Open House

Tomorrow we have an open house viewing day and I've spent this week trying to maximise the feeling of space (our main selling point) by sorting through the piles of stuff cluttering up the place. I have over a dozen black sacks of rubbish that DD3 and BF are going to collect early in the morning to take to the tip, and I've sent about the same number of bags of saleable items off to the local hospice charity shop. My airing cupboard is now clean and tidy with room to house all the cleaning things and spare loo rolls etc that were previously stored on the floor of the bathroom or in bags on the landing. And our bedroom is virtually unrecognisable with my 3 dusty old collector's dolls' houses donated to the Emmaus charity shop. I haven't done anything to them for years and they were acting as clothes hangers for my dresses and smock tops draped all over them. All the clothing I've kept is now tucked neatly away in drawers.

To make room for the dresses and tops in the drawers I've finally bitten the bullet and given away all my big clothes. I've hung on to them because I've lost weight and then regained it several times in the past but this time, after more than 2 years at my target, I'm hoping I'll manage to keep the weight off permanently. I've held on to one pair of size 14 jeans...just in case. But all the 16s, 18s, 20s and, yes, the 22s have gone. If I ever gain the weight back then I deserve to have to pay out for new clothes. Mind you, with the stress of a probable move already getting to me, I've been eating for England this week. 

The first signs are hopeful as we have 3 people booked for the 11-12 am viewing slot, and another person coming about 1.15pm. There's also 2 people who couldn't make tomorrow and are booked to come on Wednesday. So, let's cross fingers and everything else we can that we'll soon have an offer...preferably from a cash buyer from London looking to invest in rental property. We can but hope. As we're considering new build homes, and DS1 and I are going to view some in Deal on Tuesday afternoon, it would make for a much easier transaction with no chain at either end.

With all this going on I still haven't given much thought to Christmas. Not a single pressie bought yet. It's going to be gift vouchers and boxes of chocs this year, I think, I simply have too much else to think about with the house sale and DS1's social services assessment on 22nd Nov. There's also 2 birthdays before the holiday period too. One of them is DH's and luckily he's quite happy to just go out to the vintage tea room in Deal and have a cream tea, which is what we did for my birthday this year.

Although we're going to DD3's for Xmas day I've managed to get roped into doing a full roast dinner for 10 of us on the previous Sunday (18th) when DD2 and SIL (son-in-law) will be down our way, DD3 and BF will be over and DS2's American girlfriend and her best friend will be here.  I managed to pick up a couple of large fresh British roast-in-the-bag chickens yellow-stickered in Asda so they've gone in the freezer, and I already have a Quorn roast and some Quorn gammon-style rashers in there for DS2 who's been vegetarian since she was 8. I'll probably buy a pork roast too, and do all the trimmings. Good job I have a big cooker with 2 full sized oven and 8 gas burners. I think I might need most of them.

That's about it for tonight. I'll be having an early night and trying to shut my brain down enough to get some sleep before tomorrow. I do hate my overactive brain; it goes through all the possible outcomes over and over and over again, usually in the early hours of the morning. So, here's to a good night's rest.

Sleep well everybody. Love, Helen xx