das Haus verlassen - In gratitude | Naming Names

All is done.  

I sold my former residence in Scranton.

Ms Rivers and I bought a new house in West Pittston, the place from where I am publishing this very posting.

Initial renovations will be commencing, and there will be much moving of boxes and turning of a house into a home over the next few months.

None of this would have been possible without the help of my partner in crime, Ms Rivers.  Collectively, we also had the benefit of working with some great professionals, so I'd like to offer some blog space for some well-deserved thanks.

My Partner
Before thanking anyone else, I have to acknowledge Ms Rivers.  

Dear Chris, 

Thank you for your patience with me in the sale/purchase endeavor. 

Thank you for your honesty, intelligence and grace under pressure.

Thank you for your understanding through the parts of this process that were difficult for me, from making the decision to sell through the myriad of other things that come with big life change.

Most of all, thank you for being my partner as we begin this part of our journey together. 

Love, 
Steve

(One of my favorite Ms Rivers photos)

Selling My House
In selling my property in Scranton I had the benefit of a truly terrific real estate agent, Trish Conway from Century 21 Jack Ruddy Real Estate.  Trish was great at offering suggestions, keeping me focused, and answering my questions (sometimes the same ones over and over again).  Trish is fanatically great at returning phone calls and staying on top of things.  I also really appreciated how creative Trish was in making the final offer for my property work.  I can't imagine having the same outcome with an agent other than Trish.

If you need a real estate agent in the Scranton area, I highly recommend Trish.

Buying Our Home
In buying a home, Chris and I had the benefit of having the time to really think about what we wanted, over an extended period of time.  That noted, no matter how much planning you do, all the rules change once you start actually touring properties.  In helping us translate plans into reality, we had the benefit of great search tools and email alerts from Prudential Poggi & Jones real estate.  Check them out if you are buying a home in the Wilkes-Barre area.  Once the time came to start looking at homes, we connected with Paul Pukatch from Prudential Poggi & Jones.  Paul has been patient, available, supportive and has helped keep us on task.

If you need a real estate agent in the Wilkes-Barre area, I recommend Paul.

Lawyers, Guns and Money
Well not guns, but you definitely need lawyers and money to make the home sale/ownership thing work.  Chris and I had the benefit of two professionals who helped us in the legal and financing departments.

Our lawyer was actually my late mother's attorney, Edward Monsky, from the Scranton firm of Fine, Wyatt and Carey in Scranton.  Attorney Monsky handled the legal work for both the sale and the purchase and has also helped write new Wills for both Chris and I over the past few months.  Attorney Monsky probably answered the same questions from me about 6 times and was exceptionally calm as I stressed over a mortgage issue dating back to 1992.  He also actually made a last minute house call in order to remove an obstacle from our closing. Finally, he's also just a really nice guy...something in all honest that I only rarely said about a lawyer.

If you need a family lawyer, I highly recommend Ed Monsky.

In this part of the home equation, I brought the lawyer, but Chris brought the banker.  Our banker in this endeavor has been Debbie Saracino from M&T Bank in downtown Wilkes-Barre.  Debbie is the very definition of flexible.  Countless emails, many faxes, two conference calls, an impromptu application review and throughout it all Debbie was there at every step.

If you need a mortgage or other kinds of home financing stuff, consider contacting Debbie.




Lastly, in coordinating preparations for the house sale and getting ready to move, I needed additional storage space.  Fortunately, there is a place in Moosic that more than met my needs:  Oak Hill Self Storage.  The owner/manger is a terrific guy, and the facility is spotless and secure.  

If you need storage space, give Oak Hill Self Storage a call.

Road Apples, #143

From the temporary home/hiatus - I write this from the NCFE temporary lodging, as I am awaiting the sale of my existing home and the purchase of my new abode.  Now as I plotted this whole mess, I thought about doing one of those hiatus things that real bloggers often times do.  Then I realized that I can no more stop writing than I can stop breathing.  No matter what, the stuff flows out of me, and it might as well flow here.  Fortunately, I now have amassed enough technology such that I can pretty much blog from anywhere.

Jobs, Job, Jobs - Recent unemployment statistics released last week make Northeastern Pennsylvania number 1 again in Pennsylvania...for highest unemployment rate.  Remember, this means that NEPA has a worse economy as such garden spots as Altoona and Easton.  If you ever were looking for hard evidence for the failure of political (and economic) leadership, look no further than this statistic.  It's worth remembering when you think about this statistic that NEPA is blessed with an excellent location, a willing workforce and decent infrastructure.  So why the complete, total and repeated economic failure?

