Friday, September 24, 2010

Out with the Old

Last weekend we held a yard sale.

It's amazing how much stuff you don't realize you have until you put in all in one place to sell!

We've been wanting to have this sale for months, but we've had an unusually wet monsoon season this summer.  Last week was the first time since June that our area had 4 whole days in a row without rain.


We did very well, earning almost $600, which will pay for our final (we hope) trip back to Colorado and Wyoming next month.  We need to collect the last of Ed's things, including his 1989 Mustang, and winterize his mom's house before the first freeze sets in.

One of two dining room sets Ed brought here from Wyoming

I've never made more than $300 at my previous yard sales, and ordinarily we'd only earn around $150.  However, this time we had a lot of furniture and manly garage-type items that are popular at yard sales.  Most of them belonged to Ed but wouldn't fit into our little house and sheds.  We hope we've sold off enough to be able to stop renting the storage unit where we've been keeping them. 

Jacob and his friends, Kyle and Xan (seen above), load up the old fridge for delivery to the new owner.

One item we sold was our old refrigerator.  Not only was it ancient and slightly worse for wear, but it didn't really fit our family anymore, now that there are five of us again and the kids are practically all adults.

Much more space for our food!

Our "new" refrigerator isn't really new, but it is a newer model that was owned by an older couple who took good care of it.  Best of all, it has much more space inside.

All loaded up with room to spare!

The new fridge is a few inches taller than the old one, and most of that extra space is found inside the freezer.  My freezer has always been packed to the gills, and it was always a trick to reorganize and fill it after a shopping trip.  Now, though, look at all the extra room after I transferred the frozen foods from the old freezer!


The only problem was that the door opened on the wrong side, but Ed quickly took care of that, switching the hinges and handles around.


What a blessing it is to have a husband who has the know-how and the want-to to take good care of our home!  I'm so ignorant about home care that I didn't even know how many things I had been letting fall into ruin.

Over the past months, Ed has handled many indoor repairs of items I had given up hope of saving.  He has tackled the cleaning and repair of our roof and prepared the storm drains for the coming snow.  We have purchased a new front door and a storm door for him to install, and he has plans to correct the insufficient insulation of our home before winter.  He and Jacob have cleaned our old shed from top to bottom, and soon Ed will replace the shed door, part of the floor, and two broken windows.  They have also hauled away two truckloads of trash, leaving our tree-covered property looking more beautiful than ever.  Ed also plans to start a garden in the spring and has already borrowed my dad's roto-tiller to prepare the plot before the ground freezes. 

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!  We have many more plans to remodel, replace, refurbish, and repair in the coming months and years.  I'm very excited to work by my husband's side and make our home into a comfortable place where we can grow old together.

1 comment:

Grandma Honey said...

Wish I had your new fridge. We bought an expensive side by side that I have never liked. When it dies...don't know how long that will take, I'm going back to the standard kind like you have. It is so much roomier and easier to use than the side by sides.