Great story and super house. How wonderful to have it cared for by really great people.

I dont have any kids to deal with my stuff. I try to figure out what to do with all my junk. While I have been sort of laid up with my leg I have been going through tons of paper work. Gad what a job. I am not even considering DH's junk. Mercy.

Boy, I'm totally with foas' first paragraph! And I love, love the house.

When you care about a house, it's so wonderful to know it's in good hands, so I'm glad all your hard work, to put it mildly, had that outcome for you. Did I mention I love the house? Good work. That's a wrap.

Congratulations! This must be a huge relief, such work. Very happy for you.

I went through a similiar experience with my mom's home. She was still alive but needed to move to assisted living. Huge house filled with her treasures, and she liked to hide money and jewelry, so we had to go through everything. She passed away in 2020 and the estate is still not finished, almost done.

What a cool house, Ded! Congratulations! I'm sure it's a happy/sad feeling to see it go, but the new family will take good care of it.

Very cool house. Great yard! Glad a family is there now to make it their cool house. I'll bet you feel a weight lifted. Glad it worked out for everyone. Now.......get yourself a glass of wine (or whatever 😉) and let yourself relax.

Great big ”whew!” And what rubyclaire and others said re the buyers. Such a gorgeous property. I’d love to have seen the view from the wall of windows in the back.

It is a lot to do to get to this point. As long as it took you to get it here, it may take that long to fully feel it. Don't be surprised if it tugs at you a bit later on, but balance it with the fact it's as well loved as your family felt. I love your family home. It's wonderful to see.

It's a lovely house and I am not surprised it sold quickly. Love the quip about your father about the gay couple . The same would have happened in my case. What a relief to have a lovely family and kids enjoying this pretty house.

Congratulations on making it to the end of this journey and finding a lovely family to continue loving the home. It looks like a wonderfu house.

Congratulations, Ded! What a nice home. I’m glad you found new owners who appreciate it.

Pat yourself on the back!

Thanks for all your kind words. It is quite a house. The stonework is amazing. it has four stories ( split level) and is much larger than what you see from the front. There are 3.5 acres and that includes a pool that is now a frog pond.

As difficult as the experience has been, I surprised myself with how well I managed. Even the realtor said she admired my ability to make quick and firm decisions. Of course, that may be flattery for future referrals!

FOAS, your comment is so thoughtful . Thanks.

Mtn, I have a hard time imagining my dad ever evolving that much. My mom, on the other hand, welcomed all. My grandniece just announced that the appropriate pronoun is now ”their”. Their also has blue hair.

So my tips are to begin sorting through your stuff, in fact resist accumulating it. Clean out now! Honestly even the stuff i was emotionally attached to was quickly forgotten. Out of sight, out of mind.

Find great people to help you. I have a great financial advisor, estate attorney, and realtor. The realtor led me to the estate sale people and cleanout companies.

Still have a bunch of stuff to do before everything is settled. Oh my other tip is if anyone asks you to be the executor of their estate, say no.

In the meantime, I would spend my days there, then come home and dump stuff in my kitchen, too tired to deal with more than putting groceries away and doing dishes. My kitchen looked like this! Its improved now.

So glad the sale went so smoothly, despite all the quick cleaning out you had to do. Congratulations!

Nice kitchen, ded. Doesn’t look like much stuff left to sort through.

I’m glad you were wise enough to prioritize your sanity, health, rest and well-being over going full steam without rest.

What a lovely estate, but tons of detailed effort for you. I hope that you can allow yourself a rest followed by a well-deserved treat like a zero effort vacation.

Great job. Your folks are proud of you.

Congrats on getting to the other side of the journey. I hope you are not doing any more work today and are giving yourself a treat. Cuz you deserve it!

What a beautiful house and yard! It's so nice that you've become friends with the new family. It'll be fascinating over the next few years going by and seeing the changes they make.

There's a very Louis Kahn aspect to the back (and Frank Weise up front)

Kahn (Penn Valley)

Such a lovely home! Its easy to imagine the new family settling in and their children enjoying the expansive yard. A job well done Ded.

Pal, the buyers looked at that house, but for all the reasons we mentioned before, were not interested. Property is a mess and it hangs over the expressway. However, someone bought for a song, considering other things.

I like the setting and finish of your parents' house better, I just see some similarities in the idea to other architects.

How wonderful for you to be coming to the end of it all and glad it's a relief for you. Also, congrats to the new owners. I hope they find many happy years in the home.

I love the house! I also am happy for you and that it's winding down....You can take a break from it all.

