# 412 - Scaling Back - Moving Countdown

MOVING COUNTDOWN

34 Days

Part of moving to the country includes scaling back from a near 3,000 square foot house to...well...having no house. At least, not at first. The cabin on the acreage is going to be custom built, so that means a one story, three-bedroom home, eventually. We will probably start building within a month of moving, but we will first have to clear more land and prep the site for construction.

So, we don't want to have furniture sitting in storage that we really won't need in the country cabin.

Right now, we have four bedrooms, a separate study, a formal dining room, breakfast area, living room and huge game room. This is WAY TOO MUCH SPACE for the two of us. More space means more furniture which means more dusting.

Since we are 34 days from moving, I decided that this week should be dedicated to serious consideration toward what goes and what stays. Therefore, I've been taking inventory of each room. We must be discerning because we won't be able to use everything in the future cabin that we have in this house right now.

The three chairs here are going with us -- the one by the chair railing
is VERY OLD and has hand-stitching for the backing and seat that was
sewn by my great-grandmother Pearl. I love that chair.
The bench in the distance is a family antique and the other
rocker chair is one I wrote about recently on my blog ---
an old chair of Maplewood that is in
excellent condition and that I purchased from Good Will. I call it my
"reading-thinking" chair, which my youngest niece
LOVES and respects. I look forward to rocking my grandbabies
in this comfortable chair.

Thankfully, my oldest daughter, Heather, wants our downstairs leather group. She actually has rather new living room furniture, but they are re-doing most rooms in their house to prepare for the baby, due in September, and she knows I don't want this furniture to go to someone who won't appreciate it. This set also has built-in recliners that will actually be a slice of Heaven during those long nights with a baby and they can put their money toward more things needed for the baby. And, frankly, when people come into town, all the recliners will give extra sleep-over space, if needed. Heck, Heather has slept on this sofa quite a few times. I think she claimed it a while back.

One GREAT aspect about leather furniture is that it breathes, can be
easily cleaned/conditioned, holds up to pets and feels softer and softer
with time. This is my "cowboy" set. I love it and will miss it,
but it could not find a better home than to be with my daughter.
Since this furniture is not old and since it has been well
cared for by her mother, she knows she's doing me a favor by taking it. :-)

So, the living room downstairs will just have a coffee table, end tables, big flat-screen, lamps and my mother's cedar hope chest to take with us. We still have the boxes in the attic for our flat-screen televisions and those will come in handy for moving.

My son-in-law will also be taking my solid wood executive desk that I LOVE for his own office space --- makes me happy, happy. It's a beautiful piece of furniture with built-in file drawers, lots of storage and ample desk work space with solid wood goodness, but it will be much too large for me to have in our next residence. I'm blessing this desk and sending it with him to put to good business use.

That desk needs to be put toward some money-making endeavors...it's a power desk, a true executive desk. I re-finished it myself just a few years ago, so it means a lot to me. To be honest, I made a lot of money sitting behind that desk, so I hope the tradition continues. Can't find pictures, working on it.

So, that means, from my study, I will just have my upright grand piano to take. And I can't even think about leaving my piano behind; I still play regularly and have SERIOUS separation anxiety when I am unable to feel those keys beneath my fingers. It's hard to explain. I'm dreading moving the piano; it's extremely heavy, bulky and I will go ballistic if it gets a scratch on it --- I've taken VERY GOOD care of that piano for most of my life, so it's a part of me, especially since it helps me to filter emotions as my fingers connect to my brain, heart, and body with purging movements across the keys.

And an electronic piano (we have one) is like comparing a hot wheels Corvette to the real deal with the powerful pedal ready to respond to your VROOM urge. Just can't compare. I've never owned a Corvette, but I'm using my imagination. My upright grand piano is my real Corvette.

Onward...

My beautiful master bedroom furniture is too large, but we have a sweet family friend who wants to buy it and is getting it for a steal because he does so much for his own family. That will leave our master bedroom empty, except for wall art.

The set has a matching tall chest of drawers, and a dresser with mirror.
This was the first bedroom suit I'd ever owned and I was forty years
old when I finally purchased it with money I'd earned.
It was a beautiful experience to get this bedroom suit, but we
don't want to move it and store it. Although, I'm glad I bought it.

