On the Edge...

The house is gone, the boat is gone, and we are almost gone.... my notice at work has been given, and now I guess you could say I am "waiting it out", but it feels like more than that. As I have said, I have mixed emotions about leaving. I work with a great group of people and I enjoy what I do--ok, except the filing part(it does come in handy when your brain is fried though). Part of me feels guilty for leaving, especially for not giving more notice, but I had my reasons. In the end, of course, they will be fine without me. Hopefully they will get the help they have needed for a long time. ... So I am working really hard to get as much done there as I can before I am gone. The campground we are at is nice, I guess, as far as campgrounds go.... there is a small lake, but we haven't had time to walk around it yet. Hopefully we will this weekend. We are getting close to finishing everything we want to do to the Everest, at least for now. Mostly we are organized, except the bin of paperwork I have to go through, that came from the file cabinet at home. I am still trying to figure out how I want it organized, but I need to do it this weekend for sure. I am too tired at night to tackle something like that. We haven't figured out yet exactly where we go from here, and when we are leaving- sometime the week of the 10th, but we may have to get some work done on the Everest-nothing major, just warranty stuff. Paul is pretty vague when I ask him where he wants to go (PA,OH?) on the way to MA, and when do we want to land in MA, and I figure it doesnt really matter, so I don't push it. So, I feel like we are on the edge of the adventure, finishing the last of the things that keep us here; not quite on the road but past the day to day living that we had before we started this all. later.....

neighbors

For the last few days as we quickly (but not quickly enough!) packed all of our stuff, and tried to clear out the house, mostly what I thought about was our neighbors. Last weekend we had several over for a very casual dinner of hot dogs and chili. We had a fun time with everyone. The past few days many neighbors have stopped by to say goodbye, get an update, or just tease us about all the stuff we are getting rid of, etc. all of that and more make me think about what great neighbors we have/had. As we got further behind in our efforts, (MAYBE partly due to my husbands inability to throw out something thats perfectly good) we got help from sooo many people! Poor Liz and Jim, who got so many things from us that we were sure they needed, whether they agreed or not. I think Jim started hiding so we couldn't give him anything, but thats ok, we started just leaving stuff in their garage that we wanted them to have. The trash and recyclables became a pile too big to handle, and Andy next door pitched right in. He took the recyclables and offered to put them out on recycling day, and then offered his dumpster so we could get rid of the pile of stuff. Mary, from the house behind us, came to say goodbye, and offered to take the canned goods that we were looking to donate and find a food bank to donate them to. Billy and George, from across the street, came over many times to help Paul lift and carry the things that were just too much for me. Beth offered to store Jessie's stuff in her garage for the 3 weeks until she leaves for school... and I will never forget my last hour at the house. I can laugh now, but I was a little frazzled at the time, I admit! With less than 2 hours to closing, it was clear that we had too much to fit in the truck and if we took the time to try to pack it, we seriously weren't going to make it to the closing. Paul's huge, heavy toolbox was supposed to go in the back of the truck but it was tooo heavy to lift. On a positive note, it had wheels....a quick decision was made and I started wheeling it over to Liz's house, calling her on the phone as I went. I told her we were out of time and room in the truck and still had "stuff" . She not only took the toolbox, she came over with her little wagon and took more. she told us to just leave what we couldn't take in the driveway, and she would take it over to her house. We took her up on the offer, and were on our way to closing! That's what I will miss!

exhaustion sets in...

Seriously, we are just getting tired. Its hard to sleep at night when you know there is so much to do the next day. Today is Saturday, and we had day 2 of our second garage sale today. Paul pretty much handled it himself- I packed boxes and made spaghetti sauce and meatballs to freeze, so we could use up some canned goods. On the plus side, he sold a lot of stuff in the last two days, but it also took up his whole day and all his energy. Tonight we took Jess and went out to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. Tomorrow Jess and I will spend the day sorting and packing her stuff- what she needs to bring to school and what she needs to buy etc. Then we shop, of course. This is our last week in the house, hopefully. We have spent the last two weeks taking trips to the storage area, packing the stuff we won't need anymore. Paul hasn't had time to do much work on the Everest, but if you know Paul at all, you know he has a list of "modifications" he wants to make. This week he has to do the things that will require power tools and anything else that will be going into storage or given away. Everything else will have to wait. We hired a small moving company to come on Friday to move the heavy stuff for us, so whatever we don't get moved ourselves this week, at least we can have them do it on Friday. Last night we had a bunch of neighbors over and had a great time hanging out. That is one of the things i will miss. we have the most awesome neighbors/friends!! I will truly miss the Parks and all the shenanigans that go on next door. So much fun to watch! More later.............

