Fixing an Eyesore...I Hope

This is the eyesore I'm talking about... 

and this...

When there was still grass in the area next to the driveway, the pipe sticking out of the ground wasn't as noticeable. It's also been there for as long as I can remember. 

My friend, Denny, who helps me with construction projects, suggested it might belong to an old oil drum.  OK, that works for me because I really have no idea.  He also suggested that it be shortened, capped and covered with dirt.  I agreed and he did that for me a couple weeks ago.  

The ugly brown spot is the size of my 1994 Volvo sedan.  That's because I parked it next to the driveway so that my dad or I could get his car out of the garage.  I hadn't had the extra parking put in yet on the other side of the driveway...

so that was my parking spot.  After I got my new Volvo I kind of kicked the old one to the curb and ignored it until I donated it to NPR.  As a result, a major eyesore that I've also been ignoring.  I like projects inside the house more than outside so it was easy for me to ignore.  And every time I came home I'd pull right into the garage and continue to ignore it.  If I can't see it, then there isn't a problem...right?  So, a whole lot of ignoring going on.  

When Denny mentioned that there was probably grass seed similar to the type sprayed on lawns I went looking for it.  I'd gotten five bags of topsoil because he wasn't sure how much he'd need to cover the pipe and he barely used one bag so I had all this topsoil hanging around.  Instead of returning it to Home Depot I decided to use it today...

Topsoil put to good use...

Patch Master grass seed put to good use (I hope)...

We're still having lovely weather here in the Seattle area and I think this is going to be a good time to try and cover up the dead spot.  We're supposed to have sunshine every day and we might even get up to 80〫or higher next week.  

Drat, I just realized something.  I'm leaving Sunday for OR and now I'm going to have to ask my house/dog sitter to water for me.  It's supposed to be watered twice a day and I'm hoping this will work (become grass) and I don't want it to dry out when I'm gone.  

I'm sitting out in my backyard now with my dog next to me.  I'm trying to ignore the music coming from the house up and over one.  I'm sitting pretty close to my noisy fountain and I can still hear it once in awhile.  Because it's so noisy out front due to constant traffic, I love to go into my backyard and enjoy the peace and quiet.  When I hear neighbor noise, I get bummed, especially when it's their choice of music.  I don't want to listen to their music, I want peace and quiet.  It feels so good out here that I'm going to do my darndest to ignore it because I don't want to be driven into the house.  

About leasing my house furnished.  I mentioned that to my property manager awhile ago and she said no.  She said most people have their own furniture and don't need a furnished home. 

I had a brainstorm this afternoon. I'm going to see if I can find an organization that provides furniture for women starting over for whatever reason and are in need of furniture.  I'd feel better donating it to that type of organization rather than Goodwill or Salvation Army, if it  comes to that.  I'd still like to be able to earn some money from it, but if I can't, I can't.  

Loving the sunshine,

Jeana

Another Rejection

I just received a second rejection from a consignment store for my living/dining room furniture.  I'm not taking it personally because I inherited it, but I'm concerned that it's becoming a monkey on my back.  I'm not sure what's next.  I have a friend from OR coming Friday and she's an expert in downsizing so I'm hoping she'll have some other options for me.  

I got an email from RVing Women yesterday that while we're at the rv maintenance boot camp we're going to take a tour of the Monaco factory.  If my memory serves me correctly, Monaco is a high end coach so the tour should be interesting.  

I took a load of stuff to Goodwill today and they accepted it all.  At least somebody likes my stuff!!  I had a bunch of running around to do today so I didn't get any more packing done. 

There's a pretty decent second hand bookstore that I go to once in awhile and I stopped by there yesterday.  I found an interesting looking book called Support Your RV Lifestyle...An Insider's Guide to Working on the Road.  I haven't started reading it yet but it looks like it's packed with interesting information.  If I learning anything interesting I'll let you know.

I'm aware that what I'm writing tonight feels like bullet points and I'm not liking it.  I guess I'm more flummoxed by the rejection than I thought and I'm having trouble coming up with anything cohesive to talk about.

So I'm going to quit  for tonight.

Loving the sunshine,

Jeana

Life After a Moving Sale

Yes, there is life after a moving sale...cleaning up the garage.  My goal was to get the tool stuff boxed and I met that goal, plus I'm able to park my SUV in the garage again!!!  It's also loaded up for a trip to Goodwill tomorrow.  I have five boxes packed with lots more to be done and I'll either take them to Goodwill or have Salvation Army come pick them up.  I have to keep working on getting rid of the stuff before I talk myself into taking it back into the house.  The gentleman, Mike, who said he'd come back today, did come back.  His purchase took me over the $400 mark, so I think I did pretty good, especially since I didn't think I had done very well.  I must have lost track of how much was going out.  I guess that's my gas money to get to the RV Maintenance Boot Camp this weekend and back.  

I stopped by the consignment place I emailed a couple weeks ago about my living/dining room furniture.  Since they never responded my plan was to go there with my computer which has pictures of the furniture.  Unfortunately, they were closed today, so I'll go again tomorrow.  

Besides having some extra money, I think the next best part of the moving sale were all the conversations I had.  I love talking to people and I find myself not involved in too many conversations and I feel lonely a lot of the time.  I imagine that will change once I hit the road and start staying in RV parks.  I know writing a blog and reading and commenting on other blogs is a conversation, of sorts, but I love the verbal face-to-face once in awhile.

Having said that, I'm suddenly feeling wordless, so that's it for now.

Lovely day here today,

Jeana

Addendum to Last Post re Moving Sale

My last visitor put aside $70 worth of items and is supposed to pick them up tomorrow!!!  I hope he shows up.  If not, I had a great time talking to him and his wife.

