There are a couple of reasons I have not posted a blog entry recently. From March until mid-July, I was extremely busy getting my dad’s house ready for sale and at the end of May, as mentioned in the previous post, this website was the victim of a hacker. Now that the blog is back up and running, I can provide an update which pretty much falls in the category of “What I did during my summer vacation.”
Quick review
My father passed away in March. While he wasn’t in the best of health, his death was sudden and unexpected. I spent the next couple of months getting the house ready for market. In early April, I had a portion of the house waterproofed and had the old driveway ripped out and a new one poured. I painted every wall on the main floor, tore up all the carpeting and did some serious cleaning during April and May. At the end of May, I paid my friend’s brother to do the landscaping in the front of the house where the lawn had been dug up to install the waterproofing. In June, I sorted out all the stuff in the basement, garage and tool shed. My dad was a tinkerer and had a vast assortment of tools, fittings and odds and ends, so there was a lot of stuff to sort through.
By mid June I had the house on the market. Within three weeks, after some intense negotiation, I accepted an offer and all the T’s were crossed and I’s were dotted a week later. The deal closed in late July. As of now, my father’s estate is completely settled except for his final income tax return next April.
Clearing the clutter and staging
The living room as it was.
While my mother was alive, the living room was only used when we had more formal visitors. After she passed away, my dad had satellite television installed and used the living room more than any other room in the house. The carpet in the picture is about 25 years old. Some of the furniture is older than that. The round table in front of the window had a lazy susan inside to store 8-track tapes.
The living room decluttered.
With the carpet removed to expose the gleaming hardwood floor, fresh paint on the walls and with few pieces of furniture, the room appears larger. (I just wish I took the “after” picture at the same time of day in the same light as the “before” picture).
Dealing with the memories
Some days were easier than others. Some days were more emotional. There were a lot of memories in the basement rec room. That was where I spent many hours while growing up watching television. My spot was on the floor, about four or five feet away from the television. I remember watching The Brady Bunch, Emergency! and Happy Days with my parents (while the shows were first run in prime time). Even before that, I remember watching Sesame Street and Bozo as a preschooler and kindergartner. Most of all, though, I remember the many Christmases. The rec room was where we had our Christmas tree. Christmas night, after everybody had dinner, aunts, uncles and cousins would congregate in the basement. The ladies would talk and chain-smoke on one side of the room, us kids would play on the floor on the other side, and the men would most often end up in the work room playing cards. Now this room, as it was, will only exist in the family photo albums and as a distant, fading memory.
Emptiness....
Financial relief
Don’t get me wrong. I would rather have both of my parents back. However, since I was the sole heir of my father’s modest estate, my family and I are finally on solid financial ground. Our own plan to eliminate our credit card debt was well on track, but would have taken a couple more years. Now we have no consumer debt. With the remaining money, we could have paid off our current mortgage, but instead, we put a smaller chunk on the mortgage and tucked money away in our RRSPs and our daughter’s RESP. We preferred to have a substantial amount of cash money available to us so we can proceed with rebuilding the addition and complete any other renovations without going into debt. But all that financial stuff aside, it would be nice to go back and have one of those family Christmases from my childhood…..
I miss you, Mom and Dad.