Tales of Nine: July 2013

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Prepping to Sell

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while. I have been busy prepping the house to sell. We are putting our household stuff into categories: Unaccompanied Baggage (UAB), Household Effects (HHE) and Stuff we are Taking in our Van (VAN). The first two abbreviations are the government's. The third one is mine. Everything going HHE is being put into our storage rooms in our house. Some of the UAB is, as well, as long as we haven't needed it up until now. The rest is just kind of all over.

Most of our furniture has sold. A few pieces remain in our garage. Our food storage is also slowly being sold off. I have a friend who will take whatever is left over when we need it gone.

I have been painting the entire interior of the house, with the help of several friends. I am down to a couple of closets, a small bathroom, the laundry room, and the music room. Then, I will just touch up a few places and it will be done.

There have also been all sorts of repairs and replacements all over the house, and trips to the hardware store and charity and environmental center drop-off sites.

Our piano also went to consignment today. Flylady would be so proud of our poundage lost today.

***

I wrote the above part last week, and never got to finish it. On Monday or Tuesday, I realized I couldn't

continue to live in the house with the kids while painting and cleaning it out. I decided to take up an amazing friend's offer to move in with them while we finished getting the house ready and on the market. We finished painting the house, emptied it, cleaned it, and have had a showing already, with one more scheduled for today. My friend is amazing for letting us live with her family. I think it is going really well there, so far. They have four children who each have a playmate in our family. I just hope we don't upset their routine too much. I am trying to help out there as much as possible, but also have vacation preparations to do and little things to touch up at our house.

We leave on Tuesday for Denver to see DH's grandparents. I am sure my friends will enjoy the quiet while we are away.

Oh, and I think we have housing taken care of in D.C. We won't be in Oakwood, but we found an apartment that will take us - for much more money than we would have spent at Oakwood, of course.

Abbreviation Help

A few readers have asked what DH stands for. They figured out that it had to do with my husband, but didn't quite get it. For anonymity's sake, when necessary, we use the following abbreviations:

DH = Dear Husband

DS = Dear Son

DD = Dear Daughter

I have put numbers after each of the DS's, since there are six of them. I numbered them DS1-DS6, from oldest to youngest.

You may see other abbreviations over time, like MIL (mother-in-law). I'll try to add their explanations here when that happens.

HHE - HouseHold Effects - items that you can't bring to temporary housing with you that are stored in a warehouse, such as Haggerstown, MD. When you leave temporary housing, you get to send HHE items to your new post from storage. You can add anything you don't want from your temporary housing to HHE storage, and anything that isn't going in your UAB or on the plane with you will go into HHE that is going to post. You get to visit Haggerstown once before you leave and take out boxes if you need to go through and remove some things. For example, our packers mixed ice skates with garden tools in one box. I will be removing that box, and will send the skates back to storage (other than any we have outgrown) and send the gardening tools onward. HHE allowance is 18,000 lbs and includes items in storage in Haggerstown or any other government storage facility. 18,000 lbs. can go to a post with no furnishings provided. 7,200 lbs. can go to a post with furnishings provided. The remaining 10,800 lbs. can stay in storage. Weights include packaging materials, and you don't get to pack your own stuff.

UAB - Unaccompanied Air Baggage - When you go anywhere, you get a small shipment sent more quickly than your HHE. This could mean you get it two weeks after arrival or 3 months after arrival, depending on the destination and customs hold-ups. Nothing in UAB can be over 3' long and 2' wide, as this is the approximate size of a UAB shipping box. UAB weight allowance changes with family size, and any amount you don't use can be added to your HHE allowance. Weights include packaging materials, and you don't get to pack your own stuff.

POV - Privately Owned Vehicle - You can also ship one vehicle at the department's expense. Every country has their own guidelines as to what vehicles they will allow to be imported, so don't take this as a blanket rule that you can ship whatever you want to drive. The maximum size the Department will ship on their tab is 800 cubic feet, and you have to pay overages if it is bigger.

CDO - Career Development Officer - The person (which will probably change once while you are a junior officer) who decides where to send you for your first two tours

TED - The date of departure from your current post (even though it is a specific date, for bidding purposes, you can use the whole month, and after that, we hear there is wiggle room up to a month prior to that date, if necessary)