t-minus 421 Days: Couches and Patios

I have a couch that was purchased around 1970. The couch is still as comfortable today and I ever remember it being. Fast forward to the couch and love seat recliners we purchased in 2011. It has not held up well at all. My wife wants new couches and I keep telling her: you can get new couches when we get to Florida, I don't want to have to move new couches.

As a compromise, we decided to have our 9 year old couches repaired. The repairman came today and found a number of broken brackets. I wouldn't be surprised if a kid was jumping on the couches at some point and broke the brackets, who knows? Anyways, they are broken. The good news? They are covered by a Lane lifetime warranty. The bad news? Lane declared bankruptcy seven years ago.

If we are able to convince Lane to supply the parts, the repairman will fix the couches and re-stuff the cushions for $200. Two hundred dollars for an extra 14 months with these couches? That sounds like a really good deal!

I received an updated price on the cost of a patio for the side entrance: $3300 for a 330sqft patio. Alternatively, I could rip up the grass, put down weed barrier, and cover it with marble chip stone for only $500. A patio would have a lot more function but... I won't be here to use it! We are on the fence between doing what is right and what would be the cheapest.

In other news, I reached out to a second real estate person. My wife didn't want to put all our eggs in one basket, and, the basket we picked hasn't been very responsive. I am sure agents hear from people all of the time with big dreams that never come true and perhaps that is why we haven't received very much information. We'll have a bit of a competition between two or three agents and pick which ever one wants our business the most.

Several months ago, I had the heavy thought of leaving our house for the last time. This is where our kids grew up and where we have spent 17 years of our life. Every dent in the wall and every scrape on the floor has a memory attached to it. The idea of leaving that last day knowing that I'll never be coming back was troubling. I'll never be able to walk through that front door, grill on the back deck, or look out the window at the farm fields. That was difficult for me until I resolved to the idea of starting a new chapter; looking forward, not backwards; getting excited for what lay ahead instead of thinking what will be left behind.

We all come to these thoughts at different times. While it struck me several months ago, it just struck my wife this past weekend. Rather than work through it, she has decided to bury it and not think about it.  Eventually, it will come back and she'll have to work through it. While I believe I have already crossed this bridge and put it behind me, I suspect there will be some things I'll still need to work through as well.

We are selling items on Facebook Marketplace like hot cakes! There is so much going on that I've had to keep track of it in a spreadsheet. Many items are posted, many more need to be posted, some have been sold and picked up, and others are waiting for pickup. So far, it is all small toys, $5 to $20. We do "porch pickups" which means we leave the item on our front porch with an envelope. The person buying the product will put the money in the envelope and put the envelope under our door mat. I am trying to put two or three new items into MarketPlace every day, but I realized with only 420 days before our move, that isn't hardly enough! Somehow, I'll need to find a way to really ramp this up, and get some more family members involved.

That is today's update. Come back soon to find out how we get ready for this massive move!