Down to the wire

I went to bed last night at 8:30 and slept like a bear for 10 hours. I believe I've been a little stressed out. But I woke up feeling good. This weekend is the last long haul. Monday we list the house.

The ground floor looks like it's been ransacked by ruffians, but most everything is packed. Today we move another pile of boxes out to the pod and move some furniture around to open things up a bit.

I've been hard at work on the upstairs already, but I have to conquer it this weekend. We're ordering the carpet for the Red Room today as well. Gray's goal is to get the kitchen repainted and the entry hall.

This morning Grayson and I will go over and see the apartment. I've seen the model, but not the actual unit we'll be living in, so it will be a first for me as well. I need to take some measurements so I'll know how much furniture can realistically fit and how much has to be stored.

Next weekend, over fall break, Gray and Grayson are going to Houston for a Coldwell family event. I'll stay behind. I think I'll have a super speedy yard sale on Saturday, to get rid of some of the stuff that I don't want to store. We seem to have a lot more end tables than most people, and there's some of Grayson's stuff he no longer uses. I'm giving a bunch of stuff to Krysten, my assistant, for her nursery. Grayson's old crib and high chair and changing table, my old rocking chair from Grayson's nursery. But there will still be a bunch of extraneous STUFF. Shouldn't take long to move it in a Saturday morning yard sale and pocket a few bucks.

In the real world, which I do sometimes also inhabit, fall seems finally to be arriving. Mornings are cool. The days get up in the low 80s, but the breeze is cool. The season has definitely turned. In the afternoons as I leave work sometimes I hear the OU band practicing a couple of blocks away.

The OU/Texas game is today. Big news in the Sooner state. I'm sure Gray will have the game on while we work. I could give a rats ass, frankly. But there's something soothing about having a football game on. Feels like fall.

Grayson's school is selling bulbs as a fundraiser. It did make me a little heartsick not to be buying bulbs to plant this fall. No home to plant them in. I just have to keep my eyes on the future and believe that by next fall, we'll have our own house again to plant and decorate. Just the right size, in the right place. We have plenty of time to look and choose. It has to be perfect this time.

Meanwhile, I sure hope Grayson is excited about the new apartment. I chose a second floor place for the teensy little balcony, and we'll have a fireplace, which I know Grayson will love. There's an open grassy area just outside the door where we can walk the dogs, and the pool is right there as well. I'm hoping there's enough adventure and enough percs that it won't feel like we're really losing anything. The space is small, but frankly we don't live in that much space here. I like that it comes equipped with washer and dryer (admittedly not full size), so we don't have to move the old ones in. If we're only there for 9 months of so, I don't want to be in the business of moving appliances twice. They can go into storage and wait.

Bonus: the apartment is right across the Northwest Expressway from both Borders and Starbucks. Jackpot! They also have a gym, though I haven't seen it. And a long walking trail that goes around the Pacer gym next door, where a lot of people walk their dogs. There's a dog park less than a mile away, so we can take Flower and Kobi and let them run every weekend.

I hope it's not too tough on them to be indoors all day. At least it's during the winter, so I won't feel so bad about keeping them cooped up. Until the house sells they can spend their days in the yard here, but after that, they are inside city dogs. I figure if people can manage dogs in New York City, we can manage dogs here.