Moving is a drag... semi-rant (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid



Message


Hippiekinkster -> Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:17:26 AM)

Well, alrighty then.

I have to move. I'm doing it now rather than a year from now. I'm moving into my townhouse. I had it leased out (corporate) for $1600/mo. Cash flow about 1K. That, and some savings, and a boarder here, and I could squeek by. Could have, except for a nasty hole in my heel that is taking forever to heal.

But the lease was up end of last April. So I put it out for rent. A townhouse can't compete with a single family detached in this area. So I listed it for sale, too. Exercise in futility, as the market for townhouses is dead. I'm not underwater, but I couldn't cut the price to where I wouldn't take any money off the table. A couple creditors are exceeedingly unhappy with me already; I'm not going to make things worse.

So I'm moving out of my house. Now, I have been in my house since August 1989. That's longer than some of you younguns have been alive. I'm attached to my house. The lights can go out , and I'll be in pitch black, and I can go anywhere in the house without stubbing a toe. I've put a lot of work into this house. There's a pond, a waterfall, a built-in grill, a fireplace, and 27 tons of stone in the form of a wall in the back yard. I built a 14x16 screened porch. Lay out there and listen to NPR and the waterfall and read... very relaxing. Or listen to the frogs at night. They are just fucking LOUD when they're mating.

Nice Omega honey maple cabinets in the kitchen; some have custom stained glass in the doors. Granite countertops. A main sink on the outside wall, and a prep sink on the inside wall, both with disposals. A Dacor convection oven. Another regular oven. A microwave. 6 burner Jenn-Aire. Nutone food center. Stainless GE profile fridge. Bookshelf above it, for my cookbooks (the ones I use/display, anyway). Undercounter lighting. Amtico floor. Cooktop's on an island... dining room on the other side. Bar stools up against the peninsula to sit while the cook cooks. Bay window, Chinese red walls, marble floor, copper chandelier on a dimmer. Hardwood floor in the LR. Custom tile (I laid this, too) in my den. Nice fireplace. 4 bedrooms upstairs, one of which is wired for 3 lines for an office. Intercom. Whole house vac.

The exterior... there are about 40 tons of stone in the landscape. A front patio and walkway out of brick. An arbor over the front door with a Madison Jasmine. Pink dogwoods, camellias, spirea, Viburnums, daylilies, hostas, Jap maples, Gardenias, ... the Rhodendrons have been in the ground since 74. Years ago I was told it was the best stand in North Atlanta. I had bark mulch paths above the stone wall in the back which led to the vegetable garden. Had a spa I got from a neighbor. Was gonna build a structure for it; already have the gas line for the heater.

All in all, I've planted over 400 perennials. Did other shit I haven't listed. I put my soul into my house. 23 years. This is major trauma. I have been jerking around dragging my feet for almost two months. (still got the foot problem. Still got the osteoarthritis - later) I don't want to be doing this. But I have to.

I'll get good money if I lease it. I'll have to pay taxes and insurance, and that's it. The townhouse is 5 minutes away, same subdivision area (not part of, though). I have a housemate for the townhouse (she wants to build a BDSM leather business), so those bills are paid. So lease = bills paid and food on the table.

But I'm preparing it for sale. That's why the paint. And lots of other tiny shit that adds up to a long punch list. And I have so much crap here. I've gotta move it over. I've sold some, given some away, moved a bunch of the small stuff (books, artwork, textiles, etc.) but there's a lot left. And it's going to take a while to get it staged for sale. It's a competetive market now. People don't do "sweat equity" anymore (too fucking lazy, ya ask me). So you tweak it, or you knock double what the repair costs are. That's how it is.

But I own the fucker. I mean own it. I sold all but two of my rentals back in 2006 and paid it off. This is a chunk of money. Best school district in Liechtenstein, and there's a golf course running through the SD. Newly redone Clubhouse. They're tearing down 300K houses and putting up $1million+

I fucking hate having to move, but I can't take care of it. Vision's failing, skeleton's deteriorating, balance is gone, and I can't write anymore. Chronic pain sucks, and I' at 140 mg. oxy/day already. It's a bitch moving on after 23 years. But I have to.

