I know, I know. We had a fabulous summer away. And we’re the ones throwing ourselves into the vortex of yet another huge life change. We have no one to blame but ourselves. We are 98 percent certain we are making a good decision to sell this house and move to a tiny house in North Carolina. But the process of getting ourselves from here to next June is daunting, to say the least.
Preparing The House For Sale
We have an enormous piece of property here on the bay. It’s gorgeous. And it’s a jungle. To work in the yard, I suit up in a tank top tucked into long pants tucked into socks, a long sleeved shirt, and hiking boots. No matter how hot and humid it is, this is what you must wear if you want to avoid chiggers. Believe me, you want to avoid chiggers.
I love to garden. I do not love gardening on this property. The first two weeks of November were unseasonably hot and humid, which made the task a million times worse.
Gardening in a jungle is not my idea of a good time
We spent two weeks bushwhacking saw palmettos in the hot sun, spreading bales of pine straw, and yanking monster vines with thorny stems (Smilax spp.) out of the trees. Those horrible vines grow one foot per week. I am not kidding. As I said, it’s a jungle here, and the maintenance is continual. I cannot tell you how excited I am to move to a tiny house with a tiny garden.
How Do We Accumulate So Much Stuff?
Other big projects included rooting out the shop and studio. This was the final frontier of detritus that we inherited from my folks, plus our own assortment of random stuff that we’ve accumulated during the past three years of ongoing home renovations. We have dozens of paint cans, as well as a spectacular collection of leftover bits and pieces from all of the furniture I’ve ordered from Wayfair that Eric has assembled…including at least two dozen Allen wrenches. Every single piece of furniture arrived with at least one of those itty bitty wrenches.
Inside the house, we Marie Kondo’ed the crap out of every closet and cabinet.
I clearly do not need this much closet space…the closet extends 16 feet!
Our realtor suggested that we sell the house furnished, which makes our move much easier. We bought furniture specifically for this house, and most of it is too big for our new tiny house. As far as our personal possessions, we’ve pruned a lot…but we need to do even more to move into a tiny house.
We’ve transformed the house in three years, inside and out
Backyard overlooking the bay
The listing went up on Friday. We sold it on Friday to the first person who looked at it. We’re kind of stunned, and of course, very grateful, and very happy. The closing is January 4th.
We’re ready for our new life adventure. But we’re really going to miss our friends. And this view.
Morning light
Between Now And Then
In the midst of all of our yard work and ruthless paring down of belongings, I started worrying about where we’re going to live between when we sell the house and sometime in June, when we can move into our new tiny house.
We have our trailer, of course. But have you ever tried getting reservations in Florida campgrounds during the winter? Hahahaha!!! Yeah. Not going to happen.
We’ve decided instead to book Airbnb’s for a few months. Airbnb’s that allow kitties, of course. With outdoor space so that Magnolia can spend time in her catio bird watching.
We’re doing WHAT?
We briefly fantasized about flying to Oaxaca or Costa Rica or some other exotic place and spending a couple of months. And then we came to our senses. We both agree that we need time to relax and regroup, and we want to keep life simple for the next few months. We’ll plan a more exotic trip next winter, after we’re settled into our new tiny home.
Here’s The Plan
• Put a few things into a tiny storage unit we’ve rented here. Hope the humidity doesn’t kill our stuff. Move out of the house January 4th and stay with friends for several days in our trailer.
• Drive 200 miles to Gainesville, where we’ll drop the trailer off to be sold on consignment. (We’ll be buying a smaller trailer once we’re settled in North Carolina. We still have lots of traveling adventures ahead!)
We’ve always liked Gainesville (university town, great bike trails, one of our favorite nature preserves, and the Ichetucknee River, our favorite for kayaking, nearby). We’ve rented a cool little mid-century modern Airbnb for two months, where we’ll be walking distance to the historic district and parks.
• Return to Eastpoint mid-March, picking up a small U-Haul trailer on the way. Stay with friends a couple of nights. Load up the U-Haul and head to the Carolinas, with one night somewhere on the road.
• Stay in South Carolina for six weeks in an Airbnb on a farm (goats! chickens! horses!). It’s just 20 miles from Flat Rock, so we’ll be able to start doing things like ordering appliances and countertops for our tiny house. And we’ll rent a storage unit in Flat Rock to store the stuff we’ve hauled up with us.
