A Very Familiar Feeling…

The house is nearly empty

I remember when Scott and Mariah and me were living in our 500 square foot cottage in the back of our property while we built our house. How could I forget, right? The three of us and two indoor cats stuffed into 500 square feet for 2 years, yikes! By the time the house was at the very least , air tight and water tight, I was itchin’ to get back in there ASAP! I didn’t care that most of the house was only plywood subfloor , and there were no cabinets ( boy, was that a mistake to let him get side tracked before our project was completed! ) I just wanted to move in soooooo badly. Now, fast forward about 8 or 9 years later and I just can’t wait to get moved OUT! My this is a very familiar feeling , indeed.

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Progress Report

This is Scotts workshop, he also has a big tent outside where the big table saw lives because as you can see, this space it teensy!

Progress Report!

Scott is making great progress on all the remaining cabinetry for the kitchen and dining room. All the interior door trim , baseboards, and window trim is installed. He is currently working on the range hood cover. The upper cabinets for the kitchen are being processed, there are 21 doors currently being prepped for assembly. The front door needs to be finished off with moulding and trim. We finished the design of the built-in entertainment center in the great room . That will be the last big piece of interior work for Scott.

On Monday we had a consultation with a stager to get an idea of exactly what that will entail. Next Monday we have set up two more consultations with two other stagers . This should give us a good idea of what to expect in terms of packing up our remaining household. We need to know what furniture a stager will likely bring in and what pieces of ours will need to stay. It would be really good to have a paint consultation as well because my paint choices definitely won’t appeal to the masses! Our goal for listing the house for sale is still pretty on target for March. I’m being told my many different realtors that houses in my neighborhood are selling very fast so our fingers are crossed! Yesterday I was told that a house was listed for sale on Monday and there were ten offers the very same day! Yowsa! We seem to be hitting the real estate market at a great time! Maybe we’ll be “LUCKY”! Lol!

Exciting! New! Adventure! REALLY?

I notice, as you may have as well , that I often refer to our future life abroad with various adjectives such as ‘Exciting’, ‘New’ and let’s not forget,’Adventure’! Let me assure you, I suffer no illusions of grandeur about the realities of everyday life living in a new place. I tend to focus on the positive and some may say, optimistic aspects especially while writing about our new life. Naturally! But, I also realize that after we get through this long stage of planning, preparing and strategizing, ‘actual’ life will begin in earnest. Reality will set in and it will not always be great or exciting , even the ‘new’ will begin to fade. Just like life in general, there’s no good without a bit of bad.

Progress Report …

Time is marching on and we are getting closer and closer to our goal of starting the next chapter in our life. There is still much to do before we’re able to jump on that plane headed for Panama city to begin our adventure. Our main focus this far has been completing the work on our house so we can get it on the market to sell. This part of our preparation is the biggest and obviously most time consuming part of the diabolical plan. We are still hoping to reach our goal of getting the house ready to sell by February or March at the latest. Scott is making great progress on all the finish work inside the house.

Carving Out Some Sanity!

I’ve accepted the fact that there’s just no way I can have a clean house while work commences and sawdust is flying ! Every time I attempt to dust or organize I have to empty yet another closet so Scott can build shelves. It’s amazing how much junk is stuffed into my coat closet , and boy does it spread out when it’s transferred to the pool table. Do we ‘really’ need ALLLLLL those coats??

Bittersweet Changes

A great Mothers Day with her two sons

When we set our sights on making this gigantic life change we knew it would not be easy. We did also consider that it my not be easy for our family members either. Although we had no doubt that everyone who loves us would always want us to pursue a life that made us happy. And to know me and Scott is to know that we are happiest when we are exploring opportunities on our terms. We rarely choose to follow the same path that everyone else is on, doing things in our own way is where we find the most joy!