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Nearing The End of Insanity

I have been renting the house out in Salem Oregon ever since I retired in 2002. After traveling for 5 years I settled as an expat in Oaxaca in 2006. I return to Salem about once a year for regular medical checkups and follow up.

This February, while I was there, the renter, after 5 years, decided to move. All of a sudden 3 weeks turned into 3 months. So I took the opportunity, between renters to clean the house out of 40 years of s**t that had been stored in the basement.That was the beginning of insanity. Each item required a mental and emotional decision…get rid of it, save it or sell it. Then packing it all in boxes…taping, carrying, shoving…a pickup load at a time to go to a storage unit or Goodwill.

Had some repairs done to the house as nothing had been done to it since refurbishing in the 90’s…painting the outside, chasing the woodpeckers out of the space between ceiling and roof and plugging up the holes, other roof repair and the like.

The renter left the house filthy. A cleaner did her best but not very good. The new tenant is very particular and is doing a lot of cleaning too. Guess it’s good that she is particular because I think she will know how to take care of everything.

Had ServiceMaster come to scrub the black mold out of the master bathroom shower. Didn’t get it all so have been calling masons to see what the options are. Probably have to be resealed at some point or the mold will just come back. I finally told the tenants they would have to follow up on this as I am running out of time. That goes for the bathroom cabinets too. The finish has corroded from water being splashed on the cherry doors from the shower. But the tenants just want to be left alone for awhile to move everything in from the garage.

Each thing to do took multiple steps and errands. Finished up the last errands yesterday…picked up the stainless steel flash piece to fill in the hole between the new stove and counter. Bought some expensive deoxidizing polish for the nickel fixtures in the bathroom. The tenant will have to do the polishing. They are all black with oxidation! That’s what you get for having tenants who don’t care about your house the way you do! But I think regular polishing, over time, will restore some of the luster.

The storage unit is full. I saved all the framed pictures. I saved all the artifacts and momentos picked up while traveling in a big box and put it and the heavy platform bed in the garden room downstairs and locked it.

Took a half dozen pickup loads of stuff to Goodwill. Sold the bike on Craigslist. Saved all the best jackets. Just didn’t have the heart to give them away. Gave all my good work clothing to the Daue House for resale which benefits school children.

Painter picked up my dad’s desk I gave him for his shop. That one hurt. This afternoon I’ll meet with him to give him the balance of his money. I really appreciate him! Really helpful and he did a lot of extra things for me that had nothing to do with painting like lifting and carrying stuff and power washing the front steps and walkway. The house looks great! And deck all ready for another few years.

But am mentally exhausted and sleep doesn’t help. I just want to check out. I see now why people get into drugs. Have only seen a couple people. Just don’t have the energy to deal with anyone else.

But I still have to find someone to string some cd’s just under the eves to keep the woodpeckers from doing damaging again. This was at the suggestion of a guy in the bird shop. The shine of the cd’s keeps them away. Don’t know if I will get that done on this go-around.

A friend came into the coffee shop and took me to lunch a couple hours ago. Was nice to have his company after all.

Will be a relief to get on that plane.



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