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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 21, 2021 16:55:34 GMT
I have been feeling triumphant when I throw away some things from 40 years ago -- old theatre programmes, articles that I clipped and saved, little souvenirs... I am well aware that there are a few things that have a tiny bit of monetary value for collectors, but I find that my feeling of relief of being rid of a few things far outweighs the complications of eBay or other crap like that.
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Post by mich64 on Mar 21, 2021 18:13:27 GMT
We are preparing for a massive house renovation. How exciting Casimira! I remember you posting about this and now it is imminent! I too remember the purging I had to get to when we did our kitchen. Many boxes of dishes, glasses and unused small appliances. I remember it being very hard to pick between what things needed to go but now I can not even remember much of what we dropped off at our recycle shop. It was quite a chore though. Hope we get to hear all about your renovations.
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Post by casimira on Mar 21, 2021 18:21:39 GMT
e other day of I mentioned once my use of that panel & you replied that you thought you gave me a pair. Here is a picture of the hem of it, anyway, which shows up in the picture I posted thmy patio. Since I keep the front door open all day, the panel keeps out a good deal of heat, looks beautiful when the breeze floats it into the room, softens the sunlight for anyone in the living room who faces the door, and doesn't block the view of the patio from the living room side. Lotta use from a delicate panel of fabric! anyportinastorm.proboards.com/post/361460 What I gave you I thought to be a pair. I bought "it"/them (I thought) at a yard sale. I remember they or it was in a plastic bag that I bought. Sorry there was only one. I wish I could be that ruthless BJD and K2. It's an affliction I suppose. I just can't let certain things go. I remember one time when I was in the hospital years and years ago a friend of mine came and thinking that she was doing me a favor "cleaned" up in one of my rooms. In doing so, she threw away some things she thought to be superfluous or of no value when in fact they were special to me. Pieces of worn seaglass, some old coins and some other little things worthless to her but of value to me. I was furious but couldn't express it because she really meant well. In fact, it happened a couple of weeks ago. I had a couple of handmade kitchen aprons that were my mothers. They had a couple of small stains on them but not too too soiled. (I usually handwash them). Anyway, they are sentimental to me and I had brought them back to NOLA from her house after she died. One was a blue gingham fabric and the other was a floral 1940's fabric. My husband was about to toss them out but lucky for him he asked before doing so. I simply don't like for people to "mess" with my "stuff".
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Post by casimira on Mar 21, 2021 18:29:18 GMT
Sorry Mich, I was posting when you wrote your lovely post. Yes, it is exciting but as noted, a huge project and a lot of prep work that has to be done. I will be thrilled for it to be over. In actuality, the closing of the sale of my childhood home hasn't happened yet but is in the works. There is a backlog of permits in the small town I grew up in and so it's been a long waiting game because of Covid and a surge in real estate sales in that area of NY where people are fleeing NYC because of the virus. Very frustrating.
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Post by mich64 on Mar 22, 2021 0:27:56 GMT
In actuality, the closing of the sale of my childhood home hasn't happened yet but is in the works. Will you have to travel there to clear the home out there as well? Or have you already taken care of that? The housing market here is, for a better word, insane. Homes going for almost double over asking. Many people are buying up new listings without even seeing it. We have never seen anything like this. It seems some have chosen close to retirement in the Toronto area to retire up here seeking smaller community life. I hope all your permit issues are cleared soon and the sale completes.
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Post by casimira on Mar 22, 2021 14:23:28 GMT
Thanks Mich. All the paper work has been completed and the buyers have already spent a boatload of money on various things. Lawyers, an "expeditor", architects, landscape designers etc. so we know they are very committed.
As for traveling up there to clear out "stuff", that has already been done a couple of years ago. T. and I went there and took what we wanted and had it shipped to NOLA.
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Hoarding
Mar 22, 2021 15:03:40 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Mar 22, 2021 15:03:40 GMT
My (remaining) sister and I will be “clearing out” our family cabin in three weeks in advance of letting it go later this year. My Dad “hoarded” tools, hunting and fishing gear, and stuff that might be repurposed into one of his Rube Goldbergian inventions.
A few years back, we had a work party during which time we and some family friends moved a small mountain of “treasures” (junk) that he had accumulated behind the garage to the local dump/recycling center: pieces-parts of old snowmobiles, burnt out refrigerators, plastic drums used as flotation on swim rafts, etc., as the neighbors had tactfully noted that his stockpile was quite visible from their place, though well-hidden enough that we hadn’t realized it was there.
We have a likely buyer who will take the place “as is” if we agree to sell to him, so all we would have to remove is the stuff we want personally.
But we plan to remove our parents clothes from the closets and drawers, and will probably empty out the pantry of Mom’s hoard of expired food-stuffs including 13 cans of tuna, many so old they don’t HAVE use-by dates.
It will be bittersweet spending a few days there with my sister, missing our parents and youngest sister, and closing the book on this chapter of our lives.
