Oh my Debbie, your post made me happy. It also made me cringe, and itch, and sneeze just thinking about the mess you've been dealing with. It also made me thankful that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and were able to help a family in need, too.

What a roller coaster ride! I'd be tempted to have a huge "every thing is free" yard sale and advertise it to the max. I'm a "Flybaby," and "You can't organize clutter" is truly my mantra as I haul trunk loads of stuff to the thrift shops. My "one in, two or three out" rule really helps, too.

You were so fortunate to get two people to thoroughly clean and scour the stove, oven and hood. I know the entire place had to feel better after that.

Keep us posted, and share photos of the "befores" and "afters" if you wish!

Welcome Back Debbie. WOW you two have been on a wild ride for sure. So good of you to share with the Montana family and I am sure they will be forever grateful for your generosity. I am sure you will eventually get it all put away nicely. Having the house clean is HUGE and gives a fresh start. I have pictures of my Mom;s hoarded house and sadly it IS trash mixed in with things bought and never even removed from bags. Just tossed into the hoard. Sad for her and sister and your friends too. It is a sickness for sure.

I am so so glad you are back. You have been on my mind and missing your new to you home remodel and progress.

A HUGE congratulations on your weight loss. I am right there with you on that. Size 20 to size 8 and I am at goal. I bet you feel so much better. I also have Arthur as an unwanted body guest and losing the weight has helped quite a bit with knees and back. Not so much my hands. I am lucky I do not have it in my feet that I know of. I just feel like I need to keep moving or I will lose the freedom to move.

Hugs to you and Joy and when you catch your breath you know how well we love photos.

Hi Debbie, I am only very vaguely aware of your story, but just want to say congratulations on the weight loss journey and that I am in awe of how you are taking ownership of your new place. And it is especially nice to be able to share the extra stuff with someone who can really use it. Win-win. I wish you continued success as you keep plugging along with all that taking over a "furnished" place entails and making it your own!! And, yes, I, too, would love to see pictures.

I've wondered how the 2 of you were doing - so good to have you back.

" were doubly happy to give it to someone who really could use it!"

that is such a good thing to do - both winners in that! I'm sure that family was very grateful. what a blessing!

I opted not to clean the stove that came with my place too. I bought a used one on CL from a couple a few miles down the road for about 125.00. It was soooo clean! All I had to do was wipe it down with a wet dish cloth. they even delivered it. Jed took the old one away. I eventually changed out the drip pans, but that was me being lazy. I chose to spend a few $s than spend time scrubbing them. I mostly just use 1 and try to keep it up so they should last a very long time.

and I had Jed do the under hood cleaning. I can't do the pretzel twisting to my back either.

Hi hi everyone!

I'm so sorry; I responded to all of you last night but fell asleep before I hit "send," and of course it disappeared by morning.

llucy, great to see you too! Yes, it was wonderful to help someone in need. This morning at church I shared our new neighbor's situation with our congregation (United Methodist). After the service, people were tripping over each other to come ask how they could help. So next Saturday is our annual rummage sale. We never put price tags on anything--it's whatever you can afford, or even nothing. Well, we made arrangements, and Saturday Joy and I are picking the neighbors up and getting there a half hour early so they can "shop." I told them there will be no charge for anything, and I can shuttle the mini van back and forth as many times as necessary so we can get everything they need/want that's available. Its heartwarming to know there are so many generous people in this world! And I know all of you here on this forum would do the same. :-)

And to everyone, yes! I will share photos soon. Since we're a few years away from the big kitchen remodel, we've decided to do a "refresh." A new coat of paint, new towels, some pictures, and curtains. I'm going to keep the colors/theme a surprise. ;-) We decided since it's somewhat temporary to get fun and whimsical! Hopefully the painting process will start this week, but it depends upon how the rest of the unpacking goes (yikes!)

Caroline--you sooo get me! Joy and I are really minimalist when it comes to decor and stuff in general. But you'd never know it to look at the house right now, haha! We definitely have a rule, if something comes in, something must go out. Now that we're combining the stuff left by the hoarders, Joy's household, and mine, it's really overwhelming! But Joy and I are really on the same page, which is nice. We have very few attachments to things--there are a few things that were my dad's or grandpa's, but that's about it. And we're very OK with letting go of things, even if they're very nice--I mean, how many spaghetti claws does one household need, even if they're top of the line? (The answer is either 0 or 1, lol!) We'll be making several trips to Value Village thrift store!

Chris, thank you so much for the thoughts and prayers! Has anything been done/resolved with sis and mom and the hoarding situation? If I hadn't seen my friend's (now my) house, I wouldn't have believed people really do live in hoarding conditions. It is a tragic illness.

I'm so impressed and proud of you for getting to your weight loss goal and now having maintained it! You've been one of my inspirations this past year! Wow--size 8! I'm almost ready (I think) to step down from 16 to 14. And yes, I agree, keeping moving is the key. ((((HUGS)))) back to you and hubby too! How is he doing?

murraysmom, thanks for the encouragement! Some days are easier than others to see the vision of what could (and will!) be, but most days it's there. :-)

Steph! I've missed you too! Wow, I can totally see how a "new" and clean range on CL for $125 beats cleaning someone else's mess on/in the old one. Wish I'd thought of that, haha! Yep, it's the bending over and twisting around that would have done me in. The young couple who came and did it did such a fantastic job, I barely recognized it as the same oven! How are you doing? I hope you haven't had any falls lately! And how is Jed doing?

Thank you all again for the warm welcome back! I really appreciate it!

:-)

Debbie right now my Mom is in MO and OK with brother and sister. They are about an hour and a half apart from each other. They are sharing her. Supposedly the hoard is being cleaned up by nasty sister. I have heard this before. It is a very sad mess. BUT Mom is having a good time with three brand new great grand children. She has gained some weight and is happier. She also opened new checking account and moved social security deposit to it and nasty sister was fit to be tied when she was cut off from the $$$ from that much. Mom said she will continue to pay the house insurance but no longer pay utilities or anything else. She was also supposed to cut off credit cards. Not sure if that has been done. One step at a time.

Debbie, so great to hear your update. Big congrats on the weight loss, and it sounds like things are starting to go your way for a while.