As I type this, I hear tile being ripped up from the other end of the house. It’s loud.

The kids, thankfully, are in camp this week and won’t have to endure the crazy. Eddie and I, on the other hand, will be here the entire time. Why, you may ask, do I not go somewhere all day? Because I can’t. I could hang out in a Starbucks, but the chairs are painful to sit in. Sitting is the most uncomfortable position I can be in because of my lower back issues. So, laying down at home is where I am. There’s another reason, too, but that’s a post for another day.

Packing

This weekend Stephen took the kids to cousin camp at his parents’ lake house. I was going to work on packing stuff up because the movers were scheduled to come on Sunday to move the furniture in the rooms getting the hardwood floors, which is half of the house. Except, I think I got food poisoning Friday night, so I was down for the count.

I sent out an SOS to Stephen. It went something like this: I’m sick. And overwhelmed. And I need you. And bring sprite.

He came back from the lake to pack everything up.

He hit his office like a man on a mission. Most of the stuff in there ended up in the trash! I wish I had a picture, but just imagine two large trash containers, plus a lot more. He’s finally sick of it, too. He even suggested getting rid of the bookcase in his office. And we are book people, so just imagine.

All of the furniture and boxes got moved to a large sunroom in our house that was basically empty (posts on that coming up).

Most of the House is Empty

Here is our half-done kitchen, our family room/breakfast room, dining room and the room formerly known as Stephen’s pit. All of the flooring was chosen by the previous owners and it’s schizophrenic. In one zone it’s off white tile, in another it’s red tile, and in another it’s really ugly, old, disgusting carpet. I am not sad to hear it being ripped up. Not sad at all.

The Crazy

It was a really stressful weekend to be sure. I’m actually quite relieved to be listening to construction noises. Because it means it’s getting done.

Revising the Timeline

And we’ve been thinking and talking about our timeline a lot. Now that we’re in the midst of it we see how much work there is to be done. And, as a couple of people have pointed out to me, July is too aggressive to get everything in the house cleared out and ready to sell. I agree. We’re all exhausted.

We need some time to just be in a house that isn’t half ripped apart. How much time? I don’t know. But we still have a lot of work to do inside the house and placing an arbitrary, crazy deadline on top of it is too much. Guilty as charged. I get impatient and want everything done yesterday. I need to focus on smaller parts, getting those done and moving on to the next, without getting too bogged down by the big picture.

The Packing Party Concept

But one other really good thing about this is that now all of our stuff is in the sunroom. It reminds me of the packing party concept that The Minimalists suggest. I never would have done that if it weren’t a forced thing. But now that all of our stuff is in another room, it will be easier to only bring back in what we need and use.

Stephen suggested that the sunroom be the staging room for things to sell. And I wholeheartedly agree. This process is bringing a whole lot of stuff to the discussion table. It’s painful, yet liberating at the same time.