Monday, August 20

i must be barking mad...

first i must be sure to thank you all for your lovely comments on the 'yellow house'...i really do enjoy reading all the things you have to say and i especially enjoy it when a reader "delurks"!!

and so a few days have passed since we last spoke, i am knee high in mayhem. it was somewhere between reading Violette Crumble's "moving" posts and inhaling too many fumes from the "adhesive sticker residue remover" required on our #4's windowpane that it occurred to me that we must all have our little tales of "moving madness"...and so dear readers i feel a competition coming on.

i have up for grabs a 'little number' that did not get packed away with the rest of my studio...


if you fancy a chance at winning this large cushion cover (i say cover because the cushion pad weighs a ton and isn't very good for mailing....) it measures 20" x 20" and is made of linen with appliqued frayed patches of bird fabric...


all you have to do is share your "moving horror" or "moving funny" or even "moving sad" story...the one i like the most will win...no drawings out of the bowl this time, it is purely down to whose little 'tale of woe' that i like the most..


to get the old ball rolling we will have a little look at Tif's current "moving story" and as i like lists, let's do it that way...

1. Tif finds a "yellow house" that requires an awful lot of work to make it a home, but it has three acres, an outbuilding for a studio, room for chickens and a goat, plus an airstream.
2. Tif persuades her family that they have always wanted to live in a house just like this.
3. Tif then sets about packing up all her worldly possessions so it looks like they have never lived in their home for seven years.
4. Tif does this before she has even tried to buy the "yellow house" because she can only put an offer in if her house is ready to sell.
5. Tif now has most of her things piled high in her garage and is keeping her fingers and toes crossed that the offer she puts in tomorrow will be accepted.
6. Tif is now painting the inside of her current home, cleaning windows and carpets in the vain hope that someone will want to buy it very quickly.
7. Tif is not reading or listening to any information that tells her the housing market in America is crumbling.
8. Tif is barking mad.

see it's easy to have a ridiculous "moving story"...for all you readers not from the USA that are confused, in a nut shell, to sell my house it must be spic and span and have no personality and show no 'sign of life' before i can put it up for sale...that just seems to be the way here. (i believe the true madness of this tale is the fact that i am trying to buy a house that has not been done up to be sold, even though i have to...still confused, don't worry you are not alone). so if you could all keep your fingers and toes crossed for me in the next few days i would really appreciate it...and if things go well then all this 'boxing up our lives' over the past few weeks will be worth it...

looking forward to hearing your stories...let's leave this competition open until Mon 27th by which time i will either be weeping into my cup of tea and dragging boxes back in from the garage, or hopefully getting ready to list my house..

sharing photos of cleared out studio very soon ~ Tif

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you Tif! I really hope you get the house of your dreams...I am in the middle of moving myself right now to a three bedroomed house because we're expecting our second baby in March...it's exactly a week and a half until we move. There are boxes absolutely everywhere and Kitty (our daughter) keeps unpacking our packing (I guess thats what 2 1/2 year olds are for) The only thing that is keeping me sane is at least i don't have to carry any of the boxes the day we move because I'm pregnant! ;-)
Good Luck Tif!
Rosaleen.

Genuine Lustre said...

Hi Tiff. The yellow house looks gorgeous and I do hope it all works out for you. One of my moving stories:

-1994. We are young marrieds with two toddlers. We find old brick farmhouse of our dreams.
-Home is for sale by owner. We come to an agreement with him and agree on a downpayment.
-Salesman husband takes business trip to Dallas.
-Meanwhile, I sell our house in 12 hours.
-I drive to the brick house to deliver our downpayment. The driveway is lined with cars. Dirty-Rat Owner is having an open house!! He decided to go for more money and didn't bother to tell us ( this all happened in the course of about five days.)

I used a lot of foul language that week. Needless to say, we were homeless and spent the summer in an icky rental while we built our current cozy little log home.

Unknown said...

