moving - grace grits and gardening

Things we find. Things we keep.

August 21, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Decluttering a house to sell and move is time consuming work. It is also entertaining, like signing on for an unintentional treasure hunt.

Here are a few of the interesting (to me) things I’ve found while cleaning and packing.

My original Cinderella watch.

I’ve had this watch since I was about six years old, but I haven’t seen it in years and years. It came with a porcelain Cinderella figurine (long gone). I found this in Kelsey’s jewelry box. Somehow it migrated from the Bat Cave.

And what a landslide of memories.

While cleaning out Kelsey’s closet (which was originally Tate’s until Kelsey left for college), I had completely forgotten we marked height inside on the door frame. Tate’s height dated 10/06/2003 was 4’4″. He was ten years old. I showed this to him a couple of weeks ago, and of course we measured him again for old time’s sake. Now at age twenty-one, his mark is way above Kelsey’s highest mark (taken in 2006).

The new owner will have to paint over this because I can’t.

I also found these photo strips. John and I never pass up silly photo booths. These go back to before we were married.

Left-to-right from younger days to most recent. My favorite is the one that includes Tate.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“Change is like that: you are no longer where you were; you are not yet where you will get; you are nowhere exactly.”
― Lionel Shriver

Musical Pairing:

Fleetwood Mac – Landslide

Adventures in Moving #2

August 14, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Oh my goodness. Last weekend was crazy. It all started with a realtor who brought clients to see our house not during her scheduled appointment time. (Background: house showings are scheduled in one hour increments through a centralized showing company. This allows us time to prepare, leave the house with the dogs during that one hour, and come home hopefully to a contract? Yeah, not yet.)

Saturday, this particular showing went down like this: we received an appointment notice, cleaned like crazed people, vacuumed, turned on all the lights so the house looked its best, removed the third floor barricade (dogs aren’t allowed up there since I shampooed the carpet), left the house at our appointed time and walked the dogs in 100 degree temperatures finally crashing at neighbor Harry’s house. Thank you, Harry!

pool with fountains on

At the end of our scheduled hour, we went home, turned off the lights, barricaded the third floor, turned off the pool fountains, armed the house alarm and left for lunch. It was 2:00. Fish tacos were calling my name.

Thirty minutes later, the realtor showed up well past her appointment. She set off the alarm and the dogs who went nuts (rightfully so). The showing company called to let us know our alarm was going off. No joke. That’s how it works. We rushed home. The realtor and her clients seemed unfazed by the fiasco but of course the house was dark, the third floor was barricaded, the dogs were crazy, the whole thing ridiculous.

Not an ideal house touring scenario.

Oh well.

The next day at our open house, someone took my prescription medication right out of the zippered case inside my bathroom cabinet.

Yeah. Wild.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Talking Heads, Wild, Wild Life

Our crepe myrtle show.

August 12, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

The first year we lived in our house, we planted a crepe myrtle in our front yard. To make an impact right away, we bought a decent sized tree, large enough that we couldn’t carry it home in our car. The guys from the nursery delivered and planted it on Thanksgiving Day which we thought was strange timing. Of course because of that, we never forgot the day it joined our yard.

Unfortunately, our crepe myrtle was always a poor performer. She never bloomed very well.

Until this summer.

Of course this summer, the summer we decided to move, our crepe myrtle is putting on a gorgeous show with heavy hot pink blossoms visible from both our downstairs and upstairs porches.

Maybe she’s happy because of this summer’s below normal temperatures (and by below normal I mean 95 degrees instead of 105 degrees).

Or perhaps our above average rainfall is responsible for her enthusiasm.

Maybe she’s doing her part to improve curbside appearance, trying to help us sell the house?

Or maybe she’s just saying goodbye as we prepare to walk away.