Home and Heart

Two drifters off to see the world…

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  • Phase 4 (or is it 3? Or 5?

    We are well underway on the adventure now.

    This week was quite the roller coaster. The buyer’s inspection found a number of things that need to be addressed-chimney repairs, vermiculite removal, etc. Then they raised the question of whether there was an unknown or undisclosed underground oil tank, about which we know/knew nothing. For a while it felt like the whole thing would fall apart but it seems to have straightened out and we are still on track to close the 14th of November.

    Thursday night 11/6 was our last night sleeping at 37 Swift.

    Friday was spent prepping for the estate sale. All the furniture, rugs, desks, art, tools, etc were to be sold. But we needed to clear out little stuff and make a thousand decisions about what to save, what to give away, what to toss. The garage is where photos and family papers are for now. That sorting can happen next week.

    A couple of antiques (dry sink, cobbler’s bench) and bunches of art and family artifacts went into a U-haul to go to Seth and Megan in Cornwall-on-Hudson or to Caitlin and Alex in Baltimore.

    By 2:30 we were done packing and on the road, driving the 10foot box truck.

    Got to Cornwall, had dinner with the kids and collapsed.

    Saturday morning unloaded their stuff from the truck, then off to Baltimore. Arrived there mid afternoon and unloaded their stuff from the truck and turned the truck in to U-Haul. Had a very pleasant afternoon and evening hanging with the Gibsons then early bed. Adventure is tiring!

    Up early today to get on the train back to Albany. We’ll be in V’ville this week sorting stuff, then off to SD Saturday!

  • And the beat goes on:

    Here we are just 16 days until the closing. That may seem like a lot of time but we will be on the road for a few days next weekend taking furniture and family heirlooms to Seth & Megan in Cornwall-on-Hudson as well as to Caitlin and Alex in Ruxton.

    And then, while the closing is planned for Friday 11/14, we really have to be out by Wednesday 11/12 because that is the day that the buyer has final walk through of the “broom clean” empty house.

    Empire Estate Sales is doing the estate sale Saturday 11/8 and Sunday 11/9 and then doing the cleanout on Monday 11/10. So when you look closely, we really won’t be able to live in the house after 11/6. Which is only 8 days away, not 16. YIKES!

    November 15 will be the really big day, though. We fly to Minneapolis and from there drive to Northfield Minnesota to visit Christine, Seth, Ben, and Jo. Then on to Sioux Falls, SD to establish residency. While we’re there we figure we may as well indulge our wanderlust as well. Mount Rushmore, Crazy Howrse monument, and the Badlands are on the agenda.

    It looks like this really will happen!

  • The devil is in the details

    since the last posting things have been a whirlwind around here.

    We have a projected closing date of 11/14 which means we have to be out of here with the place empty and broom clean for the buyer to do a walk through on 11/12.

    We got rid of a lot of “stuff” at the garage sale. The garage sale was two full days and then we had three days with a sign out by the road advertising “Free Stuff 9am-5pm” to try to get rid of what didn’t sell. By the end there wasn’t much left except the furniture, things we left in the house for staging for the open house, art, family treasures, and what we need to survive day to day.

    Part of all this is mindset/philosophy.

    We are having an Estate Sale on 11/8-9. That should take care of a lot of the rest of it.

    Family stuff is being distributed to kids if they want it (For example, Caitlin wanted the antique dry sink). The things she wants and the family stuff for my kids will go to them in a UHaul the same weekend as the garage sale. We will also be sending particular items to a bunch of other kids, nephews, nieces, etc.

    Art is another whole topic – maybe I’ll do a seperate post on the Art when that shakes out.

    So, in the US it turns out to exist you have to have an address – can’t just say “We’re on the road.”

    Turns out there is a whole subculture of RVers who have solved this problem. You get your mail sent to a mail service in South Dakota. South Dakota allows you to claim residency there just with the mail box and evidence you spent one night in South Dakota. Then you can get a South Dakota driver’s license, pay SD taxes ($0.00 income tax), and vote in SD. So that is in process – though we will have to trek out to SD at some point. But getting out of NY state taxes will be worth it.

    All very exciting and tiring – but we will get there!

  • WOW!

    Today was the first day the house was on the market and there was an open house and multiple people looked + several private showings. Just talked to the realtor and found out that the first person who looked at it made a CASH offer above our asking price! Beyond our wildest hopes!

  • Hello World!

    We are starting this blog today as this is the day we officially listed for sale our house at 37 Swift Road in Voorheesville, New York.

    We’ve decided to start a new adventure and chapter in our lives. Once the house is sold, we will be spending some time visiting various family and friends around the USA. Timing will be fluid depending on many things – how fast the house sells among other things. Current plans include visiting the Nathaniel in Tucson in November as well as Thanksgiving in Baltimore and Christmas on Cape Cod with Helen Jo.

    A visit to Evan, Heather, and the new grandson in Hawaii in February or March is the plan for the end of this USA segment. After that, we hope to take up residence in the country of Malta. From there, the world awaits.

    We are told by Mike Barnett and Theresa Eriksen, our friends who live in Malta, that it is wicked hot there in the summer so we anticipate using the summers in the future for trips back to the USA to visit family.