Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

We are now packing.  The reality of our decision has smacked us in the face!
Selling a home on a deadline is sort of like a family reunion: you can plan the event to death, but once the process begins it takes on a life of its own.

The amount of packing materials one needs is staggering.  Thankfully we received a HUGE amount of boxes courtesy of our former employer and Gary's sons current employer.  Yet I needed a ton of smaller boxes.....we own an alarming amount of books.  So off to town for them.  And yes, I bought them at Home Despot before I was aware of all the political issues......at this point, I'm using them.

Yesterday I filled every one of those smaller boxes and relocated them to storage.  I think I packed most of the heaviest stuff yesterday.  I'm actually looking forward to packing the studio contents as those will be blissfully lighter boxes.

I was contemplating a fire sale for fiber I wish to downsize, and I will do that eventually.  It makes more sense to do that later rather than now.  So instead of packing my vendor booth in the truck for CO, we loaded it up for storage.  It will be in the verrrrrry back of our enormous unit until we have a home again.

A Revolving Door, Offers, and a Sale

When we decided to put our home on the market, we did so with a fair amount of trepidation.  Our location is rural and the road, while paved and well maintained, is steep in a few places.  We knew that this would greatly reduce the pool of potential buyers.  And this did, indeed, prove to be somewhat true.....one guy who came and looked at the place gave us feedback that the road is too steep for his truck.  Ha ha, that did crack us up.  It is steep, but after driving around other neighborhoods, we've discovered it's no steeper than many others in this area.

We were not prepared for the volume of showings we received!  It's high mud season here, so that tends to reduce home buying traffic......but not this year.  We received our first offer after four days on the market (wow).  It was ok, but not acceptable so we soldiered on.  More showings!  A guy from CA who was unable to get up here timely sent his realtor up here to take a video of our place.

On day five a truck pulled into our driveway as many others had done.....yet rather than turn around, they continued to pull up in front of the garage.  I notice it was a nice truck, from CA.  The man got out and took a look around, so I went out on the porch and asked him if he needed any help (G was also home).  They were house hunting and wanted to know if our house was still for sale.  I said yes and invited him and his wife in to look at the place, notifying our realtor at the same time.

They visited with us as much as looking around our place.  They are both older than Gary and I.  They've sold their home...it hasn't closed yet, but loan approved and their inspection passed....so it's pretty much a done deal.  Very nice people from a rural area in N CA looking for a rural WA home.  This was their fourth trip up here...homes were selling before they could drive up here(!). After looking all around, they begged us to sell them our place.  They've a realtor in town and I still wasn't certain how serious they were, so I asked them to get us an official offer through their realtor and back to town they went.  By late that evening we received a full price cash offer from them but they were really wanting to take possession on apr 10 when their sale closed.

Yikes(!). We were scheduled to travel down to CO at the end of March as I had a vending booth at YarnFest.  There was no way I could swing that and be out of a home we've lived in for the past 27 years.  So I was formulating a counteroffer in my head to recoup the lost $$$ I would incur by cancelling the CO trip.  We had to think about this a bit.

Mid day on day six we received an offer from the CA video man (as I had begun to call him).  It was ok, but the older couple's offer was still better.  And while we were waiting for the video offer, the older couple sweetened their offer quite a bit to entice us out by Apr 10.

The offer was sweet enough that we signed, on the spot.  Holy cow.  We did it!

Hiding Out

What do you do when you are bombarded by frequent, but oddly spaced home showings and you live far from town?  You hide quietly in your travel trailer.  Totally not kidding.  It felt weird the first time I did it....slightly voyeuristic.  I didn't really overhear much as the trailer is quite always from the house.  We kept some snacks and some crossword puzzles down there to keep us occupied.  That system worked great!

Now when it's our turn to look at homes, I'll be looking closely at any RV on the property(!)

Resurrecting the old blog....with focus on moving out of Kelso

So here we are, our heads still reeling from the process of selling our Kelso home.

We decided to downsize and move off the mountain we've called home for the past 27 years.  A huge step!  The first step was to declutter and deep clean.  Our home had broken a basic law of physics: Newton's law.  For every item that was inserted into our home, there should've been an equal and opposite reaction (another item already in the home should fly out....or be removed).  Our home has a ridiculous amount of storage.....and all of it was full.  It was crazy!  I had just been surviving the last seven years of my career and the house truly reflected that.

Several trips to the dump and the local women's shelter thrift store resolved the clutter issue.  Deep cleaning (omg the carpal tunnel aches I gave myself) took a few days and the results were great!

Finally!  We were ready for our realtor and her camera.  We had our home on the market eight years ago, two different realtors.  Let me tell you, find one that not only knows the business and strategies necessary, but one who can take amazing photos!  Sherri Kingsley did an outstanding job with photos....and I had two previous sets to compare....and hers were way and above more pleasing.

The local real estate market is ultra crazy with too few homes on the market.  If you find the home of your dreams, you'd best be prepared to pull the trigger instantly. We had to make a decision: get a loan arranged ahead of time, set up a mortgage and then try to sell our house......or sell our house first, maybe move belongings twice, but will be ready for our new home with cash in hand.

Since our home is located in a very rural location, thereby automatically reducing the possible buyer pool, we elected to get our home on the market asap while the inventory is still quite low.  Less competition!

So we listed our home.  It took Zillow (for those of you still using that app), TWO days to find our listing.  That's two precious days, folks.  My preferred app is Redfin.  I receive instant email notifications whenever a home that fits my criteria comes on the market.

And the Beat Goes On...

While there are still some projects in the works at the old homestead, it's turned into a really nice place to hang out and enjoy good food and good times with family. Michele and Terry dragged the old headboard out of storage and had a great bonfire with it while we were there over New Year's.

The weather was spectacular, in the fifties a couple of days before the end of December, and we were having to shed layers of coats and sweatshirts while digging clams in the afternoon. Hey, it's a rough job, but someone has to do it. Michele and I have determined that we want to retire down at the beach near Gary and Terry, too, so we spent a couple of weekends this summer, and several days on the latest trip seeing condos with a realtor. We pretty well explored the peninsula.

Gary brought over a nice salmon, which we rubbed and planked, served with a fresh salad and potatoes toasted in butter in foil on the bbq. Tasted plenty of good wine, played some pinochle, chatted and laughed our way through the weekend. The gals went down to Seaview and did some antiquing one afternoon, we all went out to the very classy Depot restaurant one night, and Michele and I went hiking at Ledbetter Point, and checked out a local pizza parlor I was considering buying.

The clamming was wonderful, and we limited out two days in a row quickly, then just dug enough the third day to make ourselves some clam fritter appetizers in a special Willapa Bay breading. Ended up taking home nearly six pounds of cleaned clams in my backpack carry-on. Bon appetit!

Better all the Time

Things are definitely looking up, after a couple of years' work by Terry & Gary. The cabin has gone from being an eyesore to a comfortable and fun place to spend time at the beach. One can prepare meals in the kitchen without fear of plague, and breathe the air without tasting mold any more. The most recent change on the exterior is the removal of the out of control jungle of shrubbery that surrounded the house. It's amazing how much bigger the place looks now.

cleaning out the old shop

let's see if new blogger version will let me attach photos...

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