Actually, rather than flecks, the gold was more like sparkles. I think someone took actual gold and sprinkled it in streams INTO the black counter before it was sealed. It wasn't orangey copper, and it was like thick shimmery gold dust that appeared in parts of the countertop. Its kind of you guys to have brainstormed for me, but I don't think black galaxy was it! :(

Awhhhh Flatcoat - yours makes mine sound like a dream project. I can't even imagine putting up with all of this, AND being sick. I understand what you mean about leaving at 730 every morning. Mine doesn't show up until 8, but there are some mornings that I just don't want anyone around that early. But, I suck it up and deal with it. One thing that I made clear from the beginning though, NO WORKERS ON THE WEEKEND. I know myself well enough to know that after 5 days it during the week - that would be enough and that I'd be ready for a little down time on the weekend. You poor thing! I hope you feel better very soon. Guess it was a good thing for me to post this, because I was able to vent... and gave a few others a forum to vent a little too. :) I want to say (because if I don't I'll feel guilty!), that other than the mess issue - my entire project and my GC have been just about perfect. We have had no really bad mistakes or scheduling issues - that and he's got a heart of gold and is a very nice man. Hubby spoke to him this morning, and he was very apolgetic - and totally accepted responsibility, not trying to push it off on to someone else - or making it seem like I was just being picky. I knew we picked the right guy - guess a little open communication on my part would have been better - rather than letting it build and build, and blowing a fuse last night. LOL Just gotta keep my eye on the prize. Thanks you all for letting me blow off a little steam, and for sharing your stuff too. I feel better. :)

We were fortunate that we had somewhere to store all of our excess stuff before putting our house on the market because I knew our house would be shown on several MLS sites. I even thinned out our wardrobe to make the closets look roomier and thoroughly cleaned every inch of the house. I've looked at properties all over the US on the same sights and not only are people not cleaning their homes, but there's often too much furniture, knick-knacks and pictures of family on the walls. Even if the house is huge and the rooms spacious you can't tell because of all the stuff they have crammed in them. In many of the homes, they allowed their house to be photographed with unmade beds and dirty clothes and toys strewn everywhere. The also don't bother to make little repairs to a hole in the wall or loose trim and paint over the garish colors that their children's bedrooms are painted. These are the exact same people that will complain when their house doesn't sell or they get a low-ball offer. I realize not everyone lives in a perfect house or has the money to fix everything but at least clean up and declutter! Fill your garage or outbuildings with boxes of your stuff if you have to but if you want to sell your house, at the very least clean up!

Wine50: A big hug to you. And ditto what OleJoyful wrote--could not have chosen finer words myself. As so many of you have written, the distress you feel having the task of cleaning out the home is palpable, but hopefully you can approach it as a learning experience--learning more about the family members. Kind of like a treasure hunt (yes, among all the trash!) You can try just imagining what she looked like in that Chanel dress for the big to-do. You find out more in those tucked-away letters. And while you might not be able to identify some people in the photos, it's a glimpse into another era. I think really the only thing I can add is to not do this alone--if there are other siblings in the family, make them have an equal hand in it, from the basic cleaning-out-the-fridge or clearing out trash part to the divvying up of stuff and making decisions on what to toss or donate. It's not just to make the work go faster. I didn't have the chance to go back afterwards (and that was awhile after both parents had died), because the house was quickly sold and there was a deadline to have it ready for the next family. And I just could not get back in time because of another commitment. Other siblings did the work. Every day I recall some little object, maybe something I gave to my mom, and wonder what happened to it. Was it thrown out, is it in a box in the basement of a sister's house.