It’s Monday, and 46 days until the tentatively scheduled sale of the house, and possible sale of furniture and household goods, and pontoon boat.  We remain on pins and needles, wondering if some glitch will happen between now and then.  After walking about 3 miles in the early morning, we cut some short cedar stumps to transport to Texas for bowl making by Paul Graham and Jim Miles.  Following that, we put surveyor’s tape on the property corners, and washed the canoe, readying it for transport for winter storage before the move to Hot Springs Village.  Mail and package delivery today brought a settlement for a “Heart Attack” insurance policy Kay insisted taking out on me when we first married; obviously she knew something I didn’t because, at the time, I poopooed the idea!  It will come in handy when time comes for furnishing the new house.  We spent part of the afternoon going developing a strategic plan for moving, i.e. a checklist of items to be done and dates for completion, knowing that most will occur during the last week prior to the actual sale of the house.  A call in the late afternoon from the prospective buyer informed us that they did want the furniture and household goods for the asking price, and were prepared to write a check on the spot.  Kay advised them to wait until closing to write the check.  Their decision to buy the furniture and household goods tremendously helps us with scheduling the move, reserving moving trucks, and making arrangements for helpers on each end to load and unload, respectively, the remaining personal items being moved.  I woke up shortly before midnight, and worked on preparing some paperwork for the move (bill of sale for the pontoon and instructions for operating the boat lift).  And, we’re still seeing a few butterflies—and, we’re never too busy to take photos of them!

It’s 45 days until the tentative date for sale of the house.  After a skimpy night’s sleep, we awoke Tuesday to another great cool morning, and after reading email and newspapers, did our 3-mile neighborhood walk.  Breakfast was at the Norfork Cafe, and was as good as it has ever been, and clean too; about a year or so ago it had become a bit dirty, and the food was really greasy.  After returning home, I began working on changing out the potable water pump in the motorhome while Kay called the various utilities and companies servicing the house to ascertain the logistics of terminating/changing accounts when the house sells.  None make it easy, and DirecTV is absolutely the worse, requiring us to send in all the equipment, and having the buyer establish a new account requiring a service person to come install equipment.

After walking in the warm, humid morning air Wednesday, we ate breakfast and drove to Quarry Marina, loaded with boat cleaning supplies.  We dusted the Bimini top and cover, vacuumed the carpet, removed spots on the carpet, and then cleaned the always present spider droppings from the upholstery and sides of the pontoon.  Kay is leading the charge on packing, and seems to have boundless energy—I don’t how she does it.  She worked on the downstairs today, and made significant progress.  We showed the boat to the buyer late this afternoon, and it, too, will be sold as part of the package.  In addition, the buyer asked if we would consider moving the closing date up a week as they had a long-standing commitment for October 23, and we readily agreed.  For us, that means advancing everything a week, and the most challenging part of that is arranging for a rental U+Haul truck and helpers to load the truck on this end, and helpers to unload the truck at the storage facility in Hot Springs Village.  Consequently, we are now shifting the selling day to October 16, so this becomes S-36.

We awoke early, 3 AM Thursday, not being able to sleep because of all the impending packing awaiting us, among other moving chores.  Kay began packing again, and out of guilt, I assisted!  We worked on the storage room on the lower floor, and then the shop area, and finally the out-of-season closet.  Despite getting rid of a lot of things, we still have much to pack.  Thank goodness we’re not moving furniture and household goods!  We are using the lower garage as the mobilization area for completed boxes, with a plan to park the moving truck nearby, quickly load the boxes, drive to the Village, and unload either into regular storage or HVAC storage.