Day 20? Day 43?

We have been in our new home for 43 days, but as I have only been here for 20 days, I'm not sure how to count it! While Dave has held down the fort (and the cats), I have been laboriously transporting our lives and belongings from Austin to Polson in a 16 ft trailer towed by a 2002 Ford Excursion (it's for sale if you want one!) or in 26-ft UHaul trucks. Four trips, two with each vehicle configuration, and I am done. Well sort of done if you don't count the last trip I will have to make with the 4Runner and the small trailer to pick up some wood (ironically purchased a few years ago in Montana and carried down to Texas), a loom, and some finished glass work. That trip will happen when the Austin house sells or spring, whichever comes first.

I meant to start posting again on Day 1 as I am that kind of a girl. The kind that can't watch a series on  tv without starting at Season 1, Episode 1--even if the person with whom I am watching it has already seen all of Season 1 and the first episode of Season 2... (Dave!). The kind that has to have ALL the possible crayon colors (currently Crayola has120 in production of the 400 they ever made). But here I am, breaking the mold, being a little less rigid, and starting in the middle of the beginning...

Dave put up the new Christmas tree today. It is new because the tree we had in the Austin house (9 ft) was just too big for the new house. Now we have a lovely little 7-footer, and it's just right. Too big/too much for the new house is the story of our lives right now, as we have seriously downsized on house (while upsizing on land). When we  moved from Atlanta to Austin eight years ago there were seven UHaul loads (I think--it is a bit of a blur in my memory). To get everything down to the four trips for this move, we had to divest A LOT. 

I didn’t want to add to the landfill so I tried to find homes for the things we decided not to keep. I sold some online, I donated some to various charities and Goodwill (a lot of effort to load, drive, and unload), and I still had mountains of stuff to deal with. I was overwhelmed and in way over my head, and then Angie the Estate Girl stepped in and took care of EVERYTHING. By the time I found her, I would have happily given everything we still had away just to get rid of the headache and stress. Instead I handed it all over to Angie and she not only managed to sell far more than I would have thought possible, but she also coordinated the donation of items that didn't sell, and the disposal of items that couldn't be donated. She (and her crew) were warm, friendly, professional, honest, supportive, and incredibly hard-working. I could not recommend them more. I cannot stress enough how STUPID I was trying to sell and give away our lifetime's worth of belongings without Angie! My recommendation: Do yourself a favor and hire her to help you move on to the next stage in your life or to assist you in dealing with someone else’s lifetime of stuff. If you're not in Austin, find another good estate sales agent.

I wasn't there, but Angie had an estate sale in Austin last weekend and we made out like bandits on stuff that I was trying (and failing) to give away. It was a three-day event, and at the end everything that didn't sell and could be donated was (handled by Angie), and everything that couldn't be donated was hauled off in a dumpster (again, coordinated by Angie). 

The Austin house will probably go on the market in the new year when our fabulous real estate agent Dina deems it ready (repairs, painting, cleaning, staging...). In the meantime, we settle into our new life on in a house on the hill on 33 acres in Montana overlooking Flathead Lake, the Mission Mountains, the one million acre Bob Marshall Wilderness area, and the Pablo National Wildlife Refuge. On a clear day we can almost see Glacier National Park to the north.