Transplanting a Seattleite

I had not updated my plan at Verizon for … a long time. I mean, other than to figure out how to return the cable box that T. decided he no longer wanted which was probably a year ago now.

I’ve had some discussions with various folks in the family about whether we could get rid of the “land line” (it’s not, it’s verizon voip) and whether we could get rid of our TV plan. Ultimately, everyone was basically unopposed. So I tried to figure it out on the verizon website, failed, and went to chat. I got rid of the phone and the TV, and have gone from 75 to 500 on the internet, and the whole thing is going to cost at least $100 less. Tech shows up in a couple weeks, and we’ll have to figure out returning the Tivo cable cards, but that’s about the extent of it.

I basically don’t watch TV (I do watch some stuff on Disney Plus occasionally). Years ago, I was still watching some NCIS shows, and TRMS and then Alex Wagner, but of course that’s all different as of this year and I had stopped watching before this year anyway. But R. and A. both wanted to know how they would watch This Old House and America’s Test Kitchen. Worst case scenario, the money I saved on Verizon goes to YouTube TV, and that’s fine. But I did want to do better than that if I could.

Step one: PBS website. You can definitely watch some This Old House there.

Step two: But if you go to the This Old House app, you can watch all of it. And cast it to your TV if your device supports that. Woot! Problem Solved!

And now: ATK, the tougher nut. Amazon Prime has some seasons. Philo may or may not have some seasons for free; I couldn’t get it to work. PBS has some of at least one season. So it seems clear that ATK vibe could be satisfied, somehow. Worst case scenario, a year of access to all of it via the ATK website is about $50. Which is less than YTTV for one month. I’m scoring this a win as well.

I’m trying to decide if I want to tackle the news subscriptions today or not. Probably I will go play my game for a while instead.

A little backstory on this project. I’ve been doing living room planning for the new house. I got to wondering just what exactly we would need in terms of equipment for the TV. I picked out the TV, with a focus on good sound quality, knowing that apps for all the streaming would be built in. But then: DVD? Playstation? XBox? I have no idea! But we don’t have cable at the new house, just internet, so the Tivo is not going there with us. And then I got to wondering why I hadn’t done that here at this house. And so here we are.

On the list of very many things we don’t do around here, xbox and playstation are extremely high, so those may be next on the decluttering list. But first! Game! (Sliding Seas is still fun, altho slower now that I’m past level 200.)

It got well over 90 degrees today. I am grateful for AC / heat pumps. Woot.

Some pickups happened, altho I think I’m being ghosted again on the last one today. No big deal.

I got R. to wrap the lego for EW, and drove it over to the UPS store. Yay!

I finished reading the rest of the Innkeeper series, so I will have to find something else to relax with. Maybe I’ll go reread the Iron Covenant book again. It’s been a little while.

Oh, and N. produced some sketches for the drawers that I want to go through the wall in “Reception” (basically, part of the living room) to the kitchen (into the corner that is hard to get at in the cabinets). I want something that games and whatever can live in, and I don’t want to have to put shelves or a cabinet in there. Sketches looking good!

When I got extremely frosty about the architect a while back, I systematically took all the millwork out of scope that I possibly could, and then I asked the builder to get me a different option for the kitchens and bar. I took that option and I’m so glad I did. The architect’s firm, a design build firm that does lots of millwork, bore the brunt of me being mad at the architect but I actually have had a few interactions with them, and boy, not regretting my choices.

Nevertheless, there are a few closets in this multigenerational house. Specifically, around 15 of which I will want something in, hopefully more than a rod and a shelf above. I picked out Lundia a while back as a good candidate for a get it in quick and maybe keep it forever solution. So today, I started actually trying to specify exactly what components would go in a closet, and then in several other closets. Unfortunately, while this stuff is framed, we haven’t quite gotten to wallboard yet, so I can’t do IRL measurements that are “real”, and that may matter in some of these closets. Also, we are having fancy, hinge switched LED lighting around the inside of the doors of these closets, and I’m really not sure how much space we need between that and whatever is going on in the closet for appropriate diffusion of light to occur. But at least I’ve identified these as specific questions to answer, and I can go about the business of figuring out shelves and/or drawers, hanging space, half height and/or full height hanging space etc. on a closet by closet basis and also identify closets where this system is inappropriate (which is how I got to the number 15, which might otherwise have been a somewhat larger number). (Also, this is a lot of closets, so there’s that.)

It’s been fun. Also! While I have been planning my future storage, I have been decluttering. The 7’ bookcase in the garage (formerly in the upstairs hall, removed so wallboard could be brought into this house, because I genuinely am that insane) was picked up by someone who lives in my town and drives a Passat. I was skeptical, but in 2D terms, he was right. Unfortunately, there was a height limitation that was not fully appreciated (internal to the car — the fold down seats don’t fold super flat, and so while a sheet of plywood would have fit, even a 10” deep bookcase hit a limit), so we couldn’t get it all the way in and had to come up with bungie and towels to get him home. I was impressed tho. Someone else picked up a bunch of the Halloween stuff.