• In May, we’ll rent a tiny house for two months in the community where our house is being built. We can oversee the final stages of the build, start ordering furniture (and acquire another collection of Allen wrenches, LOL), and choose our landscaping. Plus, we can start hanging out with our new neighbors.
I doubt anyone is interested in this much detail about our plans, but it helps me immensely to write it all down. Sorting it out has been like figuring out an enormous jigsaw puzzle. Hopefully now we can relax and enjoy our last six weeks of full-time living here on the Forgotten Coast. We’ll be back, but it won’t be to this house. It’s the end of an era for us, and we want to say a proper goodbye by loving every day that we’re here.
The screened back porch, our favorite spot
Happy Thanksgiving, dear ones. We’re grateful to have you with us on this life journey.
~Eric, Laurel & Magnolia
Good morning, That is fabulous that you sold your home so quickly. Your new chapter in your lives will be fabulous. New adventures, etc.. Happy Thanksgiving.
How totally exciting! Can’t wait to see pics of your new home. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks, Charlie! We’re excited about the new adventure of living in a tiny home. I hope our years of RVing have really prepared us for this! I will definitely be posting photos. :-)
Thanks so much, Christine. We’re thrilled that the house sold so quickly, and we’re excited about our new life chapter. Although I must admit, everything seems a bit surreal at the moment! I hope you’re doing well.
Oh, when you’re in Gainesville, I’d love to meet up with you, talk life on the road and more about your tiny home and community up there in NC. I’m in NE Gainesville till mid to late February…
Hi Annie, we would love to get together with you! I’m so glad you’ll be in Gainesville. We’ll be arriving January 10th, so let’s plan to meet up soon after that! I’d also love to hear your recommendations for things to do in the area. We’re excited about having two months there.
Whoa! I didn’t realize you were also going to give up the trailer. That truly is the end of an era. Hard to accept all of the decisions and changes we make as we age, and as changing climate conditions cause us to revise our lives and values.
Hope your Thanksgiving is relaxed. The view through the front windows is lovely.
Happy trails to you,
Sheila
Sheila, we’re not giving up traveling, we’re just going back to a smaller trailer since we’re no longer full-time traveling. We still have lots of adventures planned! :-)
Hopefully downsizing our footprint to a tiny house and tiny trailer helps to offset the fact that we are going to continue to travel. Honestly, the biggest change environmentally is going to happen when government and big corporations make a serious commitment to turning the tide of environmental destruction. Each of us as individuals plays a tiny role, of course, but nothing we do is going to make a significant difference unless radical changes happen on a global level (large scale solar/wind power/changing farming practices/restoring grasslands, etc.).
We do love our view of the bay here. We’re going to miss it. Sending love to you on Lopez!
Congratulations.
Thank you, Kathryn. I hope you are well, and that your beautiful home will sell soon. The in-between places in life are so challenging.
Wow! I didn’t think you were giving up your sweet trailer, I know how much you’ve enjoyed traveling in it. You are a good example of “if it’s priced right it will sell”….congratulations. The quick sale alleviates the agony of constant showings (or, even worse, NO showings) and lets you get on with the “plan”. It sounds like a good one and I hope you’ll keep us posted as you move from place to place!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Sue, we love our Arctic Fox, and it’s been a fantastic trailer for our full-time travel adventures. But now that we’re not full-timing, we really don’t need such a big trailer AND big truck.
We are thrilled with our realtor. She’s given us great advice over the past three years. I’m definitely planning to write about all of our adventures over the next few months, as well as catching up on our travels from last summer!
Wow! sold your place within 24 hrs of listing! It is a beautiful home and location. Keep us all posted on your new digs!
Thanks, Terri! We feel very fortunate, indeed. And although we’re going to miss this beautiful view, we’re excited about our new adventures. I hope you’ll be posting about your home build!
Congratulations on your quick sale, but oh, the heart that so feels what is being left to the history!
We do hope to see you in Gainesville, on one of our many treks from CK to Trader Joe’s, and hopefully some good farmer’s markets.
Our best to all three of you!
Karen, we would love to meet up with you and Krash! We plan to make a trip or two to Cedar Key while we’re in Gainesville. And let us know when you’re coming into town and we can get together! Thanks for your good wishes…it’s definitely a bittersweet time for us as we prepare to leave this sweet place. I’m glad you got to visit us here. Safe travels to you two on your trip to Cedar Key.