Pictures of Our new home

before the road.....

Tonight was our last dinner with both girls. The weather was so perfect we cooked on the grill and ate outside. Christina leaves tomorrow to head home to Tennessee, after staying with us for more than a month. She was very easy to have here, even while we were showing the house- and boy did we show it a lot in the last few months. Jess leaves for Boston on Sunday for a week. During that week, we have a lot to get done. although the appraisal hasn't come through yet, we are going to have to start proceeding as if it will. We need the next two days of full work to get a good start on sorting and packing stuff. Paul picked up the truck yesterday- an F350 Dually- very nice- but HUGE!! I haven't driven it yet. Jess would love to drive it...hmmmmmm. Today he got the hitch which turned out to be a bigger decision than we thought. we were thinking to pick up a used one for about $300. Well, no, that didn't work out. Turns out the cheap ones have no suspension, so the 5th wheel rattles down the road. Since we'll be towing our "home" and we have no experience doing it, we decided to cough up the money for an air ride hitch- they are supposed to make towing much easier. A lot of money, but peace of mind and lower stress levels are worth it. Sometime in the next week or so we will pick up the Everest. Timing is tricky- we can't get it too soon, but we have things we need to do to it before we leave, so we'll need it here for a week or so. Thats the fun part- first we have to get through some more work stuff...........

before the road.....

Ok, so I got the idea of blogging from Michele, who suggested it so she and others could follow our travels throughout the U.S. Today we had the home inspection, which went surprisingly well. We are both waiting for the other shoe to drop, I think. We also received the money for the boat, which really is a bittersweet thing. I guess I have to keep reminding myself that keeping the boat will not serve our purpose and won't bring back boating like it was in MA. IF everything goes according to plan, we should close on the house on July 21st. Paul is very busy selling things through Ebay and Craigslist. If the appraisal goes well, we will really have to start getting it in gear. I feel like I am at the start of a race, crouched in position, waiting for the gun to go off. we can't do too much until the house appraises for the selling price, at which point our sale has a better chance of going through- but if that happens, we have exactly 4 weeks to pack up and get out. We have been getting as ready as possible for the last few months, but there is a lot that has to wait. We already had and lost one buyer, so we don't want to assume anything. In this area of the country, the house isn't sold until after it closes, for sure. People lose their jobs at the drop of a hat around here it seems. We lost the last buyer because they lost THEIR buyer- a school teacher who got laid off at the end of the school year, 5 days before closing on her first condo. She eventually got her job back but our deal fell through in the meantime. This whole thing started due to Paul losing his job with Ford, in February. He was one of the lucky ones who actually got a retirement package. Most people don't. Living in the Detroit area is extremely depressing right now. So many people are struggling- willing to work hard, but there are no jobs, no matter how willing you are. As Paul looked for work around here, and further south, it quickly became apparent that there wasn't much out there for him. In April We went out to California to visit friends, and while there, casually looked at some 5th wheels, thinking in terms of retirement in a few years. Soon after we got home, after looking at our finances, life situation and a lot of other factors(we even took a whirlwind trip to SC to see if we would like it there, if he could find a job) , we decided that we had been given an opportunity, and if we let it pass by, we would be sitting on the sidelines of life rather than living it. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided that IF we could sell everything (the boat and the house, basically) that we would be able to spend a year (or so) travelling the country, exploring anyplace that sparks an interest. A week later the house went on the market. That was April, this is June. Not too bad for Detroit. We lost a lot of equity, but we really feel that this is the right choice for us right now. We take turns feeling anxiety, Paul and I, and it seems like whenever I am calm, he is frazzled and vice versa. Thats a good thing, I guess. Two frazzled people would be too much in one house. Just ask Jess. On the rare occasion Paul and I are both stressed at the same time, she probably feels it the most (sorry sweetie). As usual, she is a trooper and understands why we want to do this. It wouldn't be her choice to do right now, but she has her own things going on, and has really been supportive of our decision to take advantage of this opportunity. More later...................