Finally, I asked the google a question about rich people and clutter, and read this thread on reddit. I got a huge kick out of it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/InteriorDesign/comments/16gp5wr/rich_people_hiding_clutter/

You probably won’t learn anything from it (I certainly did not!), but I was highly entertained.

And I’ve reached the end of the day feeling better. So there’s that. I can still go most of the way down a flight of stairs step over step (could do a whole flight early in the day). I had a visit with M.

No work here at the house, altho someone stopped by to do some measuring.

I dismantled the rest of Natural History Museum and packaged it up with the Vespa to ship to EW for offspring-in-law. I also took apart Grogu, listed it and it was picked up already. Woot! I listed some other stuff that will be picked up tomorrow. R. is clearing off some of the living room shelves too, so that’s great.

I really want to start Sunflowers, but I’m off to Florence tomorrow, followed by photos with JM, if weather / various health issues permit (her back, my knee).

Super happy about it! I did half of bedroom to main floor as well, but I think any more would be a mistake. No stabby pain, which is lovely.

The stairs keep creaking, making me think someone is coming down them. I think it’s because we opened window since it was cool enough overnight and so the humidity adjustment is wild. Nice, tho, not to have the AC on.

I took the Lego Natural History Museum off the front entry cabinet. I’m probably going to take it apart today (I was in the basement to retrieve boxes of ziplocs for that effort). That was the last lego kit on it (there was a little lego spaceman and a lego monkey, which went into a living room cabinet — the one with the jazz club kit on top of it), so I took the cloth off to run it through the washing machine, and I took the Remy / Ratatouille light up necklace from Disney off with the idea of posting it. But when I went to video it and show the lights, they didn’t work, so I’ve put it aside to open up the battery compartment and see if we can get it working again. I have the Disney snacks necklace upstairs, too, and I’ll probably list that also. It’s really cool that you can buy something awesome, love it for years, but then feel like, okay, I’m done. I still love it, but the draw is gone and something else can enter my life instead, and this can go to someone else who feels that pull.

I also ordered a bunch of Lego yesterday, because I saw the Neuschwanstein kit. *sigh* I think I’ll put that one in the entry hall, and work on clearing out more of my office after the Natural History Museum.

Last night I spent an unholy amount of time trying to figure out how bed + chair + rug would work in future bedroom. R. made the rug + bed decisions in our current bedroom, and at the time I had no idea how fucking rigid people can be about rugs and beds. I discovered that the carpet I really want (a Tibetan, kimono inspired design) is extremely broadly available and can be ordered online, so I’m also thinking about ordering it relatively soon and laying it in the new attic room so I can see how I feel about it in person.

We also had a discussion about the mud cloth curtains in the basement, that I had in the condo. I really love them, and have been trying to figure out where they can go. They are slightly short for the dining room in the new house, but there’s plenty (at least 4 panels lapa size, compatible colors, and the wider width, about 46”) for the 11’ span). After considering and discarding various alternatives, I ordered another, all black panel from etsy, that we plan on cutting up to create a top band with a pocket for a rod. The panels will need to have the crappy tab tops I put on them removed, and the narrow band seams have some gapping which will need repair as well. But in general they are in good shape because I had a liner between them and the window (uniform white appearance to the street rule in the condo).

The only remaining condo-era curtains that I could conceivably repurpose would be the blue and red ones in my current bedroom, and they have had a ton of use over the years and developed some fading, so I probably will not use them as curtains in the new house.

Because folks need to maneuver sheetrock through my second floor hallway (up one stair, around a corner, down a hall, around another corner, up another stair), I am clearing out as much space as possible for them to move. The hall was already mostly clear, except for the almost-a-room alcove on one end, where there was a treadmill and two bookcases. And a TV. We really packed a lot of stuff into our house. I’m really feeling it right now.

Anyway.

I have permission from the kids to dispose of the speakers they built in shop class in high school. I’ve otherwise cleared off one very tall bookcase, and it just needs to head to the basement pending a disposal decision. It may go to friends of ours. Otherwise, it’s either list it on FB Marketplace (maybe) or donate it to HG (probably). It’s risky listing large items like this on FB because I don’t want to deal with someone showing up with an inadequate transportation plan. Altho honestly, I’ve been stupid lucky so far.

The other bookcase is where some of the contents of that first bookcase went. Most of the contents have been listed on FB and have been moving steadily out the door, which is awesome. I’m currently putting a lot of the remaining books in my car to go to the book donation bin, altho a few went upstairs to the bookshelves there, what remains of a once vast physical book library. I hate to do it, but there are some items that I just can’t bring myself to get rid of (in this case, my oz paperbacks from when I was a child).