Sweet threesome no longer on the road,
Happy for you of course, but I so wish I’d gotten down to sit on your dock on the bay at sunset with you! Sounds like a bayoucountry song!
We can still miss your laughter, parties, and making art together from here to wherever! Still think “Blazing Saddles Party!” everytime we fart!
Still remember waking up to the smell of bacon and the captioned “male model” fixing breakfast over the campstove on magical Lopez Island!
Take heart (or Warning) we still have some good times ahead!!! Friends are chosen Family and we are for better or worse, Sisters of the Art/Heart! As my friend, Peter, says “Everything is possible in the Life!”…. Diana, John and Angelina Sox
Hahaha, we’ve definitely shared many fine moments in life, my dear friend! Including that Blazing Saddles party featuring black bean soup for dinner, LOL. You and John and our other Ashland buddies are definitely our chosen family, and will be forever. I think our plan of meeting up for some travel adventures is the perfect next chapter! And I’m counting on you to show up in NC to teach some art workshops. We have lots more memories to create together. Love to you three!
When we first moved to this house on the Oregon coast, I thought I should tame the forest around us. We eventually got rid of the ivy in the back “yard,” but the front is still a jungle, full of ivy covered trees and salal as tall as me. But… we live in a forest and while I can tame the area around the perimeter of the house, I have given up on the rest of the lot. Very few homes in our neighborhood have “groomed” yards, so it’s not necessary. But like you, I will look forward to the day when we have a tiny yard to worry about…
I’m inspired to do a thorough clean out of our closets and garage. We did that when we moved here in 2017, but as always, we have accumulated more stuff in the past few years.
Congrats on the quick sale of the house! Ours sold before we officially listed it, and of course, we wonder if we should have asked more (this was before the big real estate boom). We were just happy that we never had to worry about keeping it clean and tidy for showings! :)
Brilliant idea to live in Airbnbs for the next few months! And you’re selling your trailer and getting something smaller? Lots of changes, but you’ll manage it all just fine. Yes, writing it down is key to preserving your sanity (and remembering what you’ve stored where!).
Happy Thanksgiving to you both!
Lesley, it sounds like you have a similar piece of property, Pacific Northwest style. We leave most of our 1.75 acres natural and just try to keep the area that surrounds the house from reverting to jungle, haha. We love the natural landscape here, but it definitely takes hard work to keep the saw palmettos somewhat tamed. I’m ready for a reasonable climate and a reasonably-sized garden!
We are thrilled with our home sale…fortunately we have an excellent realtor (who is also a friend). She advised us that if we were thinking of selling at anytime within the forseeable future, to do it NOW. Hence, our scrambling to get it done right away. And like you said, we were very happy to not have to deal with more than one showing. :-)
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
“hiking, biking, kayaking, birding, art, music, quirky towns, good food, and good friends”
Your lifestyle above is pretty much of what I love & my wife.
We have visited many states from north, east, south & west.
So we like California the very best!
We go to the ocean & beaches, beautiful mountains, deserts, old wonderful towns.
The only thing we gave up was our love of ocean boats. We owned in our marriage
five boats from 32 feet to 49 feet long. But, being retired the slip fee and electricity & water became way to expensive. So now our lifestyle is our motor home and Jeep. We take one to two drives a week for about 3-5 hours. And vacations for 7 days every month.
Bob, I can understand why you like living in California. It’s a beautiful state, and we’ve enjoyed all of the time we’ve spent there. You’ve had and continue to have a very adventurous life. I like the idea of a week-long vacation every month!
Wow, All I can say is just “Wow”. Such a little stupid word to express what I feel as I watch your process. And no, you are wrong, I love seeing all the detail. I must say that when I saw that first header photo of the view across your bay I felt a quick catch in my heart. Leaving that behind?!!! Oh yes. Your story of dealing with the jungle brought it all into perspective. Like our home in Rocky Point, you see the views and the gorgeous house in the woods until we post photos of hauling wood shoveling snow raking pine needles blowing off the dangerous roof ad nauseum. Folks often asked how we could leave such a beautiful place. Unless you have dealt with a jungle, or an acre of deep woods in the mountains you might not get it. I get it. Big Time. I am so excited to watch your progress. I do hope you blog a bit about your stays in Gainesville and about the building process. OF course, I want to get that same catch in my heart when I see you two on the Ichetucknee River. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving, with a giant thank you for that quick amazing sale. I guess some people still don’t worry about the heat, humidity, jungle management and hurricanes. Good thing!
