Life Happens
Life keeps throwing us curve balls. I haven’t posted about what has been going on in our lives in the last two years. I think the last time I wrote about the farm was when we were trying to sell it, which we started doing in 2009 (yes, right when the real estate market crashed.) We continued to have it on the market off and on.. Well, we finally sold it! Actually, it will be a year next month. That was good and bad news. The good news is we are no longer having to maintain 9 acres of land, two houses, a mortgage and the rent on another house. The bad news is we did not get what we wanted for it and what we believe it was worth. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do what you have to do to have a little peace in your life.
So, we were already living in a leased house because we had a contract on the farm about eight or nine months before we actually sold it. The contract called for an early move-in. So, we leased a house for a year so that the potential buyer could move in. There were very strict stipulations as to what could and could not be done to the house before the closing. Unfortunately, the potential buyer ignored those stipulations and I won’t bore you with the details but we were stuck with a lease on a house and had our house back on the market. Never, ever, no matter what, allow an early move-in prior to closing on a house sale. I knew better. I even said so, but we were so very anxious to sell, we did not heed our own warning bells. So we leased out both farm houses and waited for our lease to be up while we were still trying to sell the farm. Finally, we did sell it as I have already stated above (redundancy is fun) about this time last year.
In April of last year after selling the farm, our lease was up on the house where we were living. We really like the little house we were leasing. It was very well built, had beautiful landscaping and all the room we needed. Unfortunately, it was a split level and there were fourteen steps to get to the main level, no matter how you entered the house. That got old very quickly for two mature people with bad knees and backs, carrying groceries up to the kitchen. So we decided to find another house. We weren’t and still aren’t, ready to buy again because we are not sure where we actually want to be when John retires in May.
We found a really lovely, two story, three bedroom, two and one-half bath house with bonus room (art studio!) and with step-less entry to the main living area, including the master on the main floor. We decided we would like to stay here for two years at least…until April 2016, because frankly, the two moves in two years had taken its toll on this old gal and guy and we wanted to rest for awhile. I wanted to spend my time downsizing my art and craft supplies and other things. One can accumulate a lot of “stuff” when one lives in the same place for 22 years! We had a massive yard sale when we left the farm and gave a ton of things away but still have way too much for our “golden” years. I want time to paint, read, garden, travel and basically have fun without having “stuff” to take care of and worry about. So, two years at least, we planned to stay. The other important reason we wanted to continue to lease is that we are not sure just where we want to have our home base during retirement. We are thinking of staying here but are also considering Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Equador and even Pennsylvania. I’m not sure we are serious about the last two, but you never know. The owner of this house is in the Navy. When we moved in, we were told that she had four years left before retirement. Perfect, right?
Then life happened. The owner decided to retire from the Navy early and will be wanting her house back at the end of our one year lease on March 31. So, here we are again, hurrying to sort out what we want to keep and what we want to part with and packing and living life and also scouting to locate a house that can be “home” until we finally decide where we want to be for the rest of our lives.
So now my blog is up to date, more or less. Hopefully, I can find a little time to keep it that way.
Wishing you graceful moments…
Vicki
VElish Art Studio 