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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Is it Spring?

Today was beautiful.  It truly made one believe in summer again.  It felt so good to just go outside and feel the heat of the sun on your face.  There is still snow in the back yard but it goes down daily.  This type of weather is really making us both anxious to get going.  I know that we are still going to get colder weather and that winter is not totally over yet but just for today it was easy to imagine we were hooking up to Serenity and heading out.  (we actually took our lunch out there and ate it in her)

We took more stuff to the storage bin today.  We also talked to the real estate agent today again.  We have 90% settled on a price.  We are going to set our price a bit low so to attract the largest amount of lookers in the first few weeks.  We  could probably put a higher price on it and get it but we wonder if it is worth the extra time it would take to sell.  The sooner we sell the sooner we stop mortgage payments and hit the road. (not to mention less taxes too)  It looks like we will be putting it on the market in about a month from now. 

I have come down with a cold.  My lungs are so conjested and my voice is gone.  I alternate between a soprano and deep bass when I talk.  When I try to holler to the dogs they just ignore me.  My little shih-tzu  keeps looking at me strangely.  I think he is thinking that I look like his "mommy" but where did that voice come from.  I have had to turn down a couple of days of work.  I just can't imagine me trying to teach a class of active Kindergarten kids with my voice like this.  It has been like this for 2 days now.  I am going to give it the weekend and if it isn't better I will head to the Dr.  I hope it just comes back on it's own.

Bye for now all and stay safe out there.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

More baby steps

Finally the snow is going.  It is mostly gone in the front yard but we need warmer and longer sunshine to get the back yard clear.  It is happening though.  It won't be long now and ...dare I say it.....spring will be here. 

We are 6 weeks away from putting the house on the market and things are getting slowly done.  We finished the master bath in the past week.  We put a new vanity in there...........if you remember the old one was so small and had no storage.  I always had to put my curling iron and hair dryer in the sink.  There was about an inch and a half around the sink to set things.  Now I have room for both the iron and dryer and my makeup as well. Not to mention drawers to keep it all in.  So much nicer.  I just don't know why we waited so long to do it?  This should have been done 2 years ago. 

We have decided that we are also going to change out the small vanity in the powder room on the lower level.  The one we took from the master is just the right size for that room and in better shape than the one in there. 

Then we tackle the last major project............the kitchen floor.  Once that is complete all we need to do is pack up what we are not using for staging or in Serenity and take it to our storage room. 
We rented the storage unit today.  Our original plan was to check out what was available at the storage place.  We had scouted out 4 or 5 places last fall and decided that the Leesport place met our needs the best.  Today we went in to see what was available for 1 March.  She had a 5 x 10 available for 70 a month and a 5 x 15 for 50 a month.  No I didn't type that backward.  The 5 x 15 was cheaper.  Go figure.   We decided on the 5 x 15 of course and told her we would pay the first few months up front.  Then she told us that if we paid for March that we could have the rest of Feb.  free.  So we rented our storage unit today.  We can finally start getting the stacks of boxes out of the house. 

It is getting closer and closer.  Now that the weather is getting better we are getting more and more anxious to get into Serenity.  It is hard to read some of the blogs I am following and to see all the fun they are having while I am still sitting here.  It gets frustrating and I want to just get out of here.  I know my time is coming but like a child just before Christmas..... Santa can't come fast enough. 

What about all you out there?  Especially all of the wannabes and gonnabes?  Do you get the same feeling?  Sometimes I just have to shut the computer down and do something else. 

My turn is coming and soon I will be meeting you in a campground somewhere.  Until then stay safe and watch out for the other guy.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The ups and downs

A comment was made on my last post about the ups and downs of changing lifestyles.  Do I ever know that one!  One minute I am so excited about the lifestyle that I feel as if I am going to just burst and the next I am scared to death.  One day I am totally into the whole thing and the next I feel physically sick at the thought of  just "hitting the road".   I have seriously wondered if we are crazy.  I know others have had these feelings too, but that doesn't seem to help when I am in the midst of an "are we crazy" day.

I worry about selling the house.  Will it sell?  Will we be sitting her next year at this time still hoping?  Will we  get a good price for it?  Then the next day I am confident that we will be travelling by summer.  Some times the turn around from one mood to the next is so fast my head spins.  I am anxious to put the house on the market (6 more weeks) and then I am dreading it too.  There is no control over the sale of the house and I am not comfortable with that.  It is the only part of the whole process that is out of our control.  How am I going to get through it? 