Sue, we feel so incredibly fortunate that the people who are buying our home are locals, and from everything we hear, really good folks. They have a home on St. George Island and have been looking for years for a place on the bay…so this is perfect for them! We were hoping for someone who would love this property and appreciate how special it is. We’re delighted that it seems to be a winning situation all the way around.
I know you and Mo understand exactly how much work it takes to maintain a huge piece of property! Simplifying is good, in every way. And I’m really looking forward to gardening in a more hospitable climate. I’ll be writing lots of stories about our transition to tiny home living, as well as catching up on travel adventures from our summer. :-)
I haven’t told you this, but the Florida home never did seem like your forever home to me. I know you love a lot about Florida, and you will miss all those things, but despite the impetus of hurricane threats and insurance costs to force you along, it never seemed like quite the right fit. With your love of travel, you’ll be close enough to visit as much as you like without the cross-country trip to do so. You’ve always spoken highly of N.C., and if I’d been pressed to guess where you might re-locate someday, that would’ve been my pick — especially since you seemed so very disappointed when we ruled it out for ourselves. As you say, you’ll have access to all the things you like to do plus some! The next few months, rough as they may prove to be, will pass hopefully with some fun you’ve scheduled in there, and soon you’ll be all settled and livin’ the life as North Carolinians! Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!!
Joodie, I suspected that you suspected that this was not our forever home. But I think I just wasn’t quite ready to let go, until suddenly, I was! And fortunately, Eric also felt the same way after we took a long, hard look at reality. We have loved being here, and are glad we had three years of beautiful bay views, sunsets, and wildlife viewings. And so many visits from friends, including you two!
I can’t help but wish that you guys were building in North Carolina, but you’ve chosen another of our favorite places by settling in Sequim. Now we just have to figure out how to meet up with you! Maybe somewhere in between?? But we do need to see your beautiful new home in person! :-)
Wow! You guys have been hard at it changing your lives in a big way! Congratulations on the tiny house, the tinier trailer, and everything else!! It sounds as though you are setting yourselves up to live your best life and I know it will be marvelous! I hope time passes by at a reasonable speed, you have so much to look forward to! Well done!
Linda, we’ve definitely been hard at it changing up our lives! This seems like a sudden decision (even to us!), but it was also probably percolating for a while, as big changes often are. We didn’t expect it to be right now, but now is definitely the right time. We’re excited about the transition to a tiny home and a tiny trailer, and all of the possibilities that opens up for us. Thanks for your good wishes!
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Eric and Magnolia. Even though this may seem daunting I think it’s quite exciting, an adventure to look forward to. Our house is 979 sq ft and we thought it was huge after living in our 17′ Casita for 9 months while it was being built. Airbnb’s sounds like a great alternative. What smaller trailer are you looking at? I am looking forward to hearing about your tiny house adventures. Take care.
Thanks so much, Brenda! Your home sounds like it’s the perfect size! And I’ll bet it does feel huge after living in your Casita. I have a bit of trepidation about living in a home that’s just over 500 square feet, but I think the extra square footage of the screened porch and deck are going to help a lot.
As far as a smaller trailer, we’re thinking to go back to a Bigfoot…but perhaps the 17.5 foot instead of the 21 foot like we had prior to our Arctic Fox. It’s all about the floorplan, and having a place for the litter box, hahaha! So good to hear from you, hope you two are doing well!
I can see why that screened-in porch is your favorite place to hang out! I also loved the early light photo and, of course, the one of sweet Magnolia.
I really enjoyed reading about all the steps you will go through as you prepare for your new home. It sounds like you have everything worked out. I know it can seem overwhelming at times but I bet you’ll be surprised at how things click in place.
Congrats on the quick sale! That is a huge burden off your shoulders. Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Janis, this screened porch truly is magical! It’s beautiful at every time of day, and we know just how lucky we are to have this view. Magnolia loves the porch, too. It’s her favorite place to stalk critters, even if she can’t get to them, haha.