I have three twin beds and am giving two away from upstairs.

The bed near the window is Stefie's ultra-plush "princess" bed that
feels like you are sleeping on a cloud. The other bed is a combination
of two new mattresses and a boxspring, so the bed near the
camera has two stacked twin mattresses. After Stefie finished her
first year in college and was finished with dorm life,
we suddenly got a 3rd twin bed back. The stacked beds on one
side match the height of Stefie's plush dorm twin set. Yah!

The refrigerator stays. I had put it as an exclusion, which meant it wasn't included with the sale of the house, but the buyers wanted it. So, I negotiated a five-day leaseback on our house for the buyers to be able to keep it. Deputy Dave was celebrating the freedom from having to move that bad boy.

The negotiated exchange of the fridge for a complimentary five-day leaseback means we close on the sale of our home, hopefully on April 19th, then we will get to stay in what will then be THEIR house for five more days, with no charge. Usually, it's at least $100. per day for the seller to lease "back" their own house after closing, if it can be negotiated. I'm thankful that it gives us five days after the closing to get moved out. Five important days.

My formal dining room table that seats six is a beauty, but I believe that's going to my dad's house. He's been super busy, so I haven't even asked him, but I'd like to give it to him.

If he doesn't want it, then I will figure it out. I have an awesome table in my breakfast room that I love --- it has a metal base, firm but comfortable pub-height chairs that each have metal legs, plus the table top flips to reveal an awesome POKER TABLE!

So, that table goes with us. It's a fun table and a beauty.

So, back to the formal dining room...that leaves my china cabinet from Germany, which is a keeper, of course. That china cabinet was the first piece of furniture that my husband and I purchased together in 1986, while living in Germany. We paid $75. for it and that was an extreme hardship at that time. A fighter-jet pilot from our Air Base and his wife met us at their house so we could look at it; we had just moved to the same quaint German village.

They sold it to us because they were preparing to go back stateside with a large family and they needed to sell some things to prepare for their next military move. I think they saw my eyes after I fell in love with this piece of furniture, and they probably would have given it to us, knowing we'd treasure it. I have a wonderful story behind that piece of furniture that I will tell in one of my follow up posts, it deserves more time.

Upstairs, in the game room, we will be keeping that leather group, even though it's made for tall people and leaves my legs dangling, but that makes the recliners in the set more comfortable. Since I have my rocking reading chair, I'm good.

Since our downstairs leather group is also a higher quality leather, I am glad to have this second leather set because I'm sure it will last a very long time. Plus, I LOVE the look of leather sofas and chairs as they get old and more wrinkled, but neither set that we own have had enough time to get to that stage. We're working on it. But, leather really does develop more character and comfort with time. I'm sold on leather; it costs more upfront, but is well worth the investment because it lasts so long.

In all, the leather group in the game room has a total of five recliners, so we all kick back when sitting on that set while watching a movie or while hanging out together. And the credenza that holds our television components and gaming system, that goes with us too.

Upstairs, my metal bed and German closet goes with us along with our second queen-sized guest bed with maplewood furniture that had belonged to my oldest daughter, once upon a time. It will be the guest bedroom suit when we move. I couldn't find a photo to put up for reference.

You can see the Maplewood armoire in this shot and the nightstand
to this set is being used in Stefie's pink room since she took her
nice bedroom suit with her to college.

My youngest daughter has already taken her bedroom suit, the other breakfast room suit and some other things. This is what is left-over in Stefie's room...just an extra queen bed (no headboard), a chair that is Stefie's -- given to her by her great-grandmother and the maple nightstand in the corner that you can't see, but that matches the armoire in the other room with the twin beds.

Since she's still a college student, she has to ration her furniture so it will fit in the small space available during this stage of her life.

The chair in the shot below...I LOVE that chair! It's another Good Will purchase. Six bucks.

One day, all our things will belong to someone else. Until then, the things we are keeping will be thoroughly enjoyed and the things we are giving away will be sent with love.

And moving day approaches.