Ready

A few weeks ago, I was on the phone with our friend Kelly, talking about our plans to move to Colorado.  As we spoke, we both realized how much there is to do to make it happen as soon.  And by soon, I mean lickity split.  January.

Fermin and I have lived in our house for the past 17 years, and although I've been Konmarie-ing my ass off the last couple of years, there's still a lot to do as far as packing up.  Let alone, to get it ready to sell.  I admitted to her I was a little overwhelmed and didn't even quite know my next step, but knew that I wanted to get as much done in advance of our trip to Colorado in early December as possible.

She said, "Hey! I could fly into Dallas and help you.  We could organize and pack up so that when you come back, you can be ready to list your house and then move soon after."  Of course, I said that sounded like a great offer.  I mean really, who even gets that kind of offer?  For a friend to give their time like that to help you clean and pack up your house?!

The next thing I knew, even before I mentioned the idea to Fermin, Kelly texted me with her travel internary. As a bonus, her daughter Abby was also going to fly in for the last two days of Kelly's time here.

I got the feeling, when I told Fermin the plan Kelly and I came up with, he thought we were getting a little ahead of ourselves.  He always has the attitude of just going with the flow- a little too loosely sometimes, in my opinion.  At some point a few months ago, he said something like "Once it's time to move, we can pack this house up in just a couple of days- tops!" (Um.  No.)  So to do something a whole month in advance seemed unneccesary to him.

I think he thought we'd mainly just be laughing and having fun, but not necessarily getting any "work" done. And I figured letting him think that initially was fine. He had no idea of the the transformation that was about to happen to our house.

Kelly got in on Friday so that she could go to my gig at Four Bullets Brewery.  It was to be my last gig of the year possibly, and probably my last gig while living in Dallas.  Having Kelly there made it extra special. I was so happy some of our favorite friends here in Dallas got to meet her, and vice versa.

the Four Bullets Brewery after party.  i LOVE everyone in this picture. ❤️

So Fermin was right- we had loads of fun while Kelly was here.

one night, out at dinner 

another night out, another great meal and fun

BUT, we also got tons done.  In fact, Kelly and I made a list of things we hoped to accomplish, and we not only did all of that, but we did a few extra things too!

We boxed up stuff we won't need until after we move (and labeled them well!), we dropped off lots of things to Goodwill, I sold a few things, and I trashed a lot of things.

sorting my office "before" it's transformation

sorting through things to throw out on the blow up mattress Kelly slept on

Abby cleaned our shutters and blinds

We moved every single thing out of each room, cleaned it thoroughly and then moved (some) things back in.  Kelly had great vision of moving some of our things around that made our rooms look bigger.  We pulled up all the area rugs to expose our beautiful hardwood floors.  I feel mad at myself that we ever covered them up in the first place.  They're just beautiful!!! I love the sound of the rooms now that there are no carpets.  It sounds like an "older" house, which it is, and I LOVE that.

We worked hard each day, and even though Ricky and Lucy weren't actually given any jobs to do, they were just exhausted watching all we did, evidently.

watching our hard work was exhausting

On our last night to have Kelly and Abby here, we decided to go to a nearby Foot Spa for some well deserved R&R.  I was told I snored.  But I don't even care.  It was so awesome.

everything's zen

The sprucing up of the house was happening up until final minutes of Kelly's visit.  I'm not kidding- 20 minutes before she left for the airport, she made this gorgeous arrangement for my living room.  My favorite thing about it is that she used pecan shells from our yard in the vase.  I will take this to Colorado with us after we sell our house.  It will be a great memory of this fun and productive weekend we had together.

this arrangement alone will probably sell our house!

I'll post some before and after photos eventually, although we often forgot to do the before pictures~ we were just so busy!  But it's impressive, all that we accomplished.  Fermin and I (and Lucy and Ricky) are so thankful to Kelly, and Abby- I don't think we could have pulled this off without them, and I am SURE it wouldn't have been nearly as fun.

17 years of living in one house- I realize it's the longest I've ever lived in one house.  And although I loved this house and this neighborhood, I have no reservations that we are ready for the change of scene.  And now, our house looks ready too!