I’m mostly waiting on a decision from the friends (who have a son who still likes physical books) regarding how many and which bookcases they want for their living room renovation. There’s no particular reason to rush, and it would be incredibly satisfying for my bookcases to go to them. So many of my bookcases over the years have gone to friends’ libraries, and it always makes me so happy and according to the various friends, it’s made them pretty happy, too.

I’ve got a knee that is freaking out about all the stairs I’ve been doing, but other than that, I’m feeling pretty good. Each layer that I excavate and figure out what to do with is that tiny bit more freeing, even when another plastic crate (in this case, containing lego instruction booklets) lands in my office with no clear plan.

ETA: 7’ bookcase is not only emptied, it is in the garage, awaiting a verdict from the B.’s about whether they want 7’, 6’, 5’ or 54” tall bookcases and how many. Once they have a decision, I’ll have to clear off whatever else they’ve picked and get it out the door. I have one empty 54” and an almost empty 5’ case For Reasons, so Murphy’s Law says they will pick the 6’ cases.

ETAYA: Both bookcases (the 7’ and a 5’) are in the garage. I’m starting to disassemble lego and list it on FB marketplace, and while I’m mostly doing small stuff right now (a 12 in 1, some brickheadz, I am groot), it’s clearing out space on top of furniture notably on bookshelves on the main floor that may be getting reshuffled soon. I’ve really taken to heart A.Y.’s advice to heavily declutter as part of the Figure Out Where All the Stuff We Want to Keep Will Go in the New Place. It was tough getting started, but I’m really rolling now, and no one is freaking out (yet).

We’ll see how tomorrow goes. There are a _lot_ of pickups scheduled, and in theory the sheet rock folks are coming, so it’s going to be kinda nuts around here. I have warned most of the people picking up that if the driveway is full they should park around the corner and I’ll walk the item out to them.

Oh, and unrelated, H.S. in Seattle found some voorraadbussen at a thrift shop, and we were puzzling out what the labels meant. Kruitnoot was mysterious, but turns out to be a regional term for nutmeg in the past. Along the way, I reached out to B.L., one of my sources for All Weird Questions Dutch Adjacent, and we chatted for a bit which we have not done in a while. That conversation involved a lot of odd herbs and spices, and as a result of that, I’ve ordered seeds for lovage, chervil and watercress. I’m going to attempt a fall crop and see how it goes.

I stayed up ludicrously late reading in bed, which was very fun and also kind of stupid. I finished the first book in Leigh Miller’s Monster Relations Bureau (Nora’s Kraken) and then foolishly started the second and read it, too (Kenna’s Dragon). The whole cozy / spicy / monster romance thing is surreal and also awesome if you are in the right headspace for it.

After reading a bunch of stuff about hypersomnia, I’ve become really leery about caffeine (this happens to me at intervals, often in the summer time, so I try to just roll with it and not necessarily justify / defend it, but assume it’s the Right Thing for Me Right Now when it happens) again. I’m not giving up my morning tea (because that is always an error), but I’m going to go back to no more afternoon coffee. Of course deciding this after staying awake late reading is its own kind of mistake. LOL

I walked with M.

I made blondies.

I did some decluttering. We’re moving along some of the many headlamps. We don’t use any, but we for sure do not need 6. I pulled some stuff that was staged in the garage to go to donation, and listed things, like the Hue Bloom lights, which are already out the door. That also included water spray toys, which when I put them in the garage were not in season but are definitely in season now.

I had a delightful zoom with I.

I got a shower this morning, and A. took one this afternoon before her online playdate, so I guess we’re a little ahead there.

Family zoom was enjoyable.

It got up into the 90s. It was already really hot by the time I dropped A. at school for her 11:30 homework cafe.

I had a visit with M. in the afternoon, but it was too hot to walk. We talked about it, and then in the evening we walked at 7 pm. Still mid 80s, but shady and not too many bugs yet. Pleasant, and will happily do again. Lots of people out with the same idea.

Guinness glasses went out today! Very exciting. R. brought down a charging kit from Kanga Room, from some time around 2007. We’d even put an appropriate size power strip in it. He had no recollection of using it; I thought we’d moved it along a decade or more ago. We switched to Anker charging blogs when things stabilized on USB-A; the kanga setup was needed when there were still a lot of proprietary things out there, and we had a lot of devices. Weird to remember when the kids were preschool age, and each had their own iPad, and I had one too, and R. and I both had phones but mine wasn’t even an iPhone yet. Things change.

I’ve got people who are interested in the drafting board, the flashlights and the kanga thingie, but I’ve been ghosted so many times who knows what will happen. But things will probably keep leaving the house slowly. I spent a few minutes on reddit, found a home organization group, and one of the posts was a photo of a kitchen that someone had sharpied up what was going to go into each drawer and cabinet and asking for suggestions. I had zero interest in the details, but I pulled up N.R.’s document for my future kitchen and started marking it up. Always challenging figuring out where the flatware goes!

