Photo Day!

There is a certain sequence to this stuff. Today, the photographer is coming to take pictures of my house for use, I guess, on the Internet during the selling process. Tomorrow, the house will go on the market, officially.
The realtor has been here "staging" the house and I find myself in this weird alternate world where I'm in my house, but a lot of the things in it are not mine. Right now there is a strange little lamp on my desk where my cool UFO desklamp used to be. There is a different lamp in the livingroom, too. And a different centerpiece on the kitchen table. There is a strange picture hanging on the bathroom wall. My bed has a multi-colored comforter on it, instead of my blue quilt. And a different lamp on the nightstand. I see a pattern. I'm no good at picking out lamps.
Because I can only assume the realtor thought these and other things were nicer, or looked better, or more "stagier" than the things that I had. It doesn't hurt my feelings. In fact, I'd like to have this lamp on my desk here. It seems to work better than the one I had before. In the other universe.

On Tuesday I borrowed a power-washer to clean off the deck boards. They are old, and where they extend out beyond the overhanging roof, they had gotten weathered and black (mold, of some kind, I assume.) The power washer did a great job of making the boards look all nice and fresh, except, only where they were weathered. The other half of each board, under the roof, was steadfastly holding on to the tinted stain or paint or whatever it was, that had been applied fifteen years ago. I couldn't blast it off, and now the boards weren't the same all the way along their lengths.
I had to buy some stripper, and so I spent most of the day yesterday painting the stripper on, letting it sit, then using the power washer on the decking. Eventually, I finished, and about all you can say about it is that it looks better than it did with the mold all over everything. So, a generally positive outcome, though maybe not commensurate with the effort I expended.

I looked at a loft that was for rent downtown. Pretty funky. 800 square feet and configured pretty much in a square shape, one huge area, except bath and a small kitchen, with old plank floor, and brick walls and tall windows all along the outer wall. The view was of the building next door. I could visualize living there, though it would not be the height of convenience. Parking was vaguely described as "we have three lots." To get to the loft, one must either use the stairs (I believe this was on the third or fourth floor) or the freight elevator. The other problem, if you could call it that, is that there is no grocery store nearby. I hadn't even thought about that, but that would require I alter my habits considerably. I would have to actually think while grocery shopping. I suppose I could do it.
On the plus side, there was no "pet deposit," or additional "pet rent." This is encouraging, because I have found that most apartments require this. Well, if you saw this loft, you would agree that it is hard to imagine an animal of any kind that would be capable of doing any damage to any part of it, except maybe a wild boar.
There is a more traditional, older neighborhood in south Kansas City where I could probably find a house for rent. This would be OK with me if I didn't have to do yard work, or just had to do a minimal amount of yard work. I'm not in a hurry, at the moment. It is amazing to me, though, how few places there are for rent on any given day, in Kansas City. Maybe this is a symptom of the same thing that is causing the housing market to be so hot. Not enough houses. So, good and bad, as usual.
I just had a thought. Wherever I move, I could probably hire my realtor to furnish it, or at the very least, provide the lamps.

 That is all for now. I will send links to photos when I find out where on the Internet they will be.