smallrobot

Good grief, 16 months in on this project already and two-thirds of 2025 already gone. 2025 has been a crazy and stressful year for me, but I am happy to remind myself that we are on the downside now. My word of the year for 2025 was Momentum and I think that was the perfect word for what I needed to do this year. I made the decision at the end of 2024 that I would be moving in 2025 instead of 2027 as originally planned. And so far, I am on track to be moved by the end of the year. I underestimated just how much needed to be done, not just to the house to prep it to sell, but in other ways as well. Yes, moving is right up there with stressful, disruptive activities like getting a divorce.

OK, onward with the month’s accomplishments.

25. Do an elimination diet for 60 to 90 days
Effective today, September 1, I am starting an elimination diet in the hopes of identifying any foods that may be affecting me negatively. The diet will be very restrictive for the first 30 days and then I will slowly begin adding other foods back in, one at a time.

28. Weight monitoring
A slight increase in weight in August, I am hoping to see weight loss in September with the strict elimination diet.

29. BMI monitoring
Weight goes up, BMI goes up. Nothing surprising there.

45. Repair the front porch
This one is being deleted, because it has been determined that it is not reparable. Instead I will focus on getting quotes to replace the porch so that I will have a basis for figuring out a concession for porch replacement to potential buyers.

46. Pave driveway
It will be far too expensive to actually pave the driveway before moving so I am altering the goal to ‘repairing’ the driveway and turnaround area with new gravel and replacing the rotted railroad ties lining the driveway.

Annoyingly enough, the Habitat for Humanity fellow did come out last week and said that I do qualify for both the HVAC replacement and fixing the driveway. BUT it would be paid out of a grant they do not yet have, which would mean it would be at least next spring before they could do the work. And since my goal is to move this year, they aren’t going to be able to help me at all. Phooey. Would’ve been nice but I wasn’t counting on it anyway.

53. Fix exterior spotlights
Still working on this one. I have a lead on a couple of reasonably priced electricians.

91. Curate CD collection
Completed!. I went through my CDs twice and ended up donating 98 to my local library. Still have a decent sized collection of CDs and they are all ones I listen to on a rotating basis. I am a big believer in having physical media to enjoy at a moment’s notice.

96. Create a list and schedule of essential tasks for selling house and moving
The list is getting whittled down quite a bit by now, with mostly only small tasks left, some easily accomplished, some dependent on others’ assistance.

97. Gather all home improvement receipts
Been working on this a bit at a time, but now that my desktop computer and scanner are back up and running, I hope to make a lot more progress on this in September. This will be my evening task on a regular basis instead of watching TV. Will probably also involve doing research during the day to contact places to get receipts.

98. Make decisions on things to keep, things to get rid of
This has been an ongoing process over the past six months, but I have continued to whittle the list down a lot as the move nears.

99. Dispose of unwanted items
I am getting rid of things on a weekly basis – some for donation, some to trash. It is usually quite small things at this point – drawer contents, etc. but there will be a few larger items going in September for sure. It’s a fine line on the decision process because I do not want to have to buy things after moving if I can help it (because those evil tariffs make everything far more expensive), but I don’t want to have to move a lot of excess things either.

100. Pack up smaller items in boxes/totes
This is currently stalled but should ramp up soon. My problem is that I don’t want a ton of packed boxes/totes sitting around the house while it is for sale. It’s just not a good look, y’know?

101. Settle on date to get house listed for sale
I have tentatively given myself a goal of October 1 to list the house. That will depend, of course, on how much progress I make on the other tasks needed in order to do so. But that is the date I am aiming for. And then hopefully being able to move before Thanksgiving.

All of my travel goals have been shelved for the foreseeable future. Moving across country kind of pushed everything else to the side. I truly did not realize just how much prep work goes into preparing for such a major life change, especially at my age! Silly me.