Now tell me about your hangnails, kids. Or start some threads about cats.




GreedyTop -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:20:53 AM)

*hugs* I'm sorry, hon. I love your house!!




Hippiekinkster -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:32:51 AM)

TY A. I am not dealing with this well at all. Getting buzzed on hard cider (my beloved Crispin) now. Was washing doors and trim up until 1AM w/ tsp substitute. Staining the little scratches and dings, then lemon oil. Washed walls yeaterday. Burned a bunch of yard waste earlier today. Packed some stuff out of the basement last night. Burned out but I have to do it. Hooray for Oxy, Dex, and Mirapex.




GreedyTop -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:44:21 AM)

if I was closer, I'd come help :(




Hippiekinkster -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 2:07:05 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: GreedyTop

if I was closer, I'd come help :(

I know ya would. Switched to beer. For now. Only have 3 bombers and one 12-oz. of the cider. The Stagger Lee is just killer. That's up next. In about 30 minutes if I post you'll think it's Term... [8D]




GreedyTop -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 3:10:44 AM)

LOL!!!




SorceressJ -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 3:34:37 AM)

I don't have all these physical and attachment to place issues like Hippie, but I can still safely say that yes, MOVING SUCKS BALLS. Always, and not in that warm, fuzzy way that anyone in their halfassed right mind would enjoy.
Sending good thoughts your way, brother, for what it's worth.




yourdarkdesire -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 3:41:10 AM)

Hippie - your home sounds amazing! I am sorry you have to let it go. Maybe if you are lucky, a young family with twin boys and a black lab puppy will find you!




MusicalBoredom -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 4:39:17 AM)

That just sucks Hippie! Man I'm sorry. Moving is just hard anytime. Moving from a house you've spent any amount of real time in emotionally sucks and moving from a place that you raised like a baby is just overwhelming I"m sure.




Iamsemisweet -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 5:41:38 AM)

I feel your pain, hk, I am moving from the house where I have lived for 15 years. Started out there with my ex and our two kids. We spent 150k on a remodel in 2006, which turned out not to be a good year for a remodel. My ex moved out in 2007 (leaving the crap he didn't want) and my kids went off to college (also leaving the crzp they didn't want). I loved living there, since it is an incredible rural setting, but some dark clouds starting gathering recently. For one thing, the Feds want to put an enormous transmission line near by, which screws up both the marketability and the livability. For another, my shared private bridge needs replacing, which will cost around a 100k. I certainly can't afford that, and I know my neighbor will be a dick about paying his share. Finally, largely because of the divorce, I am way underwater in the place. So, I cut a deal with the bank and signed it over to them. I actually I am kind of happy to be out from under it.
But now I have to move, and I have a LOT of stuff, including farm equipment, chickens, horses, and the usual array of stuff one acquires when they have lived in a place for a long time. To top it off, I have a shoulder injury that is definitely slowing me down. I can't wait to get the move over with, though. Just hoping the bridge holds out until I cross it for the last time.




Hillwilliam -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 5:49:49 AM)

I'm hoping I leave this house in a box. My Grandfather had it built in 1939. I moved back from miami in 96 and rented a place for a while and he died a bit later that year. The estate had the house appraised and I bought it from the estate. I used to keep my tricycle under the carport. Now, I'm ripping out floors to replace with tile.
I've gutted and remade the kitchen, put a waterfall in the sunroom, remodelled both baths and about anything else you could imagine.

It would truly suck to have to leave.




Iamsemisweet -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 6:06:47 AM)

I felt the same way, Hill. I loved that place. I still have a hard time believing I can be happy anywhere else. But, under the circumstances, I am kind of relieved, too. I have been on vacation for the last week or so, and I am actually a little nervous about going back out there. I loved being so isolated before, but now it makes me uneasy.