Nelson Mandela - The founder of the modern South African state, Nelson Mandela, passed away last week.  I've read many tributes from across many political lines, including a very moving one from Texas Senator Ted Cruz.  What's really interesting though is contemplating the fact that many on the hard political right in this country wanted nothing to do with Mandela back in the 80's.  In fact, Mandela was vilified as a terrorist and communist by former President Reagan.  Regardless, Mandela was a Communist sympathizer, maybe in part because many in the West were all too happy to support the former white supremacist/apartheid South African government.   If you neighbor on the right ignores you and helps your enemies, can you be blamed for looking to the left for support?  In the end, Nelson Mandela was a flawed hero, as are all heroes actually.  In my book that makes them all the more extraordinary in that it shows them as being fully human beings, just like the rest of us folks.

Rush Limbaugh - I fully enjoy the good work being done by the folks at "Flush Rush Limbaugh".  Having a group of folks dedicated to pointing out the verbal pollution being spouted by this comedian (and he is a comedian by the way, a point that many of this followers miss) in a real service to humanity.  I particularly enjoy hearing when Rush talks about issues of which he has a lot of experience, namely family values (no children), marriage (he has been married three times; his current wife is something on the order of 25 years younger than he is), the military (he dodged the draft during the Vietnam War) and drug abuse (he is an admitted abuser of prescription pain killers).

EWTN Catholic Radio - I've been listening lately to the local ETWN Catholic Radio affiliate, which  can be found at 98.9 FM in the Scranton/Wilkes-Borro area.  You can link the local affiliate's home page HERE.  A few observations:

It's a very hard-right brand of Catholicism.  

Persecution fears abound.
From listening to it, you would believe that FBI right now, as I type this, is getting ready to arrest the Catholic faithful.  Chief example:  Obamacare and contraception.  Never mind that most Catholics, including those at EWTN, would balk at the notion of an employer, for example, not covering blood transfusions*. 

You don't hear much about Pope Francis.  In fact, I've heard more about Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II.

They play the same 2011 Commercial from Pennsylvanian's for Human Life over and over again.

What isn't discussed on EWTN radio very often:
The poor and anything even remotely related to sexual abuse scandals.  Neither seem to exist in that slice of the radio spectrum.

All in all, it's pretty sad stuff.  In some respects I think it foster's a bunker mentality among some; if you say "we are being persecuted for our beliefs" enough times, some folks will start to actually believe it.

Now I get it...I am on the left when it comes to social issues.  But I was also raised to believe that, next to loving God, the most important thing for any Christian was to love his/her neighbor (see the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 22, verses 36-40).  That can't exist in a persecution vacuum, when 98% of your energies are spent wondering how "the man" is going to get you.  For more about the perils of being in "the bunker" seek out THIS FILM.

This isn't the Catholic Church I was raised in; this isn't the Catholic Church that was taught to me by the good sisters, servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  All of this noted, I still do pray.  Whether or not anyone listens is immaterial, for what's important is that I take the time to ask.

(*) Jehovah's Witnesses oppose blood transfusions on religious grounds.  If Catholic employers can refuse to offer health insurance that covers contraception shouldn't employers who are devout Jehovah's Witnesses be allowed to refuse coverage for blood transfusions as well?  You can read more about Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusions HERE.  I don't say this in any way to mock the belief system of this...or any other...faith.  Heck, I admire most people of faith.  My point is about hypocrisy and being in the bunker.

10 observations when moving your stuff

In no particular order, but for many reasons.

1.  You have more stuff than you think.
2.  Whatever amount of time you allot for moving your stuff multiply by three to get the actual time.
3.  You will find that "thing" you thought you lost a year ago, and you'll end up throwing it out anyway.
4.  Because most of your stuff isn't square, most of it will not fit nicely into packing boxes.
5.  "And on the 8th day, God created the hand-truck, and it was good."
6.  National Geographic magazines present a particularly difficult quandary.
7.  You actually, really do own 37 plastic storage containers.  You just didn't know that until now.
8.  You find more lost silverware that you never knew were lost.
9.  You discover that those lost socks went behind your washing machine to die.
10.You discover that you own more medication than is typically found in the average sub-Saharan hospital.

das Haus verlassen, #15

And so it begins...

