You may have all heard our sigh of relief last week when we accepted an offer on our home. This has been the most stressful part of our trip planning, believe it or not. Selling a home in a down/recovering market is never a fun prospect.
Photo by EuroMagic via Flickr
Now that it is done, though, what will we do next? We still have over 5 months before we leave for Ecuador. Sure, we could probably ditch out early, but we have some financial, family and work commitments that we really want to meet, which means keeping our original timeline.
Where will we live?
The good news is that our friend Betsy Moore has agreed to rent us a couple of rooms at her house. Betsy is a generous sort and would probably give them to us for free, but you know what they say about company and fish stinking after 3 days. Best to make it an official lease and set up a tenant/landlord situation so we don’t step on each other’s toes and maintain our good friendship.
We’ll save quite a bit of money over what we were paying on our mortgage, and we’ll get to spend quality time with one of our favorite friends over the summer. Plus she has a terrific backyard for Max to play in.
Reader Tip: If you need a place to stay for less than 6 months, consider renting rooms from someone through the classifieds or Craigslist (or a generous friend). Another option is a furnished apartment through a place like Residence Inn, but those are fairly expensive long-term and sort of depressing to live in for very long (we did this for a few weeks once). You can also find furnished corporate housing apartments for rent short-term. Believe me, having a kitchen makes the difference between a tolerable stay and a miserable one.
What will we do with our stuff?
We have 5 weeks until we close on the house, and in the meantime we have a pretty good plan of attack.
- Negotiate as much as you can: As part of the deal, we included most of our furniture. This was a huge relief for us.
- Open the store for your friends: The inspection and appraisal are this week, and we have scheduled a “livingroom sale” with some of our close friends a few days afterward (shades of the Reverse Birthday Party). We’ll package our office supplies, picture frames, lamps, table linens, books, some furniture and other odds and ends for them to browse through first (make it easy for people to shop because they’ll buy more). And of course we’re making it into a party with food and beverage cause that’s how we like to do things.
- Sell things online: This weekend we’ll start Craigslisting things pretty heavily that are left over from our livingroom sale.
- Cancel/update services: We’ve made a list of services to cancel or change address, and we’ll continue to monitor the mail this month for things we forgot. We’re still investigating which virtual mail service we’ll use for our trip. Got any suggestions?
- Scan photos: I’m going to scan the rest of our pictures and mail the originals to our parents or trash them as appropriate. (Find savings on professional photo scanning services with a Scan Cafe Coupon.)
- Donate/recycle: We’ll be donating/recycling things as appropriate.
The goal is to move into Betsy Moore’s house on May 18 with our clothes, electronics, and dog along with our remaining groceries and our bicycles and car. We can get rid of the bicycles and our car closer to our departure date, and our dog Max will be going to live with our good friends the Whitlocks.
Reader Tip: Don’t wait until moving week to start moving. Declutter as much as you can before you decide to move, and once you have a date in mind put together a schedule so it doesn’t overwhelm you. Remember, you have to fit in all this activity around your existing responsibilities, which means you’ll be very tired most of the time. Plan it out and you’ll have a little bit of recovery time.
What will we do until we leave?
We have a lot of plans before we leave, including a visit from Warren’s mom, a few weekend excursions, my half-marathon, and Warren’s sky dive plus his naked bicycle ride in front of thousands of people at the annual Fremont Solstice Parade in June (you can see now why we’re leaving the country). Getting the house sold and all our possessions eliminated means we have the time to enjoy the summer with our friends and family before heading out.
Reader Tip: If you coordinate your move early you can spend your remaining days/weeks seeing the sights and becoming a tourist in your own city. For some reason we rarely do this unless company comes to town, so treat yourself for all your hard work by vacationing in your own town.
Got any suggestions for making this process easier? Things we should do before we leave? Please share them in the comments.
About Betsy
Ah things to do before you leave! I like that you started decluttering early. We did this when we moved to France, trying to sell a maximum of stuff on craigslist first. We also arranged to stay with family a bit before we left–quality time etc.
