Mulling it Over

Greetings from beautiful Cloverdale, California. We're enjoying a weekend away in wine country with our Winnebago friends. More to come at Bullwinkle's place, of course. Everything from the weather to the conversation - and everything in between - has been just perfect. And, the best thing is that tomorrow - when everyone else in our group heads home - we get to stay another night. We have a service appointment for the moose in Petaluma on Monday morning.

Between all the fun activities, we've managed to mull over our decision of which realtor to work with. Actually, the decision didn't take much mulling. And, it surprised us. Just in case you couldn't tell, we were leaning one way. (And, we so appreciate the comments of our wonderful readers. Thank you!) Anyway, after our #2 meeting with realtor #1, we've decided to go the other way and go with her.

Turns out, she did not disappoint us. She brought her "A-game" to our second meeting. She expressed genuine enthusiasm about our fulltiming story and the very active role she's eager to play in getting us on the way ASAP. She recommended an "aggressive" listing price that - as it turns out - was in the same ballpark we are. She seems eager to get our place sold by the 4th of July. In this meeting she addressed all of our concerns. Combine that with her experience and her and her firm's dominance in our neighborhood, and our choice was easy.

Yes, she wants to "do stuff" to our house that we don't want to do - or necessarily think needs to be done. But, it's time for us to put this job in the hands of the professionals. Up to now, our job was to get our house in the shape that it would look good to a good listing agent. Mission accomplished! Now, our most important role might just be to stay out of the way. (Thanks, godfadda!) We'll let these pros do their thing. 

We'll get the listing agreement signed early next week. Then, watch out! We'll really be moving! We'll definitely keep you posted.

For now, we're happy to sit in the shade, look out over the grapevine-covered hills and enjoy our friends. We could definitely get used to this!

Happy weekend!

P.S. On this day in 1986 a couple of yuppies got all dressed up and said their "I Dos" in front of their family and friends. 23 years later they're hanging out at a campground preparing to go fulltiming in their new motorhome. What a life. Cheers!

Tale of Two Realtors

We've met with two realtors over the last two days. Let me just say, that's a whole lot more fun than sprucing up the place! 

We have a followup meeting scheduled with one first thing in the morning, then we're headed north to camp with our Winnie buddies for the weekend. Along the way, we'll mull over our choices and pick one of these two to work with. Both are professional and personable. And, they are different. 

Candidate 1 has been in real estate for 20-ish years. She and her company have been involved in 40% of the home sales in our neighborhood since the beginning of time. If experience was our only criteria, this candidate would be our pick, hands down. She seemed to like us and our house. But, of course, there would be a few things she would change. She quoted a specific paint color to go on our accent walls. (I got the idea that all of her listings have this color in common!) She referred to another neighborhood listing as "a good house".  (And, what are we? Chopped liver?) Her motto is "if it hasn't sold in three weeks, we reduce the price." When it comes to price, she doesn't talk about it in the first meeting. She said she has a price in her head but wasn't ready to share it. (So, that's why we have a follow-up meeting.) We definitely got the feeling she was trying to prepare us for disappointment. We sense a lowball on the way. She also talked about how August is a dead time, and we need to prepare for that.

Candidate 2 left a marketing position in a Fortune 500 company six years ago to begin her career in real estate. If smarts were our only criteria, this candidate would be our pick, hands down. We met her two years ago when she held open a house almost identical to ours. We were very impressed then. And, we were even more impressed when that one and only house she's listed in our neighborhood sold in short order for significantly more than the listing price. Now, we know the likelihood of being in a situation where we receive multiple offers or even one over our asking price these days is very remote. Times have changed, indeed! But, within a few minutes of meeting us, hearing (and loving) our story and our future as fulltimers, she was talking price. And, we were happy to hear that she was in the same ballpark with her thinking as we are. (Of course, we all wish we had met in this ballpark a year or two ago, but I digress.) She seemed to connect with us and the house. She thought the accent walls might work just as they are. And, in light of today's economics, she has cut a percentage off her commission. She seemed very confident that we could sell this place by the 4th of July.

Officially, we're reserving judgement until we have our followup meeting with Candidate 1 in the morning. 

Care to weigh in? Your insights and comments are most welcome!

Spare Change

On this crazy day of frantic cleaning and meeting realtors, we thought you'd like to hear about a special treat we received yesterday.

As we've been purging our belongings, we've found various "stashes" of spare change: a small bowl here, a coffee cup there. Yesterday, we compiled a bunch of these stashes and took the loot to our local Coinstar machine. 

Now, if you want cash for your cash, Coinstar will charge you about 9% for the privilege of counting your coins.  But, if you're willing to take your payout in the form of a gift certificate, the cost of counting is free. When we pulled up to the machine, we quickly assessed that we could get full value of our coins in the form of an itunes gift card. That sounded great to us! 

We began to dump the coins into the machine, thinking we had $20 or $30 dollars worth. Ching, ching, ching, and a couple minutes later the total came to $51.27 plus a handful of Australian coins that didn't make the cut. 

We both have itunes accounts, and mine is currently empty. Boris graciously gave the code for the gift card to me. So, my itunes account is considerably richer. That's a lot of music and apps!

Of course, turnabout is fair play. I think I saw Boris eyeing a couple buckets of coins in the garage.

Moanin' and Groanin'

Same song. Different day. 

The deep cleaning continues 'round our house. We're not quite done, but we'll finish up in the morning. We still can't believe it's taken as long as it has. On the surface, this place looked clean when we started!