While just buying a house if fraught with anxiety, selling and buying basically at the same time is an ulcer cocktail.  Never the less, I'm not one for doing things the easy way, so why should this be any different?

Anyway, over the next few days I am getting the current abode ready for the closing, which should happen, like, eventually.  Well eventually in the sense of it has to happen on or before the closing for the new house, which will be next Friday.  Needless to say, next week should be "interesting", to say the least.

It's now just a shell here, with just the essentials, including a computer, a nice chair and marshmallows.  One has to eat.

das Haus verlassen, #14

The countdown begins.

Barring one of the largest financial services firms on the planet actually lying to me, the last hurdle between myself and the sale of my house should be removed some time mid-next week.  On one hand I am relieved, on the other I'm exhausted.

Call it "house fatigue".

I thought I would be excited at the prospect of the changes to come, and deep down I am. It's just at the moment I'm really, really tired.  As I've noted before, there's been a lot of effort to get this far, where the effort part encompasses just about everything.  Oh, and I also have the rest of my life that continues to happen around me.  Did I mention that I'm not sleeping all that well most nights?  Mind you this is "not sleeping all that well" by Steve (as in minimal) standards.  Nothing like waking up at 3am thinking about the next series of tasks you need to perform.

Anyway, I'm also tired of complaining about it.

The truth is that it really is the home stretch.  The side of the house that my mother formerly lived on is about 95% ready to go.  I just need to get my brother to handle a few last details.  My side?  Well it is, once again, a maze of boxes and stuff.  But it's boxes and stuff that are on their way out, as in out of here.  Yes, it looks bad. but in reality the looks are deceiving.  And outside of a bed and a couch, I can pretty much move the rest of the stuff by myself, with the moral support of a cat, a hand-truck and a Nissan Rogue.  After all, I moved in here by myself with the help of a Chrysler PT Cruiser, so anything is theoretically possible.  Sadly and believe it or not, the PT Cruiser actually had more cargo room than my Rogue.  Too bad it was as piece of crap (from a reliability perspective).

When I think about it, I actually have less than two weeks here when you factor in Thanksgiving and some work commitments I have for the week after next.  In the scheme of things, that's a blink of an eye.  After vacating here, it's off to a week of temporary lodging (sans cat) until (hopefully) the closing on the new home on or about December 13th.  Could there have been any worse timing for all of this?  Probably not, but then again you don't always get to call the shots in these sorts of things.

When it's all said and done there will be a deep sigh of relief and then sights set on new adventures.

das Haus verlassen, #13

It's getting to be crunch time, for real.

In theory, in less than a month from now I will be in my new home.  Note the words "in theory".  Separating theory from reality I have a few (what I hope are) minor issues to work out, including figuring out exactly when I need to move into temporary lodging between house closings.  This is driving things like when I need to get a van to move the rest of my stuff out, when I need to take JeanLuc the cat on this kitty vacation, and countless other details that are so numerous that I actually have a checklist.  Evernote rules, for the record.

While the sale part is creating complexities, I will say though that the purchase end has been fairly stress free.  The owners of the property Ms Rivers and I are buying from seem like very nice people, and they are open to potentially closing early when and if all of the stars that must align actually do so in order to make that happen.  I actually get a chance to meet the former owners, as they have agreed to give us a tutorial on how to operate the wood/coal stove that is located in the first floor living room.

Among the details I am working on during the days ahead will be to clear out the rest of my stuff from the existing property.  Now much of that was done in July and August as I got the property ready for sale, but I did afford myself a few remaining luxuries, such as a desk, television, couch and bed.  Within about two weeks or so most of those will be gone as well.  Have I mentioned that I also need to acquire some additional storage space in order to make this all happen?  The current storage unit is about as crowded as bus in India.

Making this stuff somewhat easier is the fact that I don't have much business travel left in the year.  Maybe one overnight in early December and that's it, well at least until the second week in January.

It will be nice when things settle down, but part of me wonders what it will actually be like.  "Be like"?  Well not so much as in how it will feel to live somewhere else, but more so how it will feel to not have the constant stress of...

...constantly worrying about titles, deeds, lawyers, buyers and paperwork
...coordinating my brother Joe's move
...getting service providers here to do those last minute fine-tuning things
...those impromptu calls by your real estate agent trying to solve some issue
...having most of the temporal things you hold dear locked up in a storage unit
...worrying about how your pet will do while he is being boarded

...this stuff is not for the faint of heart.  I'm thinking that the next move after this will be to a retirement community.  Or a funeral home.  Well God willing not a funeral home.

das Haus verlassen, #12

Activity is swirling around me like Cheerios waiting to go down a sink drain.

