Of course, the storage unit is our dirty little secret. 😁
Our house went on the market yesterday. We shall see.
Lakeside Backyard
Our House During the Golden Hour
A Room With a View
And, Of Course, A Garage To Die For!!
It's been hot here most of the summer. I'm sick of temperatures in the 90s and the blasted humidity. I once read that the awful summer humidity in these United States played a role in the eventual defeat of the British during the American Revolution. How about that?
Oh my! Our house officially goes on the market this Thursday. What a drama it's been getting it ready for the big day. We just had the exterior painted and the roof replaced. Interestingly, neither had anything to do with selling the house. We decided to have the house painted back in April, months before selling had even occurred to us. The painters couldn't get to us until August, however! We already replaced the roof a few years ago, but it was damaged in a hail storm this past spring and, thus, had to be replaced again.
We also had the horrible mishmash of shrubs out front removed and replaced with mountain laurel. Again, another project that had nothing to do with preparing the house for sale but turned out to come in handy. I really wanted to have blue hydrangea out front, but we have lots of deer in the neighborhood, and blue hydrangea is a popular menu item with them.
Ugly Old Bushes and Ugly Blue Shutters
Cute New Bushes and Lovely Red Shutters
Of course, Cape Cod -- to me anyway -- is the hydrangea capital of the world. I'm excited about being there even though it won't be during hydrangea season. Boo!
A Cape Cod House with Cape Cod Hydrangeas
This is the second big move of my life. The first big move was 9 years ago when we left Haddonfield for here. At the time, I had lived in that house for 23 years, which was filled with 23 years of happy memories but also harbored 23 years of accumulated junk. We had 2 yard sales there and 1 yard sale here to get rid of everything that people were willing to buy. As for the rest, bits and pieces either lined the park strip in front of our house for trash collection for an untold number of weeks or was carted -- an equally untold number of times -- to Goodwill for donation. The Haddonfield basement was unfinished, but I just couldn't get over how much useless stuff had been stored down there for so many years for no justifiable reason.
Haddonfield House
We bought a ranch home because, while living in our 2-story Haddonfield home, I had undergone a major surgery, which prevented me from being able to climb stairs and sleep in my own bed for a few months. Of our current, "forever" home, I declared that I would never leave unless it was in handcuffs or a pine box. I was here to stay -- well, for 9 years anyway.
Did I learn my lesson about "stuff" when we moved here? Did I avoid accumulating years of unnecessary stuff? Of course not! We don't have a basement here or an attic that is storage friendly. However, we do have a two-car garage. Do we park in that garage? No. Have we ever parked in that garage? No. Why? Because we "store" things there. When we moved in, Jim built shelves along one of the walls for that purpose.
Jim the Builder
Despite Jim's hard work, our items requiring "storage" quickly exceeded the shelf space until our garage looked like it belongs to hoarders.
Two-Car Garage Turned Hoarder's Hovel (Note Path Leading to Entrance to Inside of House)
To prepare for an interim move has been worse than packing up 23 years of life in Haddonfield. It seems to have made no difference that, when Jim and I left Haddonfield, Christina was all grown up and married, which granted us the luxury of giving her custody of everything of hers that I had saved over the years. Every time we went to visit her and Lou and the children, we took a box of stuff, which promptly went into her own basement, until we had no boxes marked "Christina" left. Yet, the absence of "Christina" boxes has not made this move any easier.
Rather than the standard 3 categories dubbed "Trash," "Goodwill," and "Keep," we have 2 additional categories: "Cape Cod" and "Storage." Because the Cape house is furnished, and our residence there will be temporary, we aren't taking everything we own with us. Therefore, we have rented a local storage unit. We make almost daily trips to the storage unit, as well as Goodwill. We've donated a lot of stuff to Goodwill and moved a lot more to the storage unit -- SO FAR -- but we still have a way to go.
Does This Look Like the Garage?
As we drove from Goodwill to the storage unit, I lamented that we were repeating history and suggested that, once we're settled in our next "forever" home, we should spend a week every year, pretending that we're selling our house and moving to another location, and get rid of stuff. Before he could share his opinion on the subject, I followed up with "That'll never happen."
