Moving in January....Who's Idea was This? (Thursday, February 16th, 2017)

When one sells their house without a plan of where to go or what to do, it can add a little bit of short term stress to the situation.  So once we were through our inspection and were pretty sure that the sale was really going to go through, we had some quick decisions to make.

The first thing that hit us was: Where will we go?  We would love to find ourselves a cozy little condo that will allow us to travel and not have all the worries of a house that is sitting empty.  We also have our family cabin and so many friends and family that would gladly take us in, and of course, there are rentals available everywhere.

The second thing that hit us was; what will we do with all this furniture? Now this seemed a little more complicated since we really have nowhere to go.  We decided to set up a meeting with our buyers to show them the in's and out's of the house, and we were hoping that just maybe it would give us a chance to talk furniture. 

They agreed to come over on January 23rd, just days after our inspection.  We made a list of everything we wanted to show them about the house, and walked through it room-by-room.  When we got outside to show them the sprinkler box, the wife looked at me and said, "Would you by chance be interested in selling any of your furniture?" And that was when we knew we were in luck.  I told her that we were indeed interested and we decided to take another loop through the house so she could look at everything more closely.

They ended up buying a lot of our furniture, and even more importantly, all of the big, heavy furniture.  It worked out well for both of us!  We didn't have to move that big, heavy furniture out, and they wouldn't have to move any big, heavy furniture back in. As I think back on it, all real estate transactions should happen this way! Pick-up your personal belongings and leave! 

I just made it sound so easy, but in reality, there was still a lot to do, and a lot of logistics to pull off. We looked into renting a truck to move the remainder of our stuff, but then Steve had a great idea of buying a trailer instead.  That way, when we got all done, we would have a place to store our extra stuff because our next house will be a lot smaller than what we are moving out of. 

Steve looked for a trailer he might be interested in buying, and found one that he really liked, but the local dealer wasn't willing to work with him on price at all, so he ended up leaving the lot frustrated.  When he got home, he looked up the manufacturer of the trailer he was interested in and found out that they are located in Omaha, Nebraska.  Not too far from Denver.  He gave them a call, and to his surprise, he could save A LOT by making the drive to Omaha and picking up the trailer from them.

And that was the start to our unexpected journey.

We had to keep an eye on the weather for our trip to Omaha.  They were having a series of ice storms that would make pulling a trailer no fun at all.  Once the weather cleared, we made the trip to Omaha in one day, leaving at about 4:00 in the morning and returning home at about 7:00 that evening with the trailer, just missing the next snow storm that was on it's way. 1,100 miles down, and a plan in place for moving. 

Icky weather in Denver

Once we left the Denver area, it was nothing but flat land, trees and lakes.  Very beautiful!

 Once the sun was up, we got a glimpse of the aftermath of the ice storms they had been experiencing in Nebraska.

We got to Omaha and picked up our trailer and headed back home. It was a long trip to pick up a trailer, but now we could plan our move.

Carrying boxes through ice and snow isn't very fun, but we managed through with no major injuries!

Over the next few weeks, we made trips all over Colorado, getting all of our stuff where it needed to be.  The icky weather made it a challenge, but it also made for beautiful driving everywhere we went.  Even bad weather has a silver lining!

Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs

During part of our move, we even had an ice storm to deal with, which just doesn't happen in Colorado.  We get snow, lots of snow, but we don't get ice storms.  Except for this year, of course!

It was so gorgeous!, but not the kind of weather that's fun to move in.

A text from our youngest daughter

We've had such challenging weather for this move, that we decided when it was finally over we would reward ourselves with some time in Arizona to catch up with friends, regroup mentally and just relax a little bit.  We watched the weather for a break, and on the day we closed on our house, there was good weather through the mountains.  Although they have been getting pounded with snow this year, we figured that the roads would be clear enough to make it through. We planned on only going half way on the first day since we were getting such a late start. And just as we were hoping for, the mountains with all of their fresh snow were just beautiful (even through our dirty windshield)!

Our favorite rest stop is near the top of Vail Pass.  It is always cool, crisp and beautiful.  But today we got an extra treat because of the amount of snow the mountains have been getting. As we pulled in, we could hardly see the building.

It was truly a winter wonderland.  As we left the rest stop, we saw a couple of snow shoers by the highway.

It seemed that everyone was out enjoying the break in the weather. We stayed the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Richfield, UT, and of course, the next morning, we treated ourselves to a cinnamon roll at the complimentary breakfast before we hit the road for the final time.

