It's official!! yahoo

It is official. The offer on the condo was approved and is a signed and sealed deal.  A big sigh of relief and now what.  The poor condo is a disaster area again as everything has to go. 

We have made a few trips to the motor home which is parked in a long-term parking area about 5 blocks from the condo.  The condo has no outside parking and I will definitely not be able to fit underground. So funny as I look like one of the typical bag ladies pushing my cart.  Cap on, rain coat on, and cart all lined with plastic as it has been pouring out the last few days.

But we are going.  Tyler is giving his notice today at work and that is always stressful.  He is in great spirits as I think he was really worried the deal would not go through.

Now I get to call all the family and friends to tell them about our big new adventure, my mom is going to cry wishing she could come, my one girlfriend is going to try to talk me out of it and the rest are going to be envious. Yesterday I started cleaning out all the food jars and putting things like sugar, salt, beans, and dry goods into plastic bags to be placed in labelled plastic containers.  Everything from here on will have to fit into the smallest space I can make.  As you can imagine my kitchen is a disaster with jars waiting to go into the dishwasher to be recycled. 

 

.  I love organizing and am amazed at what you can get where.

So much to do in 13 days.  WOW.

OMG It is now reality!

An offer on the condo came through the other day, was countered, was countered again and was accepted.  This was on the same morning Tyler and I were off to see an RV we found listed in the local buy and sell.  The new owners to be wanted a quick sign so here Tyler and I are...in the middle of the last skytrain stop wishing each other good luck and a hug.  Tyler had to head back home  to sign the papers and I was off to see our new home by myself.  

I bought it.  A smaller 28’ Travelair , 2003 model in great shape.  By far the nicest I had seen and within our price limit.

 

This will be our home for the next 3 to 4 months.  Now comes the crazy part.

Tyler signed the papers and we have to be out in 17 days.  17 days!!... so glad that we have been purging and prepairing for this moment for the last 3 months as even now I am looking around and thinking  -  what are we going to do with all these things.  Life is going to be a worle wind but amazingly enough we are going to be on the road by our hoped date of Dec 15th.  Now if the weather gets all straightend out by then I’m hoping we can time it to have a pleasent  leisurely tripdown the coast.  There is a lot to see.

 

 

Try to be positive

I always try to remain positive and in many circumstances, find it is best to say nothing than to rant and rave about the fact that life is not going my way.  Definitely the case for the last few weeks.  After 2 open houses and another this Saturday it does not look good for us #momandsonteam to be heading out any time soon.  There are all sorts of reasons, wrong time of year (November, December and January are to lowest for home sales), the sky is grey and it is raining…whatever the reason the gods are not smiling upon us to start on our journey of adventure.

If the condo does not have an offer or sell in the next week or 2 (so strange that here in Vancouver that if it does not sell in a month pull the listing for a few months.  In the rural areas of BC it is not odd to have your property or home listed for a year). 

On a positive note, we may be traveling across Canada in the spring which would be beautiful. 

It also gives us more time to daydream and search the internet for the perfect reno project when we get to where we are going.And to make us smile here is a beautiful sunrise from the other day in downtown New Westminster. 

A classic case of getting my hopes higher that reality

The problem of getting all hyped up about things is that they never seem to go the way you want.  I know for some people it seems to go according to their plans but for some of us, it is a struggle.   We had hopes that the condo would sell right after the first open house and it looked great.  We had over 40 couples come to look.  Many requested the condo minutes and all the applicable papers and inquires.  But no offers; makes you want to cry.  A classic case of getting my hopes higher that reality dictates.   Good news is we are having another this Saturday and try it again.  Our realter assures us that the price is correct, matches the surrounding market of condos and is actually larger than the average.  Here are a few photos of our condo courtesy of Pixilink.

 

If we lower the price it will mean no trip across the Americas but a relatively quick trip across Canada to find our next renovation project.  Still holding on to the ultimate dream of buying a catamaran with in the next 5 years. So still keep your fingers crossed and I will make sure the place looks awesome and clean and bright for one more open house.  

Hoping that everyone has their fingers crossed

The open house viewing went very well this past weekend and we find out from our realter the offers and where we are going from here.  I will be so glad to have the stress of not knowing finished with.  All the hard work to get everything in order for the open house will come to fruit (what a saying) tonight.  If there is a large enough offer this weekend we are off to look at motorhomes and start the planning for the big adventure across the America’s.  If not, we hunker down, try not to get depressed, work our little butts off and try for plan B.  Go plan A!!

Anticipation is a funny thing and I hate waiting.  To the point that if I have to stand in line for any more than 15 minutes; I don’t. lol So having to wait 2 days is painful.The funny thing is then we will have a very short amount of time (a few weeks) to deal with the remainder of the purge items….. a whole apartment full of furniture, keepsakes and food stores.  All of which will come together once we buy the RV.  A good measure of the RV space will be necessary to figure out what comes and what goes.  A lot of the little things are done and checked off the list.

