A Million Tiny Things

I know that I am not the first person to ever sell a house or make a big change, and I even know that some of you have very recently done this (Nicole, Suzanne) without nary a peep about any of the annoying things that one must do in order to make this happen. Ladies, I applaud you. It is something that is not high on my bucket list, but it is One Of Those Things that must be done in order to get to the next step of your life, hopefully a Good one, or even a Better one than you were at before. 

Of course this makes me think about all of those things that we do to get to something beyond them. Even something as simple as hiking is sometimes not that fun, but you know that the beauty that you will behold will make the trudge worth it. It is almost a kind of type two fun, where the activity itself is often not that fun in the moment, but when you look back you talk about how fun it was. Will I look back and wax poetic about selling stuff on FB Marketplace in six months or a year? Currently I do not think so, but you never know! 

Gratuitous hiking photo: Healy Pass in the snow - Banff, AB

I feel like I have a million tiny things to do. In case I did not mention this in my last post, I am selling my house, but not only that, I am paring down my belongings to a few boxes, mostly of mementos, camping gear and a few reference and childhood books (I just could not help myself!!) This means that much of my last several months of life has consisted of working on my unsuccessful side hustle, sorting through stuff, throwing stuff away and giving stuff away. I do not want to bore anyone too much, but I could tell a whopper of a story about how hard it is to get rid of a simple couch (it is hard). 

Oh, you do want to know why? Well, after having no luck selling it, I tried to donate it to Habitat For Humanity, who by the way is very picky about their items. They do not take any patterned upholstery, sleeper sofas or anything that has oak. They also will not accept anything that has ANY stains or nicks, no matter how tiny. They will not take anything made of particle board or that is painted. So, in a nutshell, they basically do not want used furniture unless it has been wrapped in plastic and never used. However, after speaking to a woman on the phone, submitting an application and submitting photos, the couch was accepted. I was more proud of this day then when I was accepted for college. The truck arrived, the driver disembarked and after looking at the couch, he turned his nose up in denial at it, as if it had just let out a silent but deadly fart, because it had a tiny water mark on one arm. Not only that, but when he was moving out the items that he did accept, he must have also scraped something dirty on it, causing it to have a black smudge on it after he left. I had submitted a request for about 20 things and they only took about 10 of them, and they were not the large items that I really wanted to get rid of. 

A few days later, I phoned option number two, Out of the Closet, to see if I could schedule a pickup and was told that I had to specifically call back on the next Tuesday to schedule a pickup for their next pickup day, which was March 15th. When I called back on Tuesday promptly at nine, I was told that I was going to have to call back on March 18th to schedule a pickup for their next day, which was March 28th. This simply would not do. 

A few days later, I had my brother come with his truck so that we could take the couch, and several large items to Salvation Army, whose website said that they accepted furniture. We pull up to the donation center and we get denied, as they state that they do not accept any furniture. At this point, we already have the car loaded with half of the items, including the couch, and my armpits are starting to smell bad from the fear that this is going to be a lot more difficult that anticipated. 

Broski, the truck & the accursed couch.

I decide to try Out of the Closet, which is down the street from the Salvation Army, so I call them and speak to a nice lady named Brenda who says that yes they do accept furniture, but not if it has any stains or nicks. I tell her that I am going to come with a truck and she says she will come out to look at the stuff when we get there. I get there, go in and get her and she comes out and looks at everything and says that yes, they will take everything. I wanted to kiss her! We unloaded everything and then told her that I had a second load, and even showed her photos and she said she would take all of the second load too. We went home, loaded up the rest, came back, unloaded it and got the heck out of dodge as fast as possible. I kept waiting for Brenda to start chasing me from the back screaming, "wait, this couch has a tiny stain, take it back!" and me yelling, "sorry Brenda, possession is 9/10ths of the law! It's yours now! Have a nice day!" 

Anyway, this story is just one of many similar ones and although it has not necessarily been stressful per se, there are some things that have not been my favorite. For example, I do not really like having strangers in my space. In the last six months, I have probably had no less than 100 people come onto my property, whether it is to buy something, fix something, look at something, load something up or take something. On the other hand, I sold a ladder, a bike rack and a BBQ, all things I was worried that I would have to take to the dump. And thirdly, I talked to all of the people who bought these things, and I was even friendly, which simultaneously makes me feel a little bit like I need a social break and a little bit amazed that I can do things that I hate, and am even okay at faking them fairly well. 

I am not done yet. I still have so many things to do. This week, I have my Global Entry appointment, I have to put my car up for sale and I need to get my bike tuned up. I will have at least two more trips to the donation center, one more night with the girls, and much packing and cleaning to do. I hope to be fully done by this weekend, and will spend Saturday hopefully out on the trails, basking in the (fingers crossed) sunshine and the beauty that is the Pacific coast, before heading out. 

In one week, my house will be empty, I will be the proud owner of nearly no possessions, and I will be free to go where the wind takes me. Did I get everything done that I wanted to get done, the way that I wanted to do it? Nope. But I have accomplished a million tiny things, one tiny thing at a time, and that is good enough for me.  