Notice the red ball on the stand (the lowest one in the front)...

When I decided to call it a day and was bringing stuff into the garage, somehow or other, I knocked over the stand with the red ball.  OMG...my driveway is steep and ends on a BUSY street and there's a ball rolling down it with no obstructions in its way!!!  I went after it and the first time I touched it I couldn't grab onto it.  I had horrible images of it reaching the street and hitting or rolling under a car and all kinds of frightening things happening.  I managed to grab onto it before  that happened and I'm so relieved.  There was some damage to the ball so I have a small repair job to do.  I can't begin to imagine what it would look like after colliding with a vehicle.  

Then I went inside and found my poor dog stuck on the wood floors in the living room and not able to get his footing to get up.  I have no idea how long he was stuck like that.  I almost cried when I saw him.  He doesn't have a mean bone in his body and forgave me as soon as I helped him up and let him outside so he could go potty.  That's why I have throw rugs throughout the house since I've taken up most of the carpet.  He doesn't usually go into the living room so I don't know what happened.  But all is well now.  

What a way to end a pretty boring day.

Jeana

Day Three of Moving Sale...Slooooow

I really hate to say it, but today has been a waste of time.  I did what Merikay suggested...

by moving stuff out of the garage onto the driveway and it doesn't appear to have helped much.  Even the free stuff is still here!!  I honestly can't believe the hula hoops didn't sell.  

Funny, as I'm typing this (1:47PM) three people showed up in a row. Nobody bought anything, but they all said they might be back.  Please, please come back and buy something.  One lady that stopped by and admired them, suggested that I ought to try selling my bowling balls.  Huh???  Why do you think they're in my moving sale?  Wouldn't that be considered selling them? Maybe she meant at a shop or something.  

I spent part of my time taking pictures for when I have to itemize my donations for income tax time and the rest of the time eating chips...

As I explained to a friend, I'm in a chip crunching craving mood.  I expect I'll be out of it when all the stuff I didn't sell is boxed and on it's way to Goodwill and/or Salvation Army.  So I'd better do that tonight and not spread this craving out too long.  

Next week at this time I'll be on my way (I'll probably be there since it's 2:10 PM as I type this) to Harrisburg, OR for the RV Maintenance Boot Camp with RVing Women and I'm really looking forward to it.  

I'm really struggling with what to say next so I think that's it for today.  I think the boredom of the weekend has hit me and I'm out of coherent thoughts.  

With that, I'll say so long for now,

Jeana

Day Two of Moving Sale...Disappointing

It was a really slow day today and that's disappointing to me.  Don't these people realize how much work I've done to get ready?  Not their fault, my expectations are probably too high.  While I've gotten rid of a lot, I think there's more left than what I've gotten rid of.  I'm also thinking that I recycled too many boxes and I might not have enough to pack up the leftovers for Goodwill and Salvation Army.  

I "almost" sold one of my yard art bowling balls and a picture my mother painted. But almost doesn't quite seal the deal, so, no sale.  

I suppose the most interesting part of the day were the conversations I had with some of the people who showed up.  One older woman seemed quite concerned that my mother had six Coach purses, three each of two different styles.  It didn't stop her from buying one, though.  

A friend joined me in the afternoon and that helped pass some of the time. There were long gaps between when people showed up and I used the time wisely, i.e., reading RV blogs and commenting!!!

I had to move a heater out into the space where I was sitting because I was cold. It took forever for the sun to come out today but it finally made it around 5 PM.  I was done by then not that any sun came into the garage, but it would have felt warmer.  I was just out in my backyard soaking up the rays while I could.

I don't have much more to share tonight so I'll close for now.  Hopefully, I'll have a ton of people show up tomorrow and I won't have anything left.


Later,


Jeana

Day One of Moving Sale

I'm about ready to pull up the sign and close the garage door.  Nobody has come for over an hour and it's almost 5:00.

I opened at 1:00 and between 1:30 and 2:30 it was a mad house.  Almost everyone bought something and it was a great way to start the day.  There's still an awful lot of stuff here, though.  Fortunately, the weather is cooperating since the sun finally came out.  

I don't know how much I've made yet but that's almost secondary to getting rid of stuff.  I thought about that statement and if that were the case then I would have just given it to Goodwill or Salvation Army.  So I guess I do want to make some money.  

It's been interesting talking to most of the people who have stopped by.  One gentleman, on a BMW motorcycle, said that at one time he'd lived in a 5,000 sq ft house and moved to a 1,500 sq ft condo and got rid of everything. Apparently, he gave most of it away and now he's replacing it all.  He bought a number of small things from me, which was a good thing.  

Some of my friends from Silver Sneakers have dropped by and I've been very generous with them.  I've either given them what they want or dropped the price considerably.  

I've gotten lots of positive comments about my bowling ball yard art but I haven't sold any, so far.  

My mom was a self-taught painter...a prolific painter and I have the pictures to show for it.  I have 30 oil paintings she painted and I don't know what to do with them.  I wish they were my style but they aren't.  I've gotten past the guilt of wanting to get rid of them, I just don't know how.  Any suggestions?

I didn't know a moving sale could be so exhausting.  Wait, it's the end of six days of preparation so I take that back.  Now that I'm not frantically getting it all together and have relaxed, I've really relaxed.  Not quite coma, but I'm getting there.  That'll come after I shut the garage door.

No pictures today...sorry.  And on that note, I'll close this post.

Loving the sunshine,

Jeana

P.S.  I read this morning where Seattle is probably going to have another rotten winter so my decision to go to Tucson is sounding better and better.