I will play along, that pillow is darling!

1. In the past 5 years I have moved 3 times.
2. Our first move we didn't have any help or a moving van. We moved all on our own. We didn't have much stuff either.
3. Our secon move went a bit smoother. We had some help but we moved into a 2nd floor apartment and it was murder getting our heaver furniture up the steps and around the corner.
4. our 3rd move was the smoothest of all. Except that someone broke my christmas dishes, and one of our friends fell on the loading ramp and hurt themselves pretty bad.

Sarah and Jack said...

I truly hate moving. In 2000 we were moving from Missouri to Florida in early January. My husband left the ramp on the moving truck in the out position overnight, instead of sliding it back into the truck. Sometime after midnight we had a HUGE ice storm. Not only was the moving truck now stuck in the grass, the ramp had become an icy toboggan run! There was no way to get it back inside that slot in the U-haul and there was no way to get up the darn thing.

Off we trot to the hardware store, where we are forced to buy 50!!! lbs of rock salt to de-ice the thing so we can get on the road.

Just what everyone needs in Florida, the remainders of a 50lb bag of rock salt. LOL

At least when we finally arrived it was warm and sunny and gorgeous.

Jennifer said...

Omigosh...I have moving stories, but really nothing worth telling you about. Pretty boring. We moved from Iowa to PA almost two years ago. My husband had already moved out before us and I was left with two little children, pregnant with our third and a house to sell. Our house was taking longer to sell (really it only took two months, but we were getting tired of this) so we decided to call the movers and move. That weekend before Halloween I had a garage sale to sell items, the movers came on Halloween to pack and I began to spot...all while my husband was in PA. I was a basket case because I never had this happen with the other two pregnancies. But eventually it corrected itself, the movers came, we packed out minivan up with two little kids a german shorthair pointer and ourselves, said goodbye to our lovely neighbors and family and drove to PA. It sucked. I never cried so hard. Still not sure of it here, but it's fine for now. See, boring.

Anonymous said...

That's truely a beautiful yellow house with a big green yard, i hope you get it!

here's my story...
1. 5 years ago, we happily bought our first home. it was owned by an old lady with lots of cats.
2. we discovered cats under our house.
3. after about 6 months the orange one came back and died on our driveway, very sad..
4. whenever we have the lights on in the front living room her black cat comes back and sprays on our front door. this happens even if the lights are only on for 5 mins. the cat must be watching our home.
5. five years later this still happens. we had to move our living room into the dining room (which we only use for large gatherings) and not use the front room.
last year thanksgiving dinner with family in dining room (front room). i was thinking, no the cat is not coming tonight...i was wrong, i was horrified when i smelled the combination of fish guts and urine in the dining room and everyone was saying "what's that smellll?
5. yes, five years later, i'm still a prisoner in my own home cuz of that black cat.
6. i've grown to like the cats now, cuz my little boy likes to put on his frog boots to go chase them in the yard and then he'll say "oh they'll be back".

Lily

Junkyard Jennifer said...
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Junkyard Jennifer said...
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Anonymous said...

When we were shopping for our house, the market in California had just began that crazy period where houses were being snapped up within hours of being listed. We tried to buy a couple of sort of decent houses, but they weren't really our Dream House, so it wasn't too upsetting when neither sale went through. Then our realtor called and said a house had just been listed that he thought we might like (it's Cute as a bug's ear, was his phrase (o:).
I just fell in love with it right away. Coincidentally, it's the same shade of yellow as your new house! With a wrap-around porch, french doors, and a claw foot tub, it was just perfect and exactly what I wanted. So we wrote up an offer for the full asking price. And then owner then decided that she wasn't asking enough and turned us down, relisted it for $20K more and held an open house the next weekend. I'm not one for swearing and name calling, but I came up with some new phrases when talking about her. I think I may have even thrown myself on the bed and sobbed. It was a few years ago, so I don't remember clearly :o)

In the end, we decided to scrape up some additional money, made another offer and counteroffers and eventually bought the house.

