estate-sale-list.docx

Hey sibs,

I’ve started organizing Mom and Dad’s house. Here’s the growing list of items we’re selling. I’ll keep track of what sells so we can divvy up the profits later. Let me know if you have any questions. I know it’s going to be hard to let go of some of these things, but we have to remember that it’s just stuff, and clinging onto it isn’t going to bring them back. We still have our memories.

Love,

Olivia

1) Item: Dad’s 1975 Chevy Silverado (AKA Ol’ Rusty)

• Asking price: $1,000 $500
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Enzo: Does this hunk of junk even run?

Olivia: No…we’re selling it for parts.

Enzo: Nobody is going to pay $1,000…$500 is more realistic.

Summer: Awww I learned how to drive in that truck!

Olivia: I learned how to make out in that truck haha

Enzo: This should’ve been a spreadsheet.

2) Item: 1968 Airstream Overlander 

• Asking price: $25,000?
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Olivia: Do you guys remember that winter when we hauled this thing all the way to Florida, then we all got the flu and spent the whole week of vacation puking?

Enzo: Or the trip to Tennessee when Mom and Dad picked up that hitchhiker with the neck tattoos and let him spend the night with us? 

Summer: WAIT! I want to renovate it and use it as an Airbnb. I’ll split the income with you guys!

Enzo: Since when do you know anything about renovation? Show us a plan and maybe we’ll consider it.

3) Item: Mom’s porcelain doll collection (39 dolls)

• Asking price: TBD
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Enzo: Sell these on eBay instead. eBay = doll collectors = more $

Olivia: I don’t care where we sell them as long as I never have to see them again. Those things are creepy AF.

Summer: If any of them don’t sell, my roommate said she’ll use them in her next performance art exhibit.

Enzo: I’m not even going to ask….

4) Item: A-Z Encyclopedia set from 1964

• Asking price: $150 (based on eBay comps)
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Summer: What’s an Encyclopedia set?

Olivia: They were like the book equivalent of Google before the internet.

Summer: Oh, so they’re pointless now? Who would want to buy them?

Enzo: Hoarders.

5) Item: Dad’s deer head mounts (3 bucks)

• Asking price: $200 each
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Summer: Ugh…I hated it when Dad hunted. I cried every time he hauled a deer home in the bed of Ol’ Rusty. What kind of sick person would buy these?

Olivia: I don’t know what I hated more, eating so much venison or sitting in his tree stand for hours in complete silence for “father-daughter bonding time”. What I wouldn’t give to join him in that tree stand one more time though….

Enzo: Don’t sell the ten-point buck. I want to mount that one in my lake house.

6) Item: Mom’s costume jewelry

• Asking price: $1.00 per item
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Enzo: Take that crap to Goodwill.

Summer: Can I look through these first? Mom had some great pieces that I’d love to have. Remember the black and white Kit-Cat Klock earrings? The eyes moved when you wiggled the tail back and forth. Not to mention all the great boho pieces from the 60s and 70s. 

Olivia: Yep, but I call dibs on the tacky Christmas brooches. They’ll pair nicely with my ugly Christmas sweater collection.

7) Item: VHS tape collection

• Asking price: $1.00 per movie
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Olivia: Remember our Friday Family Flick nights? Our house was like the neighborhood Blockbuster! I’m pretty sure some kids befriended me just to borrow movies.

Summer: Do people still own VCRs?!

Enzo: Save the Star Wars set for me.

8) Item: Mom’s 1972 Kenmore sewing machine

• Asking price: $200
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Olivia: Mom made the best Halloween costumes. They were better than anything you could buy in a store. I wish she would’ve taught me how to sew.

Summer: Yeah, one year I wanted to be a zombie unicorn and she made it happen! She could’ve been on Project Runway. 

Enzo: I remember helping Dad repair the sewing machine one time and watching the needle go straight through his finger. I learned how to raise the presser foot that day and never touched the thing again.

9) Item: Antique rolltop desk

• Asking price: $250
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Olivia: Enzo, remember when we used this desk to pretend we were detectives? My favorite was the case of the chocolate cake burglar. 

Summer: I don’t remember that…

Enzo: It was before your time, Summer. Spoiler alert: Dad was the cake bandit.

Summer: I can still see Mom sitting at this desk chasing her dream of writing a novel. Liv, have you found her manuscripts yet?

Olivia: Not yet. I did find her journal though. You guys will have to read it. For the first time ever I felt like I got a glimpse into who she was as a woman, underneath the mom mask. Her worries, her dreams, her secrets. She shielded so much from us. 

10) Item: Yamaha upright piano

• Asking price: $3,000
• Questions/Comments/Concerns from the fam:

Olivia: Guys…I found some home videos of our Christmas Eve “concerts”. Priceless. Especially little Enzo dressed up like an elf singing Jingle Bells. 

Enzo: Please make sure those videos never see the light of day. Also, I thought Mom wanted to donate the piano?

Summer: My local community theater would love to have it! You guys could fly out here for our annual Holiday Hoopla and Enzo could reenact his youth.

Enzo: In your dreams….

Not for sale:

• Memories: family vacations, chaotic holidays, unconditional love, overcoming adversity, fighting, and forgiveness.
• Lessons learned and values instilled: hard work, responsibility, honesty, loyalty, and compassion.
• The legacy left behind by two amazing parents. Let’s keep their legacy alive.