Every time we bring stuff to storage I always think there is never going to be enough room for everything and then we reorganize everything and voila, there's more room. Today was the third time we reorganized it and this time boxes go all the way up the ceiling. We will have absolutely no problem getting the rest of the stuff from the house and shed in there and also the stuff we have temporarily stored in Mom's garage (which will make her jump up and down to be rid of it.

I am hoping that we will be able to get it all cleared by the end of next weekend and then all we need to worry about is moving the piano, cleaning, finishing the shower, ripping out carpet, replacing 4 interior doors and frames, replacing one pane of window glass and painting inside and out. New floors of some sort will have to go down, too. We will do most of it ourselves but we are going to hire a guy who used to work construction to do some of it. He's been laid off for a while (so went back to school) and he needs the money. He knows his stuff.

I found out about a product called Gripper which is a primer that works on vinyl wallboard which is what the house has (never again!) and then you can paint over it with regular paint with no problems. We're going to take all the battens off and tape and mud them. Battens are ugly and just make the place look less attractive than plain painted walls.

Once everything in the house is done then we will likely hire a landscaper to fix up the yard and garden. Or another handyman type, I'm not sure. Since I can't get down on my knees anymore since the surgery there's not too much I can do in the yard at a ground level. I really need to start saving up for all this. I don't think we're going to be ready to put it on the market by summer. I was hoping so, but I don't think so now.

DH and I stopped at an open house today for model homes that will be being built in the next three years, just to see what they had. We're not ready yet and we made that quite clear, but I liked seeing the plans for the ones that will be ready in 2012 and 2013. The price ranges were perfect.

The one we looked at was fairly nice, but the Master Bedroom is on the 2nd floor and I don't want that. And though it was a 2 and a half bathroom house, there were no bathrooms on the main floor. The half bath was located up off the first landing of the stairs. I don't want to climb stairs every time I need to use the bathroom because of my bad knee, so that would definitely be a no go. But otherwise I really liked it. The master bath had a sit down shower, no tub, which would be nice with my knee when it acts up, but there is a tub in the main bath for a nice soak if wanted.

They are building single level homes in the next couple of years so it works with our time frame. The only thing is it's in a different school district from the middle school my son will be attending next year. Same high school, though. It's something to think about, anyway.