If I am still sane at the end of all this I hope  we will meet at a campground somewhere down the road. And if I am not.......I  will be the one sitting outside my rig wearing a straight jacket!!!

Bye for now

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Update on real estate

Well the agent was here earlier..............seeing as it is after midnight here now, that would make it yesterday according to the dates.  Anyway we had slightly over estimated on what we could ask for our house.  It isn't bad but it would be nice to get a few thousand more.  Oh well we can't control the market.  We are going to put in on and hope for the best.  Jessica I was thinking of you when we were discussing price and how you had to settle for less than you wanted on  your condo.  We will get more than what we owe - we are not in an upside down situation - just not as much more as we hoped. 

Anyway the house goes on at the end of March or the first week in April depending on weather.  There is not much more we have to do for projects....just the bathroom vanity and the kitchen floor.  On the upside I did make a big dent in sorting my sewing room.  

As many of us have found out, when sorting rooms things have to get worse before they get better, so in that spirit my sewing room is in the worse stage now.  I have always though of each room having two different "levels" of clean.  There is the upper level.  That is the area you see.  Table tops, counters, book shelves etc.  Then there is the lower level, the behind closed doors level... you know in the cupboards, in drawers and closets.  This is the area that is getting cleaner in each room.  Unfortunately this is also the area you don't see.  So even though many of the rooms look messier they really are cleaner. Hmmm ....I should have thought of that when I was younger and my mom would tell me to go clean up my room.  That might have been a good "out", if she bought it. ;)

It is late here and I have to work tomorrow.  Good night everyone and have a great day tomorrow.

See you soon in a campground somewhere.

One more baby step down

We have a real estate agent coming by this afternoon.  I will let you know what he has to say once he says it.

Fingers crossed that the price he suggests is what we want to hear and that he doesn't have suggestions that lead to tons of work and $$ in the next few weeks.

Monday, February 7, 2011

another week

So did everyone watch the football game yesterday?   I did not.   Being Canadian my game is hockey and since moving to the US I find I miss it.  However, Ira enjoys the game so of course it was on.  We went to Ira's sisters to watch it.  Elaine and I watched a movie while the guys enjoyed their game.  And of course way too much food.  Food was good, movie was good and company was good.  In my opinion that makes for a good evening.

Not much more has been done on the full timing front.  We are still sorting out the house and trying to decide what is going with us.  That is a hard thing to do.  We are both still in the mindset of "we should keep that because we might need it someday".  You cannot have that attitude and live in a RV.  It is difficult to just toss or donate or sell things you have been keeping for the day you will need it, even though I know we will feel so much better after.  I got rid of a lot of stuff before I moved from the west coast to the east when Ira and I got married.  I know how freeing it feels to not be owned by stuff, but the frugal part of me says if I get rid of that and need it again someday I will just have to buy it again and that is a waste of money;  It is such a delicate balance and the constant decisions that have to be made makes my "brain" tired.

Yesterday was the first nice day we have had for a long time so we took advantage of it and got the yard partially cleared.  Broke up some ice that had built up in the driveway and opened up Serenity.  There was snow on her roof that was melting so we took a look inside to make sure we didn't have any leaks.  It all looked good inside and felt good to walk around inside her.  We are going to be very comfortable living in her.  I stored the Christmas stuff I am taking with us and found I still have room for more.  (Not taking any more though)

Out next project is the master bath.  We have to replace a vanity in that room.  We have everything we need and we will start that this week - soon as we have a few days off in a row.  After that we do the kitchen floor and all the major projects are done, We are planning to talk to a real estate agent later this week and get his opinion on the value of the house.  We have an idea of what we want for it and fingers are crossed that he agrees.

Well I am off to work today.  The elementary school is calling me.  Have a good day everyone and maybe we will meet in a campground one day soon.  The day is getting closer!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

It is done.

We finally finished the downstairs bedroom/den/computer room.  It is the biggest project we had to do and now it is finished.  I like how it turned out ....now I just hope buyers will like it too.

Today was not a bad day weather wise but tomorrow is supposed to be.  We have so much snow and I am just counting the days until it leaves us again.  So much for the north bound geese early in Jan.  They must have just had a bad sense of direction. 

The forecast for the next two days is UGLY weather.  Looking for a bright side......I don't have to drive in it and when it goes away and the nice weather arrives it will seem so much nicer.

Tomorrow is groundhog day.  Let's hope he doesn't see any shadow and with the weather forecast it seems likely that will be what happens.  Yay for an early spring.

Looking forward to meeting all of you either on the road or at the rally.  Until then stay safe.