So you made it through house shopping, you championed the negotiation process, and you survived the grueling wait for your financing, inspections, appraisal, seller paperwork and the stars to all line up so you could sign on the dotten line(s). Whew! Don't exhale too quickly, though. Now it's MOVE time.

Have you ever met someone who said they LOVED the moving process? Probably not. Many folks are still surrounded by unopened boxes even months after they moved in. It is a stressful and daunting task. Just like all big tasks the key is to break it down into smaller, more manageable, less overwhelming tasks. The more of those little jobs you can do ahead of time, th less overwhlemed you will be when the big day actually comes.

Here are 5 ideas for planning ahead to make moving day easier.

*Start browsing the phonebook and collecting referrals for moving companies and book your choice as soon as you have a moving date. This way you are sure your top choice in movers will be available and it will be one less thing to do at crunch time.

*Think about what needs to be done at the new house before you move in and schedule it as soon as you have your move in date. Whether it is work to be done by a contractor, window treatments to be measured by a decorator, or top to bottom scrubbing done by you, book it in advance and you don't have to think about it again. You can keep your mind clear for everything else.

*Take inventory. Not everything in the old house needs to make it to the new house. Everything you have should fall into one of four categories. 1)TRASH 2)FRIENDS & FAMILY 3)CHARITY 4)KEEP FOR THE NEW HOUSE. If you really commit to this you will find that you have a lot less to actually move on moving day that you originally thought.

*Start collecting packing supplies. You can get boxes from local grocery stores and liquor stores, but liquor store bottles tend to be more sturdy. The moving company may also supply boxes for a fee, as do the post office and other packaging stores. Newspaper and magazine pages are great to have on hand for protecting more delicate items.

*Begin paying attention to your mail and make notes about who needs to be notified of your change in address. Whether it's bill companies or friends and fam, start planning now. Then as soon as you get your move in day send them out.

That's just the beginning. There is so much more to do to get you and your family mentally and physically prepared for the move. We will talk about these later. But for now we'll keep the tasks small and
manageable.

For more moving tips or organizational ideas for your home and family visit Organize Yourself Online. I am addicted to it.

I am really not in a foreclosure rut. I am over the repo bitterness of the past and have moved on to enjoy the situation as best I can, just like everyone else. In fact, I hope to one day make lots of money off people in hard times myself, and exploit underprivelaged children to fold my laundry and maintain exterior maintenance on my home.

As I was saying, I didn't intend to do two foreclosure pieces back to back but I was shocked today to learn that one of the most elaborate projects of TVs Extreme Home Makeover has gone into foreclosure. Comparing closely to the celebrity boneheads of yesterday's post, these Home Makeover recipients, who had a brand new house with no mortgage, received money for their kid's education, and money for home maintenance BORROWED MONEY AGAINST THE HOUSE AND COULDNT MAKE THE PAYMENTS!

---Sigh---

I can't even talk about it anymore. Just click the link.
http://tv.yahoo.com/extreme-makeover-home-edition/show/36736/news/urn:newsml:tv.ap.org:20080728:tv_extreme_makeover_foreclosure

Bank foreclosure knows no boundaries. Once thought of only as a poor man's problem or situation of the unmotivated, foreclosure now plagues neighborhoods and homeowners in all price ranges. To illustrate the point let's look at some celebrities facing foreclosure.
*Heavyweight champion and Olymic Athlete Evander Holyfield's 10M Georgia manse was set to go on the auction block 7/1/08. Also on Holyfield's list of I.O.Us is backpayments of child support and $550k to the lawn boy.
*Baseball player Jose Conseco's 2.5M Encino home is headed back to the bank after Conseco claimed it just didn't make sense to keep making the payments.
*Only slightly less moronic than Conseco is former NBA star, and someone I've never heard of, Latrell Sprewell. Known for choking his coach, turning down a 21M dollar contract, and assaulting his girlfriend in front of their children, Latrell lost his yacht and his home. After the auctions there is still $500k owed and the bank says they are going after it!
*The exception to the aforementioned celebrity boneheads in foreclosure is Ed McMahon. Too bad Johnny's not here to help his old buddy out. Ed's been unable to work since he broke his neck 18 months ago and has fallen behind on his payments. He has reportedly been working diligently with Countrywide Mortgage to get things worked out. Last I knew, Countrywide was having it's own financial troubles... those in glass houses... Anyhoo, McMahon has been trying to sell his manse in Mulholland Hills but the showing feedback has indicated that all the paparazzi around neighbor Brittney Spears is a deal breaker!

Now I am not sure what happened with either Michael Jackson's Neverland or Aretha Franklin's mansion in Bloomfield Hills. If anybody knows how those were resolved, please share. But an interesting note about Franklin that has me particularly curious about Aretha's situation is that animal rights oganization PETA offered to pay her approximately 20k in taxes in exchange for her word to never wear fur again!

Hey PETA! I quit eating meat last month! I could use some money to get my roots done and a mani/pedi!

I posted a while back about the kitchen being the most important part of the house. I have a couple of related tid bits to share today. What do you want first, the fun news or the possibly disturbing news?

Okay, Fun it is!

The Food Network is offering a contest and the prize is a suite of snazzy new Whirlpool appliances and a lifetime supply of Paul Newman products.
Now I struggled with sharing this news because I don't want any competition, but not sharing would not be very Reba-like. Besides, I don't think you've got anything to beat my 30 minute ranch chicken bowtie pasta!
So here's the link. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/sweepstakes/text/0,,FOOD_23336_68474,00.html

Now for the possibly disturbing news. Did you know that granite counters have radon in them? Yes, I have a link for that too.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/paul-detrick/2008/07/25/early-show-fuels-granite-countertop-radiation-fears

Now the committee of marble and granite or whoever admits that there is radon and other carcinogens in granite counter tops but they say the amounts are too small to harm us. That's what the factory farmers say about the steroids and antibiotics they pump up their cattle with too, but I'll pass on the meat, all the same. I'll spare you the link for that hot topic! Maybe another time.

Well Hello!

I've been on hiatus while I study becoming a more effective blogger. Didn't know there was such a thing did you? Considering blogging pays about 8 cents a day I might have considered studying being a more effective realtor. But that's a post for another day.

It turns out there is more to blogging than good CONTENT. There are things like SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and LINK LOVE that help you drive traffic to your site. I want more traffic. I'm in it strictly for the fame and glamour. My boss gets the 8 cents.

Why the sudden return to talk about blogging?
*to tell you where I have been, Silly!
*to tell you about this super cool story I found while doing
my blogging research.

Here's the story. There is this couple in Illinois that wants to sell their house. They appreciate the difficulty of the market and the fierce competition so they went outside the box. They are awarding the house to the winner of their essay contest.

*$100 per entry. Anyone can enter.
*Seller must receive at least 750 entries or contest is void.
*If contest is void everyone gets their hundred bucks back.

As with any contest or freebee there is risk of scam but it seems legit. I am trying to get the link to go in here but you might have to type it in yourself. It's worth the extra effort. There are some stunning pictures of the inside of the house but they say there is still some work that needs to be done. Judge for yourself and let me know what you think!

http://winourdanvillehome.googlepages.com/