what did you do today? (2008-2015) (closed)

[W2R]

One of the greatest benefits of moving is how easy it is to get rid of stuff you have accumulated.

That's for sure. I thought I was pretty well de-cluttered, but it turns out that's not at all the case!

Pace yourself, especially around heavy boxes. It is too easy to strain the back even when you are in good shape.

Yes, I think I'll work on lighter things for a while now. When I first moved to New Orleans, I had 85 boxes of books, mostly heavy technical reference works. Thank heavens for retirement, and for the invention of the Kindle. Now, I think I have fewer than ten boxes of books total and I have already packed four of them. The rest can wait for a few days.

Your excitement is contagious. When's the closing?

Right now it is scheduled for May 29th, but you know how closings can be. Honestly I'm not considering that to be written in stone until we get closer. But I do want to be pretty much all packed by that time.

In spite of your best efforts, I'm relatively sure after the move you'll be opening a box and asking yourself, "Why the heck did I move this?"

That's for sure! But at least I'll have fewer boxes of junk to unpack than I would have, had I packed all the trashbags full of broken and worn out stuff that I'm throwing out.

 

[freebird5825]

I have begun packing my things, with the objective of moving into my dream house in less than four weeks. So far I have packed 6 boxes and have assembled a dozen or two more. Also I now have at least six heavy trash bags filled with things that aren't worth donating, but which I do not want to move. So, they will go out with the trash.

After I quit packing last night, I thought i had pulled a muscle in my back while horsing around those heavy and cumbersome boxes full of books. But, miraculously it feels better this morning (and the boxes of books are neatly stacked in the hallway). The human body is amazing in its ability to repair itself, even at my age. Today I plan to pack something lighter, to take it easier on my back.

This is so exciting! Inspections of the new home will be on Friday, and with any luck I'll be moving around the first of June.

Sounds like you need in invest in (or borrow) a light duty hand truck to move heavy things. I use mine constantly for items over 20 pounds. The bigger the wheels, the better. There are all sorts of folding ones out on the market.

Go easy on that back ! (end of nag)

 

[EastWest Gal]

Sounds like you need in invest in (or borrow) a light duty hand truck to move heavy things. I use mine constantly for items over 20 pounds. The bigger the wheels, the better. There are all sorts of folding ones out on the market.

Go easy on that back ! (end of nag)

And if you're moving yourself, renting a U Haul with a good ramp helps a lot. They have hand trucks for rental for about $10.

If you're having movers move the stuff, let them do the heavy lifting.

I'm excited for you!

 

[W2R]

Thanks, Freebird and EastWestGal! I do have a hand truck, so that is helpful. I'm going to hire some local movers to at least move the furniture, but I'd like to do as much as I can.

I told my neighbor about the move, and he just knocked and said he has friends that want to see the house tonight. This is insane - - every room is filled with boxes and stuff all over the place, and my house isn't even on the market yet. But they want to see it tonight.

 

[rodi]

Thanks, Freebird and EastWestGal! I do have a hand truck, so that is helpful. I'm going to hire some local movers to at least move the furniture, but I'd like to do as much as I can.

I told my neighbor about the move, and he just knocked and said he has friends that want to see the house tonight. This is insane - - every room is filled with boxes and stuff all over the place, and my house isn't even on the market yet. But they want to see it tonight.

Wouldn't it be awesome if you sold to them. Save on Realtor fees and save on hassle.

 

[Meadbh]

Thanks, Freebird and EastWestGal! I do have a hand truck, so that is helpful. I'm going to hire some local movers to at least move the furniture, but I'd like to do as much as I can.

I told my neighbor about the move, and he just knocked and said he has friends that want to see the house tonight. This is insane - - every room is filled with boxes and stuff all over the place, and my house isn't even on the market yet. But they want to see it tonight.

Wouldn't it be great if they make you an offer you can't refuse? Cut out the real estate agents entirely!

