It has been a few weeks since I last posted, and what a few weeks it has been.
When last I posted, I mentioned that we were going to downsize. This meant getting our house ready for selling, which confirmed why we need to downsize. Between Holly and me, we went through every closet and every drawer of our fourteen-room, 3,600 square-foot house. We cleaned every baseboard, washed every wall, purged, deep cleaned, and organized every square foot. I mopped the floors so many times it makes my head spin. Jim and Holly moved 90,000 pounds of landscaping rock as we switched out our landscaping beds, while I cleaned up all of the landscaping edges and tackled the weeds on our 0.75-acre lot. And we did it all in eight days.
At the same time, we were puppy-sitting for our neighbors, a lovely Huskie/American Shepherd mix who just happened to be blowing his very fluffy and massive winter coat while we had him. Plus, we were getting ready to go on vacation the same day the house was to officially enter the market, AND Jim worked full days during all of this. So, insanity ruled around here for the last half of June.
Thankfully, the house is now for sale, and we have had quite a few showings and a lot of expressed interest. We have even had a second showing already, but we are still missing that important offer. In the meantime, our condo progresses nicely. We signed all the paperwork and put down earnest money before we left so that they could continue construction. We meet with the cabinet vendors next week and are now in that stage where we get to see little changes every day. I would feel better if we had an offer for our house on the table, but I remain confident right now that we will sell it in plenty of time. Now, try me again in two weeks.
Our vacation was not really a vacation but a trip to Pittsburgh to visit with Jim’s oldest brother as well as his oldest sister and her family. All involved followed the safety measures against COVID before we arrived, and we received everyone’s permission to visit before we left. Even as the number of cases started to balloon while we were there, we all stayed safe and had a good visit. We got to meet and visit with our new great-nephew, born just five days before we arrived. Holly had her first unofficial college visit to Penn State, which she decided she does not want to attend after walking the campus. We hiked, we hit all the famous Pittsburgh places to eat. It was nice to get away and not have to worry about the house for a week.
Now we are back. Holly’s dance kicks into gear on Wednesday of this week as she heads back into the studio for four long days of dance seminars and choreography. It does seem weird for her to go back into an enclosed setting like that, but the directors swear they will follow proper protocols for cleaning and distance and are keeping the numbers in the rooms to under 20, as the guidelines for Wisconsin suggest. Our COVID cases remain low compared to the rest of the country, so I don’t think the risk is huge for Holly. However, we did tie our one-day record number of cases yesterday, so I will be keeping an eye on things.
We still have no idea what school is going to look like in September. Our neighbor is the Director of Curriculum for the school district, and he tells me they have three different scenarios depending on what phase we are in when school starts again. It is frustrating to have no answers, but I get that everyone is trying to do their best with a truly shitty situation. Patience seems to be the keyword as the first wave of the pandemic lasts a lot longer than anyone expected.
I hope everyone is safe, practicing social distancing, and wearing their mask when out in public. Now is not the time to be selfish or ignorant. The sooner we get the pandemic under control, the sooner we can get back to some semblance of normalcy.
My daughter is still dancing via Zoom. In California, the issue of AC use and distribution of droplets is what’s preventing them from returning to in studio classes. Voice, acting… still online as well. I am fine with it. Restaurants are closed again for inside dining. This is too bad because many restaurants won’t make it now.
Sounds like you had a nice visit and a chance to get away is always good. Sounds like the house stuff is going as well as can be. Offers will come soon. I still find myself rather anxious these days. I am not dwelling on anything but it just comes over me. Our high schools gave us two options to vote on but neither work for my daughter. I have two friends who work for the district and they said that the teachers don’t approve of either option either. I feel like they will just do online for fall because the hybrid model is so complicated and there is no way to prevent exposure is just one kid comes with COVID. You’d have to shut the school down anyway. We have too many students even when split into cohorts. If there is no in person model, there will not be choir or theatre. Daughter, very upset.
Holly headed back yesterday to the studio. I think they are doing everything they can to keep the children safe given the circumstances. I honestly feel she is safer there than she is in a mall or shopping in general. Our restaurants are open for dine-in but I don’t see that they are getting a lot of traffic. I believe takeout still rules the day. People may not be wearing masks, but I do see them trying to stay home or away from others as much as possible.
I think the school situation is still very fluid as we continue to learn more about the disease (now considered airborne), and we see increases in cases. So far, the state universities are still going to open, but they now require mandatory mask-wearing. There are so many of us who are waiting to find out what is going to happen, although I did find out Holly’s HS marching band continues to hold summer rehearsals these days. That is odd to me. Granted, they are probably all six feet apart, but when blowing out of instruments I believe the six feet guideline is not enough. We shall see.
Wow, friend, that sounds like an absolutely grueling time of change. Huge props to you and the family for pulling it off! I will say a prayer to St. Joseph that your house sells soon so you can move on to just thinking about your new place. <3
Thank you! I have a feeling we are going to need those prayers. So far, buyers say they are interested and are going to go back to make an offer but then we don’t hear from them again. Four potential buyers and no offers. It is frustrating.
That sounds like an absolutely exhausting eight days! Having just gone through that whole thing back in Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb (between buying, fixing up, and selling to downsize), I know just how insane that can all be. So glad to hear you have so much interest and fingers crossed you get an offer or three soon!
Not sure if you knew this, but my two younger boys and I left at the end of June to come live with my in-laws in Barron county for awhile since San Antonio has been so insane and Morrigan was working full time outside the house. (Irony being that the day after we left, he got really sick, got tested for covid, came back negative, but now is quarantining full time and not going back to work, so we COULD have stayed.) Anyway, no one around here is wearing masks but our family. When we head over to Rice Lake, which is bigger than Barron, maybe a third of people are wearing masks, and Menards is the only store I’ve seen that’s requiring it. But over the weekend, my sister-in-law and her family (in rural minnesota) threw a huge fourth of july potluck and fireworks party with about a hundred guests, and I’m freaking out a bit because she’s planning to come here next weekend to visit with us. It feels like we were safer down where we’re getting emergency alerts on the phones!! Oy.
I am not surprised you are seeing fewer preventative measures in Wisconsin than you were in San Antonio. Wisconsin, for the most part, seems to think that the virus doesn’t exist. This is the state where people rushed to the bars within hours after the state supreme court declared the governor’s shutdown extension was overstepping his authority. An article in today’s local newspaper talks about how fewer people are wearing masks. Even in my smaller town, we are seeing increases in cases with no mention of taking preventative measures. I think there is a presentiment that the virus isn’t here because we aren’t a very populated state. Or else people are just that stupid.