Thanks so much for your good wishes. I feel much better now that we have a plan for what we’ll be doing from now until next June. I hope everything goes as planned, and if it doesn’t, then I hope we can call upon the flexibility and resilience we’ve cultivated in our many years of travels! Part of me wants to just be settled into our tiny house, but I also really want to enjoy the journey of getting from here to there. :-)
I love that you “Marie Kondo’d the crap” out of your place! Ha! That woman knows of what she speaks, though. It all looks so great when there’s no clutter in the cabinets and closets. Just shove that crap in a storage unit! Ha!
Everything is going along swimmingly thus far and the pieces will fall into place, I’m sure of it. There will be plenty of stressors along the way, but you’ve got a good plan in place, you’ve thought through the various realities, and after all your years on the road, you guys are pros when it comes to staying flexible and rolling with it. It’s all gonna be fine. (And when it’s not fine, just grab a bottle of wine. That’ll make it fine. :) )
XOXO
Haha! Yeah, it’s just crazy how much we accumulated in three years here. A lot of it had to do with the never ending renovations. But there was plenty of other stuff, too. I am so happy to be moving into a tiny house, with no room to accumulate crap. And once we get through this move, we are NEVER getting another storage unit. You can hold me to that. 😂
Thanks so much for your support through all of this, Laura. You’re right that all of our years on the road prepared us for all kinds of contingencies. But the best help of all has been having friends like you. Love you guys!
Wow! You did it! It doesn’t suprise me that it sold so fast… it’s so beautiful! So is everything you design and create and i know your next place will be gorgeous peaceful fun and relaxing with lots of new allen wrenches! Congratulations to you both! Enjoy your last days in Florida and a Happy Thanksgiving! We love you and miss you and hopefully we get to visit you in your new digs someday!Lots of Love, Judy & John
We did it! It’s all happening so fast. My big regret is that you and John didn’t get to come visit us at some point over the last three years. But I’m really, really happy that you guys came to visit us when my folks were still here. Those are memories that we’ll cherish forever.
We love you guys and miss you, always. It’s time to plan some new adventures together! And yes, I’m sure there are more Allen wrenches in our near future, haha!
I have to agree with Sue that Heather picture is just a heart stopper. But I too understand completely about the overwhelming amount of upkeep of a property. Without Shannon I don’t know how I would be able to keep the farm and I have scaled it back tremendously in terms of gardens and things that need to be maintained. So I do understand and I’m really looking forward to where you go from here. I appreciate the detail in your next steps and wish you the very best luck with all of them as you have had in finding what must be the perfect buyer.
Sherry, I’m so sorry that you weren’t able to visit to see that bay view in person. You would have loved kayaking right from the shore! I know you understand about the daunting upkeep of such a huge piece of property. I honestly don’t know how you keep up with your farm. Thanks so much for your good wishes for us. :-)
HEADER not heather picture. Sorry for such poor proofreading
Haha, I knew what you meant! ❤️
So much to navigate. Best wishes, smooth sailing, and Happy Holidays.
Thank you, Nancy! I hope that you two are doing well and enjoying the holidays in Ashland. Any travel plans this winter?
“Plan your work and work your plan”. You and Eric have done an AMAZING job since returning from your summer travels! All that scrambling to complete your home improvements before you left paid off big time. Who knew this is what the last quarter of the year would look like?! By the way, we booked an Air B&B for our daughter for five months while she attended the American Barber Institute in New York City. It was a good experience and a perfect solution for her short-term situation.
I imagine this last holiday season in your Florida home will be a bittersweet one, even as you look forward with excitement to creating a new home for yourselves in North Carolina. Mitigate the damage by celebrating the hell out of the holidays in whatever ways are most meaningful to you. You’ll leave in January with hearts full of happy memories and the joy your home has brought you. Wishing you, Eric and Magnolia a Thanksgiving filled with peace and gratitude – and rest! Lots of rest!
Mary, thank you so much for your loving good wishes! Although we didn’t have plans to sell this house right now, we’re very glad that most of the renovations were completed so that it was ready to put on the market. I’m a big believer in enjoying life all along the way, and we really have enjoyed our time here, despite the ongoing projects, haha!