Several days of intense washing and scrubbing, on the tails of several weeks of packing and purging, has us moaning and groaning! We're stiff and tired. You should hear us. We sound like a couple of old geezers!

While the last few days have been foggy and chilly, the sun shined on this Memorial Day holiday. We took a break from all of our inside work to pick up and plant a few cheerful flowers to enhance our curb appeal and lovely back patio. 

This place is looking just about ready to attract many buyers.  Good thing, too. Because (Ugh!) we're just about ready for some much needed rest!

We hope all of our readers have enjoyed a happy and safe holiday weekend. We salute our troops past, present and future for their dedication and sacrifice in pursuit of the freedom these old geezers enjoy and never take for granted.

Little Jobs Take Big Time

Our holiday weekend is anything but restful. With realtors scheduled to meet with us Tuesday and Wednesday, we're doing everything we can to make our house look like a place they'd be excited about selling...and multiple buyers would be very eager to call it their next home.

The primary task has been a thorough cleaning of the place, which we've learned takes a lot more time that we thought. Along the way we've discovered other little jobs that also turn out to be more time consuming. Boris and I have been quite a team as we've repaired a bathroom cabinet, changed a tricky light bulb or two, cleaned the roman shade in our cats' favorite window, made a seldom used fireplace sparkle, returned furniture to its rightful place (for now, anyway), moved framed family photos from mantles to a storage box and replaced the caulk around the kitchen sink. 

You get the idea. 

And, since it's Sunday, it's time for the true test of how productive our week has been.  That's right, it's trash night. This week we have more garbage than our bin will hold.  (We've definitely been productive this week!) Our plan is to roam the neighborhood after dark and deposit our extra few bags in any bins along the curb that have room.  

Please don't tell anybody!

Home Stretch

If we had to describe today in one word, it would be "nutty". If you need evidence that this word adequately describes the day, let me share something: Our gas barbeque is sitting in our living room! (The good news is we're not cooking on it!)

The day began with breakfast and a 3.5 mile walk. Then, things got crazy. 

The carpet installers we were expecting this morning called at 8AM to say they'd be here at noon. They arrived at 1:00. (They must be on super daylight savings time!) We were a bit concerned about the job because some of the carpet being pulled up in one room needed to be placed in other areas. And, our fingers were crossed that it would all go as planned. 

Boris did an outstanding job of staying on top of the job. He quickly assessed two potential show stoppers.  First, the installers didn't have enough pad to complete the job.  And, second, the new carpet being installed didn't look like what we ordered. 

The initial resolution to the first problem was that the installers would come back "sometime" tomorrow to finish the job, while a major thoroughfare in our house stayed in some kind of carpet limbo. Uh, no. Boris was on the phone with the salesman and the installation manager and had a roll of pad on the way for delivery later in the afternoon. For the second problem he called me in for a consult. Nope. It's not the carpet we ordered. It doesn't match the rest of the house the way we'd like.  We conferred in front of the stopped installers and determined it's much more important that this house has carpet than what the carpet is.  And, so they completed the job. It looks fine.

That's just the way things seem to go around here. Nothing goes exactly as planned, and everything requires a phone call to a manager. 

While the carpet installation was underway, I began what I thought would be a simple project: begin cleaning the house from top to bottom to prepare for the realtors we'll show it to next week. I started at the top - our lovely loft with a stunning view. Thinking it would take maybe an hour, I spent the rest of the day up there. I purged a little and cleaned a lot.  And, it's not done. There's more to do tomorrow.

(Now would be a good time to let you know we've had a twice a month cleaning service at our house for the last several years. And, now I know they weren't very good.)

Boris took on another "hands and knees" project and stained the front balcony. It looks absolutely fantastic! (Well done, dear!) While the stain dries, the bbq sits in the living room. (See, this is all starting to make sense!) 

As we worked, we uncovered a couple of unexpected projects that we need to tackle in the next few days: cleaning our kitchen soffets and some touch up paint here and there.  Though we are absolutely exhausted, this definitely has the feeling of a "home stretch". 

We are just about there.  From here on out, things should come together quickly.  

At least we hope so!

Planners

Lots happening around here. We're doing everything from shuffling the contents from one room into another (in preparation of tomorrow's carpet installation) to making a first date with a realtor (set for next Tuesday). Every step of the way, the purging continues.

Today's purge was a major one. I parted with my planners.

Earlier this year, I celebrated clearing out my oversized collection of three-ring binders. As much as I loved my binders, I adored my planners more. And, I had a few of them - in different shapes and sizes and colors of beautiful leather. Once upon a time, I couldn't pass by a Franklin Planner store without going in and buying something. So, yes. I had plenty of accessories, too. The paper contents of said planners spanned several years and were stored in tubs, boxes and drawers.

You're probably asking the same question I asked myself this afternoon: So, exactly why did I keep these things?

"When I write my memoirs, I'll need these," was the answer for awhile. But, today I doubt I'll ever write my memoirs. And, if I do, I don't think it will be vital to know that I had a 2:30 meeting on February 23, 1997 with John Smith. Do you? Another reason I've hung on to these is a connection to a time when work was very satisfying, busy and (at the time I thought) very important. Well, it's time to shred that past and get ready for a much more promising future.

Besides, chances are any memoirs I do write will be more about fulltiming and less about my work through the '90s. And, I promise, it'll be much more interesting!