What is all of this stuff?!

And where will we put it?

The thing about remodeling is you have to remove and stored everything in all of the places that are now targeted for demolition. And the stuff you move, replaces other stuff and so on. So inevitably, a storage unit is rented. Storage of stuff is a huge business in the US, since we all have too much stuff and don't want to look at it any more, so we put it into a unit where it will be out of sight.  I have always prided myself on never accumulating so much stuff that it required a storage unit, but yesterday that changed.  I broke down and rented a small space to start off-loading piles of stuff.

The justifiable piles include my work records that will someday be my book:)  "M" stuff that will someday go to her home in Sacramento. The paperwork from all of our transactions (selling three houses in one year generates boxes and boxes of stuff) that will someday be discarded and forgotten. 

The unjustifiable stuff includes our collection of Barbie Dolls, that we will sell some day and get a fortune for,  my mother and father's things that I don't have the heart to throw away and the boxes of miscellaneous crud that I don't want to go through right now.  If I am lucky, the rental units will melt in the 108 heat or spontaneously ignite and burn to the ground leaving a pile of ashes.

But it is a great feeling to have half of the attic cleared, half of the Tuff shed cleared and by next week, we will be getting close to having a cleared room ready for action. 

Lots of questions still need to be answered regarding the remodel, but it is hard to let go of the ideas that were not even part of the project and are now the key elements. Such as, removing the living room wall, we never even considered it and yet, this morning "G" was saying, to his own surprise, "I think we can get that wall down if we want to do it ourselves.  It wouldn't be that hard". He is talking about a wall, solid, wired, and framed! This is the man that didn't want me to take down the dropped ceilings. In any case, I am glad he is getting into the spirit and, if it weren't so hot, we might even be taking up battle with the plaster and wood. 

The wall contains lots of materials that are original to the house and will be re purposed in other places in the house. This is a bit of a problem for us to undertake since we don't know which pieces are re usable and which are just trash.  In any case, nothing can happen until we remove the stuff and thus, that is our task for today. Heat or no heat, we will be setting out on our third truck load of stuff to the storage unit and probably wishing we had rented a bigger one;/