Have you ever sold your house and/or all/most of your possessions, or moved from one place to another? If so I would love to hear your thoughts about the process! How did you feel? What was the hardest part? What do you hope you never have to do again? 

P.S. I was telling my friend K this story, and she said she just hired people to come and take everything. They recycle or donate 80% of the items and it cost her about $200 to have them come the next day. This is not a sponsored post, but maybe if you want to avoid the hassle of DIY, hire someone like this company in your area! PPS but she won't have the "fun" stories that I have, will she?! 

Rants About Trees & Neighbors

Last Saturday was an important day; it was the first day of fall, it was free entry day to the national parks in the US and it marked the point where we have 100 days left of this year. Woohoo! We don't really see a huge change in the weather here due to the change in seasons, although this week we are supposed to get rain (and possible snow in the Sierra) for the first time in a while. I have a maple tree in my front yard and while beautiful in the fall, it has a lot of leaves and all of those leaves need to be raked. It also has a lot of seeds and they are those little round spiky balls shaped ones and they can really hurt you if you step on them, due to both their spikiness and the possibility of rolling an ankle. My neighbor calls them ankle breakers. 

It's a constant battle!

Speaking of neighbors, she hates the tree and would probably be happy if I chopped the entire thing down, but I am not going to do that. In my area, there are rules for who is responsible for what when it comes t trees. This is something I learned the semi-hard way, as I have had tree issues with the neighbors on all three sides. The one on the side of the maple had branches touching her power lines. Technically if the branch is over the property line, the neighbor can cut the branch as long as it does not harm the tree (i.e. cutting an entire side of the tree off). However, as a good tree owner, I not only paid for the work to be done but had to coordinate with PG&E to have the power shut off and the lines taken down for the day while the arborist cut the tree. 

On the back of my house, I have a huge incense cedar, which has needles. The neighbor in the back came over and complained to me that "the leaves were dropping on his property" and he would like me to cut off the entire side that hangs over his property so he did not have to clean up the leaves. He also said that he was afraid that a branch was going to fall on a car parked under the tree. In this case, I had the arborist trim any dead looking or dangerous or extra long branches off and do maintenance for the health of the tree, but I was not about to lop off one entire side of the tree. 

The rules are that the person with the trunk on their property is responsible for regular maintenance of the tree. It should be trimmed in order to get rid of any dead, dangerous or dying limbs to keep it safe, but if a hurricane or natural event comes and knocks off a healthy branch and it damages the neighbor's property, technically they should have their insurance pay for it. If there is a branch hanging over their property and they want to trim it, technically they can; like I said, as long as it does not damage the health of the tree, it is allowed. They do not even need to ask for permission, although as a good neighbor I think that it is only polite. 

The guy in the back did not like that I did not lop off the entire tree, so when I asked him politely a couple of years later to stop leaning heavy things on our shared fence because it was starting to buckle under the weight, he gave me a "I will remove the items if you chop off the tree" retort. Sigh! Not to make this rant too long, but technically the fence is shared and if it needs to be fixed, we should share the cost. Now, if the one neighbor is a pain, you would have to go to court to request payment for half, which of course nobody wants to do, so you may just be SOL. 

The neighbor on the third side asked if he could trim a bit of the tree (the incense cedar) since it was hanging over his garage a little and I said sure and he cut off that entire side of the tree, which was much more than a "trim." In this case, I was not happy, he did not do what he said he was going to do, but the action had been taken and there was nothing I could do really at that point, so I opted to do nothing. Who knew that a simple things such as trees could cause so many discussions, issues and conflicts in the hood!? 

Enjoy the new season! Good luck with the raking! 

Have you ever had a conflict with a neighbor and if so, what did you do about it? What are the rules about shared trees and fences in your neighborhood? Is the weather changing where you are? 

Be It Ever So Humble: The Ten Cent Tour

I have had several requests from people to give everyone a tour of my "new" house.  I have to admit, I have been putting it together little by little and it's still not fully settled in, so that is why I have been stalling on the "house tour". Three months after I moved in, I finally got a couch, and I am still working on sorting things out and deciding where their place in the house (or the Goodwill bag) will be.

The new house is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath and is about 1,000 SF. The reason I chose it was that the location is convenient to the freeway and public transportation. I also really loved the hardwood floors and the large backyard. It's also on a dead end street, and only has 8 houses on the street, which I see as a plus. Without further ado, here are a couple of photos of the new place.

Front of House (right before lots of raking!)

Front Porch (my parents made the wreath)

Kitchen

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Living Room

"Office" (haven't figured this room out yet)

Sun Room / Reading Nook -- window seat

Sun Room / Reading Nook -- corner nook

Bathroom

As I mentioned and as you can see, I still have a long way to go! I need to put up photos, especially in the living room above the couch,  and I still need to organize things and do a major purge. I am not big on decorating, but have been having fun doing a few DIY projects, which I will have to share later. I have also done a bit of work to the front and back yard, but will have to save that for another post as well!

