January 10th - The House

January 10th - The House


Now there is another story. We have 30 years of living collected here, we never threw anything out from when I arrived in the US, because we kept moving to a bigger place.
We are going from a 3200 square feet house to a 2 bedroom apartment in New York, say 1200 square feet optimistically speaking…
We could throw everything out without looking, we could store many things (which I really don’t want),but what we are choosing to do is meticulously going through everything and sorting it all out.

Here in Austin (the South), the house has to be in immaculate condition to be put on the market, especially in this weak market.
This means repair, upgrading, painting, cleaning etc. Even the yard has to be clean cut, pruned, clean driveway, plant bushes, which, in winter time, is very challenging. Well, you get the picture.
We are also converting cassette to CD, LP’s to the computer, VHS to DVD and all pictures are scanned and put in the computer.

It is daunting, the amount of work.

Sarah has gone back to New York, her room here is practically empty, the guest room is “done”, our bedroom is getting there and so is Benjamin’s.
The kitchen? Well, that part of the house is more cluttered than ever, all things come out of drawers and cabinets and end up on the kitchen counter, where else……….?

Next Monday the painters come in, so most things need to be cleared out, walls empty.

Benjamin has begun polishing all the woodwork (lots!), which makes a big difference!

After all is said and done we need to clean and stretch the carpet.

So above is a description of the process we are going through. What really matters however, is that we are all deeply into letting go of our old lives, the way we used to be, and things. It is amazing how much memory things hold, sometimes precious, often times in the past and the past brings you back to the past. For all of us it is not always easy to let go and without a doubt, a lot of work.
The kids are sad to let go of the house they grew up in, I am mostly glad. The house has become a burden without a purpose.

I try not to think about New York too much, it is the unknown, working and living situation completely unclear, but, I try not to spend time worrying about it.
It is hard to write about the process now, we are in the middle of it. The information below is something I would request you hold in your prayers / affirmations and thoughts:

The house will sell soon, to a family with 2/4 kids, they have enough money to buy (lawyer, IT, Corporate) - mortgage no problem - and they are either re-locating to Austin or moving to a bigger house within Austin.
We like them and are almost sad we will not get to know them better.
But we are glad they are going to be enjoying the house we did: we have had good years here.
Schools have been checked out and therefore they specifically look in our area. The price is right and the whole sale goes very quickly, they love the house and can’t wait to move in.