Karin, Thanks for the SI joint education. I had somehow envisioned that they were like facet joints, all down the spine. Now I know where they are.
That is nice that you are moving to Florida, it is beautiful there.
I did notice that alot of people there are not from there. It is a huge melting pot, which I really liked. I did talk to a ton of people that were really nice and interesting. Since you are used to the honking, it won't faze you, like it did me. By the end of the trip, we would just be driving down the road and start honking for no reason. It was a good laugh, although it hurt my belly at the time! I am a very patient driver, I may cuss about something; but don't get mad and honk or road rage.
I remember getting our last house ready for sale and all the work. I hope you have some help getting all the loose ends tied up. We packed up and filled an entire large storage building with 'extras' that our Realtor wanted out. This made the closets very empty, which made them look bigger. Took out extra furniture, emptied cabinets, etc. Did all the touch up painting, re-caulking, fixing the things we had put off for a rainy day and more. We worked for a week and a half, day and night (hubby just night and weekend when he was off work).
The crazy thing is that the house was only 4 years old, we had done a bunch of improvements, had kept up all the maintenance and I was crazy OCD clean at the time; so it would seem that there wouldn't be much to do- wrong! I had worked in real estate prior to selling our house and knew that although doing all this stuff wasn't required; but that it would lead to a quicker sale and that it is a fact that the faster a home sells for, the more money you get. We put our house on the market on a Wednesday, it snowed on Friday and Saturday and didn't clear up until Tuesday (which in Texas means no one gets out, so it didn't show). It didn't show until the following Thursday night, and then on Saturday we had 3 showings scheduled and we had a full price offer that night. We had it sold in 11 days for the full asking price, which was good because we had already got into contract on another house. I'm sure if you have a great kitchen (which is a huge factor in selling a home) and have done extras, that you will have a fast sell too.
That elbow grease will pay off and you will have it sold and be in your new home soon! Good Luck.
Please do take it easy and have help. I hope you have people helping you pack, or better yet, maybe your hubby has one of those great jobs that has a 'moving package' where they pay for the move, hire movers (who pack and move it for you) and help sell your home (and make up the difference if you don't get fair market value). When I was in real estate, we loved it when we had the 'big wigs' with these packages, as it made it so easy on us. If your like us and you don't have such a thing, have help and lots of beer 'to pay' your helpers!
Take it easy and don't overdo it, Kathy