You’re right, this is a bittersweet time. I feel happy and excited, and then we get together with friends or I sit on the porch and look at the bay and feel sad. My sadness, of course, also has to do with letting go of this home that my parents built. But we feel certain that this is the right move for us, and we’re going to do our best to celebrate fully the next few weeks. I’m glad we had the past three years here…we certainly never anticipated living here, and it’s been a blessing in many, many ways.
Oh my goodness!!! So happy for you guys, so happy! I too would find it hard to leave that screened porch view but–downsizing is a good thing at our age–Mike and I are starting to question having two houses at our age. But he’s not giving up the Montana place and I’m not staying there in the winter–so what do we do! I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and all the best as you begin this new chapter in your life.
Thank you, Janna! We’re stunned and thrilled. :-) We’re pretty excited about downsizing so that we can feel free to do more of what we want to do. A place this size with this much property takes a lot of maintenance, as you know. And we don’t want to leave it unattended for months at a time while we travel.
I’m sure it’s impossible for you to decide which of your two homes you would let go of (if you ever did). Both are so beautiful and you two have down an incredible job renovating them!
Great job, you guys! The preparation was a lot of work but it obviously paid off in a quick sale. Now you can just spend the next month enjoying the lovely property and your very organized closets. It’s pretty amazing how much stuff can accumulate in just a few years, but it makes sense when you consider how many projects you accomplished in the last several years. While there are plenty of stressful things about moving, getting rid of junk is one of the best parts. Starting with a clean slate at the new house is going to be blissful!
Shannon, you guys have witnessed our entire three years of renovations! Fortunately, we’ve had plenty of good times with you two to balance out the work. Some of our best memories we’ll take with us are hanging out on the porch or around the fire pit with you.
I’m really looking forward to the clean slate of a new TINY house. We have more paring down to do between now and then, but when I think of where we started (with my folks’ house stuffed full) we’re very grateful that we’ve done 95 percent of what we need to do. And getting rid of stuff here is easy, as you know…whatever we haul to the curb disappears within an hour, LOL.
Love that you had immediate success in selling…of course having such a lovely place makes it easy! Sounds like you’ve got a good plan in place, some variety – but not too much. Hopefully it will be relatively low stress. Good bye to your FL phase and welcome to Transition!
Thanks, Lisa! You two have had plenty of transitions in the last several years, too. Flexibility is key! We’re looking forward to our upcoming Airbnb adventures. We’re hoping those stays will make the transition fun…it’s certainly easier than trying to get camping reservations in Florida at this point. Hope you, Hans & Rosie are doing well!
Chiggers? OK, well with that one word, I am now completely on board with why you want to move. ICK! Sure that dock and your views are great, but yuck! Who wants to dress like that every time you walk through the jungle? And frankly, even without disgusting biting bugs, no one probably really needs or wants a jungle anyway. So onward – toward simplicity and less humidity, less stuff, a smaller trailer and fewer bug bites. How exciting that you can now clearly move forward since the house sold. And I LOVE all the detail of what comes next. So thanks for that! I’m quite impressed with your closet BTW. Of course, I don’t really believe that that is all you have for clothes!! Hahahaha. Can’t fool me. Maybe I’ll have to come pay you a visit once you’re in your tiny home so you can prove it to me! Sending you lots of stamina, but mainly lots of love.
Janet, I don’t know if you’ve ever encountered chiggers, but they are the WORST. I had a bad case of them from working in the yard a couple of years ago, and the bites lasted for a couple of months. I’ll do anything it takes to avoid them!
We’re really looking forward to a simpler life. You’re right, that was only one-third of my closet, haha!! Not shown were my collection of jackets, the shelves of my folded clothes, and my shoes. I still need to get rid of a lot to fit into our tiny house. Every day we’re paring down more and more, and it feels great! I’m so happy to pass things along to people who can use them. Thanks so much for your love and good wishes, it helps to have friends cheering us along! And I really do hope you’ll come visit. 💕
Congratulations on the sale of your house. Quick and painless after all the work you put in to get it ready.
It always makes me feel like I have a better handle on things if I write them down in detail … and I appreciate reading about how others do plan as well since I can get hints to put into play with my own planning process.
How stuff accumulates when you have a stix & brix is a mystery to me. I was planning to “Marie Kondo” our stuff this year. But we weren’t home long enough to do so. Will be doing that as soon as we take a “real break” from traveling. In the meantime, preparing for a long overseas trip has given me an opportunity to at least weed some stuff out of the closet.
