Crazy Enough to Succeed

This is what keeps me going, through this whole crazy process!

 

 

Please forgive me for the messiness of this post. It took me almost 3 hours and the formatting was driving me nuts. This story will be told mostly through pictures. It's really the best way to explain how far we've come. What you are about to see may shock you, but I am trusting you with this! You're not allowed to judge me or the process. Don't forget, my grandmother lived in this house for a really long time and liked to...collect things. And we moved in in a rush and had to get things out of the way. And since then we haven't had the motivation to do anything about it, until we decided I'd move down there. See, I AM motivating!! 

 

 




    In the beginning...such a mess.










So much stuff...

 <-----------------------------------------The Great Doll Mountain

Holy crap, a couch!!!

 Goodbye, ugly couch!

 Starting to clear out. You can't tell, but the piles are all organized.

 

 

We found the corner!! I haven't seen this part of the room in about 12 years.

 And finally, some progress is visible.

Now, if only I could figure out a way to get rid of those cameras (the big box in the lower left corner- all cameras).

Goodbye Doll Mountain! Oh look, there's the piano. Knew it was there somewhere!

Found this magazine while we were cleaning out some old books. Note the very helpful article listed in the corner.



Although I don't really consider myself a 'Husband Hunter', I can't wait to read their tips!










We're far from done, but we're getting there! Just to give you an idea of how much has been done, my father has taken at least 5 trips to the dump, plus one for the couch and another for some other large items. We have taken multiple car-loads to a second hand store's donation center. And then we had the dolls. Oh, the dolls. After setting them all aside, my mother, aunt and three cousins came over and we went through every single box, picking out what we wanted and divided the rest into piles to give away or sell. My father then took ANOTHER van-load and I took ANOTHER car-load to the drop off center, this time dropping off just dolls. I admit that both of us made our deliveries during off-hours so no one would see us and judge us. Not my finest hour, but it needed to be done! My mother and I then went through all the boxes of dolls to sell and catalogued them, and then I looked them up to get values. Next I divided them again into items to go on kijiji and others that are more collectible that I'll put on ebay. Finally I spent an entire weekend hanging around the house, waiting for people to come and look at the dolls. They are almost all gone now, and any that don't sell by next weekend will be donated. I still have to put the ones on ebay, but that'll happen soon enough.

Although I know we have a long way to go, I'm getting excited about the finished project. My parents have been hard at work too. My dad has fixed the door and vented the dryer to reduce moisture, they've gotten a dehumidifier and my mom has spent hours going through boxes. I've picked paint colours and have planned my new home. I still sometimes feel like I'll never get there, and I frequently feel slightly crazy, but in the end I know we'll get it done!

A Return to Childlike Wonder

I've noticed lately that there are a lot of amazing things in the world. Like waking up in the morning with the cat cuddled up against me, the sun shining through the trees and onto my lawn on a Sunday afternoon, lightning flashing through the sky in a rainstorm or the taste of freshly made sushi. And although this sounds like the beginning of an inspirational Hallmark card, I feel like these are all things I wouldn't have noticed a couple of months ago. My thoughts were a lot darker and more focused on what I didn't have then, but now I'm starting to realize all the things that are right in my life. I'm seeing the world like I did when I was a kid, loving the little things. And it feels really good.

Unfortunately, my new-found positivity has kept me busy, which means I haven't had much time for posting in my blog. So as penance I will write TWO posts today. One will be a general update on my recent progress and the other one will be devoted to what I'm sure will be the biggest challenge of the year; the basement clean out.

So here's what I've been up to!

4. Move Out of My Parents' Spare Room; Although I currently seem to be bringing more stuff in, by working on the basement I'm killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Damn this room is getting full! It's really hard to fit everything I need in here. At least it puts things in perspective; I probably don't need as much stuff as I've been lugging around with me from apartment to apartment for the last 5 years. I feel a purge coming on when I finally do unpack all my stuff from storage.



Here I am! Not really, but I did do this move.

9. Yoga; Ok, so I haven't REALLY started doing yoga, but I HAVE pinned a lot of yoga related items on Pinterest and I cleaned my room so I have some floor space to move. I also dug out my infrequently used yoga mat. And there was that one night when I did a few moves that were supposed to help my back pain...which I think they did. Does that count as a start???