Have I mentioned before that I'm pretty much never going to do this ever again?  By "this" I mean selling one house and buying another.  Now I know that other folks do this all the time, but for me, there are times when it is insanely stressful.  Fortunately those times are few and far between.

In other, real (as opposed to simply stuff concocted in my head) news, there was an issue with a prior mortgage on the property I am selling, specifically a mortgage for which there was no record of a payoff...back in 1992.  Yeah banking system!  Anyway, it appears that, thanks to the work of my terrific attorney (which a research assist from yours truly), that issue is about to be resolved.  Assuming the bank in question fesses up and admits to never filing the necessary paperwork 20+ years ago, I now have a clear path towards closing on this property.  That creates a clear path to closing on the property that Ms Rivers and I are purchasing.  

I'd take a moment to celebrate, but that moment could be used for other purposes, like cleaning and stuff.

Part of this equation is my youngest brother Joe moving to live with other brother Chris.  With the mortgage mess almost settled, we are planning on making that change soon.  My brother Chris is a good man for taking Joe in; whether the arrangement works out in the long term is open to debate, but kudos to the Albert Boys for taking care of each other.  

(The Albert Boys, circa August 1970; from left: Chris, Steve, Rich & Joe)

As I may have mentioned before, another point of stress for me is what to do with JeanLuc Albert (my cat) during the days between closing on the existing property and the new property.  Where I will be staying I don't have the option of bringing the Spudster* along, so he will need temporary lodging.  I did some on-line checking and found three nice looking places for him...basically kitty resorts.  Each place allows for visiting hours, but I don't think I could bring myself to visiting him and then leaving.  Call me a big softee, but that cat means a lot to me, and it's hard enough dropping him off for a week.

In very sad cat news, my late mother had a cat, Sarah, who is both very elderly (about 19) and sickly.  She has also not done well since my mother passed away and has lost a ton of weight.  My youngest brother has been taking care of Sarah over the past few months, but he can't bring her along with him to my brother Chris' house (Chris already has 4 cats).  My older brother Rich already also has a plethora of pets.  As for me, I have JeanLuc, who will eventually be joined by the cat of Ms Rivers, Tiger.  We're worried that Tiger will not acclimate well to JeanLuc, as he (Tiger) previously had a very poor living experience with another cat years ago, so we have our work cut out for us in just getting the two cats to live well together.  Fortunately, JeanLuc really likes other cats, so I'm hoping that with some thoughtful transition work, we can get JeanLuc and Tiger to like (or at least tolerate) each other.  However...and getting back to Sarah...she's just too old for this kind of change, and I'm afraid that any kind of move will add emotional stress to her physical pain.  While I strongly dislike the notion of having Sarah put to sleep, I don't know that there are many other open to us.  

Feline heartbreak aside, I also still have a lot to move in order to make the residence switch work.  I also need to rent an additional storage unit to temporarily store my bed, desk and a few other things (including power equipment) during the intervening week.  Oh, and have I mentioned that I'll be doing almost all of the moving work myself?

Living the sporty life...

(*) For the record, I have about a dozen different names for my cat.  It's important that every cat have multiple names.  Anyway, the names include his "formal" name of JeanLuc, as well as JLA, Spud, Spudster, Spudinator, BigGuy, General Sterling Price, Friend...and the list goes on.  No wonder he barely knows his own name.

das Haus verlassen, #11

In this whole home sale/purchase stuff I was running under a basic assumption:

Selling your house is a pain in the rear-end but buying a house is fun.

Note that, for the record, I was mistaken.  Well, at least as it applies to have the second part of the above referenced basic assumption.

Yes, selling my house has been a pain.  A royal pain.  A stressful, royal pain.  A time-consuming pain.  Get the point?

Well now that I have more or less sold my house (well, it's under contract to sell, and everything is running smoothly), I'm working, with Ms Rivers, on the second part of the equation.

Mind you, we have done our homework.  In fact, we've been doing our homework for about two years now:

1. We know what we want in a house.
2. We have a very reasonable budget.
3. We are pre-approved for a mortgage.
4. We know the general area in which we want to buy a house.
5. We have been keeping an eye on the market for years now.

