Unrelated Side Note

We reached agreements with our sellers in regard to a number of things at the new house, one of those things being their living room furniture, so I decided to pay it forward and posted our living room set on craigslist. FREE. After the first taker flaked on me, I emailed the second, he called me back within two minutes and was at my door in under 40 with his wife, nephew, and nephew’s roommate.

The boys just started college and had moved into an apartment on Sunday. They are basketball players and were completely psyched about the furniture. You could see the word “PARTY” all over their faces. I was thrilled as well because it is perfect for them! They can jump up and down, party, make out with some cheerleaders, whatever, and when school’s over take it to the dump.

The boys were super excited, yet bummed they didn’t have room to take the armchairs. Man, they really liked those armchairs! I told them I would hold onto them for a couple of days if they wanted to work out coming back for them. I wasn’t in a big hurry to get them out the door.

They were so stoked and still rather disbelieving that we were giving this stuff away. Me? I just wanted it out of the house so I can make room for boxes and other furniture in hopes of easing the moving ourselves process, which we are full steam ahead with.

I feel so damn good about this.

So, Sunday, I was the craigslist stalker, trying to hunt down larger boxes for lamps and linens, as well as packing materials. I was having no luck so I figured I should just I should probably just chill out for a bit and see what happens.

Then, last night at 9:00 I got an email, “All of my boxes are gone but I have a ton of packing paper. I have put bags of it on my curb (clean, no trash). Let me know and I’ll give you the address. You can just have it. It is the nice white kind. Please as much as you want. Recycle didn’t pick it up today and trash comes Wed.”

I replied. She replied back with the address. Five minutes later, I texted the address to Matt so he would know where I was, and I got in my car and drove to Ellicott City. I was expecting a couple of bags worth but when I pulled into their count I burst into a fit of laughter. Oh man, this woman wasn’t kidding about a ton! There must have been thirty garbage bags of packing paper out there! It was too dark to take a picture but it was tremendous!

I shoved eight, very full bags into the back of my Outback and drove home, completely stoked that I now have more than enough packing paper to finish getting the house packed up.

I also sent her an email telling her that Howard County doesn’t pick up recycling unless it’s in the approved, county-distributed containers. I also let her know that I’m game for some more boxes, specifically for lamps and larger boxes for linens so hopefully I can hook that up this weekend.

And because I’m in such a good mood, I’d like to share one of my favorite upbeat tunes since we are Moving Right Along.

Oh, and now I am overflowing with quite a bit of excitement!

My biggest issue about moving ourselves was the furniture. Particularly our big, heavy couches and arm chairs that I never really liked. UGH. So totally did not want to deal with them on moving day. As I’ve been packing things up, I’ve been trying to envision where everything will go in the new house, and it’s keeping me happy but the furniture? OH GOD THE FURNITURE!!! Then, I got an email from my agent:

Are you interested in the living room set? Bought last year, used minimally, includes sofa, oversized chair and ottoman – $700

So I fired back, “Will they take $600 and throw in the rug? It looks so nice with that set. Also, they can leave the big, heavy plants if they don’t want to take them along.”

And then my brain got to stirring, as it tends to do. This morning, I had posted one of our sofas on craigslist and it was breaking my heart because it was the nicest of our sofas, and also had belonged to my grandparents, but it wouldn’t go with anything based on how I would have to set up the house. It went just fine here because the room it was in was so separate from everything else … Anyway, I figured I would just let it go when

BING!

The furniture that the owners are selling is nice and neutral and I was like, “Holy crap. We can get rid of our beat up sofa, love seat, blue chair, and that crazy chair that has been a point of contention for the past five years and take the nice couch with us and buy the recliner that Matt has been dreaming of!”

Done, I am more than sold, and I pulled the sofa from craigslist. Even if the owners want full asking price for the furniture and aren’t willing to give us the rug, I’ll still take it. It’s worth it not to have to haul this monster furniture and figure out how the hell to get it down the hallway!

Hopefully, we can close the deal and get our furniture out before the end of the week. That way, we can move everything from the third floor down to the second so it’s one less flight of stairs we’ll have to deal with on moving day!

I really like how this is all coming together. Heck yeah!

Matt is officially excited about the new house. We chatted about the drive down our street, mulching out the one side of the driveway, sitting out on our deck, looking at the stars, digging a fire pit, hanging a hammock, having the windows open …

It’s nice to see him so giddy. I haven’t seen him like this since we got out of the limo at our reception venue and took a bunch of pictures next to a tree. He’s that happy!

I think Diesel is excited, too. He’s downstairs playing in boxes and packing paper.