Packing NJ

We have had to hurry things along because Joe and Karen are moving to North Carolina.  Joe has a new job there and is living on their boat while Karen has stayed in NJ to get the house sold and finish up her work.  We spent a day helping them paint before an open house and then in one of those awesome real estate miracles, they had multiple offers on it's second day on the market.  They had just redone the kitchen and the house did show really well so that was a great thing.  

 We spent another day helping them load u-hauls and clean the house (Karen's foot is still a problem after her stepping off a ladder onto a paint can mishap) as their closing was the following morning and they had to be out!  They had already been in a hotel for a couple of days and they have stuff in storage in NJ AND North Carolina until they find a house.  Fortunately the boat is big enough to stay comfortably there until they find a place.

We were richly rewarded at the end of that long day with burgers on the grill and Marie's famous blueberry pie.  Victor came over to join us.

 After much discussion we finally decided to pull the carpet up at their mom's home as the old carpet isn't a great selling point.  Tom and I spent the next day doing just that and fortunately, the floors underneath were pretty wonderful!  We pulled up staples all day and moved all the furniture outside for the thrift store (still sick about all the stuff that is being let go).  We did the entire ground floor and put out a Craigslist curb call where people can come and pick up stuff for free.  It worked well the weekend before! Marie came to help later in the day and I think we may still go back to paint.

          This pretty much summed up how we felt after two days of lifting, loading and pulling.

Took off for home as soon as we showered and found this little ice cream joint on the way.  NJ is known for their blueberries so we had to try their fresh blueberry shakes!  It was okay....not as good as raspberry shakes from Bear Lake.

 We had a rainy drive through Philly on the way home.  Yeah, right THROUGH Philly as Tom had us on the slowest route possible!  This sky shot was almost worth it though......