We live in a tiny little borough that is 1.2 square miles in size, yet has a country club with 18-hole golf course and 22 lakes tucked in between 1500 homes, 150 of which are genuine log cabins (chinking included). Indeed, our little borough claims the highest concentration of original log cabins in the world.
Here, there are no streets or roads -- only trails, most of which have a Native American name, be it that of a nation (Apache), animal (Mishe Mokwa [Mama Bear]), or famous person (Sitting Bull). Yes, the trails are paved.
We live on one of the 22 lakes, though not in a rustic log cabin. Our lake's called Lake Mushkodasa. Thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, we know that Mushkodasa means grouse.
A Grouse
This is a partial view of Lake Grouse:
A View of Our Lake
One of the best things about living here is the Canoe Carnival, which takes place on one of our largest lakes on the first Saturday of August. This year's 90th (!) Annual Canoe Carnival was held last Saturday, August 6th. We took our 9-year-old granddaughter Penny. She's been coming to visit us at the lake since she was born, and she loves it here. How much does she love it, you ask? Well, Penny loves it here so much that, although her first spoken word was "hi," her second and third words were "Mishe Mokwa." True story!
Anyway, Canoe Carnival takes place on one of the largest lakes. It consists of themed floats that sail around the lake competing for prizes. The rules require that a float be supported by no more than two canoes. Each canoe must be hand-paddled by one person only. No motors permitted! The floats -- or those that win anyway -- are typically quite large, light up, and have moving parts. They can weigh thousands of pounds. If there is even a hint of wind, many of them become sails and wind up careening into a dock or a beach and have to be towed. This year was no different.
The parade of floats does not begin until it gets dark. Before then, the public gathers on a swimming beach where, earlier in the day, they were given access for the purpose of setting up their chairs.
People Waiting on the Beach for Darkness
We watched Canoe Carnival from the beach of a lakefront property. While we waited, Jim and Penny waded in the water.
Biding Time
Watching the Boat Patrol Take its Position
We were seated in the area where one of the floats set sail. The group that built the float is called the Scrub Pines, and the theme of their float was "You Should Bee Dancin.'" The float was propelled by two canoes. It was large and had lights and music. The float itself consisted of a giant bee hive with bees flying around it, and a dancing queen bee inside the hive, which opened periodically to show her dancing away. There were other people on the float, including a beekeeper with a smoker.
Waiting For Darkness to Fall
As you watch the video, you will see the two paddlers, each paddling a single canoe, in the lower left of the clip. They must "bee" strong!
Other floats included The Blue Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, which sailed to The Who's "Who Are You?," and Medusa.
When all was said and done, "You Should Bee Dancin'" was declared the overall winner. Great job, Scrub Pines!
It was difficult to time the filming to see the hive open and the Queen Bee emerge, but Jim did manage to catch her dancin,' as she should "bee."
It was a great night! Penny loved it, and we loved sharing the experience with her. When I think about the charm of our little Land o' Lakes and life in the Great State of South Jersey, where I've lived my entire 61 years, it's hard to believe I'm about to trade it all in for life on a big sandbar.
We've signed a lease for a beachfront winter rental in East Sandwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, commencing October 1st, which also happens to be the first day of my retirement. Prior to our departure for New England, our intention is to either sell or rent our marital home -- Roundabout Cottage -- which is located in an idyllic little borough in the Great State of South Jersey.
We have a lot to do to get Roundabout Cottage ready for sale. In the meantime, it is filled with grandchildren, who are quite messy and do not appear to be leaving anytime soon....
Four of Six Grandchildren
On another note, today is the birthday of my fifth great grandfather, Private Cristoffel Bittenbender of Longswamp, Pennsylvania, who is recognized by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as one who aided the cause of American Independence through patriotic service. Grandpa Chris would have been 272 years old. Happy birthday, Grandpa Chris!!
Christoffel Bittenbender August 1, 1750 to June 30, 1835
