Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

Dear Friends,

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, (and at this point I'm sure a lot of people have given up on me because of lack of any posts here) you know that my word for 2014 has been

DECIDE

I mentioned in January that this would be a year of decisions.

We (David and I) decided, at the beginning of the year, to sell our house in Pittsburgh and relocate to Delaware...somewhere near the ocean. We know no one in Delaware but it is a place we have vacationed for years (Rehoboth Beach) and it is actually closer to our kids who are in Maryland, New Jersey and Long Island, NY. 

In order to make this move possible, we had to go through and clean out the accumulation of 24 years of "stuff", give away or sell a ton of it and then, when that was done, put the house on the market. It was a bigger job than we ever realized and we did 6 months of work in about 8 weeks. We had a huge Moving Sale on Memorial Day weekend, which has always been a good weekend for me to have a garage/yard/moving sale. We were crazy busy for 6 hours and did very well, selling about 80% of what we offered. The remaining things were either donated or given away. Every closet and drawer, the basement, garage...every corner was gone through to weed out and pare down. We worked hard for long hours at a time to get it done. A word of advice for you though...if you are contemplating a move, allow yourself a year to do what we did in 8 weeks. It will be easier on your nerves and your aching muscles.

Here are some before the Moving Sale photos.

Every room, every closet, every drawer, every cupboard...

 Don't be afraid...you will see that it  looks worlds different now!

The basement....

Ready for the sale...

An original acrylic painting of Amish quilters by my sister and a lap quilt that looks similar. 

Neither of these sold.

All of the small, quilted pieces sold but not the wall hang/lap quilts.

Handmade Amish rocker

Some, but not all of the bears found new homes.

All of the Bennington Pottery went to one person. I am so

 happy that it will be used and loved by a newly married couple.

Very extensive Santa collection..many were handmade.

This was the first chance I got to take a picture from the deck...this was about an hour before the sale ended. We moved a lot of things. (The garage was filled, too, I just didn't get a picture after the sale.

Today, this morning in fact, our house was officially listed for sale. We have loved our house and our neighborhood, but it's time for a new family to live here. We hope, whoever they might be, they'll be as happy as we are.

NOTE: I started this post on Tuesday, June 24. The house was, indeed, listed that afternoon and the first couple who came through the house bought it that very night. We are still in shock!
David had to travel to Chicago this weekend and our youngest son and his wife are here to pick up some things. We will leave as soon as we can to go to Delaware and buy a house. The closing on this house is August 25! Yikes!
OK-enough for one post! Now you know why I haven't been visiting or blogging. Please keep us in your prayers...we need all the strength we can muster for this adventure.

XOXO
Joyce