Category Archives: sale

Packing, sale

TEN MINUTES TO SPARE

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It is Saturday morning, day One. Every bone in my body is singing in protest, but gosh, what a great night’s sleep. This has been a week to remember—a tumultuous, relentless, exhausting, exhilarating, disappointing, sad week. We all feel like we got our money’s worth.

I think Jen and I decided at some point to keep things as normal as possible with the kids for as long as possible, so they went to school right up until Thursday, even though our home closing was yesterday, Friday, at nine am. Jen and I went to our jobs on Monday, the day the pod arrived. When I opened it, my heart sank. Even less room than I remembered.  And three days to go.

What followed for the next four days is a blur. Disassembling trampolines and basketball backboards and soccer goals; tearful hugs from neighbors and promises to write; a revolving door of early morning landfill runs and late-night goodwill drop-offs; farming out cats and lawn furniture; on the spot giveaways; and always, always, more piles materializing in the garage.

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Jen and I by Thursday morning were poster children for the Walking Dead. Shuffling out into the garage with one of a thousand items formerly referred to as miscellaneous. Our three boys retreated into a sulky, wounded place. Their faces mocked our decision of a sunny Mother’s Day morning so many months ago.

And in the end, the house was empty and forlorn and the motorhome was overpacked, ten minutes to spare. Ten minutes to remind myself that we are always, always being taken care of. Even when we forget. Ten minutes to say thanks, at all that has been, and yes, to all that will be.

Ten minutes to be grateful, beyond words, for the help of Bill and Alice, Cheryle and Eddie, Rich and Teresa, Eileen and Bill, Dave and Lori, and Theresa and all our family and friends who not only helped us realize our dream, but just made it so deeply painful to leave our home and town.

Once in Florida back in the day, I found myself in a chat with Jimmy, a guy in Bow Channel campground. I said I had to get home to an ECHO reunion, but hated leaving Florida.

“But don’t you know?” he said, “The best time to leave is when things are at their best. It makes me want to return, again and again.” If Jimmy was right, then we couldn’t have picked a better time to leave. Thanks, to all our wonderful neighbors and friends, and family.

Now, please join us on our travels. First stop, Mount Airy, Maryland!

sale

A Special CATegory of Downsizing

I was tempted to title this, “We May Never Pass This Way Again,” (okay, who remembers Seals and Croft. Diamond Girl? Summer Breeze? ) but I have always loved to travel, and hated goodbyes.

As we prepare the house for our departure, I realize there are parts of this small estate I’ve never really seen.  The window frame for the tiny window for the laundry room. The boomerang imbedded in a riot of bush limbs outside our bedroom.

Okay, so other things have clamored for attention. The birth of a son. Cats and dogs.

Speaking of which, we  have two delightful cats. Indoor/outdoor. cats1venus

Okay, one really charming, personable and adventurous cat, and one cat with hermit-like tendencies that fears its own shadow and would be the perfect companion on a cross-country bus trip if you love to read and sleep.  So that kind of averages out to two delightful cats.

We would love to take them in our cross-country rolling one-room schoolhouse, but our quota of incredibly irresponsible choices is maxed out for 2014. Yes, we are already taking the dog.

So we are looking to place the cats in a loving home, until we are ready in August to move to Satellite Beach, FL. We really hate to separate them.  They have their own two-story home.

Think about it, if you love cats.  If you fall in love with them, we will understand, and would just like to drop in on them now and then when we get back this way.

 

 

 

adventure, sale

Up for Sale

It is a cold, miserable and biting day here in Carroll County. We listed our home for sale on Friday, January 17. We had targeted February 1 to be on the road. Then, in December, Jen’s First Lego Robotics Team—including my two oldest kids—qualified (unbelievably, in the opinion of all the affected parents) for the Maryland State finals, to be held March 1, 2014.

This actually furnished a little breathing room in our miracle-driven schedule. We settled in to enjoy the holidays, and continued to ready the house for a sale in early 2014.

We have for some inexplicable reason had a stream of unseen clients banishing us from our home since the listing started, so they could inspect the grounds and the mansion. Kick the tires.

This morning we received an offer on our house. Sounds like a good offer. An offer that makes the sacrifices and fights and missed sleeping-in weekends nearly worthwhile.  If we accept it, we will go to closing as early as March 7. A Friday.

It is a little sad to begin putting things on our family schedule not just with an eye toward, “is there a conflict?” but with an eye toward, “Will we be here?”

And why write all this stuff down? I can’t speak for the rest of the crew. I hope fervently that they’ll be speaking for themselves periodically as things progress. They are a lot more interesting than me.  But as for my own motives, I like to blog in part because of an experience I had many years ago, listening to Ruth Carter Stapleton, sister of then-president Jimmie Carter. She said at the time, “we have this habit, when we have a life crisis, of withdrawing into our safe place, our cave, where nothing can touch us, while we are so vulnerable. Later, when the problem has sorted itself out, we emerge, to share our insights about our changed selves.

But isn’t it more risky to describe life in the midst of change? To tell a story when the end, or even the next chapter, is up in the air? Looking at my old journal, I came across a post from September 15, 1976: “Tomorrow’s gonna be interesting. For probably the first time in my life, I’ll be alone and having no idea where I’ll spend the night.“

While I won’t be hitchhiking this time, I am sure we are in for an interesting time!