When to Move, When to Stay?

I have been looking at a lot of real estate listings lately. I love this area, and we have great neighbours. This house is even paid off. 

However, what do you do when, even though the house is paid off, there is so much work to be done and hardly any money to do it? The sale of this house could potentially pay for another, better house, which is farther away.. but, we love this area, we love our yard, and the garden we just put in last summer. 

One major issue with moving would be cleaning out the basement. This is something we have tried to tackle several times; but, we have always fallen short of the goal. Many of the items are large and heavy, and can't be carried up the stairs by one person, let alone one very weak person such as myself. Other items may have some monetary value, but I have no clue as to what these things are worth, if anything (thousands upon thousands of nuts, bolts, nails, screws, and washers? Anyone?). 

It's actually so crowded down there that all attempts to start coherent piles (keep, toss, sell, donate) have resulted in frustrated rage-quits. 

I'd like to think that I have some organizational capabilities. But when the undertaking is this big, I honestly don't know where to begin. (No, we are not hoarders. We moved into this house after my uncle passed away, and he never threw anything away.. we found old hydro bills from the '80s.. )

I have actually started a list of tasks that would need to be completed in order for us to be happy in this house, and without tallying anything, I can already tell the cost will be astronomical. 

I really should at least take some "before" photos, whether we stay or not. 

SO! Let's see what ye olde interwebbe has to say:

What to Do With Used Nails, Nuts, Bolts & Hardware

This page instructs the reader to separate materials by type. This makes perfect logical sense, right? Well, it would make perfect logical sense if we didn't have about 30 years' worth of accumulated hardware, all mixed together.. This is going to take a long, long time. And, I didn't realize just how many types of screws and other fasteners there are.. I'll need about 30 containers just for all the different types!

Another option is to contact a scrapper, although I'm not sure what a lot of these nuts and bolts are actually made of, and I think that ignorance would come across pretty clearly to a scrap metal buyer. I really don't want to be ripped off.

Man, I was just at the Dollar Tree this morning. I'm wishing I'd picked up some more containers.. Ohhh how I love containers.

Upcycled Entertainment Centers 
Pinterest is one of my very dear friends. Even if I just disassemble the unit and use the wood for shelving, these ideas are neat. Heck, I could even convert it into a tortoise enclosure (but I would still need help to bring it upstairs.. I don't want to keep my tortoise in the basement).

Whether we stay or go, we really need to tackle the basement.. but frick on a stick if it isn't the most frustrating room in the world! Wish us luck!


 

Can I Just..

1 March 2014

Can I just... UUUGGGHHH

And then! This elephant.. who frickin' climbs over a bunch of fences ever so daintily so as not to damage them... UUUUGGGGGHHH

Okay, seriously. JESUS FRICK.

Panda + Ball = <3

House of Leaves and Divergent

     Don't worry, no spoilers.

     So, I finished House of Leaves a few days ago, and I was grateful. That was quite the undertaking of a read. Now, I could just be a little too dumb for this book, but it just seemed incredibly pretentious and way too hipster-y for my tastes. The idea of this book is fascinating, and each of the three stories on their own would have been good. But to mash them together and format the book in such a way as to make it nearly unreadable in some parts is just so... eye-roll worthy. I'll give it a 3/5, I guess.

     I'm almost done reading Divergent though, which has been pretty awesome. Mostly I wanted to read it before the movie comes out. It's another one of those YA books that could have been so awesome without all the romance crap, but still contains the romance crap so as to appeal to teen aged girls, I suppose. Okay, okay. I don't necessarily mind the romance crap, but so many YA books are based around that.. it's no wonder people have such a hard time when they're 16 and single! So many of these books, movies, and TV shows convey messages of "if a guy is an ass hole to you, it means he likes you and you should accept such treatment in order to keep his attention", or "you need to find a 'bad boy' and try to change him. If you can't, you fail", or something to that extent.
     That said, I will continue to read this book and the other two in the series, and I'm sure they will be enjoyable reads. I just hope the young people that read it are confident enough to know that the characters they're reading are not depictions of how real people interact in relationships.. /endramble

Yup, yet another blog on yet another site. I'm finding that I'm too old for a lot of social media. I can't relate to a lot of what I see on Tumblr or Reddit. I can't be bothered to sift through a million hashtags on Twitter. I don't care about food enough to even use Instagram. SO! Here goes. My interests, distastes, and things that are cute. Also, things I do, should I ever actually do them. Most days, I do not want to do any of the things; some days, I feel like I need to do ALL THE THINGS.

Is it sad that I only just learned today that Google owns Blogger? I mean, I shouldn't be surprised. Google owns just about everything these days.