Sales Pass $5,650 With Two Days to Go, The Beautiful Spring is Here and Gearing Up For Massive Listings

So with just two days to go this month, we are just past the $5,650 mark. Things were crazy busy up until last week, when they began the customary end-of month slowdown. Although this weekend was not a super busy weekend, it was not a slow weekend, judging from the stack of envelopes that I took to the post office today.

This weekend was just beautiful weather wise, with the temperature being between 14 and 16 degrees and with clear, blue sunny skies. Steph and I decided that it would be a great idea to enjoy the yard that we fought so hard for last year. The lawn needed mowing, so we got out the new lawnmower that we bought last week, got it all assembled and gassed up and took turns mowing the lawn. Then afterwards, we hung out on our patio, and relaxed. I was able to finish a few beers that Steph had bought for me earlier in the week, while looking at some stamps from my own personal collection. I was able to get some nice shots though of the house and yard before we got to the actual mowing:

The house from the front, with our Bed and Breakfast sign off to the left. 

The left side of the house from the back near the side entrance, which is actually the door that people usually enter through. The lilac trees are just beginning to bloom.

The yard, looking from the left side of the house at the back, toward the right side of the property.

This view of the yard is turning to the left a bit to show the right front corner of the property. We are thinking that a pond in the far corner would be a welcome addition, as well as some seating areas. But I'll leave the creative design to Steph, as she is far more creative than I. 

This is looking from the right side of the property toward the right side of the house.

Another view looking back from the right front corner of the property towards the house, garage and patio, which is between the house and garage. 

I think these pictures capture the beauty of the day very well. The best part was that it was just the perfect temperature - not cold and not too hot. One of my complaints about Toronto was that if a day looked as bright and sunny as the above, it would usually be accompanied by blistering 30+ degree heat and humidity. Here, it wasn't even 20 degrees. 

One thing that had begun to concern me about the business was that I felt that I had no coherent lotting plan. My general plan was to list material in sequence, from early to modern. I had been following this plan for the past year and a half, but as I bought collections and acquired more material, I was noticing that material was winding up all over the place in my office. Because I didn't have the right size storage boxes, I was placing oversize sheets and covers in different locations, so that it became very difficult to be sure as I worked on a particular stamp issue that I had all the material - I would often find items squirreled away after I had finished working on an issue, or I would lose a sale because I would think that we didn't have the material in question when in fact we do. 

So I decided that before I list any more material, the time had come to properly organize all my Canadian material into chronological order, with all items being kept together. It took me four solid days of sorting and organizing. 

Here's how it looked on Thursday, half way through the process:

Finally, tonight, I got the last of the material integrated and sorted into no fewer than 26, 1 foot-long storage boxes:

This is a massive amount of material and it is doubtful that I could get it all listed in a year. But at least it is all organized where I can see it, so that I can begin to plan my listings better and maybe stagger the material, so that early and modern material get listed together. In this way no one period dominates the listings for too long. 

With that, it is 2:30 am, and very much time for bed. However, I head into tomorrow with bright optimism and a clean desk.