The house closing went off (almost) without a hitch and now we’re the proud new owners of…a house that looks MUCH worse without furniture in it. Ha ha. When we first saw the property (two times), it looked awesome.

After we closed on the house, we drove over to the now-empty home, walked in, and started poking around. It was FILTHY! Richard said, “Um, I think we paid too much.” 😉

I called a cleaning service and they were able to come by that day. They said they could clean it top to bottom in four hours. I seriously doubted it and I was right. It took five hours and that was just the first pass. I helped by removing sticky shelf paper from the cabinets and drawers. It was lime green and pink and I’m pretty sure it was laid down when the Brady Bunch was still in production. That stuff was stuck on pretty good and it was a long, frustrating and very boring process but I got it all done.

Another problem was that the colors of the walls were dark and icky. For example, the master bedroom was a dark chocolate brown. Don’t know why I didn’t notice that when it was furnished. The living area and kitchen were orange and, worst of all, Frank’s future room was a dark olive green. Those colors weren’t going to work for my “bright and airy seaside oasis” theme. I was able to quickly get quotes from two painters and I told the lowest one he could have the job if he could paint the entire house this week. They’re almost done so it’s working out great. We’ll be able to start moving stuff in next week. Now that the house is (almost) clean and partially painted, it already looks SO much better!

In the last couple of days, Mason (age 5) dumped a large bucket of sand and shells into the pool (ug!), Percy the deaf dog got out (he can’t hear us when we call so we have to spot him and then dance and wave our arms to get his attention), and I found a loaded gun in the garage. No kidding! The chamber was stuck so we couldn’t remove the bullets. I had to call the previous owners to ask about that. She nonchalantly said, “Oh, it must be my husband’s. Just take it to the police department and give it to them to dispose of.”

I replied, “I wonder what will happen if I walk into the police department waving a loaded gun…and now it has my fingerprints on it!!”

Turns out it only shoots blanks (it’s a starter gun) but it’s so old that it might cause injuries if fired. We’ve decided to call the police to come pick it up. I guess I don’t need to worry about wiping my fingerprints off a gun that only fires blanks. 😉

This week’s Masonism:

“Mom, I don’t really need underwear anymore.”

Big hugs to all,
Angela

P.S. I want to “follow” you!

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HOW TO REMEMBER, WRITE AND PUBLISH YOUR LIFE STORY! by Angela Hoy
Using Angela’s MEMORY TRIGGERS, recall memories that have been dormant for years, and record those memories in chronological order in your memory notebook. Using the memory notebook as your outline, write your autobiography! **Also works for biographies and memoirs.**