Category: Fulltiming

It’s Been A While

~ Wanderlets ~ 5 Comments

There is more progress being made every day but at the same time more keeps happening to slow us down.  For instance, while the weather has been unusually warm for over a month, payback is coming later this week. Which means Steve has to take some time off from work to winterize the Allegro and at the same time learn how because the systems are different.

Two days ago I put an ad on Craigslist to sell Tulip and yesterday a couple gave us a deposit to buy her. That was an unexpected quick sale and she wasn’t quite cleaned up yet so there is that to do before we turn her over. And we have to get a small roof leak repaired by Thursday. All the RV techs are booked out, Steve is working, and Thursday our family is having lunch at a restaurant for my mother’s birthday which I forgot about. And today two windows are being replaced.  Next week Tuesday is Steve’s last day at work and then I am promoting him to Chief Coordinator.

The house is a horrible mess. We had a garage sale and already spent the proceeds from that for our trip to Arizona to buy Alice.  Bit by bit we are hauling what didn’t sell plus more over to my mother’s house to have another garage sale.  I still have a few more ads to place for some furniture pieces but then the rest goes either in storage or to my mother’s.  We started taking things to Alice and her outside bins are quickly filling up. But then I noticed Steve took boxes from Tulip over without going through them so that has to be dealt with.

The good news is we made it through the house inspection process without having to do much. The windows were the main items. We don’t know what the house appraised at but it met the sales price at a minimum. So there should be no more hurdles to closing which was moved up by one day to April 7th.

After the closing we will collapse in Alice with a Margarita and not move a muscle for a couple of days.  Then I will catch up on blog reading as I am way behind on keeping up with many of you.

P.S. There is a new item above in the menu for Allegro Alice where you can see some interior pictures.

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I am finally up early enough every morning to see the sunrise. 

Countdown – 51 Days To Freedom

~ Wanderlets ~ 8 Comments

Cannot wait and nor can Steve who has roughly 20 workdays left going to a job he hates like no other. He likes all the people and managers he works with but the job itself is awful.  His job entails suiting up several times a day to work in a clean room with some very nasty and dangerous chemicals. On top of that his days are 12 hours long. It’s jut too much, especially when he is making not much more than Walmart wages while the top guys rake it in. But that is work life in the USA the past 15-20 years.

Steve is one of those people you read about that makes 2/3 less than what he made 15 years ago due to downsizing, outsourcing, the owner of his company buying a basketball team, etc. Thank goodness he CAN quit. I feel so sorry for all the poor workers that are trapped in these low paying, soul sucking jobs. All I can say is save, save, save. And don’t spend, spend, spend.

Much has been accomplished this past week towards freedom day. Within 24 hours we sold a massive three piece desk and also my sewing cabinet that I had tried many times before to get rid of. The contents of those two are sorted and packed into the “keep” and “sell” piles.  Steve has organized the garage into the same two categories with the vast majority ready for a garage sale. Other than a bedroom set, every large piece of furniture will have a home, thanks to my family.

Our spare time has been spent perusing the motorhome ads. What a dilemma that is! I go back and forth, back and forth.  My ideal motorhome would be a 30 foot diesel in order to camp wherever we want.  However, every time I think I have found one that would work, the reviews are negative on top of the fact there are not many in that category to begin with.

We want a quality brand and that leaves many out of the running. It looks like we will have to go with a longer length, but no more than 34 feet.  We made a list of  wants such as pantry, low mileage, a window on each side of the bed, washing machine, larger than average kitchen, a non-booth dinette, and year 2005 through 2007 because of the requirement for non Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel fuel in order to travel in Mexico. That leaves zero in the entire country! Okay, so we delete washing machine and there are two to choose from. We delete wanting a bigger kitchen and there is one that meets all the other criteria. The three we have targeted are as far from us as possible, either in Florida or Washington State.

And that leaves another dilemma: Trade in Tulip or sell her ourselves?  Steve is leaning towards keeping her AND having a bigger motorhome but I can’t see that unless we are committed to shipping  Tulip to Europe for summer travel but Steve says he will never, ever drive in Europe again. After no less than five fender benders over there the last time, I would agree.

I forgot. In addition to getting rid of the bedroom set, there is also this bookcase to sell.Bookcase-1

 

 

 

 

New Tenants Lined Up

~ Wanderlets ~ Leave a comment

The plan was to advertise our house for rent the beginning of July but a few days ago I was on Zillow and happened to see that they list rentals as well as houses for sale.  On a whim and to test the waters, I listed our house for $300 higher than what we rented it out for in late 2009 when we traveled for a while.  We had at least 25 inquiries in less than 24 hours!  One person even offered to pay $100 more a month and pay one year in advance but the catch was he needed it July 1st.  I knew there was a rental shortage in Colorado but did not realize how severe it was until a few of these people told me how long they had been looking and the competition for the few nicer houses that are available.  Not bragging but so many said our house was their dream house – I imagine because it is in downtown Manitou Springs and happens to be nice at the same time.

The couple we rented it to explained that because of the fires in the area the last two years, 1000 homes burned down and all of those people had to find rentals and many have not yet rebuilt. And now that the housing market has come back, many of the people who have rental houses are selling them.  That is the case for the couple renting ours.  They have to leave their rental house July 1st as it is being sold.  Once again I think we have found good tenants. They are a couple in their early 60’s who seem quite nice and are thrilled out of their minds to have our house to rent.  They have been waiting for the prices to increase in order to sell their house on the coast in California which will probably occur about the time we would want to move back in.

We also sold Tulip’s cargo carrier and will miss it. It’s been great for Mexico especially because that is where we store a large patio mat and awning shade.  But since we will now tow most of the time, the carrier would just take up space in a storage unit.

Now that everything is sold that we wanted to sell and the house lease is taken care of we can get on with the fun stuff like packing and more trip planning.  And of course Steve’s maintenance list keeps growing instead of getting shorter but that’s how it is with a house……….or an RV for that matter.