Gorgeous house! Funny, through the years, as you talked about caring for your mother adamantly 'aging in place', this is not house I pictured. Talk about stereotyping: My image was closer to a Victorian than this special modern home. No wonder your mom wouldn't leave.

Congratulations, You 'done good'-- all around good.

So nice to read this, coming full circle. I too pictured a much less attractive house and setting. (did you do much landscape cleanup? I really pictured Grey Gardens) The grounds look so lovely.

It sounds like things went so nicely and I know that has to be a huge relief for you. Thank you for sharing the update and I've also enjoyed reading all the comments.

Cheers to you, Ded! Lots of work, I know, but what a great outcome! Congratulations!

I resonated with your comment about making decisioins quickly when cleaning out your parents’ house. I had the same issue with my parents’ house: normally I’m a procrastinator and hate tossing out anything that is potentially useful but I bit the bullet and got fairly ruthless with my parents’ stuff.

What a cool home to sell. We've been blessed to be the second owner of all our homes. I hope the new owners don't modernize it out of it's character. My MIL built a brand new home, which meant we spent an entire summer sorting through 45 years of accumulated life in the house and in my father in law's veterinary office. When they died 10 years later--we did it all again. DH and I spent an entire evening just breaking down all the boxes of anything she ever purchased. It doesn't really matter if it's 45 years or 10, people accumulate a life of STUFF and when we die those left clean up. It's the circle of life and I rather think it's cathartic. It took time--but really what could be a more important way to spend time but contemplating a life now gone.

Ah dedtired - another chapter closing. You've had so much going on these past few years. I'm really happy for you - you can now relax and feel good about all you have accomplished in a relatively short time. It's wonderful that the new family are so enthusiastic about becoming the owners of your family home. We felt fortunate that the young couple who purchased our previous home were thrilled with it too. We met them at settlement and I still remember the wife's comment that she had looked at over 40 homes but the moment she walked into our home she felt like she had finally found what she wanted.

I hope now you can take time for yourself and plan a trip or two!

What a wonderful home and what a huge undertaking for you. I am lucky that both my parents downsized considerably as they aged.

The house we moved into had been in the OPs family for 60 some years. We will have been here 25 years this summer. They told us that one reason they sold to us was that we wanted to raise our family here (I was expecting our first at the time). I'm sure the fact that we had cash in the bank to finance completely didn't hurt either but the kids have come by several times over the years to reminisce about their time in the house and seem happy with what we have done. They left us pictures of the house over the years that we used to help restore it to its former glory.

I can understand that it is easier on your heart to let it go knowing that a family will be taking care of it and appreciate it. I hope they keep the wonderful shrubs. I've seen so many mature gardens yanked out recently seemingly without a thought, but i guess all gardens were new at some point and can't be kept forever.

I'm glad you are finished and hope you are able to take a breather and relax knowing you have done your parents proud.

Your parents had a nice house, love the stone! Glad everything worked out for you and the new family who bought it.

Glad that everything went so well for you. I love your mother's home, and it's wonderful that it sold so quickly.

Congratulations on making it through to the finish line, Ded! It’s a beautiful home and property, so not surprising it sold so quickly to a family with growing children. Glad it all went smoothly for you. From what friends have told me, those estate clean-out and sale people can be wonderful and helpful.

I love the house, but I, too, was surprised to see the style. I had envisioned a large two story Colonial. Isn't it funny how we come up with these pictures in our mind?

You must feel like a weight has been lifted to be finished with all the work of sorting and decision making when clearing out and selling your family home. Glad it all went so well and you feel good about the family who are going to be the new owners. Hopefully they will love it as much as your family did.

I am glad it is all over for you and on to the next chapter. Beautiful house. I just went thru this 2 years ago, with my mom's house. There was nothing the family wanted except a couple of wall art and books. I was sorting through stuff to go to good will and the auction person told me not to bother. They sold every single thing, and sent some clothes to Goodwill. I did not go to auction, and glad I did not. We only got about $2000 dollars. My mom would be horrified. I told her she got a lot of money, and she said, "don't' spend it all in one place." Everyone thinks their things are worth more.

She lived in a house across the street and down two from me. It was hard to drive by an empty house everyday, but house sold first day on market. New people painted outside and put in new windows. It changed the looks so much to the better. Then I heard the new owners were a mom, and 3 teens, recently divorced. She took the house sight unseen and waved the inspection. Excellent school district too. Pretty desperate to get in somewhere, i guess. Mom took excellent care of her house, roof, furnace, plumbing etc. It's a good feeling to know someone that really needed the house got it. Not so sad anymore. I have not been over to introduce myself yet, can't trust myself yet.