Thank you, Erin! The sale really was quick and painless, but it’s taken me at least a week to recover from the insane amount of work that went into getting the house ready to sell. There were so many details to take care of! And of course, in the big middle of it all we started planning our strategy for the next six months. Juggling so many things at the same time…
I can’t wait to hear about your next adventure! We’re hoping to do more travel, including overseas travel. You two inspire us. I’ll be asking you for advice. :-)
Laurel,
Wow! I was tired before I finished the first paragraph…chopping saw palmettos is hard work. I remember the angst before we moved from our home on the lake. I would miss the house and the view, but the thought of cleaning out years of stuff filled me with dread. Now, I’m so glad I have that move behind me, and life is more straightforward. Sounds like you have everything well-planned.
Helen and I feel so fortunate that we got to see your lovely bay view, and hopeful that we can meet up now that y’all are closer to us. Hang in there–you’ll be a North Carolinian in no time!
Joe
Joe, not many people understand the awful job of thinning saw palmettos. As much as I appreciate the native landscape, those things are not fun to maintain. It sounds like you and Helen had a similar situation to ours…leaving a place that you loved (with great views!) for a simpler lifestyle. We’re looking forward to less maintenance, along with not worrying about hurricanes.
We’re so glad that you and Helen came to visit us here. That was a fun afternoon around the fire pit. We’re looking forward to seeing you two once we get to North Carolina. We’re going to be really close to you!
Loved when you moved onto the Forgotten coast. So much history and breataking views. Such a sellers market for sure. Great it went to locals. We’re ready to leave the coast and had eye on Asheville. It’s exploded up there and still an area with like minded folk. Big draw for me and the art scene. Got excited about the tiny living part. What a fabulous find, the activities alone a huge draw. Until I added up all the fees and cost of their version of a “tiny house.” Sadly way out of our league on limited income. Maybe a new explosion in other areas of the same type of opportunities for the poor folk will come to life. Glad too you’ll still be able to afford traveling. Those posts are so full of inspiration!
Hi Claire, I appreciate your comment. You’re right, the tiny homes are kind of expensive for being so tiny. I imagine if you buy land and build a tiny home on your own, it would be much less expensive. We really want to be in a community, though, so this is a good fit for us. Plus, it’s going to reduce our expenses since we’re not going to have the ever increasing costs of hurricane insurance, flood insurance, and maintenance on this property. I hope you’ll find a situation that will be perfect for you!
Oh boy, oh boy!! I know that stunned excitement at a quick sale, and then the oh-crap excitement of knowing it’s really, really happening, and the sigh of relief when you have a plan that gets you from out to back in!! Our property is all desert with very little “needed” landscaping, but I’m longing to get it looking much nicer. Just time and money right?? Priceless pic of Miss Magnolia. Thrilled for all of you as you move into this new chapter – and the interim itinerary looks like grand fun :-)))
Thanks, Jodee. We know we’re going to be in the very weird in-between stage for a good long while, and we’re doing our best to make it as enjoyable as possible. Miss Magnolia definitely feels the energy of change, and you know how kitties feel about change, LOL. She’s such a sweetheart, though. She’s happy as long as we’re around. :-) As far as your desert landscape, I’d say just enjoy those sunsets!! Keep life simple!
Wow! Congratulations! Whew! Amazing!
I got tired already by just reading your plans. But knowing you it will come to fruition slowly and surely.
Love all the photos of your house, the view, the sunsets which I know you will miss sorely But, that chapter is slowly closing.
It sounds like it will really, really be a long time till we meet again.Sigh :(
Hi ML, yes this is such a big change! It’s hard to close this chapter for so many reasons, but even with our sadness at leaving, we feel like it’s the right decision.
We wish so much that you and Steve could have visited us here in the house. But we have wonderful memories of our time together in Apalachicola several years ago. :-) Let’s plan a trip to meet up somewhere!
Congratulations on a speedy house sale! In reading through your post, I am very impressed with you obvious organization and “get it done” attitude. Soon it will be time to move into the interim phase before moving on to a new house and city. Very exciting times!
Thank you, Beverly! I enjoy planning and organizing…and the process helps me feel less anxious during times of big life changes. The plan seems to be a good one, at least on paper. We’re excited about the journey ahead!