We also tend to organize a going away picnic. This allows you to see anyone who feels like stopping by the park or the waterfront before you leave. And you can just pick up some take out to share. It’s a very laid back way to make sure you don’t miss anyone before you go.
Ecuador eh? You know, I really really want to go to South America someday. Are you going to travel down South? Are you going to post photos on your experiences???
To me this post read like this: …NAKED BICYCLE RIDE…
Say what???!!!
You have a funny way of embedding bombshells into your posts.
It’s interesting that I don’t consider traveling around the world for three years to be a biggie, but a Naked Bike Ride – now I see what thrillseekers you guys really are.
Simple in France, I love your idea about the picnic – I never even considered that! We have been thinking of all kinds of ways to have a going away party that was economical for us yet big enough to see everyone (and have appropriate parking). Your suggestion is perfect – thank you.
Angela, I’m a hidden bombshell kinda gal. Gotta pay attention or you’ll miss the REALLY weird stuff.
The naked bicycle ride is actually Warren’s thing – he has been saying he’s going to do it every year since we moved here, and this is his last chance. It really is a fun earth celebration with over 100 festively painted naked bicyclists and dozens of manually powered floats and dancing troupes celebrating the solstice, followed by a fair to benefit charities that serve the poor with lots of music and fun. If you ever want to come up to Seattle, plan it during a solstice parade – you won’t regret it! http://www.fremontfair.org/
You truly sound like you have this situation in hand (and no, that’s not a Warren-directed pun!) I think that even when just leaving for a vacation, it’s best to do a little preparation at a time.
You might want to post your list of things to cancel to ask for specific did-I forget-anything feedback from folks who’ve also made this leap. Also, @thenotoriousmeg is about to move to Istanbul for her husband’s work — you might want to compare notes!
I applaud your adventure, and am enjoying the irony of our contrasted Monday posts. Mine is a celebration of being home for a few weeks so that I can enjoy my garden…while yours is all about how to leave your home forever.
Melanie, thanks for introducing me to @thenotoriousmeg – she will be a great resource! And I love your post today. Your flowers are gorgeous, and your backyard is an oasis. Did I mention that we sold our house? And that we need temporary living quarters?
oh gosh betsy—congrats!!! on selling your house…..that’s cool….it’s so nice that everything is falling into place…..i’ve been thinking about you a lot lately and realized that i have not been receiving your auto updates….just signed up again so maybe this time it will work…..you have it all down about your closing up shop–no extra tips here–you are doing it all…..but i will tell you we had two great going away parties at aqua verde and fados irish pub….it’s nice because you can buy a few big apps to share and everyone can buy what they want as well and pay for it themselves which isn’t a problem especially during happy hour….just a thought.
also, i was just thinking too (scary i know) but if you do end up leaving early, you could always go to guatemala and do a little language immersion classes…..last time i did it, it was under $150 per week and that included 25 hours of one to one instruction, my own bedroom at a homestay and three wonderful meals a day with the family who loved helping me learn spanish…..plus the schools arrange outings on the weekends and after school…..i’ve done it twice (in antigua and xela) and had a wonderful experience both times.
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/study/language/guatemala_language_schools.shtml
also, have you heard of the magazine ‘transitions abroad’? great magazine….the link is from them.
finally, i bet you are coming to s.e. asia and i have to say, we have been here since january and just love it….it’s so easy on our budget, beautiful, the people are lovely, it’s wacky here and the food is great….what more do you need right
well, i am looking forward to your updates….hello to warren (by the way, he’s got balls (literally) for riding in the solstice parade–i love watching it but wouldn’t have the nerve to do it.
My husband just forwarded me your blog and WOW, how exciting! We have day dreamed about this type of adventure for years. And you’re actually doing it!! I look forward to reading about your journey. Thank you for the inspiration!
Cheers and “Drum Bun” (good travels in Romanian. Cool country to check out)
-Jasmine