After 9 days straight of intense home building school (right through two weekends, pictures here), I went right back to work. Basically, it was like 19 days of work straight. So the weekend of Halloween, Teresa and I headed out for a spoooky wedding in San Francisco for a much needed break. I stayed with my good friend/roommate from college, Chris Dunphy. We also hooked up with Debbie “Wanda” Goldstein, another good friend from college, whom, to my surprise, had moved to San Fran. We had a great time exploring San Francisco with Chris and Wanda. Highlights included a nice long walk from the ferry building to the top of telegraph hill, an excursion to Muir Woods, and a fun evening in a Haight-Ashbury brewpub… oh yeah, and the wedding! Our trip photos are here. Here’s some funny pictures of “Wanda”, Chris, and T&A:
Right now, we are packing like mad. It is very stressful. It is unlike any packing we’ve done before. We have some stuff going to Birmingham into storage, some stuff going to my parents home in Atlanta (where we’ll be living for a month), some stuff going to my parent’s home in Colorado (where we might spend a good bit of time on the trip), and a heap of stuff going on the trip. It’s just a mess, and requires meticulous thought as to what goes where.
A couple of things I’ve learned throughout all of the house prep and moving. I’d recommend this to anyone who lives in a home:
- Don’t wait to get rid of clutter. We de-cluttered our home on instructions from our realtor. A home without clutter is a wonderful thing to come home to. You just feel more relaxed and in control. It’s great, expecially after a day of chaos at work. I wish we had done it years ago. It will also make it much easier to sell your home when the time comes.
- Don’t put off necessary home projects, especially those that will affect the sale of your home. Teresa had three months of work handed to her by our realtor! And once again, you will feel so much better in your home.
- For the couples out there, don’t put off pending merges. Teresa and I merged our CD collection a few years ago. Just the other night, while packing and purging, we merged our tools. And it felt great! We found tons of old rusty screwdrivers to give away.
- If you know you are going to move within a year, start now getting rid of unnecessary stuff. Check out craigslist.org and freecycle.org. They are GREAT!
Anyhow, that’s it for now. We close on the house Nov 16 and move this weekend. Yikes! Back to packing!