IT'S OFFICIAL!! We're Moving!

One of the many Daylilies that bloomed in my backyard on Sunday!

June 30, 2013

Two weeks ago, if you had told me I'd be writing these words, I would've laughed at you.  Sure, we've talked off and on for a couple of years about moving into a condo closer to the college where Bill teaches.   We'd search for a while both online and by driving around.   We discovered that the complexes we liked never had anything for sale and the others held no appeal whatsoever.  We'd remind ourselves how much we loved our 73-year old Cape Cod plus all the hard work and love we've put into it over the last 14 years and convince ourselves to stay awhile longer.  We always knew we wouldn't stay forever.  As we grew older and closer to Bill's retirement, our priorities would change and we'd no longer want to have to worry with it while traveling.  We also knew that when the right time came, the perfect place would appear and everything would fall into place.  

And that's exactly what happened.  Two Saturday's ago, Bill very nearly cut off the tip end of his finger while trimming hedges on our front yard.  He was hot, frustrated and just flat didn't want to be doing that so he admits he was careless.  It was also the day we said to each other that we were tired of the whole home maintenance/gorgeous yard scene.  When he was out of school, we wanted to lock the door behind us and go, go go!  

A couple of days later, I did one of my random searches on the real estate web site, zillow.com, for a condo within a four mile radius of Bill's college.  Up popped a new listing in a small complex I had NEVER seen before.  Looking at the pics, I surmised (correctly as it turns out) that the complex had been developed by the same builder as the one we'd had our eye on for a more than a year, but there had been not one single listing in all that time.  Later that afternoon, I did a drive-by and loved everything about the outside.  Bill drove by on his way home, we looked at it the next day, met with our realtor the next morning to see how she felt about selling our house, looked at the condo again the following day, made an offer that evening and our offer was accepted the next afternoon.  The whole thing happened in five days!!  Neither of us have had one minute of second-guessing or regret since then.  We are both totally convinced it's the right thing to do and the right place for us to go.

Bill's commute will go from 26 miles one way to less than 4 miles.  The small complex of 43 units was built in 2004 and most are still owned by their original owners.  Ours was available because the gentleman's wife died in January and although he tried living alone, just couldn't make it work.  His children have helped him move into a place where he will have some help.  To be honest, it looks brand new.  We plan to paint a couple of the rooms, but we could easily move in without doing one thing.  It is all on one level, three bedroom, two bath, huge great room, dining room, the biggest kitchen I've ever had, breakfast nook and a sunporch to die for!  Also, a covered front porch with rocking chairs that will stay!!  It is an end unit so we have a grassy area on one side and a patio that you access from the sunporch.  From the sunporch, looking to the left faces a wooded area and to the right an open field.  It gives the sense of being in a very rural area, but you are less than two miles from the largest shopping/restaurant/entertainment complex in our city.  

To say we are thrilled is putting it mildly.  I don't think either of us had realized how ready we really were.   I know I hadn't!  Please send prayers/good thoughts that our house will sell quickly.  It is a jewel and there is nothing wrong with it at all.  We just hope someone will buy it who appreciates an older home and will love it as much as we have all these years.  Our agent, who is the same agent who sold it to us 14 years ago, loved all the things we had done to it, and made the statement, "if I can't sell this, I need to get out of the real estate business!"  That was very encouraging, but also made us feel really, really good!

So that's our news!  We will close on the condo around August 1 once again reflecting perfect timing.  Bill finishes teaching his summer class on July 26 and does not report back for fall term until August 14.  We will have over two weeks while he is off to get moved.  

Obviously, Summer Adventure Part 2 has been cancelled.  One more example of how we feel so certain this was meant to be is that our offer for the condo was accepted on July 24.  We had paid in full reservations for our two cabins in Colorado both of which offered full refunds if cancelled more than 30 days out.  We made it by TWO days, so I was able to get all money back.  Amazing!

No pictures yet, but we are meeting the home inspector this afternoon, so I'll try and take some inside shots for you.  Then it's into "purge" mode for the next few weeks.  I refuse to move anything that hasn't been used in the last year!  

What does your week look like?