July 31, 2012

The Horror of House Staging

We've started meeting with realtors on selling the house, and the part that's really starting to scare me is staging the house for showing. My housekeeping is erratic at best and the absolutely-clutter-free-look-like-a-model-house standard of staging simply boggles my mind. No longer can I shove random clutter into the closets and cabinets: potential buyers will be inspecting the closets and cabinets. The ideal is to make ourselves disappear, no baby, no dogs, no human inhabitants >o< Time to panic?

July 27, 2012

The Book Cull

I was so good this week! Went through the wrenching process of deciding which books we’ll be keeping through the move and which we’ll donate/sell before we leave. I hate getting rid of books, but found this time around that I was willing to let go of more than usual. Old manga series that rank low on the nostalgia list went into the discard pile, as did the more recent Star Wars novels, which were pretty bad anyway. The obscure Asimov paperback was hard to let go, but chances of reading it are low, and the ease of picking it up in an e-book collection is high. Same rule applied for several cookbooks that always looked fun but never actually got used (thank you, internet!)


When I took them to the library our policy of not keeping empty cardboard boxes around came back to bite me, no usable boxes to carry this mini-library! So I packed them all into the largest and sturdiest gift bags I’d saved from Sam's first birthday and dropped them off for the bewildered volunteers at the library. Must have made an interesting morning, looking inside adorable Noah’s Ark or Toy Story themed gift bags to discover programming and engineering textbooks, video game guides, scifi/fantasy paperbacks and shojo manga. >o<

The Toddler Bed

Young Master Samwise has been able to climb out of his crib for over a month now, but luckily he’s lazy well behaved enough to stay put as long as mommy gets there in a reasonable timeframe. Buuuut, the situation couldn’t go on forever, and I finally managed to track down the toddler rail for his crib. (and that’s a looong boring tale) Now that everything is figured out and Jonathan installed it, the bed looks great and works great!





He was perfect his first night in the toddler bed, but when nap time came around he discovered that once mommy leaves, it can be playtime! I couldn’t get him to stay put, even by reading him stories. Since he was playing quietly, I closed the door and kept the monitor close while I worked, and after about an hour and a half I didn’t hear any more movement. Held my breath and forced myself to wait for another ten minutes, and look what I found!



I am so proud of my big boy!