09:31 – We made a run down to Winston-Salem yesterday. Frances was working yesterday, but Barbara had arranged with Al to meet us at the house with his pickup to load up on stuff for a dump run. She’d also arranged with Goodwill to meet us at the house. They provide only a day and a three-hour window, which in this case was to be 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., so we figured we’d be getting home later than usual. But when we were on the way down, still 20 minutes out from Winston, Barbara’s cell rang. It was the Goodwill driver, calling to ask if they could come immediately. Apparently, they had several cancellations. I told him we could meet him at the house, but it’d be 20 minutes or so until we got there. He pulled up in front of the house about two minutes after we arrived. He and his helper unloaded a huge rolling bin from the truck and made short work of picking up the stuff, which was probably two or three full pickup loads. We then got to work in the basement and my lab. We got Al’s pickup loaded to overflowing with stuff to go to the dump, including stacking large boxes on the tailgate and securing them with bungee cords. We got mostly finished in the basement and my lab, including pulling down shelves and brackets.
We probably have another two or three Trooper loads worth of stuff remaining to be hauled up, not counting a full pickup load of yard equipment and various miscellany that Al is going to keep for himself. Then it will be back to work for us, getting the house cleaned up and ready to go on the market. We decided to do the relatively quick, cheap stuff ourselves. In addition to a general deep clean, we’re going to paint ceilings and walls and do various minor repairs. The deck is only a couple years old and we replaced the front windows last year. The other windows are about due for replacement, and the kitchen and bathroom could stand updating, but those are things we’ll leave for the eventual buyer to do. My goal is to get the place looking reasonably decent, in a state where someone could move in without having to do anything. If they want to do bathroom or kitchen upgrades or refinish the hardwood floors, we’ll leave that to them. But we’ll do stuff like punching wall anchors through, spackling, priming, and putting on fresh coats of a neutral paint like eggshell or whatever women call it.