Hippiekinkster -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 12:47:40 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: SorceressJ

I don't have all these physical and attachment to place issues like Hippie, but I can still safely say that yes, MOVING SUCKS BALLS. Always, and not in that warm, fuzzy way that anyone in their halfassed right mind would enjoy.
Sending good thoughts your way, brother, for what it's worth.
TY SJ (my father's, mother's, brother's and my initials are SJL) That's the thing, I always told myself that it's just a house, much like any of the others I owned and then sold over the past decade. But I just can't talk myself into seeing it that way right now. I'm fixin' to haul a load of boxes over to the T-house, swap out cars, and go to HDepot for some baseboard, shoe molding, and door trim. The house willl end up in better shape than it has in ten years. There's some pics on my FL profile.




Hippiekinkster -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:04:04 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet

I feel your pain, hk, I am moving from the house where I have lived for 15 years. Started out there with my ex and our two kids. We spent 150k on a remodel in 2006, which turned out not to be a good year for a remodel. My ex moved out in 2007 (leaving the crap he didn't want) and my kids went off to college (also leaving the crzp they didn't want). I loved living there, since it is an incredible rural setting, but some dark clouds starting gathering recently. For one thing, the Feds want to put an enormous transmission line near by, which screws up both the marketability and the livability. For another, my shared private bridge needs replacing, which will cost around a 100k. I certainly can't afford that, and I know my neighbor will be a dick about paying his share. Finally, largely because of the divorce, I am way underwater in the place. So, I cut a deal with the bank and signed it over to them. I actually I am kind of happy to be out from under it.
But now I have to move, and I have a LOT of stuff, including farm equipment, chickens, horses, and the usual array of stuff one acquires when they have lived in a place for a long time. To top it off, I have a shoulder injury that is definitely slowing me down. I can't wait to get the move over with, though. Just hoping the bridge holds out until I cross it for the last time.

Amazing how much crap one can accumulate, isn't it? I've sold two king beds - one a Serta w/ brass frame, and one a pillowtop mattress/box springs set - that were left here. I had two Lazyboy leather recliners, a 42" rear projection TV, a desk, a whole sound system, lamps, a couple more chairs, a couch, two end tables, art work, and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff that roomies have left. Then there's all the stuff acquired before J and I got divorced. ≈2400 sq. ft. house, screened porch, 1/2 basement, garage, and storage shed, and all except two bedrooms are pretty much full, and I've already moved almost all my clothes, my books, my albums/cds/dvds, the pottery and wedgwood, the artwork, the textiles, my drums, and 1/2 the kitchen stuff. ZJust typing all that wore me out.

I feel for ya about the shoulder (there's some good rotator cuff PT exercises that really work). I have arthritis, degen disc disease, and on my FL profile there's a pic of a foot (not me) with an ulcer in the middle. Mine was like that, except on the heel. It's about 3/4 healed up now. Walking is like walking on broken glass, and when the infection flares up, or I put too much stress on it, it feels like there's a broken bone where the arch is (probably is a fracture). Some days I get so down that I just lay on the couch, take my pain meds, and just doze watching netflix.

Somehow we all manage.




LaTigresse -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:12:21 PM)

I used to say that they would take me off the farm in a body bag. Now I wonder if maybe that will change in 20 or so years. It's a lot of work, especially the 3acre yard and animals. Then there are the winters. Lots of snow removal and driving on bad roads. I wonder if there will come a time when I can't, or just don't want to. We've only lived there since April 2001 so time will tell. We've done a lot to the place and have bigger plans for the future. Some days I wonder if we will last as long as the list.




kitkat105 -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 1:25:12 PM)

I hate the actual moving of stuff, but I don't mind moving. I have attachment issues.

Your house sounds amazing. I'm so sorry you have to leave it. *hugs*

Edited: for appropriate words. 5 hours sleep in 36 hours makes my brain work even less effectively.




Hippiekinkster -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/7/2012 5:54:04 PM)

--> MB: "raised like a baby..." That's a pretty good metaphor. Not only have I invested a lot of money, but also all that time, the wear and tear on my body, and the marks left on my psyche (soul, if you will).