 

[aja8888]

Wouldn't it be great if they make you an offer you can't refuse? Cut out the real estate agents entirely!

If you do get private offer(s), get the house appraised so you know the recent value for the neighborhood.

 

[REWahoo]

I told my neighbor about the move, and he just knocked and said he has friends that want to see the house tonight. This is insane - - every room is filled with boxes and stuff all over the place, and my house isn't even on the market yet. But they want to see it tonight.

Not as unusual as you might think.

I've had something similar happen many years ago when I mentioned to a co-worker we were planning on selling. He bought our house a week later.

A couple of years ago my youngest bought a new house and sold hers, both via word of mouth, sans Realtors.

Hope you have similar good luck!

 

[W2R]

I can't imagine the house looking any worse for buyers than it does at this moment. And of course, my back started hurting again (probably stress leading to tightening muscles, but still).

The market in my neighborhood isn't very hot (it is in my new neighborhood, but not here) so I don't know why they are in such a tizzy to see it tonight. I give this a 0% chance of an offer, but hey, my neighbor is a nice guy and if his friends want to see it, then so be it. Maybe F can help me pick up a few things so that they can at least see it, without tripping on stuff and injuring themselves.

 

[ivinsfan]

Thanks, Freebird and EastWestGal! I do have a hand truck, so that is helpful. I'm going to hire some local movers to at least move the furniture, but I'd like to do as much as I can.

I told my neighbor about the move, and he just knocked and said he has friends that want to see the house tonight. This is insane - - every room is filled with boxes and stuff all over the place, and my house isn't even on the market yet. But they want to see it tonight.

The same thing happened to my sister and the buyer loved the condo and wanted the place, the buyer had a friend that was a realtor write up the contact for no fee.It was a cash offer with no contingencies. The buyer discounted her share of the fees off her offer price and paid 1000 dollars earnest money. My sister was thrilled.Long story short the buyers defaulted after 60 days and told my sis "cash" meant the money the buyer would have gotten after selling their home. Which didn't sell.

We think the object was to keep the property off the MLS. My sister had no one to apply pressure to the buyer and in the end got the 1000, but got several thousand dollars of aggravation out of the deal. Moral of this story is, if you don't use a realtor write a fairly strict purchase agreement, don't give the buyer too long to close the deal and make the earnest money sting a little.

Also, I'm sure you have thought about the pitfalls of signing a purchase agreement before the inspection of your new house.

 

[aja8888]

Also, I'm sure you have thought about the pitfalls of signing a purchase agreement before the inspection of your new house.

That's typically how it's done, and the buyer usually pays a small fee (~$100) to be able to back out of the deal if things are not what they were stated in the offering.

 

[Marita40]

The purchase agreement is made with the deposit of earnest money: I put down $5000 which is somewhat typical in my area (MN) for a mid-range house. Then during the inspection period of a few days' time you can back out and get the earnest money back or renegotiate for anything you discover that wasn't immediately apparent. Then, for a condo, there's a 10 day condo document inspection period that allows you to also back out for any reason if the condo docs are not to your liking. I rather enjoyed the 10 day condo doc period: it seemed a sensible "cooling off" period that would be nice if also applied to a home purchase.

 

[Ronstar]

Bought a truckload of plants and flowers. Moved my whole house generator from the garage to its pad. Turned some more on the cherry bowl that I'm making from a tree I sawed down by the driveway.

 

[REWahoo]

Bought a truckload of plants and flowers. Moved my whole house generator from the garage to its pad. Turned some more on the cherry bowl that I'm making from a tree I sawed down by the driveway.

Wow, I'm impressed. All this before 8:30 Central Time...

 

[W2R]

After I quit packing last night, I thought i had pulled a muscle in my back while horsing around those heavy and cumbersome boxes full of books.

Pace yourself, especially around heavy boxes. It is too easy to strain the back even when you are in good shape.