Yet, despite all of this, the early search results are not going well.  Now for the record, I admittedly have two speeds in life:  fully-engaged-at-hyperspeed (when I am interested & task focused) and not really moving at all (when I am bored, disinterested, etc.).  The fact that I'm unhappy over not already having a purchase decision is a function of the fully engaged me.  Patience?  I can be exceptionally patient, well as long as that's part of a larger plan.  In this case though, my main purpose is far more short-term in that I simply don't want to end up moving twice.  The "once"move would be from the current residence to a new residence.  The "twice" part would be from this place to an interim place and then to a new residence.

Now I know that I will not end up living under a bridge with Sparky the Courthouse bum.  Hell, I need a place for my cat.  But it's so very disconcerting to have this feeling of not having a home.  As it stand, my current residence is devoid of most of what I own, which doesn't exactly create a homey feeling.  Not that this place ever felt much like home anyway; it's always constituted something more of a temporary resting place.  And I am tired of temporary resting places, thank you very much. Springsteen put it best...

"Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening 
To the hours and minutes tickin’ away 
Yeah just sittin’ around waitin’ for my life to begin 
While it was all just slippin’ away 
I’m tired of waitin’ for tomorrow to come 
Or that train to come roarin’ ’round the bend 
(Bruce Springsteen | Better Days)

Back to the new home search.  Part of what's making the search difficult revolves around basic compromises.  Neither of us have grand expectations in a home, and both of us realize that we can't allow perfection to be the enemy of good.  Yet so far while we've seen three homes that really didn't cut it at very basic levels (one too small and two far too big) and two that would be really nice "if only just...".  Too many compromises.

House number 1 in the "if only just..." department was almost perfect in that it was modern, very well constructed and had a killer garage.  It has a Florida room!  The only problem?  It was basically half-way up Walton's Mountain.  I like a quiet road, but this would have been a morbid road, which created a disconcerting feeling.  At first I loved the house and thought I could deal with the mountain; after sleeping on it?  Not so much.

House number 2 in the "if only just..." department was almost perfect in that it was exceptionally clean, had enough space (well, sort of), had a garage and lots of land.  We really liked the owner as well.  It did have two fatal flaws though in that it had a "cutting edge of 1965 postage stamped sized" kitchen combined with a few of some kind of industrial works.  I'll add that the view behind the industrial works was really, really neat.  If only.

So now it's back to the drawing board.  Three more houses to look at later today, none of which are knock-your-socks-off good, especially from the exterior, but all have some interior stuff going for them.  Here's to hoping for the best.

das Haus verlassen, #10

"They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
- Andy Warhol


What seems like a brief respite from posting over the past few days was actually nothing of the sort (a rest that is).  In what was a burst of activity last week, I actually, really and truly managed to get an offer to buy the house I have had on the market since August.  The contract was signed on Sunday.

Head spinning?

Well, not so much.  Actually I'm not worried about the days and weeks to come.  If anything, I'm more thinking about "what's life going to be like when I don't have a house to sell and one to buy?" stuff.  I'm sure that life will be full of enough surprises...it always is...but there is this feeling of "after the marathon" that I do contemplate.

Now there are more than a few "thank you" notes to go around with this upcoming event, but I'm going to save them until later.  Contracts can be broken you know, and I'm not going to do anything to jinx the process.  This may read like a horribly irrational response to the situation, but so be it; thinking that I can ward off bad juju by being cautious is one of the few things remaining in the process that I can control.

What's next?  Well that's part two of this entire journey.  Yes, next up I have to make sure I'm not homeless when all is said and done.  Fortunately I have a a true partner in crime for that part of the trip in the personage of Ms Rivers.  Over the next week or so the new task is to find a new home for both of us.   Home...it's a been a long time since I actually felt like I had a "home".

Time to end the exile on Elba.

das Haus verlassen, #9

Chores, chores, chores.  Selling your house involves chores.  And money helps.  Have I mentioned that I'm getting too old for this, by the way?  Among the changes made over the past few months:

• Installed a GFI outlet in the 616 kitchen.
• Had the electrician over to problem solve an issue with the stove.  It turned out that the service line and breaker were inadequate to the task and had to be replaced.
• I discovered that it's NEVER a good idea to put the cat food dish near the refrigerator (there was more food under the refrigerator than there was in JeanLuc's food dish).
• Replaced a ceiling fan with something that looks like it is from this century.
• Replaced some carpeting outside of my bedroom.
• Painted, painted, painted, painted, painted and painted.
• Thoroughly cleaned the 618 kitchen.

