The Estate Sale That Never Was
While cleaning off my computer over the weekend, I ran across project photos from days gone by. As I walked down memory lane of past projects, I decided to poll our social media friends.
βWould you be interested in a series about past projects? As in way way past projectsβ
The majority voted yes! Letβs dive into an estate sale project that never was.
While working with an ongoing organizing client, she mentioned the need to clear her parents home in the mountains to have it sold. I recommended an estate sale (of course) and we set off one day to look at the house.
It wasnβt in great condition as it had been closed up for a number of years. There had been a leak (or burst pipe) which left a nice surprise for us when we arrived.
Aside from the scale of the project (and the condition), I encouraged her to move forward.
For a few weeks, our team drove up daily from Charlotte to sort and prep for the sale. We had bags and bags of trash; we found several black widows, and we drove into town everytime we needed to use the restroom since they didnβt have a properly functioning toilet.
The Lexus in the driveway was in disrepair and the wood workshop was a MASSIVE undertaking!
Countless Saturdays were spent driving up with my dad to haul off trash, sort through tools, and just to clean.
At this point, you might be thinking βJennifer, why in the world did you take this on?β
In part, I love a good challenge and in part because I love to help people who really need it.
Progress was being made and the estate sale was nearing.
That is until the news came that we needed to put a halt on the project due to her siblings asking questions and wanting to get involved.
The house sat for a few more months until we were given the green light to move forward. Based on a few stipulations, I agreed.
The team had just completed 2 extra-large projects and Raymond was at his limit with challenging sales at that time. He declined resuming work, so I went along solo.
The photos from above are the ones I took when I arrived back on scene. Not much had changed and it was now summer, which meant it was bug and critter season.
The house sat along a creek in the foothills of the NC mountains, while serene, it was a prime spot for squirrels and rodents.
I noticed my stipulations were disregarded when I arrived (specifically a trash dumpster), when I inquired, my client said she would prefer that I not throw anything away without her looking through it.
Letβs circle back to the fact that she was an ongoing organizing client, so I was familiar with this behavior from her. While it is permissible within the bounds of organizing, it was not something we could afford (time wise) within the estate sale project.
We were unable to meet in the middle and future work ceased. I was sad to see this one go, but I knew Raymond was likely thrilled. While we have tackled many a challenging project in our time, this one would have taken the cake!
Just look at those baskets in that kitchen! It really would have been amazing!
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Thrift w/me: part 6 at the Salvation Army Family Store in Gastonia, NC