The Saga Begins - A Move is on the way

well this is late, but its because we've been so busy because of it! The wife has really been wanting to 'upgrade' and move from our current house to a single family home. We want to stay in our community and with the housing correction, homes are becoming affordable. So I've gone along and we've been going full steam to get the house ready. Staci had contacts that set us up with our realtor, Bonnie Selker. We started with a review where they basically point out what you need to do to get your house ready.. this means what things that you have been ignoring because you just don't want to do that you can no longer procrastinate about. Well, about a week ago we start in full bore. We got a storage unit.. and Staci has been purging and packing room by room. For awhile there it seemed all we were doing was pulling everything OUT of its tucked away spot and into a bigger pile.. but finally by this Saturday, she had turned the corner and all but maybe two rooms were pretty close. We even pulled out all the computers and all the other stuff out of the office. Laptops only from here on! I looked to get the outside projects knocked out. First up.. paver stones. Our pavers had been collapsing a bit due to a rodent digging under them. Well, picked up some filler and some sand.. and dug in. Ended up repairing about 3 sections.. Wasn't bad except.. the repeat runs to Home Depot for more sand... the sand bags breaking open unexpectedly when carrying them... and the overall challenge of getting the pavers to level out. The edging of the pavers is kind of sloped in due to the patio steps and in other areas just due to settlement. It sucked, but I got through it. Up next? Powerwash entranceway, deck, and then seal. Oi! Well I borrowed a friend's powerwasher.. which lasted about 30mins before the engine refused to run anymore. 2hrs of tinkering, and I cried uncle and went to the Depot to get a rental. 4hr window or 24hr window. I tried to get it done in 4hrs. I just made it. The powerwashing was brutal on my hands though.. the next day I could barely open my hands fully. Powerwashed the patio (which one of the kids said 'why is daddy painting the ground white?' it was that much difference!)... powerwashed the deck. Sealing would have to wait for it to dry some. Next up was the back of the house. Since the deck went up, the ground nearest to the house of course become a dirt/mud pit. So I cleared out a section intending to put stone or mulch down. With the help of the oldest, we cleared the ground of any remaining grass.. cut an edging and laid down fabric. Stone or mulch? Can't decide!! End up focusing on putting in some stepping stones so whatever we do end up with.. you can cross it. Pick up yet MORE sand and 6 stones to lay. Put down a bed of sand so the stones will be stable hopefully without having to try to dig them in.. and setup the stones. The rest of the bed will have to wait. All that and it was just the first weekend! Later we decided to go with mulch for the area I cleared.. and we ordered 3 cubic yards to be delievered to handle that and the rest of the beds. We borrowed a wheelbarrow and pitchfork and Staci got to work on spreading the mulch. In the meantime, the deck had dried, so I started on sealing the deck after work hours during the week. Ughhh.. after 3 nights, I had it knocked out. Looks great compared to what it was. Up next? The handyman to finish off some drywall repairs that I could never finish right. He came in and finished the mud and priming job over a day and the next. Stuff is just happening everywhere! That means paint and touch-up can't be too far behind. Meanwhile.. I've got to finish off the back of the house. This means scrubbing the siding and doorway to get the old dirt, cobwebs, and everything else we've ignored out of there. Bucket and brush is the answer. Looked a ton better. And then windows.... quote was $175 to do the windows - I figured cash was a premium so I skipped that saying I could do it. Ugggghhh... windows - not so bad. Cleaning the inside of windows sills that had years of dirt stored up.. and sliding glass door tracks that were caked in crud. HOURS and HOURS of slaving. Finally - we had a break as we had a pre-planned vacation for Sunday through Monday. So we'll stop there :)