As for moving, being the stressful situation it is, there was a bit of bickering between me and the husband. My mom had come for the week to help us, since we were doing all the moving ourselves, and mistakenly got in the middle of our little spats and there were a lot of hurt feelings and a bit of the silent treatment by the time it was all over. Oh dear. I'm so glad it's done and we're not going anywhere for awhile :o)

Sadie Olive said...

You are so funny! I can see why you want that pretty house though! Don't worry, most things you want this bad, somehow have a way of working themselves out.

dottie angel said...

well it is quite obvious we are all "nuts" when it comes to moving but i guess it's like having babies or doing 'christmas' or 'thanksgiving' with family...you forget the horror of it and go on to do it again...and in my case both with 'houses' and 'babies', again and again..(and mum if you read this, i don't mean you with the 'christmas' and 'thanksgiving' thing..i was just thinking some folks have to endure those things)...do you think i am digging myself a hole here?!

keep those stories coming, this is making my day of clearing out the cupboards so much more easier...

SuzOH said...

Here's my moving story. This was my last move, and my first house. I spent so much of my vacation time fixing the house up, that when it came time to move in, I couldn't be there. My parents handled everything for me while I was at work. Furniture ended up in the wrong place, books ended up in the garage (some ruined), some things I've never been able to find, and to top it off, the very next morning, my first morning in my new home, the plumbing backed up and made a horrible mess.

Violette Crumble said...

Did you now that nail polish remover works wonders for removing sticker residue? It's still fumy though, so maybe never mind.

Count me out of the contest as I just got rid of a ton of great cushions and linens, but I want say that I don't think your house has to lack any character to sell. I think it's just a matter of finding someone who likes your style to sell to. Most of the houses I looked at had been redone to include all the stainless steel appliances and dark granite counter tops, etc. and while many people may like that modern look, I do not. I looked for a place that is more how I imagine yours to be. And don't worry about the market, there are still people who earn enough to get a mortgage out there.

dottie angel said...

violette crumble, you are so right...many people are looking for a bit more personality to their homes. unforturnately my little neighborhood is certainly a bit more conservative (for want of a better word) and so for selling purposes i need to remove most of my things and leave just a few items to make it feel slightly homey and not too empty...i shall be breathing a sigh of relief if we get to live in an old property again. i find them so much more forgiving, every 'ding' to the base boards adds character, rather than giving you a headache to sort out :) hope your moving truck turns up soon...

Gigibird said...

zbEvery Sunday my husband and I used to walk Harry along the stretch if beach where we now live. It was so peaceful and beautiful I just knew I had to live as near to the sea I could as I was getting more and more despairing of where we were living. Once we decided to move I narrowed my search to just 2 roads and I also I wanted a ‘period’ property.

When it comes to houses I think the heart should rule the head.
I did everything wrong- I found the house I wanted before I had sold mine own. I spoke directly to the vendor as his estate agents were trying to get him to sell to property developers and were undermining the whole selling process so my normal easy going nature had to be put aside but I got my little bungalow by the sea, without going down to their level. I believe in honesty and fairness and so did the old man whose house we bought.
Tif if you want that Yellow house let the current owners know how much you will love their house and if they are decent people they will wait for you. I sold my house to a young family who I knew loved my house…I could have got more selling it to someone who just wanted to rent it out but because I cared about my neighbours I wanted the little family to have it….

dottie angel said...

i totally hear everything you say gigi about finding an area sometimes even before the house...
and just knowing it feels right

dottie angel said...

apologizes to Jen...you left me a lovely message and i managed to send it off into cyber space never to be seen again..thank you for de lurking and your comments about my blog..i promise to take better care with your comments in future, my only excuse is the kids distracting me!!

