the old house:

16 April 1999:

Two days ago we sold the house in Washington. The house had been on the market for almost six weeks, and we were beginning to take it personally. All the agents we talked to went on and on about how few houses were on the market and how strong the demand was. In a market like that, the house should have be under contract within the first week. Other houses in the neighborhood came up and were sold, and ours sat available. Prospective buyers would come through and compliment us on the look and feel, yet not submit an offer. We couldn't figure it out. Still can't. But it doesn't matters. The house is sold.

Before we put the house on the market, we went did a major clean-out, and then packed up stuff we don't use but think we will use into a U-Haul and deposited it at Affordable Storage in Norwalk, CT. We had at least five bulk pick-ups by the city (see Garagart), another two runs to the dump, a massive pick-up by Amvets, and numerous deposits of books to the Stone Ridge book fair.

One weekend, the girls came down from New York and went through all their treasures in the attic. I thought it would be more traumatic for them to divest of their childhoods, but they did fine. They didn't even fight, not at least that we could hear.

It was wonderful getting rid of all the crap that that hangs around because one of these days it'll be needed. Three piles -- keep, pitch, and Amvets. That third pile was the key. You don't want it, but keep it because it's not trash. So let someone else keep it!