Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Our House is Sold

We completed our house sale on March 16th @ 4pm.  We met the new owner at the closing and spent some time with him the next day showing him around the house and gardens.  He seems very excited and has lots of plans especially for the back yard.  He is a horticulturist with the Purdue Extension and very knowledgable.  We welcomed him to his new home and then drove away.

Let's just saying trying to downsize all your belongings to fit inside 350 square feet is not for sissies.  Johna nd I were very busy the last three weeks leading up to closing.  Everything was sorted by catagories such as charity, motorhome possiblities, Craigslist, Ebay, Jen, and my brother.  Thank goodness we attended a seminar with RV-Dreams about the emotional aspects of preparing.  It was a rollar coaster of emotions and a moutain of work, but we accomplished it with one day to spare.  Whew!

We are renting a furnished house from a friend of mine.  It has everything including pots and pans, towels, and linens and furniture.  All we needed was our personel items and food.  This is such a blessing to us in the mdst of such chaos.  It is an oasis.  We will stay here for awhile as we prepare to move into our motorhome.  Right now so much of our "life' is in the two car garage.  We have come a long way, but there is more to go before all is completed. 

We rented a U-Haul and packed up lots of furniture and items for Jen.  At Christmas time she had walked around the house and made a "wish list" of items.  We laughed and told her she was inheriting early.  My brother and his family did the same thing and picked up their items last week.  They will also store a few thing for us that we can't part with at this time. 

After closing, we hooked the Jeep to the U-Haul and headed to Charlotte, North Caroline to give Jen all her "loot". We had a nice visit and got to see her new apartment and room mates.  Unfortunatly, I fogot my camera.  She looks great and is almost finished with culinary school (graduation is May 15th) Currenlty she is completing her internship with a restaurant called Nobles. 

We stayed at the Drury Inn and appreciated their great breakfast and happy hour.  One day we ventured out to Pee Dee Forest Reserve.  It was about 1 1/2 hours from Charlotte and had recently posted a position for a workamper.  We wanted to see if it would be a good location and opportunity for us.  However, we were not very impressed and probably will not apply.  The two rivers were not very murky and there is not much to see.  The entire time we were there we only saw two other people and very little wildlife. 

It was a great visit and the only drama was a flattire along a very busy  highway.  We plan to go back soon for Jen's graduation. 

Friday, February 26, 2010

Our New Home!!

Click to play this Smilebox photobook: Our New Home
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Check out our soon to be new home!  We are so excited!
It was love at first sight

We have been researching and looking at motorhomes and fifth wheels for a long time.  Here are some of the reasons why we choise this one.  It was important to us that the motor home be:


  • Used and well maintained  (this motorhome has been meticulosly maintained and stored in garage when not being used)

  • A diesel pusher (highly recommended when traveling fulltime)

  • Rated for fulltime usage by RV Consumer Group (Newmar's are rated for this type of usage)

  • At a price where we could  pay cash and not have any debt (we were able to do this with the sale of our home.  No loan was needed)

  • From a manufacturer that was still in business (Newmar has survived)

  • Cabintry that was light in color (beautiful light oak Amish cabintry throughout)

  • Handle well on the road according to RV Comsumer Group (4.5 stars for this year, make and model)

  • Built to allow for good cargo carrying capacity (has 3000 pounds available)
This motorhome has many extras that we were hoping to find such as satellite, solar panels, washer/dryer combo, and a computer desk. The biggest bonus was all the extras the owner has included.  They will no longer be motorhoming and therefore included all the extras needed such water hoses, floor mats,bug shield for the tow car, hitch (two) system.  They were very prepared and have extra light bulbs, belts, touch up paint etc.  This is help us keep our start up costs very low. 

We feel very blessed and so happy that Chuck and Karen sold this motorhome to us.  We appreicate and value how well they have taken care of it. Life is Good!