Time for a new chapter

I have been contemplating the move to Port Dover for a couple of years now. When I viewed a house there last fall I decided that if it was still on the market in the spring, I would offer on it. It was, I did and it was accepted. So now I must sell the Long Point house. It has all happened rather fast but my house goes on the market on Friday.
Nicola came down Thursday night and we have spent the last 3 days; purging (dump, thrift store and kijiji), packing, moving furniture, storing stuff in the upstairs of the garage and staging.

On Thursday evening a Blanding's Turtle got stuck under one of the Yucca's. We left her alone and an hour later she was gone.

While we chatted and drank wine Rasta was also totally relaxed. He had no idea what the next couple of days would bring.

I had to post a picture of the Amaryllis as it is 2' tall and has 4 beautiful blooms.

Above the garage,

its hard to believe how much "excess" furniture I have.

One of the great things about Long Point is "the end of the driveway recycling system". At the end of the driveway we put; 2 lamps, 4 side tables, 2 old chests of drawers, 75% of the tools, a bathroom sink and cabinet, a small piece of bathroom linoleum, a huge empty bottle of Rye (it will make some people cry but I poured the remaining half of the bottle down the drain. I don't know anyone who drinks Rye and George won that bottle about 25 years ago)and  a cat bed and climber. All that remains is one of the chests and the roll of linoleum. Better than taking it all to landfill.

The "Coming Soon" sign went up on Friday, the photographer will be here Thursday and hopefully it will be up on MLS next Friday.

Dave came on Friday and helped Nicky with some of the heavy lifting that I cannot do. Nic and Dave have moved 13 times. That is a lot of house sales and this is their "Patron Saint of House Sales", a very old, bent card of Capt James T. Kirk (quirky sense of humor, these 2).

I don't know when their tradition started but they bury it/him at the entrance to the house, so he/it is buried next to the gnome that Heather gave me, so they keep each other company.

I am going to post pictures of the house as it is now, over the next few blog posts, so that I have a record.

People coming to see it now

will get a great show of Iris.

Last fall, my real estate agent sent a "house stager" and we followed some of her suggestions (too much furniture, take down the shelves in the basement)

But we didn't take down all the pictures

because it looks bare enough already. Just the family pictures.

We removed most of my rug hooking ; pillows and rugs.

My coffee table has never, I mean never, been this empty.

The coffee table needed something more and I couldn't put a plant on it as Rasta would chew it (at night, while I was sleeping), so the large cup and saucer that Lynn M. gave me, with a candle in it, fits the bill. Poor Rasta; no cat condo, no table behind the couch, very few cushions. He's lucky though, we were actually discussing taking out the top bunk, his favorite spot to hang out.

I'm sure I will get used to it but it doesn't feel like my house right now. It doesn't feel homey.

Of course I could lose the Port Dover house if someone comes in and makes them an unconditional offer (which is what we did when we bought the house in Paris), then I will just have to accept "it wasn't meant to be" and look some more.

I like Christine's optimistic approach. She said, to Jason, "Yes I'm sad Mum is selling the cottage but we will have fun at her next place too!"