Good morning friends, a happy Tuesday to you! I hope that you had a restful and enjoyable weekend. Mine was busy from sun up until sun down, we were doing yard work(as fast as I pull the weeds they pop back up the next day) and packing up some things in the house. For those of you that have been reading the blog for awhile this is going to seem like ground hog day, believe me if feels the same way, and for those of you that are new here to put it simply, we have been trying to move since 2018 and it hasn’t worked out and now we are trying again. Third time is a charm.
Here is a recap:
In late 2018, we found a house we liked but did not want to purchase it before we sold our current home, as they are in two different sates, so we put our house up for sale and placed a bid on the house we liked. After negotiating back and forth with the people that wanted to buy our house they backed out at the last minute, then the owners of the house we were buying backed out of the deal because they decided to stay in the house for 2 more years until they retire.
In late 2019, I was looking at houses as I periodically do and the house I wanted came up for sale again, apparently the people decided to build a house and to sell their current house. We lost the house to someone else. Because we had our house up for sale we continued to look to see if there was something else we liked.
Early 2020, Covid-19 lockdown, we decided to take two road trips to look at houses, frankly we felt a lot of pressure because a young couple wanted our house and every day they were calling our realtor to give her messages to give to us. On the first trip the house way way too small so back home we went. A week later we took another road trip and made an offer on a house that had been for sale for over a year, it was bigger than our current house, had a pond and a stream, and needed a lot of work. On our way home after making the offer I knew we made a mistake, I just felt like the house was too big and too much work, my husband woke up the next day and said the same. Before we could call our realtor to say that we changed our mind she informed us that there was another offer and all of a sudden we lost our minds and got into a bidding war! Thankfully we came to our senses and when our final offer was due we backed out and let the house go.
Over the last year of lock down I cannot tell you how grateful we have been that we did not get that house, and how grateful we have been to be in our current house but we also have come to the realization that we want to downsize and we want to be closer to family. We are putting our house up for sale and we are putting the rest of our plans in God’s hands. We might rent a house until we find something that we want or we might build who knows. I will not lie, this is a very hard thing for me because I am a planner, (I could never be an explorer setting out for the unknown), not only am I a planner I am an over thinker and I will mull over ever detail and lay awake thinking about all of the details, etc.
In the meantime, I am cleaning closets, and bookcases, and trying to cull the house of all sorts of things that I do not want to take to our next adventure. I will keep you posted.
I have a busy week, lots of appointments for the pets and myself, several Zoom meetings and life. What about you? What are your plans for the week? Are you slowly emerging from your Covid cocoon or are things in your area keeping you at home? Whatever the case I hope that you stay safe and have a wonderful week.
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Hi Elizabeth – Wow, your story brought back memories. We retired 4 years ago and were looking all over for someplace to move – maintenance free, where there was fun stuff to do, and a community that had good health care. In our early 60’s, we knew that not ever having been blessed with children we needed to make a plan for our retirement years. After looking all up and down the east coast we knew we were NorthEast PA kind of people…but not finding what we wanted. We found a wonderful community with everything we wanted building a new apartment building with a roof deck, a screen porch on apartments, library…pools, restaurants, etc – and health care if we needed it. Just like you, neighbors heard we were retiring and called us all the time to see if we wanted to sell our home. We finally had to say – no, not yet – the place we loved had no availability! SOLD OUT! So, we just stayed put – until one day a few months later our agent called and said someone had backed out of the apartment we loved and we had until 5 PM that day to say yes as others were waiting. We looked again, signed, came home, called the neighbors, and in 3 months moved into our new space. It happened so fast – 42 years of stuff to clean out – but we did it. IT WAS MEANT TO BE. We kept praying for guidance on what to do…and it fell in our lap. So hang in there…there are plans for good in your life ! Blessings to you !
Hopefully this time goes smoothly.
Thank you William!
I feel for you, as I am also a planner and overthinker. I had just decide to retire last year (well past FRA), a week before everything shut down. I have continued to work from home, which will end within a few months, as I’m sure my job will be scuttled in my fourth bank merger. I will be leaving the South, can’t stand the heat and humidity. But out-of-state moves are so much work. Not so much the physical move part of it, but all the state-specific bureaucracies. Then there’s the housing market…..I sure didn’t expect to retire a renter. One of my favorite quotes is a paraphrase of Martin Luther King that goes something like you don’t have to see the whole staircase to take the first step. Good luck with the sale of your house.
I just absolutely live reading you, your thoughts, your outlook! I am a spur of moment kinda girl and what you guys are doing sounds so fun. God has plan for the perfect place…trust Him and enjoy the journey.❤ Debbie
Thank you for your encouragement Debbie, typically I am a spur of the moment kind of person but I am a little worried about having a place to lay my head. I am putting it in God’s hands and I trust he knows where he wants me.
I hope things work out this time around. I know how that is: planning and things coming undone and then you’re just at the mercy of the real estate gods.
Brenda
Planning and searching for the just right place to move can be so stressful! By God’s grace, we have managed through many moves even when I thought it wasn’t going well at all. Plan and pray is the best plan of all. But it was all an adventure especially when we got settled! Plans for the week…help our daughter get her new house move in ready. Clean and dust mine. Get caught up with laundry since our new dryer arrived this afternoon today. Have a good week!