I Can Stay Home Today

At last I finally am getting my non-move related tasks under control.
Monday I took my car to Classic Acura. The car got its annual state
safety inspection. I asked them to also put on my new registration
sticker when they were putting on the new inspection sticker. My car
is in good standing with the State of Texas for another year. They
changed the oil and filter and washed the car so it looks nice again.

Yesterday I went to Sam's Club. I bought a pack of 18 shipping/moving
cartons, a big roll of 3M bubble wrap and packaging tape bundled with
a dispenser. Today I am going to work on the storage closet under the
stairs. I did finish the coat closet and cabinets in the utility room
over the weekend. Tomorrow I should be ready to start packing the
china and crystal. I will be able to estimate how many boxes my car
can hold in a single trip. I hope I can carry all of the china and
crystal to Frisco in two trips.

I have been trying to decide what to do with the things I have in the
garage on the storage shelves. I want to get rid of the shelves but
did not know how to the handle the things in the garage. I have
decided to buy more boxes and try to pack many of the garage items
myself. It will enable me to get rid of the shelves and will probably
be cheaper than having the moving company pack the garage items. I
intend to have them do all of the packing inside the house except for
the china and crystal.

I am getting my financial affairs in order, too, so I will have the
money ready for closing. The price of crude went up the last two days,
and I decided it was time to sell the oil company stock that I have
outside of my retirement accounts. I am also going to cash some U.S.
Savings bonds. I checked with the branch manager of my bank to find
out how much lead time they need to cash the bonds. She said about an
hour. I also checked with my brokerage company about using an
electronic fund transfer for the hurricane distribution from my IRA
account. My regular brokerage account is set up for EFT, but the IRA
was not. They are sending me a form to fill out to enable EFT from the
IRA account. I was very glad that I called now instead of finding out
I had a problem when I need the funds.

I am watching the websites of several realtors to find new listings in
my part of town. Right now there is a shortage of homes in Beaumont.
All of the realtors I have talked to say houses are selling in less
than two weeks. I cannot get a feel for price trends from the website.
I hope the market conditions hold for three more months.