do that" fit of insanity, we decided that we would just do it ourselves.

Part of the reason for making this decision is that the estate sale companies take 40% of the proceeds of the sale as their fee.  Having spent the last couple weeks going through all our stuff and turning our house into a "this was your life" showroom, I can say that 40% is probably a bargain.  I can't believe how much stuff has been packed in our house.  All this stuff could easily sink 5 or more catamarans the size of ours (my wife was thinking a garbage barge).  And I don't even think we were as bad as most of those around us in the "good American consumer" category.

I doubt this will fit on the boat...

...or this.

We've also met with a couple real estate agents to get an idea of what to expect when selling our house.  In the 18 years we've owned the house, the housing market has done some pretty strange things across the nation.  Fortunately, it sounds like our area is still a sellers market and we should do OK...probably not as well as we did selling my father-in-law's place (it went for almost $20K over list price), but well enough.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

In other news, our boat is still on the hard in Virginia. Unfortunately the yard hasn't been doing a very good job of getting work done on time or anywhere near estimate.  So, pretty soon I will be returning to Rover to finish the necessary out-of-the-water repairs, get her back in the water, and get her heading south for warmer waters.

Well, I think my 15 minute break is over...so back to work. Only 3 days left to get everything dug out, cleaned up, displayed and priced for the sale.  Wish me luck!

Oh, and if you happen to be in the Denver area this weekend, feel free to swing by the sale and say hi.  Here is a link to one of the advertisements for the sale with the info: Broomfield Colorado Estate Sale.

Entertainment Downsizing

Moving from a couple thousand square foot home to a 38 foot by 21 foot catamaran is definitely an exercise in downsizing.  I'm pretty sure the closet in the house's master bedroom has more storage space than Rover. So, obviously, you try to save space wherever you can as you move aboard a boat.

One of the things I've been doing since I returned to Colorado is consolidating my music collection onto a portable hard-drive.  It takes a little time, but the result is I can backup my entire purchased music collection on a single hard drive that is smaller than a pair of CD cases (I can actually store most of it on a solid state thumb drive).

I wish there was an easy way to convert old books to a digital format. Converting the pounds of bulky paper into something more potable and storage friendly would be great.  Guess I may have to see if I can find digital versions of my favorite books. I'm also trying to read a number of books so I don't have to take them along, including a number of books I was given as a gift that I intend to pay forward when I get through them.(NOTE: One exception here is repair manuals...when things go wrong I think I want to be able to access those when everything, including electronic devices, fail).

 It would be nice to have a legal way to make copies of movies I own for my personal use...as it would save me additional space.  For the movies, I guess I'll just have to put the DVD's I want to keep into a single, multi-disc, carrying case.

Anyone else have any suggestions on how to reduce the storage space of entertainment items like books, movies, and music?

Losing Even More

Last time I mentioned how I had lost a few things and that those losses were good things.  Well, the good losses continue.  This past weekend we had the first of what will undoubtedly be several garage sales as we continue to trade all of this stuff we have accumulated for our freedom.

If I knew then what I know now I certainly wouldn't have bought some of this stuff...but as I've admitted before, I was somewhat the good little American consumer that our society trained us to be since we were children.  Fortunately neither my wife nor I have ever been big spenders or overly compelled to "keep up with the Joneses", so the damage to our freedom isn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  Still, even recouping a small percentage of the price paid for many of these things we no longer need feels really good.

We held the sale on Friday and Saturday and had an assortment of items available.  We had some tools, kitchen equipment, dishes, artwork, camping gear, electronics, and the list goes on.  It was really only a very small subset of the items we need to get rid of, but was a good start and filled the garage.  I forgot how much of a pain it is to price things for a garage sale.  On one hand, you want to get a reasonable price for things in order to justify having the sale but you also want the items gone (to me the one thing worse than not getting a reasonable price for things would be to have to pay to get rid of them).  We decided to try and price things around 10 cents on the dollar of replacement cost, with some exceptions for condition or the type of item.

Since we had more to sell than would fit in the garage, I often told those that stopped by to let me know if there was anything in particular they were looking for. A few folks took us up on the offer and we did sell a few things that weren't originally out for the sale. We continued to "restock" as items were sold, so it is hard to get an accurate idea of how much we purged.

We got rid of a few big items that has made some extra space in the garage/house.  In the end we did regain over a thousand dollars worth of our freedom.  Not too shabby.

Moving Forward

For the next couple months my posts may be a bit more sporadic.  I have returned to Colorado to help my wife with our house.  We have lived in the home for over 17 years so there is a lot to go through before we can put it up for sale.  A lot of stuff to sell and even more to throw away...er recycle.  I don't think we will have to do as much work on the house as we did with my father in law's place, but it still will take a little time. The local housing market seems to be pretty good right now, so I hope we can get the house up for sale soon.

Meanwhile, the boat is on the hard getting a little work done.  I'd prefer to do most of the work myself (particularly due to some of my recent experiences with "professionals" in the boating world), but many folks in the Deltaville, VA. area have good reviews for their work so I am hopeful.  Unfortunately I simply cannot be in two places at once.

So, I'll post when I have something interesting to report, but I'll assume you all know what it is like cleaning up a house so I won't bore you with that.  Wish me luck.

House for Sale - Yay

We (ok, mostly my wife) hit a major milestone yesterday.  We got the first house on the market.  When my wife inherited her fathers house, it had the original 1959 kitchen and bathrooms.  Old oak cabinets, burnt orange Formica counter tops, and no dishwasher. Brown, blue, and red shag carpets, ugly yellow linoleum and even a popcorn ceiling with glitter in it in the great room.  The house was a sight to behold.

Despite troubles with two different handymen, the update of the house is finally complete.  My wife picked out all of the colors and we did some of the work ourselves as well.  I may be a bit biased, but I think she did an absolutely awesome job.  I have no doubt that the house will sell quickly and make someone a very nice home.  What do you think?

Front Elevation

Entry and Great Room

New Kitchen

Bedroom

Main Bath

Main Bath Vanity

2nd Bath Shower

If you happen to know someone that is looking to downsize or looking for a nice starter home in the north Denver metro area, this 850 square foot home plus full basement might be a good option.  New kitchen with new stainless steel appliances and granite, new bathrooms, new carpet, contemporary refinished wood floors and paint, new energy efficient windows, heat and AC, detached over-sized 2 car garage.  I think it really is move-in ready.

And I think my wife should be very proud of the work she has done here.  Hopefully it will help it sell to someone that can appreciate all the work put into it.