Mr. Kimby is anxious that I will take too much stuff and add to my hoard of things here. But for the meantime, I will be storing my cabin treasures at HIS family’s condo less than 2 hours away. Including a set of antlers from the elk my Dad shot in Montana in 1967. We still haven’t decided where to put that in our not-rustic lake cottage or home outside Missoula. It may end up displayed in the garage...
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Post by mich64 on Mar 22, 2021 18:07:50 GMT
It may end up displayed in the garage... As so many here do Kimby, above the garage door! It is fortunate that you do have your sister to go through this experience with, to share the tears of grief and the smiles of happy memories. I have these thoughts of how to tackle that issue (I over think and over prepare everything with my concrete brain) with both parents homes. The one thing I keep coming back to, we will not have to do it alone as we both have brothers and sisters here in town.
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Hoarding
Mar 22, 2021 19:31:57 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Mar 22, 2021 19:31:57 GMT
Mich, the antlers span 42” wide and 42” tall, so are too big to fit on the garage gable. Or inside the cottage anywhere. But there’s a few places on the outside that may work. IF we can agree that they SHOULD be displayed at all...
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 22, 2021 19:44:39 GMT
If you grind up the antlers, I'm sure you can sell them to the Chinese as an aphrodisiac.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 22, 2021 20:43:33 GMT
the antlers span 42” wide and 42” tall, so are too big to fit on the garage gable. What about outside on a tree, where they will eventually fall to the ground and slowly break down, just as they would have naturally had they remained on the head of the elk?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Mar 22, 2021 21:32:51 GMT
We need to sort out the loft..it's absolutely stuffed. Clothes, books, bedding, pots and pans, bags, suitcases full of letters, toys, rugs, dining chairs, ornaments, empty boxes, pictures, frames and probably Lord Lucan.... We had planned to do it last year, then have family round to choose whatever they want. Most of the stuff is too good to chuck but we don't need it. The letters need burning...wouldn't want my chldren reading some of those Charity shops don't want stuff these days as during lockdown everybody seems to have had a clear out.
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Post by bjd on Mar 23, 2021 7:21:02 GMT
Good idea to do it soon, Cheery. I keep thinking that "what if something happens and the kids will have to sort through stuff they have no interest in keeping?"
Is there something like Freecycle where you are? People offer things they want to get rid of or others ask for things they need. That avoids landfill and is especially good for things too good to throw away but that aren't needed.
Or selling things? Is there a site for people to sell anything and everything in the UK? In France we have Le Bon Coin, in Canada there is Kijiji. My husband has sold lots of stuff that I would have given or thrown out. Everything sells if the price is right.
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Post by casimira on Mar 23, 2021 13:51:21 GMT
My idea for the antlers would be to secure it to a large tree and use it as a place to hang baskets of plants, ferns and the like.
With regard to your dilemma Cheery, I am in the same boat. I do have the option of using some of the online ebay like sites or have a yard sale but I am not up to the task. I'd rather give the good "stuff' away to friends, donate it to one of the many thrift stores here (one of them AMVETS) will come and pick it up at a designated time with an advance appointment. The books will be dispersed to a variety of Little Free Libraries interspersed around town. The remainder will either go into the recycling bin or just get tossed in the trash.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 23, 2021 15:56:24 GMT
I am itching to take loads of books to little libraries. What is interesting is that I used to think that I would never let go of a book.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 23, 2021 17:14:10 GMT
When I lived in elk country, the custom was to either mount a trophy rack above the main barn door or to construct a timber gate at the foot of the driveway and mount it to that. Elk makes significantly better venison than either common blacktail or mule deer.
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Post by casimira on Mar 23, 2021 17:16:59 GMT
I feel the exact same way as you K2 re books, and, it's going to be difficult. I find comfort in the physical presence of being surrounded by books. But, we have way, way too many and many of them, aside from reference books, I realized I won't read them again (with a few select novels I would at some point like to do a re-read of.) And my poetry book collection I will most definitely keep. Also, my maps, which I am incapable of tossing no matter what.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 23, 2021 17:20:19 GMT
I have fished yellow Michelin maps from the 1950s out of the garbage bin downstairs in the past.
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Hoarding
Mar 23, 2021 17:35:37 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Mar 23, 2021 17:35:37 GMT
However, maps quickly become outdated. Like Swaziland got a new name for its 50th birthday a few years back. And what about Myanmar/Burma? But I cannot toss a map either.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 23, 2021 18:17:06 GMT
I heard President Biden still call the country Burma the other day.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 23, 2021 18:28:01 GMT
Everyone I know who has been to Myanmar calls it Burma.
I think it took a long time for people to stop saying "Formosa" or "Peking", too. Probably it took a while for "Siam" to go away, as well.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 23, 2021 18:55:43 GMT
In France, we are lucky because none of the countries that changed various names in English (China, India, Burma, etc.) has said anything about the names being changed in French. Mumbai might be the only one that has caught on a bit. As an airline person, I find it interesting that the airport code of Ho Chi Minh City is still SGN. It probably remains because the residents of that city still call it Saigon and never use the "new" name.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 23, 2021 19:10:25 GMT
I'm a bit of an old map stan and I can assure you that ~Burma is historically correct.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 23, 2021 19:17:44 GMT
In France, we are lucky because none of the countries that changed various names in English (China, India, Burma, etc.) has said anything about the names being changed in French. Mumbai might be the only one that has caught on a bit. As an airline person, I find it interesting that the airport code of Ho Chi Minh City is still SGN. It probably remains because the residents of that city still call it Saigon and never use the "new" name. Italian's the same, they seldom bother to change the names in Italian for those places.
