What doesn't kill you...

So, I'm still working on cleaning and getting rid of stuff.  Today, the old fridge and freezer that haven't worked for years are going to the curb for pick up tomorrow.  Yesterday a bunch of ewaste got dropped off at Goodwill.  Who knew they took ewaste?  I don't take things to Goodwill because the workers at the donation place aren't as friendly or helpful as the ones at the Opportunity House Thrift store.  That store supports our local homeless shelter and they come out and unload your car or truck for you, then, you drive up and they give you an itemized receipt.  Yesterday at Goodwill, the old guy comes out to the truck and says he will bring me a cart so I can unload.  He brings the cart to the sidewalk about 15 feet away, then stands there as I unload all 10 heavy things form the truck myself.  Then, he doesn't move the cart, he just takes the things off the cart and puts them inside the building.  It was the weirdest thing ever.  I could have moved them the extra 2 feet into the building for him, but maybe someone was watching him inside the building?  Then, while I was unloading a guy came up and asked if he was taking furniture that day.  He asked a whole bunch of questions about the furniture, like is it stained, ripped, new, perfect?  We only want it if it is perfect so we can make a lot of money off it.  I almost told the guy to take his furniture to the other thrift store.

Part of my cleaning involved taking in my younger daughter's trophies and having the name plates removed and put on one plaque.  I had this done last year and it has been sitting all year waiting for me to decide what to put on the top.  I had the hardest time figuring out what to put on top and finally decided on just her name.  I love the plaque so much more than all of the trophies from soccer, tennis and showing guinea pigs.  It takes up so much less space and I'm more likely to hang it on the wall than display all of her trophies.  Now to do this with my older daughter's trophies.  She has at least 3 times as many.  Neither daughter wants their trophies or the plaque (at least for now) so this is more for me and Im happy with how it came out so that's all that really matters.

 Today I took a break from cleaning and went with my 'adopted' daughter to IKEA.  I've never been before and it was an interesting experience.  She says she's an expert and thought we could get in and out in 1 1/2 hours.  3 1/2 hours later we barely escaped with our lives.  She just bought a new house and had to get a lot of furniture.  I'm more of a thrift store shopper so when she's going around getting a table and desk and kitchen cabinets and file cabinets and spending top dollar and then knowing she has to still assemble them when she gets home, I was not thinking that was much fun, but she was really enjoying herself.  I guess it takes all kinds of people to make this world go round.

I did see a really nice wall cubby
organizer thing for $200 that would make my sewing room look nicer and help organize my fabric better, but after getting the estimate on all of the repairs I'm glad I didn't get it.

All total, the estimate was $7000.  I called a plumber to give us a second opinion on the water heater (the first guy wanted $2100) and he said it would be between $1200 and $1500 so I think we will go with the plumber who is coming out tomorrow to take a look and if so, he will fix it tomorrow.  We will probably have to do the painting ourselves, which hopefully will save another $1000.  The contractor bundled a lot of the jobs into one price, so I'm not sure how much each thing would cost.