In The Home Stretch

I have uncluttered my world.  In Missouri, in preparation to sell our home, Dennis and I cleaned out every closet, and every nook and cranny.  We sold, gave away, pitched, and donated a ton of stuff.  Yes, it was stuff.  Our house is pretty much cleared out of what is extra in our lives.  When we get an acceptable offer on our home, it will be fairly simple to move our furniture and the last of our “stuff” out.

We also bought a home in Arizona.  We would like this to be our main home.  The location is at the foot of a mountain with several hiking trails.  We have wonderful neighbors, although to tell the truth, we have only met one set of neighbors!  We had some furniture put in place during our last two visits—one in June when we closed on the house, and in September when we came back for three weeks to prepare the house for our winter arrival after Christmas.  We had the last of our furniture delivered this week, since it was on back order in September.  

The contractor has completed the indoor corrections, and we have started hanging the artwork and pictures.  I look around and I see gaps in the room.  Do I put a plant there?  No, they would die while we are back in the midwest during the summer and fall.  I realized that some of the gaps in decorating are actually opportunities to purchase new “stuff,” which I thought I would not be doing.  Don’t get me wrong.  We didn’t get rid of “stuff” from the Missouri home we could use in the Arizona home.  It’s just different kind of stuff that is needed to fill in and make the house look warm.  

Today I followed up on a piece of pottery I have owned for around 30 years at least.  My mom brought it back from one of her many trips to Arizona.  She told me not to throw it away or just get rid of it because it was very expensive.  It is signed on the bottom, so I googled the name.  To my surprise, this pottery may be from New Mexico rather than Arizona.  The artist is P. Iule Acoma Designs.  Apparently the Iule family are all artists in pottery, silver, and turquoise.  The P stand for Phillip, and his style seems to be these animals and bugs rather than geometric designs you see on a lot of Native American pottery.  I love this piece, and thought it was most appropriate to bring to Arizona from Missouri.  Since my mom is no longer with us, I cannot ask her if she bought this in Arizona or New Mexico.  It really doesn’t matter, it’s still a beautiful piece of Native American art residing back in the Southwest.

We arrived in Arizona in my car that was loaded with “stuff” for this house, and next week Dennis’ son will be bringing our other car which is an SUV loaded with more “stuff” from Missouri for this house.  Howdy Doody along with my photo is on its way, along with my mom’s camera from the 1940’s—it’s not valued at a lot, but it has a lot of sentimental value to me. All of our vintage photos of our families (mine and Dennis) are here to cover a wall along with a vintage photo of these women who we have no idea who they are.  Dennis’ wife, who passed away, had bought this picture when they lived in Virginia.  It is in its original frame.  Our framer in Missouri, as he re-matted the picture, took a look at it and said that it is an actual photograph.  These women are all dressed in black sitting around a table with a photograph of another woman.  We assume she was part of this group of whoever they were, but possibly deceased.  It’s just such a neat photo.  I am still trying to figure out who they are, so any ideas from those who read this, please let me know.

What does one do with empty corners?  Maybe once the artwork and photos are hung, they won’t be so noticeable.  It will probably take 6 months to a year to have this home completely as I envision.  I am okay with that.  

My real wish is that our home would sell.  It is such a wonderful home, but I would like it to be in our memories.  Our lives will be simplified when our Arizona home becomes our only home.  We will not leave Missouri completely when our home sells.  Dennis’ mom, who is 100 years old, lives in a nursing home in Columbia.  We will rent an apartment there while she is still with us.  But, an apartment doesn’t have to be as homey as our Arizona home, and we will not have any maintenance and upkeep issues with a rental (I hope).  I want my husband to be free of all that kind of work.  It is why we selected a new build in Arizona.  We want to live our senior years without a lot of work to do.  We want to relax, travel, and spend time with family and friends.  Having a lot of maintenance and upkeep is not on this agenda!

So here is to 2019—the year we can start relaxing (I hope).  A year for the sale of our Missouri home, the year new adventures and new friends!