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Post by casimira on May 22, 2021 19:44:02 GMT
I guess this is about the most appropriate thread to post our sad tale of woe and overwhelmingly sad news of how the dread of how to simplify and coordinate the packing up and or discarding all our "stuff" in preparation for our home renovation project. We had settled on which contractor we wanted to use but, he had told us we had to have the roof replaced before they could begin the work. The closing of my family's property conjointly with my brother was set for May 5th and I had given my brother power of attorney to sign for me. In the meantime, I was trying to renegotiate our home owner's insurance who precipitously had jacked up the premium $4.000 USD stating that we had to have hail and wind damage coverage along with the structure and contents coverage. And, so, I basically told them to F off with the intention of exploring other options. On May 4th, the day before the closing of the NY property we were outside having our coffee with our garden helper and friend. A thunderstorm was about to pour down upon us and we thought that maybe we had to postpone the garden work for another day. As we were sitting there, a young woman who had just moved into an apartment on the second story of the house began waving her arms frantically. We just assumed she was saying hello. Then we heard her say, "I think your house is on fire". At this point it gets a little blurry as everything happened so quickly. The whole back of the upstairs master bedroom was ablaze and beyond using a fire extinguisher. Nearby neighbors frantically began hosing down the adjacent houses in an attempt to keep them from catching on fire etc. I was told later that the response time from NOFD was 8 minutes but, it seemed like an eternity to me before they arrived. The cause was deemed electrical. It was pouring down rain and people came out from everywhere as I stood like a zombie as the whole thing unfolded. 14 Fire trucks and 44 fire personnel were at the scene along with all the aforementioned neighbors and friends along with the f'n TV news crews who seemed to come out of nowhere. We stayed with a neighbor for about a week and then had to leave there and relocated to another neighbor's for a week while we awaited a move to an apartment in the neighborhood that was offered to us on the day of the fire but was just finishing up renovations. All this with our two animals in tow. We have since then got 2 other quotes on rebuilding and the lowest bid was $650.000USD that didn't include a roof ($10,000) or exterior paint job. The estimated time it would take to do all this was a year and a half, right at the start of hurricane season. We were able to salvage some furniture that was downstairs and almost all our kitchen gear. We decided in fairly short order that we cannot endure a rebuilding and are presently "house hunting" in the area where houses that are desirable to us are being grabbed up in less than a day. Each day since has been a challenge and we are both weary and exhausted. And so, our hoarding dilemma has been resolved as we trudge forward on into a whole new chapter of leaving our home of 34 years during the same week the home of my birth was sold only to be demolished by the buyers to build whatever the fuck they are building.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 22, 2021 20:51:50 GMT
OMG, that is incredibly awful. You have all my sympathy. It would be nice if that catastrophe attitude of "we're still here and in good health and that's all that counts" but I don't think it really works that way most of the time.
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Hoarding
May 22, 2021 21:15:18 GMT
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Post by mich64 on May 22, 2021 21:15:18 GMT
I am so very sorry to read about the fire Casi, knowing how difficult the “whole” process is all about, from the actual event, the personal loss and the all of the decisions you both will now have to make. Our thoughts are with you as you navigate through this process.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 22, 2021 22:35:34 GMT
Casimira, I know your beautiful house so well that hearing about its loss is almost like hearing of the death of an old friend. It's impossible to say anything meaningful about this, except to let you know how terrible I feel for you both and how much I hope some kind of good may come out of it in the long run, impossible as that seems right now. My only (very unsolicited, but well-meant) advice is to perhaps hold off on house-hunting for a bit, just to take some pressure off until you can stop reeling from this devastating blow. xxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooo to you both.
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Hoarding
May 22, 2021 22:59:38 GMT
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Post by Kimby on May 22, 2021 22:59:38 GMT
Holy crap, casi! That is terrible news!
I can imagine - at the same time as not being able to really imagine - how desolate you and T. must be feeling.
My fingers are crossed that your insurance policy was still in effect. This is not a good time to be buying a house. It’s a better time to be selling a house. Such a good time in fact, that depending on WHERE your house is, someone might give you bucketloads of money to by it as is, and either restore the house or redevelop the site. In many places “tear downs” are selling for about the same as liveable homes. They aren’t making new building sites in many cities. I’m guessing NOLA might be one of them.
Best of luck to you and T as you lick your wounds and decide what to do next. I’m so sorry that this has happened to you.
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Post by fumobici on May 23, 2021 0:42:32 GMT
What a horrible thing to have happen! Hope your insurance covers everything.
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