Next up:  having the plumber over tomorrow morning to give the furnace a once-over before the heating season fully kicks in.

It's been about 63 days since the house was put on the market, and after a few showings and many compliments, I still haven't received an offer.  So what's a brother to do?  Well at the advice of my agent, why lower the price.

If you're interested in learning more about my property, simply send me an email and I'll provide you with the multi-list number.

The really ironic part of all of this?  At the end of all the chores, I'll probably have to do it again when I buy another home.

das Haus verlassen, #8

It's been an odd weekend.  Really odd.  I got a call earlier in the week about a potential buyer for my home, so I took Friday afternoon off to get the house ready.  Then there was Saturday morning, which started at "God Awful Early O'Clock" and consisted on more cleaning and the like.  Bug-out time was 10:40 am, upon my return some time after noon, there was definitely evidence that a real, actual potential buyer had been here:

• A usually unlocked door has been locked.
• My bedroom door was open.  Note that this thrilled my cat, as he is not allowed in my bedroom due to my extreme cat allergy.  I noticed that, on my bed, there was a cat-butt sized indentation on the quilt. 
• The showing real estate agent left her car for me in the kitchen.

Speaking of my cat, he was thoroughly and completely wigged out upon my return.  Now I don't have what one would consider a lap-cat, but he was all over me for a few hours after returning home.  I think we (the cat and I) are far too used to each other's idiosyncrasies.

I do hope that the house sells before too long, as the whole sale process takes so much in terms of mental and physical energy.  Now on the plus side, it is most definitely one of those "gifts of patience" that you get in life from time to time.  You know, these are the moments when you really want something to happen now, but in reality you have no choice but to wait...and wait...and maybe wait some more.  And so it goes, I am waiting.  I know that in this day and age (unlike the mostly pre-Internet era when I bought this house) most home shopping is actually done on-line; the actual home showing seems to be more of an affirmation of what a buyer likes or confirmation of the worst.  In my case, let's hope for the best.

What's equally odd about this whole situation is that as I am trying to sell, I am also looking for a house.  I do need somewhere to live when this place belongs to someone else.  Having that "buyer mentality" I think has helped me in my sale preparations.  My biggest objective in getting this house ready has been to have it be worth the price I am asking for it.  By and large I think I've accomplished that, and then some.  In point of fact this house is actually worth more than what I am asking for it; the discount is intended to reflect the fact that I want to sell the house sooner rather than later.  I'm keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed.

Anyway, I'm ready to do this whole sale-preparation thing again, and again, and again...if needed.  As they say in he movies, "fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride".  

das Haus verlassen, #7

This home sale stuff is interesting and instructive.

Interesting because it's one of those things in life that many of us have to face, but until you actually go through it (or, in my case, are going through it) you really have no idea what it's really like.  It's certainly a process kind of thing, but more so than that, it's a study in patience.  Well it is a study in patience for me at least.  It's one of those things in life that I can say "yes, what has happened up until this point has prepared me for this moment".  I don't make that statement lightly by the way.

Higher powers at work?  Well, as I like to say, answering that question is beyond my pay grade.  Suffice to say I am grateful for all the instructions that life provides, be they in learning how property is marketed (or not necessarily marketed...) and sold or in other things.  I am even more grateful for the opportunity to further exercise the aforementioned patience skills.  I was never a patient person.  Nope, not at all.  I don't think of myself as a "Type A Personality", but those objective (and not so objective) outsiders who have had dealings with me almost universally say that this does describe me.  The words "you're a typical type A..." still ring in my ear during a therapist session back in late 2010.  It also brings back memories of my mother telling me, also back in late 2010, "Steve, you don't like to lose...".  I am not sure I agree, but it's not a good recipe for patience.

Regardless, one of the things you learn when you make a big changes in your life is that patience is a necessary cost of doing business.  It is also a benefit.  At the moment I think I've finally come to the benefit part.

Instructive?  Well see above.  I think that any big change in life affords the opportunity to learn, and if anything I have always tried to learn from the places I find myself in, be they physical or mentally.  That's probably the biggest "gift", if you want to call it that, which I have been blessed with as an attribute (as opposed to the too wonderful to describe gifts of children, a supportive partner, a good job and countless other things that have been added to my life).  While having a smaller nose and better functioning eyes would be nice "gifts" to have, if I had to choose, I'd keep the ability to learn.  Instructions in life mean nothing if you are unwilling to learn from them.

