We have been thinking of downsizing for at least
a year, and 2 weeks ago we finally decided to sell and move. We hired a Realtor Wednesday morning, listed our current home Thursday morning; and sold it Friday
afternoon: Friday afternoon we looked at … and put a bid on our new home … and
by Saturday morning we in in contract on BOTH homes ;-) This past Monday we collected the
$$$ from our buyer and, in turn, put $$$ down on our new home. We got our FULL asking price and was able to use a large chunk of that money to buy our new
home outright, owing nothing in a mortgage (Romans 13:8); so now all we will need to fork out each month is
Lot Rent, which is a reasonably small amount - plus utilities & garbage fees, which can't be avoided. And repairs and updates on the
new home – WANTS: wood flooring to replace the carpeting, a handicap ramp to
replace the stairs so my poor old knees won’t burn and ache at the end of each
day; NEED:
a new roof laid before Fall arrives – the sellers refused to replace (or even fund half the cost of) the rotten
roofing which is literally disintegrating as I type; planter boxes built
and in place so I can transplant my flowers into them and get a good root
system in place so they survive the Fall/Winter months, and a fence to keep the peace. These things are scheduled to be
done before Summer ends: hopefully before July ends.
All of this week we have been packing this
house up (we immediately sold a lot of
furniture in a Garage Sale, and hauled a lot of other stuff we had been
hoarding to the dump) and moving boxes from this house to the new one – we want
to move at least 3/4ths of what is left ourselves to cut down the cost of the
Moving Company we hired to move the bulky, heavy furniture left – the cost for
the Moving Truck and 2 men is outrageous, so every penny saved is a penny
earned … and I intend to {earn} at least ½ of what they have estimated in moving
costs <:-O We were able to book the Moving Truck for this coming Friday
morning - it's the only opening they had this month, and all we have left to move from here to there is 3 or 4 boxes that
can’t be topped off until the eleventh hour … and loose things like a couple lamps,
3 or 4 pictures, and a few bins we can haul to the new house as the flooring
gets laid room by room. The flooring should be picked up Monday & set out to acclimate
for 24 hours, start laying by Wednesday and completed by Thursday ... Friday at the latest – that’s the
Plan anyways, and we are praying it goes as smoothly as anticipated :-D
Elohei has been involved in this endeavor
from the get-go and it has been a miraculous happening. If our Realtor and the
Moving Truck Coordinator were not already Believers … THEY ARE NOW! None of
this could have happened as it has … BUT
FOR GOD. And we have given God all the glory and praise every day He had
worked things out to our favor – the Realtor and Truck Coordinator have both been
witnesses and have even said themselves that they agree ‘God has been working
it all out’, because there is ‘no other way’ things could have come together as
they have.
We wholeheartedly agree!
“God is good all the time, and all the time
God is good.” Amen.
Our new Home - Hub's Father's Day Gift. Every shrub will be uprooted and replaced with flowers. Not sure yet if the tree is staying or not ...
We have made plans for these Front Porch steps to be covered with a looooooooong ramp because my knees are already rebelling against all these steps! The ramp will be easier on my knees ... and on our friends’ knees as well.
The Livingroom area. I fell in love with the ‘adobe-like’ arches and open floor plan – every room just flows into the other; the only doors are the outside doors, the bathroom doors, and the closet doors – that’s it. I like that. The carpets IN EVERY ROOM are being ripped up next week and wood flooring laid. The walls may eventually get painted - I like color. White walls make a house feel unfinished. MPO
The Master Bedroom Closet is very, very roomy; we can use one whole side for our clothes, and the other side to shelf and fit ALL my craft supplies into it. Very nice.
Master Bathroom is HUGE and has a full sized shower/bath AND a Jetted Spa Tub. This is the 1st thing I intend to use to soothe my tired and over-worked muscles as soon as we move completely into our new home and get things set in place ;-)
The Livingroom and Dining Room are one large and spacious room. These windows are great! A true answer to prayer: I like lots of windows in my home; windows bring the outside IN and brightens the house up. I REALLY LIKE that …
The Dining Room flows into the Kitchen. We love this open floor plan. That ugly ceiling lamp is going to be replaced asap ...
This house has two skylights. This skylight is over the Kitchen island-counter, and the sunlight streaming down through it really lightens up the room: no lights needed until the sun goes down. I like that - I need lots of sunshine to beat back the PNW blues that come with the dreary schizoid weather.
Lovin’ the colors of our new home: Red/White/Blue! We may build a smaller ramp for these Breezeway stairs leading to the back yard. Our knees aren’t what they used to be and 4 stairs can quickly become the ‘enemy’. LOL
In the Breezeway is a little Shed for Bob's Toolbox and Saw Tables. This Breezeway Shed will be strictly Bob's; this afternoon I bought an extra-large plastic Deck Box to set in back of the house to store my Terra cotta pots and misc. gardening stuff in to free up more room for his stuff.
I've asked Bob to build me some looooong raised Planting Boxes to plant flowers and veggies in. The sun shines bright along the back fence-line and they should do well and thrive there. This morning we hauled 2 truckloads of flowers ... YES! 2 TRUCK LOADS ... to be transplanted along the fence line: foxgloves (gotta have those!), cabbage leaf begonias, geraniums, delphiniums, shasta daises (those go out front for curb appeal) miniature burros tail sedum, cala lilies, variegated lilies, carnations, 2 miniature roses, teddy bear cactus, tiger lily, hen and chicks sedum, 2 blueberry bushes (not flowers, but will be put in the general set aside area), chives, and 2 patio apple trees arriving Friday. Next Spring, I'll tuck some veggies in between the established flowers :-D We also hung 1 potted Begonia & 4 potted Geraniums along the Carport overhang.
I would like a small Red Paver Patio laid down in this area for outside relaxation. These ugly pavers are gonna go 'bye-bye'.
We are going to put a beautifying fancy Wire Fence along this border line - fences make good neighbors; and I want one laid out as soon as possible to keep the peace.