Do you like decorating? When you move, how long does it take you to get everything sorted in the new place? Where is your "go to" place for home decor?

Be It Ever So Humble: Closet Makeover

It was very common back in the day for houses to not have closets. Don't quote me on this, but my understanding is that it had something to do with getting taxed for each "room", and closets were counted as rooms. Therefore, many older houses are closet-less. 

My house was built in 1924. I  have friends with similarly aged homes which have teeny tiny closets, which I have heard came from the fact that homes were taxed per square foot (and why waste it on closet space). Luckily, my closets are not too tiny and I even have a bonus hole in my hallway. However, there is not a lot of shelving in any of them.

The other day my Dad calls me up and says that he would like to come down and fix something in my house. Fortunately, I do have a self imposed Honey Do list. However, most of the things on it are pretty easy things I can do myself (not that I always want to, but I CAN). Luckily, I can think quickly on my feet, and when he requested a project AND a drawing, I quickly got to work. Here is what I came up with. 

Bedroom Closet Plan

Hall Closet Plan

Aren't my drawing skills fabulous? NOT. For the bedroom closet, I wanted a few shelves to put shoes or clothes on, as well as a rod to hang things. For the hall closet, I wanted some shelves and also a space for the broom/mop and a space to hang people's coats when they came to visit. 

So Dad came down and got to work. Here are the before and after shots. 

Bedroom Closet: The day I moved in

Bedroom Closet : Before

Bedroom Closet : After

Don't judge me. I have a lot of shoes. 

Hall Closet : Before

Hall Closet : After

I still need to paint the shelves in the bedroom closet and to figure out how I want to organize everything, which will involve a bit of shifting and time to see if things are working the way I want them to. However, overall I am quite pleased with the way everything turned out! 

Do you have enough closet space? If you could have a closet makeover, what would you change/add? 

Be It Ever So Humble: Getting Robbed

Don't freak out; this post is NOT about what you think it is.

I decided that I would post from time to time about the joys of being a homeowner. I am sure that many of you have similar stories and I would like to know how things are in your neck of the woods. Are they the same as mine? For instance, do YOU have a nosy/creepy/annoying neighbor? A loud xyz near your house? An animal that poops in your flower bed or eats your homegrown veggies? What woes do you have in your neighborhood?

My first woe is this: Alarm Systems.

When I first moved in, the "curtain twitcher" (my nosy friendly neighbor across the way) came over to introduce herself (at 8:30 p.m. and mind  you, I normally go to bed around 8:30) and to talk about the neighborhood and the goings on and the other people on our block etc. Apparently the guy behind me "might" be a drug dealer, the people at the end never leave their house and the people across the street rented to someone because they moved to Paris for work (but that is the only non-owner occupied home on the block). I learned all of this (and more!) in about 26 minutes, as the clock was slowly ticking toward 9:00.

The other thing she told me, which was interesting but not great, is that since we live on a street that is very easily accessible from the freeway (great for commuting!) sometimes thieves will get off the freeway, kick in your door, steal your TV and get right back on the freeway in a matter of minutes. Now, I am not super attached to my TV, but I am pretty attached to my life, so I decided to get an alarm system.

First of all, getting an alarm system is a pain in the butt. It's worse than getting cable. First, you sign your life away by paying up front for the install/equipment and the first month. Next, some creepy guy comes to your house and tries to suggestive sell you on $9,000 worth of equipment, which by the way, will ONLY cost you an additional $900 in install/equipment fees and another $50 per month on top of the original $40 per month you already agreed to pay. Of course, in his spiel, your area is VERY dangerous and it's IMPERATIVE that ALL windows, doors, peepholes, cracks and crevices be set up with an alarm and preferably a camera and a direct line to the CIA.

So I get the standard, the one that I ALREADY paid for and I kick the creepy guy out. Now, one of the things you also have to get, which creepy guy pretty much brushes over the details of, is a permit with the city or county. This is like a registration with the local police. However, creepy guy did mention that they would take care of it for me. I thought this was great until I got a bill in the mail from them, asking me to reimburse them for taking care of it for me.

Fast forward to three months later when I am riding my bike to work and my phone rings. I ignore it because who the heck is calling me from a 1-800 number at five in the morning; I figure it must be an east coast telemarketer. Turns out it was the alarm company, calling me because the alarm went off for no reason. The police were dispatched and they did not find any signs of a break-in. I was happy to hear that, and I thought that was the end of that. Until I received a bill last week in the mail for $84 for a "false alarm". I thought, "No problem. I have a permit. I will call them and tell them there has been a mistake".

Not so fast, little girl. I looked it up and here are the details.

General False Alarm: With permit = $84, Without permit = $154
Robbery False Alarm: With permit = $156, Without permit = $226
Genuine: With permit = Free(!), Without permit = $70

So, the only way to save money is if your alarm is genuine, aka you get robbed by a burglar. Otherwise, instead of getting robbed by a burglar, you get robbed by the city instead.

Do you have a home security system? What are the rules in your area? If you don't have an alarm, what frustrates you about one of the rules of YOUR neighborhood?