-->HillBill: sounds like you've transformed the old family castle. Got any pics of some of the stuff you've done? I wish I had taken pics of some of the remodel stuff I did back when J and I were in the Real Estate game. We owned four houses in this subdivision when we split up, and she bought her own house here. It's a popular area. Golf course, country club, best schools, well-run area, lots of amenities, etc. So this one house needed a major re-do. Waste pipe in basement had no pitch at one point; cast iron had corroded, and raw sewage was leaking into the basement. Some rogue plumber on PCP thought it was a good idea to cut through load-bearing exterior wall studs to run a pipe; wall was deflecting/collapsing outward into the sunroom (on posts; was originally a porch/deck - 2nd floor elevation). All kinds of other minor fuckups, too, plus hydrostatic water in basement (very little but always after rain). I put in (myself) a red oak floor in the LR and foyer; 12" ceramic tile in the kitchen, laundry room/half-bath, and sunroom (off kitchen AND den), French doors between the kitchen and sunroom, and opened the wall/widened the door between the Kitchen and DR (there were French doors at the sunroom/den interface; my re-do made it so one could completely circle the kitchen's cooking area without going through it); tiled the main floor full bath floor, and two upstairs baths floors and tub/shower walls. Wallpapered all three full baths (SWestern style in hall bath; terra cotta tiles)(marble in master bath; elegant paper with small fleur-des-lises; brushed nickle fixtures; had a whirlpool bath installed). Built glass block shower in main floor full bath (could be main floor master suite), and installed a fan (ducted into the vent stack) and IR heat lamo fixture. Beadboard in laundry room/half-bath up to a chair rail (semi-gloss white; rest of wall a pastel lemon yellow (nice and cheerful) Hung maple cabinets in the kitchen; had granite countertops installed. Installed white Americast sink. Put high-end light fixtures throughout the house. Did a lot of painting (main floor BR was Hunter green w/ white trim; looked sharp). Had bookshelves built on each side of the fireplace in the den. Didn't do much in the basement, which had a bedroom, a half-bath, a den-like area, a couple storage rooms, an office space, and a nice room for a dungeon. Huge house, about 3200 sq. ft. including finished basement. That was a LOT of work.

And now I have to go around the corner to my bud Pam's and play with her two malamutes. I need to get some pics of those two.





sirsholly -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/8/2012 10:53:14 AM)

quote:

I have to move.


We did it in November, Hippie, and i can tell you that it was one of the hardest things i have ever done.

It wasn't a matter of packing over 20 years of possessions into boxes. It wasn't a matter of deciding what to throw away and what to keep. It wasn't the physical work.

What hurt...and i mean really HURT...was what i had to leave behind.

The doorway. The same doorway where i was carried as a bride. The same doorway that my newborn baby wailed his way over. THAT doorway.

The pear tree. It was planted before the Civil War, and no doubt fed it's share of soldiers, as well as us. It was barren for the past two years, but i didn't care. It more than did it's job. It is old and rotting, and i doubt a new owner will keep it.

And the worst one...the proverbial hook. The "hook" everyone refers to when they say "Home is where you hang your heart". My personal hook didn't make the trip.

It will take time, and a lot of effort that i don't have right now to feel at home here. I have done my best to give Hubby and the LoudOne the sense of home...electric candles in the windows to welcome them home, the smells of a huge pot of Chili on a cold evening, warm, familiar quilts, etc., things they are used to. They seem happy and well adjusted, and that was my main goal.

Maybe it's my age. If you agree, please don't say so.




GreedyTop -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/8/2012 10:57:44 AM)

omg, Holly..lovely writing!


(although the smartass in me wants to know if that was teh same door tht attacked you... )


*ducks and runs like hell*




sirsholly -> RE: Moving is a drag... semi-rant (3/8/2012 11:02:35 AM)

Greeds...you can't hide yer inner smart-ass. Stop trying!!!

And nope...it was the back door that unleashed an unprovoked attack.

I don't miss THAT door.




Page: [1] 2   next >   >>

Valid CSS!




Collarchat.com © 2025
Terms of Service Privacy Policy Spam Policy
0.046875