We stopped by to have a look and bid the job. Brad didn't make it through the front door before he started to repeat the word "no". He followed his train of no's with nuh-uh and no way. Having a fair amount of experience lately with yard sales I saw the house from a different perspective. We could sell quite a bit of what I saw. I thought we should at least bid the job. So bid we did.
We got the job and got to work. I forgot to take before pictures on day one but here is the dumpster after our first 3 hours. Everything damaged, broken or incomplete went into the dumpster. Even Good Will will turn away these items.
These are the piles set aside for good will after the first 3 hours:
And the pile set aside for us to sell after the first 3 hours:
Day two this is what we had to tackle in the rain:
Saturday evening as it was getting dark we finally finished everything. We knew we would have to come back Monday after Goodwill made their pickup and fix the dumpster. We guessed there may not be anything left for Goodwill come Monday and planned to stop by and check in case we needed to cancel the pickup.
We had about a room and a half of things set aside inside the house to sell ourselves: the refrigerator, washer, dressers, storage shelves and boxes of small items of value. We decided to wait to move it all until the rain stopped. We planned to come back Sunday evening after the little ones were in bed. Everything was locked inside the house.
Sunday we drove by the house after church. As expected the dumpster was open and every last item that had been placed in the carport for goodwill was gone. No surprise. I asked Brad if we could pick up the sale items from inside the house during nap time. He really wanted to take the day off. He needed the rest and it was the Sabbath. I said I felt funny about leaving everything and he reminded me it was all locked up. Not to worry. So we waited. I admit, taking a nap in my PJs and listening to the rain fall outside from the warm, dry, comfort of my bed felt really good.
Sunday night we had dinner with my parents, Chris and Alex (my brother and his girlfriend). As we were talking about our project we made a shocking discovery. The deceased home owner's long-time girlfriend was Alex's grandmother. Many of the things I had seen in the house were hers! Some of them were meaningful and she would be so thrilled to see them again. We couldn't believe it. We were all so excited to reunite her with her belongings and memories.
Monday afternoon I met my brother at the house to get him Alex's grandmother's things. As I pulled up to the house a head popped out of the dumpster. Sure enough I had to ask yet another neighbor to please leave the dumpster. As I walked up to the house my brother stepped out of the open door. I was not surprised to discover the house had been broken into. The back door was kicked in and everything was taken. The dressers and shelves remained but they had been broken, the drawers strewn across the floor.
I knew it was coming. The whole neighborhood discovered the house was vacant. They saw the value of the items set aside for donation. And many of them (we saw at least 10 separate people on several different occasions) had climbed into the dumpster and seen what we had thrown away. We had set the bait but had no trap to spring. The sharks were circling long before we left the property Saturday and Sunday.
So, one less giant pile of stuff to move. A silver lining. Good riddance 6th street!