How can any sane person pass this up?

When we got close to Las Vegas, Nevada, we could see snow on the peaks there too.  It seems like the snow is everywhere.

Just a couple more hours and we were in Arizona and ready to unpack the few items that we had brought with us.  

We decided to bring our couches from Colorado, and upgrade what we had in Arizona, so our friends Alan and Linda came over to help us move them.  

Break Time!

It's so nice to be done moving, for now, and just taking some time to chill and unwind.  We were once again reminded of how difficult it is to simplify our lives, but we're excited to be doing it and ready to enjoy the simple things that life has to offer.

The Amazing Race ( Monday, January 16th, 2017)

I think that for many people when their kids leave home, they cherish the memories that they have in their house, and they feel like they have to hold on to it forever to maintain the memories. Steve and I, on the other hand, had almost the opposite reaction to our kids leaving.  We had so many fond memories of the kids and their friends, the parties we threw for marching band, lacrosse, etc. the ringing of laughter within the walls and the toilet paper we had to clean from our trees. So after the girls left, our house just felt empty.  It was no longer fun to clean it for some upcoming event. It was no longer fun keeping up with the large yard that we once used for hosting parties.  It was no longer a bustling household.  It was a house that was bigger and emptier than we wanted, and seemed to us that it had become almost a burden instead of a place of enjoyment. So a few months ago, after a year and a half of cleaning out and freshening it up, we put our house on the market.  

We didn't make any real plans of what we would do, or where we would go if it sold, we just knew that it was more house than we wanted to take care of when we could be out traveling and exploring instead.  So to our surprise, in early January, after the hustle and bustle of the holidays had ended, we got an offer on our house.  The buyers didn't have a lot of stipulations with their offer, but they did want a quick close.  Our inspection was on January 10th, and on January 16th, we found out the results of the inspection.  Our buyer asked for very few repairs and wanted a closing date of February 14th so he could buy his wife a house for Valentines Day.  And that was when the amazing race began....a race to empty the house! 

Getting Resourceful (Sunday, July 3rd, 2016)

After a nice day of rest, we headed out this morning again to help our kids settle into their new home one last time.  Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend both came home for the occasion, so we left the house at about 8:15 to go pick him up, and then headed down the road.  We all enjoyed Santiagos burritos in the car for breakfast (except for our youngest daughter who got scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese since she has to eat gluten free).

And when we got there, the work began once again. 

Our oldest daughter and her husband will be hosting a small fourth of July party tomorrow, so we wanted to make some of their space a little more usable for them.  And since they don't have a back yard yet (it's basically a mud pit because of all the rain they've been getting), I thought that would be a nice place for us girls to start.

Here is a shot of the back yard and patio area after the move-in.

I brought a push broom, but didn't really consider how stuck the mud would be, and of course the kids really don't have any yard tools yet.  So we headed across the street to the construction zone to see what kinds of tools we could find for scraping.  We found two wooden landscape stakes, which the girls both used.

And a banister which had been discarded for some reason.  It was actually the best tool of all.  It worked great and didn't give me any splinters.

We also worked a little bit to smooth out the mud so we could put in some sort of stepping stones to get from the back patio to the stairs that lead up to the deck.  Of course, this was done with rudimentary tools as well, because we didn't have any proper tools.

I had brought down a few flagstone stepping stones, hoping that it would be enough to make a path between the patio and the stairs, but as I started looking at the project, it really wasn't going to be enough.  So our youngest daughter and I headed back to the construction sight to see what else we could find.

This looks like it might work nicely!

And look at this great pallet!

It was so caked with mud that it was pretty heavy, but we did it!

It is coming together nicely!

We ended up using the flagstone on the other side of the patio, so it didn't go to waste

While we were in the backyard, trying to be resourceful, the men were all in the garage installing a garage door opener.  I think at the end of the day they will have been much more productive than us girls, but we're having a ton of fun, so it's okay.

Now that's what I call "Using your yoga block"

Hopefully this is better than it looks!

There was even a little time for a much needed lawn mowing before lunch.

Steve brought down his lawn mower since the kids don't have one yet

The local grocery store was very helpful in preparing lunch

The men are back at work again, but I think they almost have it.

By the end of the day, they had a pretty functional backyard, and a working garage door opener and a beautifully mowed front yard!



The even had the flag mounted on the front of their house!

I think we wore him out!  He slept all the way home.

It was all completed before the rain moved in again

What a great day!  All of us were together, and we got so much accomplished!