Cleaning At My Dad's or An Inside View Of A Horder's House

I feel like my life is in limbo right now.  

With all the things I have to do for my dad and sisters I feel like my entire life is on hold. 

 I was in GR on Monday to take my sister to the Social Security office 

to get some stuff straightened out, which we did.  

I paid my dad's rent, 

then went to the rehab place to meet with dad and the lawyer to get his trust finished up.  

He has a UTI so his rehab is on hold a bit, but he is progressing, which is good news.  

We will be there on Friday too.

Because going once a week was clearly not good enough!

Last Friday we did some more cleaning. 

 I thought I would share some of the cleaning and sorting and treasures we found.  

You can see what it looked like in the beginning here.

When we first started the entire basement looked like a version of horders.  

This basement is HUGE. 

 It is completely under a ranch upstairs so it is a long rectangle. 

 There is a divider almost down the long center and one half is where all the "stuff" is 

and the other is laundry and workshop.  

We were working in the "stuff" side.  

Think about 4 bedrooms worth of area on that side, about 10 x 10 foot rooms.  

You can see in this picture we have sorted through about 3 rooms of stuff 

and have condensed it into one room.  

That is all stuff slated for the estate sale.  

We have kept very little, maybe a few boxes of personal things.  

This picture is facing one end of the basement.

Now when I turn around you can see the rest of the basement on the "stuff" side.  

YEAH us, we have it almost all cleared out!!!  

Just behind those cabinets 

and to the right of them is about the equivalent of one more rooms worth to still go through.

We are leaving the cabinets and filling them with more "stuff" for the estate sale.  

They will go through all the stuff we leave and sort and price it all.  

Thank goodness we don't have to do that.  

And Yes, that vacuum you see is ours.  

It was moldy and there were spilled potted plants so lots of dirt that we had to vacuum up.  

I did find a few treasures though. 

 Here are a few things I found in the basement.  

I found my old baby doll, Pat-A-Burp and she still burps!  

I found this Christmas tree made out of egg cartons and tinsel.  

My mom used to make these.

One of many creepy baby dolls.  

And yes, those are gloves I am wearing, everything was covered in dust and mold dust, YUCK!

Now upstairs in my mom's cedar chest I found some really neat things.  

Many old dolls. 

 My favorite one when I was a kid was the third one on the left, the one in gold. 

You can also see a quilt on top, in the center of the chest.  

I was thrilled to find that but forgot to take another photo of it.  

My mom's mom was a quilter. 

 She died when I was only 2 so I never knew her.  

My mom sewed but did not quilt.  

Maybe it skips a generation?

I found my mom's wedding dress and left over fabric with the pattern used to make the dress. 

 I knew her dress was in the cedar chest but did not know about the pattern.  

I tried it on when I was going to be married but my chest was too big and my hips too small.  

HA, wish I could say that now!!  

I was also kind of a brat and wanted my own dress, my mom and I did NOT get along very well 

and I didn't want anything to do with her wedding stuff.  

The dress really was beautiful though, made out of satin.  

I have to say 1948 satin is much nicer than 2013 satin!  

Maybe I can use it for a baptismal gown or first communion dress someday?

Found this doll too. 

 I thought it might be a Madame Alexander but I don't think it is, 

or at least it did not say so on the box or the doll.

I found this amazing Japanese tea set. 

 It is for a children's tea party.  

I am guessing it either came from my mom and dad's friends from Japan 

or my Great Aunt that did a lot of traveling.  

My parents were friends with a couple named John and Mei.  

They actually introduced my parents.  

I am named after Mei. 

 My middle name is Mei.  

I hated it growing up and made my mom use it for my younger sister's middle name too. 

 I actually like it now, Pamela Mei.  

I guess it's grown on me!

I also found some glass, plates and stemware but I can't seem to be able to identify it.  

Anyone happen to know what this pattern is?

I had to go to my sister's place and the trees were so beautiful last weekend. 

 Fall in Michigan is amazingly gorgeous!

I do have something really exciting to share with all of you but I won't be able to share it until November 11th.  I do hope you will stop back.  There will be a giveaway associated with it!

Have a great day!

~XOP~