I go meet my agent at the house. We will be doing the walk-through.
The owners are not there.
They have NOT moved out.

We have agreed that closing will be 2:30, their movers will show up up between 4 and 6. If they damage the place, there is a bit in escrow to cover it.

I will be in the house the entire time. I'm not going to closing.

I wander around. I go through the checklist. I have a tough time figuring out how to turn the shower on. Odd controls. My real estate agent can't figure it out either.

He gets a call and has to leave. I'm along, wandering. I figure out the tub, oh such a proud moment.

Owners and their agent show up. Their agent freaks at me. I'm not allowed to be there alone. Oh well, don't talk to me lady, talk to the other agent.

She continues to freak at me. She says the only way I can be here is if the owners says so. I turn to them and smile, can I stay?

Sure. They love me.

We get the call, closing moved to 3:30. But still on. But I need to go get my pay check, so I leave M to baby sit the house.

While on my way, I get stuck in traffic, and start bitching. And then realise, fuck that, the boy is in a CLOSING, that's STRESS, I'm merely in traffic.

I get to the office, he calls.

Done.

Ok, come back, be dazed and confused, wander around while the previous people move out.

Their movers FUCKED them. 4-6. That meant 4-6. At 6PM, that said, Ok, that's it, we are done. If you want any more you will have to pay us to bring the truck back here tomorrow.

Of course they freak, and in a few moments the wife was crying while the husband was telling her that I now own all their shit that they didn't get out of the house (all the BEST stuff was being saved for last it seems) and that they'd just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Wow. Tough guy.

Of course we said they could come back tomorrow and get it, and we would take the van and deliver it for them, and they should not have to worry at all about it.

The husband came back the next day for it. As I was cleaning up I found his gun. It was old, but still in good condition. I gave it back to him. No gun in this house, at least not without some serious training and prep. On the other hand, I did keep the ancient blackjack.

I'm writing this in the "attic". More room in a single room (plus lots of built in shelves, drawers and cabinets, looks like stained redwood, everywhere) than I've ever had before. Large amounts of "project" space.

But I did not notice any 3 prong outlets. I blocked the walls with boxes and stuff, so I might of missed them. I ran an extension cord to the attic to plug in my computer gear.

Oh well.

It took 3 truck loads to empty the old house and 2 storage units. My nephew showed up at 2:30. He was supposed to be there at 1. He borrowed a truck from work. The 1st load was about 50% random furniture and most of the boxes. About 1/2 of everything ended up in the attic. I only did about a 1/10th of the work, the kids did most of the carrying and running.

My couch (oh how I love that couch) could not fit through the front door. It didn't like the back sliding glass door either. I took the glass door off. It was still too tight. We took the semi-flat feet off. They are about 1/2 inch high. That was what it needed.

As we were emptying the 2nd load, it was 7:30. In the previous load, it took about an hour to unload and 25 minutes to get back to the place. But the place was closing at 9. And I did not want to pay the gas to get them back, and they didn't want to come back.

When the storage place closes. the gates stop working. Even if you are already inside. We know that you can call the company and get a code to open the gate, but it may take a while.

We decided to empty as FAST as possible to make it back before they closed, and then take a chance on getting out in time. These guys emptied that truck in about 10 minutes. Most things got dropped on the porch (big porch, good overhand for rain protection, I love watching rain storms on it) while others carried up.

When we went back to the storage unit, no light except flashlight. I slave drove these guys.

We made it out of the gate at 8:57.

Back home M had cleared the porch and we did it again.

When the truck was emptied my nephew pointed out that there was a large corner area of the truck was blocked out with wood and FILLED with sheets of foam rubber. They were ripped out of a recording studio. They are designed for acoustic damping. I THINK there is enough to cover the attic. And if not, he knows where to get more.

Wow, the day keeps getting better and better.

In bed about 10PM.

When I wakeup, I turn on the gas fireplace. It take about 5 minutes for the room to warm up. I go 1/2 way up the steps. Holy shit, there is a chimney effect as heat is sweeping up along, through the hall, and then up the next level to the attic. And that is just 1 of the fireplaces. The other faces the other direction, and goes up the other steps.

This morning I went back to the old crap house, packed up my computer gear, and drenched the carpets in flea poison. I then picked them up, they are on the porch. After I buy the carpet cleaner I'll unroll them and work on them.

We'll be ready for visitors in a couple of weeks. Wait until the pool is open though.

The closest walkable chinese sucks, but there are a dozen more to try.