When my husband passed away we had a house out in the middle of nowhere. Had to sell it quickly because I didn't want the hospitals to put a lein on it and I couldn't afford my rent and the mortgage payment. I had one day to clean it out with in-laws help. Put it on the market that day and it sold 4 days later. It was a nice house and a young lady bought it as is. I thought it would be hard letting it go but I had no emotional attachment to it. I'm glad you got everything done and can now breathe easier.

I loved seeing the photos of your house. It looks like it is in an almost rural location, but maybe it is just very suburban. It should be a great location for a young family, and it should be good to know that they will love it.

I'm struggling with having to move everything from my house in L.A., and it is going to get pretty intense this month. I'll be so glad when it is over, but I won't be glad about leaving Los Angeles, as I do love it here. At least I'm not going that far.

We expect a young family to buy this house, probably a couple upgrading from a condo.

Lars, its very suburban, maybe 12 miles from Philadelphia’s city hall. More than half the property is woods.

You have a huge task ahead of you, that’s for sure. However, its a good chance to get rid of unwanted stuff.

I think moving is easier when you are excited about where you are going. Im still in my same house and I guess you dont want to go. Thats hard.

Try to hire good help whenever possible. Once you’re settled in your other house, you will breathe a deep sigh of relief. I hope LA sells fairly quickly. It would be ideal to be completely moved out before listing it if you can afford to do that.

We will be completely moved out before we list it, and after we are out, the painters will come and paint all the interior, except for the dining room/studio white. The dining room will remain the color we had it painted in December, as this is new paint.

Kevin is excited about moving because he drives in L.A. more than I do. When I was working, my commute was 1.3 miles, which took 6 or 7 minutes, and so I could go home for lunch. I bought gas only once every month or two. Since I've retired (2017) I have not been driving much.

When we were in Philadelphia, we only went to downtown from the airport and back, but I did take a side trip via Amtrak to Newark, to visit a friend who lives in suburban NJ.

Today we took hazardous waste to the recycling plant in El Segundo, just south of LAX, which is very close to us. I took my old TV, which I've not watched in months, and we got rid of a lot of old paint, as we did not want to move that.

I'd like to get rid of a lot of books, as they are heavy, and the movers charge by the pound, but I'm not sure whether to try to donate them or recycle them. I think if they are paperback, I will just recycle them.

Kevin has a large, heavy mirror that he wants to get rid of, and I told him he should donate it to Out of the Closet Thrift Store, and perhaps they will come and pick it up.

I have a very large elliptical machine that will not fit in the new house, but we have not been able to give that away, and so we are going to have to have our real estate agent dispose of it for us - she said that she would, if necessary.

I had a ”book guy” take away all the books in the house. Im sure there were two hundred, mostly cookbooks. This fellow sends them to Amazon to sell. Honestly, there is a ”guy” for everything.

Have you tried Buy Nothing on Facebook? Its hard to find pickup for heavy items unless you have a lot, and even then they charge.

Lars, take books to Goodwill (or call for pick up) since they will sell online. I buy used books thru Amazon all the time, usually from Goodwills all around the country.

I found this source, Re-Book It, which has free pick-up for used books.

I will contact them when I have the books ready, but we are going out of town on Monday to take a load of fragile items to Cathedral City.

I have a very large elliptical machine

Have you tried Facebook Marketplace or Buynothing? This notwithstanding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86SZMNiPfCE

We tried Facebook Marketplace and Nextdoor. There was some interest, but then they decided it was too large.

Today another person seemed interested, and so they might pick it up next week.

Future source for book donations - when we moved from our last house, I took a large SUV filled with boxes of books to the local library. Just in time for their used book sale. They could not believe I got that many in my SUV. We only kept DH's favorites and my interior design books.

Allison, our local library only accepts books for sale once a year, shortly before the sale. Otherwise, they say they'll be a dumping site. So call the local library and check before you haul books over there.

Our library takes books all year long, and it’s a huge four-day sale, but…they know what sells and what doesn’t, and I know that a lot of old books I donated were disposed of.

What a lovely house! I just know that house is tickled pink to get a brand new young family to take care of.

Just to repeat, my experience was and is that offering items for free, 99% will be taken.

Books as well.

This included heavy furniture up or down a flight of stairs, construction materials, etc.

Very little got trashed.

^^^ as long as it's not a piano. Pianos are almost impossible to get rid of. There are always several listed for free. And every place I called didn't want it. We finally had to pay a junk company to come take it away.

Yes, you were! And lucky buyers to have a baby grand!

I suspect a baby grand is more desirable than some off brand upright, but I was surprised to find out how hard it was to dispose of it. And how expensive. But I needed it gone.