Anonymous said...

this is a true story...

our family moves every two years..we have no real reason, it's just become a habit i guess

so three houses ago we decided to sell our own house without a realtor...the house was very cute, very old, had an art studio, and a large beautiful yard..

but directly accross the street was a man who was known for being a peeping tom, eating dogs,having about 30 feral cats, fixing his roof with cardboard, and renting various shacks to criminal types

we really didn't think we could find anyone to buy the house because we were honest and frankly it was hard not to notice the house accross the street

this is our miracle...an artist came with her husband and sister..they loved the place ...didn't give a hoot about the neighbors...we were gone with our asking price in a month (should i mention the sister told us she had a bug living in her face the gave my husband a big hug)

the important thing is we sold the house and tif i'm sure you will too!

xo laura

beth l said...

tif,
good luck w/ getting the yellow house-it looks lovely!
my moving story isn't all that exciting, but here it goes. my husband is a home builder. he built us a beautiful "model" home just after we got married that we knew we would only live in for about two years. the intention was that he would build another "model" home that we would move to after the first one sold. well, the first one sold, but there was no second one to move into...so we moved us and our 7 month old son into a small rental that we owned in town instead. i'm not trying to be boastful, i'm just saying i went from a huge 6000 sq foot home with a dream craft room, to a 1400 sq foot home (that in all honesty, I love more for it's charm and character-not to mention fewer rooms to clean!), a closet for a craft room, and more than half my possessions still packed up in boxes in a storage unit somewhere here in this city. every now and then i'll go on a wild tear looking for something, and finally determine it's probably in the storage unit, where maybe, in a couple of years, i'll be re-united with it again.

all the best,
beth l

CJLavin said...

Tif, such an adorable yellow abode! Can't wait to hear how it all turns out.

Tracy x said...

my house move has been told in all its horrible detail over at my blog so i shall not bore you with it here except to mention the last minute horrors we found as we left!!!!
1. dead and decaying frog on the back step (thanks cats!)
2. a HUGE family of silver fish living under our fridge - i hate to admit that Stephen hoovered them up in order to conceal the ugly truth about our infested house!!
3. no skirting board along one whole wall in the sitting room - we just never got round to finishing it and just invested in a large sofa to cover it up!
4. in that same room there was also a gap in the floor - we laid boards but were to lazy to cut a thin strip to finish it off - thank goodness for that sofa......
5. sudden awful thought about the 2 cats, 1 rabbit and 2 hamsters buried in the garden - how quickly do they disappear????

heck - i could go on but quite frankly i am too scared that they may one day read this and realise that we KNEW what we were leaving behind.

it is safe to say that i never want to move again ...... apart from in a few months time!

loving the yellow nest
loving the cushion

tracy x

Junkyard Jennifer said...

(I recently de-lurked on one of your June posts). :)

Good luck to you on the yellow house. I love it. The place looks very nice. And I love that pillow. It's beautiful!

~I'm in the process of moving for the 10th (and final) time in 10 years!
~When I was single, I moved 4 of those times. Since marrying my husband (over 6 years ago), we've moved 6 times.
~I moved from Michigan to Minnesota when I was single and then back to Michigan (this time w/ my husband) and now back to Minnesota. (I've lived in 6 different towns in the 2 states).
~My husband builds houses for people, and has for years. (He owns his own business).
~After 6+ years of marriage and 3 children, he is finally building OUR home. :)
~I am single-handedly packing and moving all of our stuff this week w/ absolutely no help from anyone whatsoever (no one offered - I don't know how to ask for help). :) My husband will help with the furniture. Thank heaven! :)
~I've got three little ones (5,3 and 23 months) "helping" me. ;) (i.e. unpacking as fast as I can pack. Lol! :)
~Friends have stopped by many times to check on the progress. Thankfully, my husband enjoys his work - and has nearly built our entire house by himself. (He only had assistance with the trusses, the electrical and the cement on the basement floor). He even painted the entire house by himself.
~I did most of the cleaning up by myself. (Inside the house and the construction debris in the yard).
~We have to be out of our rental by this Saturday (Aug. 25). Our house is nowhere near finished!
~I won't have a kitchen right away. And I love to cook. That includes: No cupboards, counters, or stove. (I will have a fridge). And we won't have flooring in. Anywhere.
~Oh, and 2 of the 3 bedrooms won't be finished. That means our master bedroom and the boy's room. We'll be sleeping in the sitting room next to the living room!
~But underneath all of the stress and anxiety of moving, I'm excited that we'll be owning our own home for the very first time!
~You See... I'm trying to keep my optimism. ;)