So I am going to continue to exercise patience.  I am going to savor the opportunity to learn.  And hopefully I am going to sell this house.  Soon.

das Haus verlassen, #6

I have paint everywhere.  I mean everywhere.  In places that one shouldn't have paint I have paint.

I'm not sure what's the higher number:  my blood pressure or the concentration level of acid in my stomach.

I am often times exhausted but yet I have trouble falling asleep.

Focus?  I normally have the attention span of a retarded gnat.  Lately it's been worse.

I am living in a mostly vacant home and my belongings mostly fit in a 5'x10' storage unit.  And I think I kind of like it.

I watch about an hour of television per week.  Now that Falling Skies is over, it may be down to zero.

I have gotten so good with caulk that I can now sculpt with it.

Sleep?  Maybe 5 or so a night.

I can't look at a carpet without seeing stains.

I have to remind myself that I normally don't have a short fuse.

Can I get a quantity discount when buying Febreze?

I now officially feel guilty about leaving work before 6pm.

I've given up on weighing myself.

Vegetables?  What are they?  You mean the green things you eat?

My cat will sometimes sit on my lap, I swear, just to calm me down.  And for the record my cat, like most cats, really doesn't give a rat's behind about any creature other than himself.

I have four different kinds of paint cans in my closet.

I've officially gone into home-repair overload.

Yes, I am selling my house.

das Haus verlassen, #5

Well today is the big day:  my house is supposed to officially be on the market for sale.  Papers have been signed and dated.  The real estate agent is engaged.  I am fully prepared to shamelessly try and help the selling process by and any all means.  This doesn't, however, mean that all is "well".  In fact, my head is a virtual bag of cats, swirling an turning full of thoughts and feelings, most of which probably don't make much sense in the larger scheme of things.  But why should this event have any less of an impact on my mental state?  Hell, I can over-think crossing the street, so it's not like I need an excuse.

Anyway, here's a random collection of thoughts running through my head as I head into the great unknown of "das Haus verlassen".

• Time - Just how long will it take to sell the house?  It could take a week or it could take 9 months.  According to the agent, typically the longest she sees houses in the market is about 9 months.  For me, that would put me into April 2014.  Scary thought.
• Money - Also according to the agent, the single most important element that influences the sale of a house is the price.  People don't sell their house primarily because they want too much for it.  As for me, I'm pricing the house at below what we paid for it in the early 1990's.  I could list for more, but I'm not interested in making a buck...I am interested in selling a house.  I don't have a mortgage on the property, so there is no amount I need to make; in fact, I want enough to pay off some bills and have money for a down-payment on a new place.
• Effort - I am working my ass off.  Seriously, and I don't have a small ass.  I've painted more, cleaned more, straightened more, fixed more than I've ever done in my entire life.  God bless my brother Rich, who has been here a few days a week helping out.  When this is all said and done, I'm going to get him something he's always wanted but would never buy for himself.

In a way, all of the effort I am putting into this is rather therapeutic, as if I didn't have 10,458 things to do, I might just spend too much time pondering just all that this change means.  A few years ago, I had one goal for myself:  do big things.  Change my life.  The trajectory I was on could never be sustained; I have no doubt that, in the absence of big change, I'd be struggling at this very moment to maintain my very sanity.  Not that the path over the past few years has always been easy; early on, it was incredibly difficult.  Life, however, is truly an iterative process, if you have a plan that is; not that I always has a well defined plan (other than "change my life"), but I'd like to think that I've known the direction to take, even if the goal was a bit fuzzy.

What's not so fuzzy?  That would be the immediate goal at hand:  sell the house, and begin the next phase of my life.  Time to kick the tires and light the fires.

Paintman (das Haus verlassen, #4)

When you in the process of making yourself homeless via selling your home, even temporarily, there is often times significant painting involved.  With this in mind, and with apologies to George Harrison, I present my own version of "Taxman".  To see the correct version, click HERE.

PAINTMAN

(one, two, three, four (cough), one, two)

Let me tell you how it will be

There's lots of paint all over me

'Cause I'm the paintman, yeah I'm the paintman

Should this can of paint appear too small

Don't worry I won't use it all

'Cause I'm the paintman, yeah I'm the paintman

When I paint outside, I'll paint indoors

When I paint the ceiling, I'll paint the floor.

