This past weekend Ken and I finally moved our furniture back into the den! We're still not finished with all the little minor repairs (our dining room is now empty so Ken can paint the ceiling), but it feels great to have the house looking "normal" again. Pictures were hung back on the wall, lamps and little mementos were again displayed, and we're "setting the stage" for our home to be invaded by potential buyers.
Got the sofas in place on Sunday ... just in time for the first Saints pre-season game!
While we have a ton of things to sell and get rid of before moving aboard Nirvana, right now we're focusing on getting rid of any extra clutter in our house. Closets have been purged and re-organized, a "drop" has been made to Goodwill, tons of old magazines have been delivered to the library, and several items have been donated to our daughter (she's got a lot more coming). Ken has started the monumental task of sorting through our garage and organizing it. A trip to the local dump eliminated a lot of "stuff" quick!
While "setting the stage", I've come across a few treasures that I know I'll have to ultimately part with in the near future. Although I'm preparing myself for those "What the hell are we doing?!" days, I refuse to spend too much time thinking about such things just yet. I plan on moving a few small treasures on Nirvana, but I know space is limited and there won't be room for much. I'm hoping our daughter will treasure some of the things that I do, and she'll take good care of them for me.
Very soon we'll have our house on the market! It's kind of surreal knowing that we're finally to this point, and our "dream" is starting to evolve into so much more ... it's becoming reality! The amount of work to get our house ready to sell was overwhelming, but we took one step at a time and got it done.
While sitting on our sofas Sunday night, we felt relaxed and the weight on our shoulders has already been so much lighter. Our first night in our renovated den was spent watching the first Saints' pre-season football game ... perfect!
Hasta luego ... until then. Mid-Life Cruising!
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10 comments:
Congratulations! You have come so far...you're rounding third base and nearing the finish line. Great job! Hope your house will sell exactly when you want/need it to!
Congratulations!
I can't imagine living on a boat and not coming home to our house. I know lots of folks that do it though and they love it.
You'll do what needs doing and you'll find many things on the boat at some point that you don't need. We sure did.
Have a terrific day. :)
Sandee, NOT coming back to a house is going to be a tough adjustment! But, like you said, we'll do what needs doing. Glad to hear you're still enjoying your beautiful boat! =)
I'm so excited for you! Such a big step. I imagine you will save so much more money living on the boat in the meantime.
Honestly if we didn't have dogs we would also live on our boat. You can accomplish so much boat work when you do that also.
I sending good house vibes your way. It looks so nice I'm hoping for a good sale.
Ken and Cheryl;
I am so envious, sitting in my cubical here in the Pacific NW, I am still 2 yrs away from the same place. We went out and looked at a Hans Christian 38 last night beginning to purchase a real cruiser. We are putting our Catalina 30 up for sale this week, and shopping for the final boat to dream about.
Keep writing!!!
Terry -
What a lovely home! I hope you enjoy every bit of it while you still have it, especially since now all those things have been done that needed doing and you can relax a bit. I try to imagine what it will be like when we don't live in the house anymore and it feels just wierd. I hope you'll continue to write about both the good things and the difficult things in this transition.
Thanks everyone! Dani, we'll definitely be lowering our monthly bills once the house sells, but we won't be moving onto Nirvana right away. We plan on renting a small (hopefully waterfront) apt while Ken redoes the plumbing, electrical, and some other projects that would be hard to do while living on the boat. We're hoping to find something that doesn't require any more than 6 months, then we'll move aboard!
LCP, I'll definitely write about the mood swings I'm sure to have when letting go of our home! =)
NiSe, you're selling your Catalina 30! I know that's gonna be as hard as letting go of our house! Good luck with your new purchase! We wouldn't be able to cruise in the near future if we required a larger boat, so we're cruising on our Catalina 30! =)
Your house looks great, I'm sure it will sell quickly. I'm sure your daughter will be very happy to take a lot of your stuff off your hands. My sister was nice enough to let me use her basement to store my huge tub of family photos, antique sewing machines, and my very, very good china. If we never move off the boat my kids can have them.
Thanks Laura! My dad has a huge storage shed at his place in the country ... may have to store some things there. I think my daughter will be pretty happy about getting some of our stuff ... wish I would have had that opportunity when I was her age! =)
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