~Jennifer (The knickname is just foolishness - I love all things vintage and am a professional junk collector ;)

Forgot to add: My youngest (23 months) has chicken pox.

Lucykate Crafts... said...

moving house is sooo stressfull!. i think our worst moving stories are, move 1 :

our buyers pulled out, chain collapsed, our buyers came back a week later, but chain was still in tatters. we went ahead and sold our house only to find out just after that the house we were trying to buy had been taken off the market, so we had just made ourselves homeless!, to top it off, i found out i was pregnant at this point. bad pregnancy, in and out of hospital, spent moving day in hospital, all our stuff went in storage and we went to my mums for 5 weeks, giving me an hour and a quarter commute to work every day, not good with morning sickness!.

move 2 :

short chain but complicated, we were relocating to a different part of the country. chain was a nightmare, woman wanting to buy our house lied about losing her buyer, lied about the price she was getting for her house and tried to get us to drop 10k off our asking price. then it was subject to so many delays it took from march until july to sort it all out. in the meantime, we are all living apart as alastair had already started his new job so was away all week, leaving me and the kids at home. plus we were struggling to get a school place for lucy in the new area, until we exchanged contracts, she could not move up the waiting list, in the months that went by, she missed 9 school places.

hope your move goes smoother, fingers crossed for you all : )

Monica said...

Dear Tif,
I've found your blog last month when you were leaving to England. I've been lurking ever since, because besides your creativity, a blog from a mom with 4 kids is a must read for me, how do you manage 4 kids? Oh by the way, I have 4 brats under 7 (years old, that is) of my own. And yellow is my favorite color.
Ok, my moving story..the most recent, if 2 years ago can be called recent.
-After 7 plus years of 'suffering' every winter in NY, finally convinced DH to move South to Texas.
-After 6 month of prospective buyers and quite a few offers we sold our about 1700 sq ft home in Long Island. Should I mention that after 2 weeks of buriyng a statue of St Joseph in the front of the house really speed up the selling?
-Next I convinced DH that it would be fun to have a car trip from NY to TX (with 4 kids under 5 back then), I don't do planes, no way! I rather take a long car trip of three days than a flight of 4 hours!
-I should have opted for the flight. 4 kids, no further explanation.
-When we arrived in San Antonio we stayed at my brother in-law for a few weeks until we found our 'dream home'.
-Due to the damage (read: stains, spills and the likes)on the in-laws' carpet by my kids, I should have noticed that little kids and carpets don't match at all! Thank goodness they were just about to replace the flooring!
-Move to our 3000sq ft house...So much room! perfect for 6! yeah right! How in the world a SAHM can keep a 3000sq ft house while watching the brats! I normally clean a room a day...by the third day and third room, the previous ones are already messed up again!And the carpet? Ugh...gross!That's why there's no pictures of my floor in my flickr ;)
-I'm trying to convince DH to move again to a 2400sq ft house with any floor but carpet. He's playing hard to convince because he loves 3000 sq ft house, because when the kids grow up, they'll need the extra room.
-I tell DH that by that time, we could move again to another 3000 sq ft house, cause the kids would be old enough to help clean...Do teenagers help cleaning?!
-I'm currently looking for a new home and daydreaming while watching online house tours at night. I have St Joseph statue on hand, just in case!
-I think DH is about to agree, maybe by next summer!!