Today was the very first person on FB Marketplace who interacted with me in a way that really raised some questions in my mind.

As soon as someone expresses interest in an item I’ve listed free for local pickup only, I give them my address and tell them that if they give me a date and approximate time I will mark it pending for them to pick it. If they give me a date, and no one else is currently interested / has already ghosted me, I don’t insist on the approximate time. I’ll just mark it pending and tell them to give me an eta when they have one. This works well, and while sometimes I’m ghosted (sometimes repeatedly) it does move things along with the absolute minimum amount of communication on my part. I have some frequent flyers who if they ask if it’s available, I immediately mark it pending for them and tell them I’ve done so. They come pick up after they’ve got a half dozen or so things waiting for them and one of them brought me cookies when they did.

There are certain items, usually the kind of thing that a stereotypical guy might like (multi tool, incense burner, Guinness glasses), I tend to get a lot of Is This Available and then zero followup. I just let those sit, because sometimes they’ll follow up days later and if it’s still there, they can have it. But if someone else claims it, I don’t necessarily tell the people who asked about it that it has been claimed. I used to, but they rarely responded so I just don’t bother for the most part. I’ll bother if I list, multiple people express interest in a few minutes, and someone meets the provide a date criteria. Then I’ll tell everyone else that it’s been claimed but I’ll let them know if I’m ghosted.

Last night, someone wanted the Guinness but didn’t want to drive from Brookline MA to get it and wanted to know if I would leave it somewhere for them. I didn’t respond (“local pickup only” is the criteria). Several other people did the Is It Available and then nonresponse, and finally, someone said they’d get it Monday (two days from now). I marked it pending for them. The Brookline guy asked if I marked it pending for him, and I said no, someone else gave a date and it’s marked for them, and he put an angry face emoji. I thought about that for a while, and the fact that he had my address, and then I thought about the fact that he hadn’t wanted to drive from Brookline to here to pick up some Guinness glasses. I blocked him, and if he rolls up to harass me in person (unlikely, but possible), I’ll decide how to deal with it at the time.

In recluttering, last December at Epcot I saw a woman wearing cargo pants. She was built like me, and I asked her where she got them and she said what I should have expected (amazon). I found them on Amazon, and then wait, but can I get plus sized cargo pants in purple? I could! I did! And then I realized I really needed a belt. And I also really hate taking belts off going through security. So I’ve been shopping for metal free belts, and I started with Arcade, but they don’t make their extra long ones in the narrow width. The wider width just barely works, and is a hassle to get through the loops and back out, and I’m afraid it’ll wear at the loops. (Which is fine, but also I don’t want something to break while I am traveling.) (Nor do I want to travel with a sewing kit, which I’ve done in the past, but never actually needed.) I went looking for a narrower width and found the Invisibelt, which I initially dismissed until I realized their plus size really was long enough. I got it, and it does work, altho I have no idea how I feel about the buckle on that. Today, a Thomas Bates one arrived and I initially thought it wouldn’t work, but it’s actually great and super minimalist, rolls up tiny. I am very happy about this.

I took A. in and R. picked her up. He stopped briefly to get a birthday card for me (it is not my birthday today, let’s just get that right out there) and the deal was he was supposed to give her the opportunity to shop for one for me as well. However, they were late heading home and traffic was bad, and we had a dinner reservation so that did not work and she was still pretty angry when she got home. I got her some food and we discussed it and R. agreed this was an error. We went to 80 Thoreau and I had two stiff drinks, we split the tuna crudo, bread and a salad, and I had cauliflower for dinner. And then I came home and had a blondie and some Ben & Jerry’s The Tonight Dough (non-dairy). Pretty awesome. I suggested we get rid of another one of those collapsible tables that I got during that thing in 2020 when we needed some extra work space for school from home. I had 3, and efforts to get rid of them have been weirdly unsuccessful. R. uses one on the porch, and figures we should keep the other because we’ll have two houses for about a year. I’m like, but we could have nice porch furniture. So we’re going to put the other one out for the summer in case someone else wants to have some table space on the porch.

In the meantime, I pointed at the glassware that is super dusty and somewhat greasy on high shelves in our kitchen. We have cleared a lot out of the top shelves in the kitchen (future house does not have as high cupboards; there is a pantry, but it’s not really going to be that much bigger than the pantry we have, sadly), but there were 4 Guinness glasses, a lidded cocktail shaker that we never use, 4 coupe glasses, and 9 sherry or nick and nora glasses, depending on your perspective. There are also a ton of water glasses. The water glasses we are keeping; the rest have been cleaned and posted on FB. I suspect they won’t move, but you never know.