Settling In

Jill's Journal: Happily, we are settling into the fifth wheel nicely. The girls are enjoying their new space and love their bunk beds. The place is sparkling clean thanks to an insane amount of bleach and elbow grease. Everything is unpacked and in its place. And life is good!

Of course, we haven’t moved an inch yet since we have several things to wrap up this week in Lexington. But, with two very smooth nights and days of “camping” under our belts, we’re feeling pretty good about the future. And I must confess: we’re not really camping. Sure, space inside is at a premium. But with 1 1/2 bathrooms, a separate master bedroom, a four-bunk bedroom for the girls on the complete other end of the trailer, a decent-sized kitchen, a living room bigger than a New York studio, and even a washer and dryer ready to be installed, we could definitely have it a lot worse. It really is a “house on wheels,” as the girls call it.

The 36 hours before we officially moved in were filled with drama. The closing date on our house got pushed back for the fourth (or was it fifth?) time. We underestimated how much we had yet to do to finish moving out (doesn’t that always happen?). And some improper wiring leading to the RV blew out everything that was plugged in: our new refrigerator, microwave/convection oven, entertainment system, etc. Even little things like an alarm clock and drill were completely decimated.

But that was then and this is now. The good news is that we really did close on our house on Friday morning and managed to finish our move-out with minutes to spare! It was bittersweet to hand those keys over. It’s the only home all three of our little girls have ever known. Victoria was even born there, literally, so it will always hold a special place in our hearts.

More good news: although we do have to replace all those expensive appliances without ever having gotten a chance to use them, at least they can be replaced. It’s just time and money (and a few gray hairs). And if that’s the biggest hiccup we have on our journey, we’re doing just fine.

And one more blessing I have to mention: good friends. One of the hardest decisions we had to make was what to do with our cat, who has been a part of our family for 15 years and has seen other pets come and go. But my dear friend Roberta ended up making it easy for us. She willingly opened up her home and welcomed our old gray kitty on Friday. Roberta’s home is an earthly version of cat heaven…once our cat acclimates, I have a feeling she’ll wonder what kind of purgatory she was in with us for the last 15 years!

Welcome!

Jill's Journal: If only I had a penny for each time someone asked if we had a blog! We finally decided it was time to go public. I’ve been keeping an occasional journal of our preparations to travel with the intention of sharing it with our girls someday. (Because surely someday they’ll wonder what possessed us to pack them into an RV and hit the road). Since my typing skills are stronger than my handwriting skills, it seemed a natural to make it a blog and that way my parents could track our travels as well. And now it’s morphed into something a little bigger…we’ve decided to also share it with our friends and family.

If you’re just joining us, the brief version is this: we’ve sold our house (closing in a matter of hours!), have bought a fifth wheel, and plan to travel North America for the next three years. We have a loose itinerary that includes 49 states and parts of Canada. Rob telecommutes already and can work from anywhere, so we realize this makes us incredibly blessed and very, very lucky. Our three girls are young with our oldest just finishing kindergarten tomorrow, so I’m going to try my hand at homeschooling for a few years. We can’t think of a better education for them (and for us!) than seeing the country firsthand.

As people have learned about the adventure that awaits us, we realized how many either long for this type of opportunity or think we’re completely off our rocker. Either way, it’s clear many people are very curious. We thought this blog would be a way we could take everyone along for the ride.

Both Rob and I will post. His entries (like the one immediately below) are labeled with an “R.” Mine will always begin with “Jill’s Journal.”

It will take another week or so for us to completely wrap up things here in Lexington, Kentucky, and then we’ll be on our way. So, stay turned and join us on our journey if you’d like. And welcome!

Ripping Off the Band-Aid

Jill's Journal: The buyers moved our closing date back by five days to June 2nd. Rob especially welcomed this news. Five days feels like a huge bonus of extra time to get everything wrapped up. I agree for the most part, but it also prolongs the process and the living in limbo. I’m the sort who far prefers to rip off the band-aid rather than ease it off gently!

What a Week

Jill's Journal:
Home inspection; check.
Pest inspection; check.
Met the buyer; check.
Contract amended with six minor fixes from buyer; check.

Add in major computer problems for Rob (which frustrates him to no end and messes with our livelihood) and a very serious horseback riding accident for my dear Dad (where the local hospital shipped him by ambulance to a trauma ICU with a subdural hematoma/bleeding on the brain and a host of other injuries) and it’s been a stressful week.

Two weeks to closing; let’s hope for some smoother sailing! And my Dad, thank God, is improving daily. He has a long recovery in front of him, but we’re so thankful to be talking about recovery instead of the alternative.

Warp Speed Ahead

Jill's Journal: A mere two days ago, I was completely miserable that our house hadn’t sold yet in the 12 days it was on the market. Logically, I know 12 days is a drop in the bucket, especially in the current economic climate. But mentally, I hated every showing (with an intense passion!) and felt our launch date was slipping farther and farther away.

But that was two mornings ago.

That afternoon, we got a low offer from a couple who had seen our house three days in a row. Hours of negotiating later, thanks to our steadfast determination and our diplomatic pit bull of an agent, we had a contract for only $1900 less than our asking price. It doesn’t get much better than that.

And now it’s warp speed ahead! They want to close three weeks from today, with immediate possession at closing. That sounded great at first, but it has sunk in that three weeks is FAST approaching. We suddenly need to find a new home for just about everything we own. And we don’t dare get rid of anything big before the inspection and appraisal, just in case something falls through and we have to start having showings again. Yowsa.

It WILL get done. It has to!

For Sale

Jill's Journal: The time has come for us to sell our house! This is the mother of all preparations to leave our stable lives and full-time it on the road.

We officially went on the market last Friday. I’ve quickly learned selling a house ranks up there with my least favorite things to do in this world. I do believe I’d rather have a root canal. Without anesthetic. Seriously.

I thought I was a strong woman – I can give birth to 13 pound, 11 ounce babies at home, thank you very much – but I’ve found my breaking point. Strangers tromping through our personal sanctuary with their shoes on is more than I can handle. Hopefully someone buys our clean, cozy little home soon and puts me out of my misery!

It’s Really Happening!

Jill's Journal: The past two weeks have been a flurry of activity as we depersonalize the house and prepare it for market. It’s always been neat and tidy, but we’re going the extra mile to make sure it stands out when we hang that “For Sale” sign out front. It’s incredibly exciting to see progress and realize that our “launch date” is a mere two months away!

Another successful garage sale is in the books, more big items have been sold on Craig’s List, and charities ranging from All God’s Children to Blue Grass Farms Charities to Goodwill have been blessed with boxes upon boxes of donations.

We’ve also “bought” a mailbox at a place that will enable us to keep our Kentucky residency for now and has a professional mail forwarding service to boot. We’ve made decisions on online banking for the road. And perhaps most significantly, we’ve rented a small storage unit and began moving in the boxes I’ve packed of sentimental and significant items we’re saving.

Somehow, that made it all real to me. Not buying the fifth wheel or the big truck to pull it. Not the mountain of preparations we’ve been making for months and months. Not the hours of planning and dreaming and discussing we’ve done for the last 1 1/2 years. Nope. It was the storage unit; such a minor little step along the way, yet when we scaled it, it hit me. It really hit me. We’re doing this. It’s really happening!