I told my neighbor about the move, and he just knocked and said he has friends that want to see the house tonight. This is insane - - every room is filled with boxes and stuff all over the place, and my house isn't even on the market yet. But they want to see it tonight.

That was good advice, MichaelB, and I wish I had followed it! I wasn't pacing myself and I hurt my back a second time and then after that tried to move all the boxes around (to better prepare the house for showing) further hurting my back, and resulting in some surprisingly severe and nearly crippling pain.

So then I kind of had a melt-down, hit the wall, so to speak, and decided this was too much pressure and pain, and something had to give. F was so patient with me, did a lot of hand holding, took me out to lunch and told me to just chill and not pack any more for a while. We watched some British comedies on Netflix together while waiting for the heating pad to do its magic. He recommended my video game so I played that afterwards. He went with me to see the neighbor and to tell him that I just can't show the house until June. And really, I just can't. I have more to do than I can realistically handle and need to pace myself, as Michael so wisely suggested.

Things are much better today but I don't intend to pack any more until the weekend. Tomorrow we have the inspections on the new home so I need to be in good enough shape to follow around behind the inspectors and write on my clipboard.

 

[Moemg]

W2R , Be careful . I got so stressed out with one of my moves that I ended up with a nasty case of shingles .

 

[W2R]

W2R , Be careful . I got so stressed out with one of my moves that I ended up with a nasty case of shingles .

Oh wow, that sounds awful!!! I'll remember that and try to be more careful.

I have been pretty stressed out too, and I don't want shingles. I will definitely take your advice, thanks.

 

[aja8888]

Bought a truckload of plants and flowers.

My wife did the same...but guess who had to plant all that greenery?

 

[HFWR]

Recently got my shingles vaccine, so hopefully I'm safe from that particular malady...

 

[Ronstar]

Wow, I'm impressed. All this before 8:30 Central Time...

Oops- that was yesterday. Today is worse.

My wife did the same...but guess who had to plant all that greenery?

I feel your pain. It's 1pm here and I'm only 1/3 done planting. DW seems to have found other things to do.



Sent from my iPhone .using Early Retirement .//82339)

 

[ls99]

A warm day, wore shorts.

 

[Hermit]

A warm day, wore shorts.

I was building a section of wall earlier and it started snowing. Got the section up, nailed in place and supported. I'm inside now. Looks like it raining mixed with snow right now.

Here is the view out the kitchen window. No leaves on the aspens yet. Next month there will be a lot more green in this view.

 

[happy2bretired]

I started Twitter last night during the storm we were having because my satellite quit working and I had no idea what was going on. So today I explored Twitter more and found that I really like it for storm/weather/flood...anything tracking. Lots of city street flooding going on here today so Twitter is keeping me informed and out of the way.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[braumeister]

Played my first official round of sporting clays yesterday. If you don't know the sport (and I didn't either), it's often described as "golf with shotguns" and that's not a bad way to look at it.

A round involves shooting a total of 100 clay pigeons, and I was delighted to get 60 of them. Beginner's luck, I'm sure!

I think I'm going to get hooked on it. Really a lot of fun.

 

[pb4uski]

Golfed with my Thursday golf group today. Shot my best round ever! I played really well on the front nine (3 over) and came back down to earth on the back nine. Despite that, our team only tied for second (out of seven teams).

Lots of spring chores to get done, plus DW is hot to trot on finishing the bathroom in the garage loft so the plumber was here today while both DW and I were off golfing. I took the winter cover off our pontoon boat tonight, put in the battery which I had previously charged up, hooked in the gas and pumped the bulb and it started on the first try.

Now my dilemma is that I bought this pontoon used last summer and am tempted to change the oil, filter, gear oil, spark plugs, fuel filter, etc. and my old man's words of wisdom -- if it ain't broke don't fix it - are ringing in my ears so I'm not sure what i will do. I'll at least change the oil, filter and gear oil.