I said I'd keep you guys apprised of my status now that I'm living in the boondocks, so I apologize for failing to do so. The problem I have with doing that is that when internet access is days or more apart, it's hard to do more than catch up with what the bunch of you have been posting. I've managed a response here and there, but there hasn't been time to write anything longer.
I'm going to take a different approach, writing about some of the things I'm up to when I'm offline and pasting what I've written to Bobs when I can. It still won't be simple - things I've written may be dated by the time they're posted, and relevant pictures will be difficult since I can't very well load them to an image host until I have internet access. We'll see how it goes.
Although I left Virginia on April 15th, I was in NH for only nine days before flying to CA. I spent 21 days there working to get my father's house emptied, inspected, repaired, improved (metal garage door added, lawn fertilized, trees pruned, window blinds added, ), painted (inside and out), carpeted and listed. The bigger jobs went to contractors, but getting everything done in 21 days was hard . . . or impossible, as it turned out. I left before the painting, carpeting and cleaning were complete, but my sister is still there and can oversee the contractors who were painting and who would be putting in carpeting. I don't feel too bad about leaving her with that since she was the reason it wasn't done. As the executor, she controlled the purse strings, and she put the brakes on almost everything I was trying to complete. Oh well. I don't work well with her. If she'd just gotten out of the way, the place would be up for sale right now.
The most frustrating part of the experience is that the realtors I interviewed all told me that April and May are the sweet spot as far as home sales go. People who are relocating to Sacramento - or to anywhere, really - often make an initial trip two months before in order to initiate home buying, and most people relocate over the summer. Therefore, as I kept telling my sister, she might save some money by interviewing tons of contractors but LOSE far more by failing to list the house at the most opportune time.
Oh well. I'm in New Hampshire now and my wife is the one in California (visiting her family and attending a convention.) I haven't talked to my sister since I returned. I'm sure she'd have called if the house was now listed but there's been nothing. I'm not going to call to ask. I'm tired of talking to her and disgusted by the anchor she hung around my neck while I was there.
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