Preparing to leave Florida

Now this is what a garage should look like!

    A little backtracking is in order before I continue to blog about our life in Marina Del Rey.  Believe me, preparing to move was an adventure in itself!
   We found out about our possible temporary move to California in the middle of November, but it was several weeks later before it was definite.  Our oldest son and his family (John, Tiffany, and Silas) just so happened to be looking for a new place to rent -so it was decided that they would move to our house, but with clear instructions that they make it their own.  They decided to utilize all of the house but the master bedroom (which will be nice for us when we travel back for visits).

    

Preparing our home for John, Tiffany, and Silas to live in was no small feat!  (I wish I had taken a picture of what our garage looked like on a daily basis prior to cleaning it).  We needed all the storage space that we could create for both our belongings and their storage items.    We were quite impressed with the finished project!

   

     The necessary work on the inside of the house was a slow process.  Between my work, helping with Silas, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and our youngest daughter, Natalie,  home from college- there was only so much I could do until the last week.  ( I was thankful that I had already organized the house  completely back in September.  I can't imagine what a task this would've been had I not.)  After Christmas, I emptied the closets in two of the three bedrooms and also my closet in the master bedroom.  Shelves, bookcases, and bathroom cabinets were cleared.  It really was a much needed purging which involved several trips to the Goodwill store and to the trash can.  Our kitchen was left untouched as John & Tiffany planned to store most of their kitchen items which saved me a lot of work.  My favorite preparation was painting Silas' room.  He wanted it painted pink, but didn't seem to mind the gray.

Getting this room ready . . . 

. . . for this little guy!