1. Passports up to date
2. Kitties vaccines up to date.  I like to call them the Kitty passports
3. Drivers licences up to date
4. Phone providers figured out and ready to go
5. Alternative Post office arrangements.  This one was a hard one and one that we gave a lot of thought to.  We opted to have all post stopped for the next 4 months which means letting everyone know not to send to the New West address.  Insurance, credit cards, investments, mom.  Every piece of mail you now receive needs to be stopped.  The reason we picked this option was that most of what we deal with now is paperless and notices arrive via email.

So here is hoping that everyone has their fingers crossed and prayers are in order.  The next post should be a yeah we are going……

The purge is well worth the adventure.

What comes first? Downsizing! A lot! And then some more, and then a bit more after that and still we are going to have way to much stuff.Purging is a hard thing to know where to even start. When I had first moved from Nakusp a few years ago, moving from a 4 bedroom 4 bath to a 1 bedroom 1 bath purging had been hard. But after 4 garage sales, lots of donating and a few trips to the local dump the task was accomplished. I thought. Moving into the apartment on Hastings was a real shock. Everything piled in the center and OMG what do I do with it all. Most of it found its way into drawers and closets, cupboards and corners and although it was a little packed it all worked out. Moving in with Tyler 18 months later was a different story. All the big things had to go so I down sized again; sold all my books, donated lawn furniture, sent my swing home with my mom and kept only the basics for dishes. I still moved in Tyler’s with way to many things. So here we are again moving from a 1200sq.ft. apartment into less than 300sq.ft. RV is going to be amazing. It will be like going back to being 17. I remember being able to throw everything I owned and the cat into my old Chevy II and off I went. The Chevy just got a little bigger and a lot more comfortable, lol. A bit of purging turned into a bit more and a bit more again. It felt great once it started and became easier as the purge went. Every Sunday for the past 2 months Tyler and I took 2 carts to the Salvation Army (thank goodness it is only 3 blocks away) twice. Between Sundays I would have the 2 carts filled again. A lot of my fabric went to the Century House and to the Trout Lake Community Center and believe it or not I have just 2 boxes left of my favorites left. No more hording a stash that I am never going to get to. Over 10 boxes of fabric and notions sent to a good home where they can be used. The other big purge was my photos. Having 11 photo albums that I couldn’t remember the last time I took out to look at; I sat, had a cup (many over the weeks) and scanned all of my old photos, by date, into the computer. It was an awesome thing to do. I’d forgotten a lot of things and places and people over the years. I was so nice to remember everything. Some a little sad but the majority was fun, laughter, and good friends. I still have no idea how we are going to fit the things into an RV that we both would like to take and I am sure it is going to take a lot of compromise along the way. It is so exciting to think that I get to do a dream come true and live like a gypsy for the next few months. No rush, no time table, and most of all visiting a few of the places I have always wanted to see. The purge is well worth the adventure.

We are RVing across the America’s. Yes!

I must admit that once the decision to work to travel was decided things started moving fast. The decision was made to look at areas across the country to find affordable an affordable housing market. We wanted to stay near the ocean so that meant going north or looking at the Maritimes. Having walked a few of the cliff trails in Newfoundland a few years ago; I fell in love with the rugged landscape and once we looked into the availability of affordable houses decided that that may just be the place to head to. Not necessarily Newfoundland but the eastern coast in general. It is also much closer geographically toward buying a catamaran. Which is our sailing vessel of choice; stable, set up for one or two too sail, .... but I digress. Of course in the progression of things and ideas next came “how are we going to get there”? We talked about moving vans, flying, driving, shipping our worldly possessions, just about every idea we could come up with. Figured out costs, time lines, checked the internet for ideas. We have 2 cats (Carl Segan and Sammy) so they had to be considered as we were not leaving them behind. I mentioned to Tyler that it was too bad we could not take a bit of time and see some of the country as well. Were we in a hurry? The answer was no we were not. So a RV is the mode of travel for the next few months. Not only will it give Tyler time to de-stress from work but by the end of it we will know if the mom and son (#momandsonteam) team are ready for the close quarters of sailing. We are RVing across the America’s. Yes!

Starting the adventure of a life time

This is where the short term goal comes in.  With the house market in Vancouver being what it is, it is hard to find affordable housing. Even homes that need a little help are out of reach for most buyers unless you have a huge mortgage and 25 to30 years in which to gain equity in your home.  I would really like to be on a boat traveling before I hit 85, so we needed a more realistic game plan.

Tyler has been at the same job for over 10+ years with little chance of advancement (until someone retires) and has dreamed of being self sufficient for years.  When he (and he will, I have much faith in my son) creates an on line software development/systems management business (#fromthe.blue) we can travel.  So he has been busy in his spare time doing just that.  Getting things set up and ready for the near future. 

After much discussion of how and when, the decision was made to just do it; enough talking and let’s do it.  The very worst thing that could happen is we bomb and have to go to dig ditches (do people still do that? lol) to get started again.  About a month ago I started painting and fixing to get Tyler’s condo into the selling market.  We (#momandsonteam) replaced vanities, lights, faucets, any and everything to modernize the apartment.  Redid cupboards in side and out, sanded doors, replaced window coverings and even built real closet space with shelving and 3 clothes rods in Tyler’s walk in closet. 

Cupboards being re-purposed. Doors off.

 

Cupboards finished. They look great.

 

The condo goes on the market next week.

I am so excited to get started on the adventure of a life time.