When I paint door, I'll paint the sill.

I'll paint so much I'll get terminally ill.

Paintman....

'Cause I'm the paintman, yeah I'm the paintman

Don't ask me what I'm painting for

If you don't want me to paint any more.

'Cause I'm the paintman, yeah, I'm paintman.

Now my advice those selling a home

Paintman

Don't try to paint it all alone.

Paintman

'Cause I'm the paintman, yeah, I'm the paintman.

And I'm painting for no one but me.

Selling the Stuff (das Haus verlassen, #3)

Tomorrow is the day when we try and sell some of the stuff that my mother accumulated over the years.

Estate Sale, 618 Cherry Street, Scranton

It's almost rather odd actually...this is, in part, what happens to us after we die...our "stuff" is divided up and sold.  Now in fairness, I'm actually including some of the stuff I don't want any more in this sale, so it's a kind of dual purpose event.  In the end, I hope there is just simply less laying around.  

Part of the method to all of this madness is to get the house ready for sale.  Things are staring to fall into place:  I've had some work done in my bathroom & kitchen, shutters have been replaced, there has been much painting accomplished, and cleaning has been on-going.  There are more things to do, but by and large the bigger projects are either completed or in progress.  Now to empty the house out some more.

Major "props" go out to my brother Rich, who is the hardest working man I know.  

Surreal (das Haus verlassen, #2)

Surreal:  the feeling you get after realizing that 80% of everything you own fits into a 5'x10' storage locker...with room to spare.

Good thing I stocked up on banker's boxes.

das Haus verlassen #1

Well I guess I'm committed to this whole thing, not that there was any chance I wouldn't be, mind you.  It's just that the whole thing is so "big".

I'm speaking about the whole notion of putting the house for sale.

As I've noted here before, my plan has never been to live long term at this current residence.  I bought it years ago with my ex-wife and mother, lived here for a while and moved; my mother continued to live here until her death.  I returned for stay #2 in late 2010, living on the side that my mother originally occupied.  It took me forever to unpack when I moved in; I think it was well into 2011 before I stopped having to maneuver around moving boxes.  Now this place is slowly but surely being turned into some kind of moving command center.  And an estate command center.  And home repair center.  Oh, and I'm still living here.

This place has never really seemed like "home".  The closest thing to a "home" I ever really had was an apartment in a housing project, truth be told, and while that place still stands, I can't say that I've been by there in a long time.  The rest of the places...Duke Street in York (torn down in the late 90's), a crappy rental home in West Scranton (still standing...looks like the current residents cook Crystal Meth there), Prospect Avenue...were all just "places I lived".

Maybe in all of these places I've actually been searching for a home.  Who knows.  That sounds like a question that is, well, above my pay grade.

Anyway, now there is much to do.  The initial meeting with the Realtor was yesterday, and we have a plan mapped out that should get the house on the market in early August.  Between now and then there are a few other things to do, including some improvements on this side of the house.

The good news?  Once I get a plan I'm kind of like the Terminator:  I don't stop.

The bad news?  I don't have firm plans for what happens when I end up being successful.  I was thinking about living under my desk in my office at work (hey, we do have showers!), but I don't think that I'd be able to hide Jean-Luc.  Not that the office couldn't use an official cat, by the way.

Regardless, this too will all happen as it is supposed to.

Making myself homelss

As I've noted here before, saying that "Steve is a bit tightly wrapped" is like saying "there will be a Wednesday next week".  I am tightly wrapped.  I enjoy routine.  I like control.  I like to  be able to analyze and predict.  I like a degree of certainty.

Enter the house sale.

I am now the sole owner of a property in the South Side of Scranton, a property that I formerly owned with my mother.  It's a double house, and I currently live on the smaller of the two sides.  I've never planned on living here forever; in fact the details of my arrival here lurk in the bowels of this blog, so feel free to browse.  Regardless, and as the late John Lennon once observed...

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"

...and life has gotten in the way of my tidy plans to deal with my housing situation.  This is all a fancy way of saying that I'm going to sell this house.

I've never sold a house before.

I've always known where I would be living.

After selling the house I will need a place to live.

For me, this is stressful stuff.  There are a number of ways this could work out, and I am working with professionals on all of this, so maybe it shouldn't be that stressful...but it is.  I could very well be going to Hell in a Bucket...

Welcome to my brave new world.