11. Find a Piece of Yellow Clothing That Suits Me; The love affair with my latest attempt at finding The One was brief, but left such an impression on me. It began like a blind date. I saw a picture  online and we made arrangements to meet. When the day finally arrived I felt nervous and excited all at the same time. And then we met. There were glimmerings of a potential future together. And then I tried it on for size. Very quickly, my hopes were dashed. A bit too clingy and just not my style. And so we parted. Neither one was to blame. It just wasn't meant to be.


12. Help Mom Organize Her Craft Room; Yet another monumental task which we started the other day by packing up some of the things my sister left behind (it was her bedroom). This, cleaning out the basement and my mother's plan to Feng Shui her house are all tied together and it's like a game of Tetris to get them all done. We had to clean the basement to find craft stuff and stuff for the attic. Now we have to clean the craft room to make room for the craft stuff in the basement. And there's stuff for the attic in the craft room, which will have to be taken out and put up there with the stuff from the basement. I also had to get a makeshift closet from my friend so I could get my clothes out of the wardrobe in the craft room so IT can go to the basement so I have a closet when I move down there and to make more space in the craft room. And then we have to take all the craft stuff out of the wall unit so IT can go to the basement so my mother can rearrange her living room. Seriously, when my sister comes home for Christmas she may not recognize the house. Come to think of it, I might not either...

 

24. Watch 'Dr. Who' From the Beginning (1963); This was a LOT more of a challenge than I was expecting! I am of the generation who watches many things online, so I just assumed (and you know what they say about that) that I could find it online. This proved to be almost impossible. I searched and searched for a place to watch it online, but I found nothing. I tried to download it a few times, but it wasn't what I was looking for. And then I found it at last. The entire catalogue of episodes from the First Doctor, William Hartnell, 1963-67. Many of the episodes have been lost due to decay of the tapes, but this one had at least the audio recordings of all the lost episodes. It was a huge file, 36GB, but I wanted it. And so, after 47 days of downloading I am now in possession of the First Doctor. I haven't started watching them yet. I think I'll wait until I get them all before I start. I am currently working on the 23GB collection of the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton. Perhaps it would have been easier to hop in the Tardis and go get them myself...

28. Drink More Water; I've actually been doing really well with this one!! I have almost entirely cut pop out of my diet and I've been choosing water at home with most of my meals. And everyday I take 2 Costco insulated mugs to work with water in them. Most days I drink both, but I at least manage to drink one everyday. It may not seem like much and I'm definitely not getting 8 cups a day, but it is a big improvement over what I was drinking before and that's the goal!

29. Go on a Date; The love affair with my latest attempt at finding The One was brief, but left such an impression on me. Ok, so I didn't actually go on a date, and to tell the truth I really didn't even want the guy around me after a minute or two, but it was progress none the less. I was out with some friends for a bachelorette party as one of only 2 single girls in the group. We were on the lookout for suitable guys, but they were pretty hard to come by. Not only were we one of 3 bachelorette parties there that night, but it was a long weekend and the bar was drastically underpopulated. The guys that WERE there were clearly too young for me, but I did manage to spot one guy who looked to be about the right age, and not bad looking. My friend went over to invite him into the group and over he came. Unfortunately he was like a mirage you see in the desert; from far away he looked good, but close up he was kind of wobbly and not at all what you expect. After talking to him for only a minute or so I gathered that he was quite conceited (his intro line was 'So you think I'm pretty cute?') and had this weird space between his front teeth, big enough so that I feared getting stuck in the gap if I ever kissed him (which I assure you would not have happened). Add to that the fact that the bride and another friend vetoed him and told me to abort the interaction (they knew him and knew he was a jerk) and I made up my mind very quickly. None the less when he asked if he could take me out for dinner or a coffee I gave him my number, more as an ego boost for myself than anything else. But I also took his name and number and put it in my phone so that if he called I'd know it was him and could ignore him. He never did call, but it was actually the first time I'd ever been asked for my number, so I felt good after it was all said and done.


So there we have it. I've been pretty busy! And I've been happy.