We're only days from moving into our new home on wheels! I still can hardly believe it's true. There are only a few more things that need to fall into place but, God willing, we move into our new home - named "Moby-Homa" - this coming Saturday. We have an appointment to begin the process at 9:00 Saturday morning. Wow!
Tuesday, we left McMinnville about 8:00 a.m. to make it to the house before Consignment NW arrived to pick up the last pieces of our family room furniture. It was fun walking into the house, freshly cleaned top to bottom the day before. Melody, the lady we hired to clean it, did a wonderful job. The house looked all shiny and new -- just what I'd hoped for!
The delivery truck for the furniture showed up promptly at 10:00 and was gone quickly. It was explained that the furniture would be for sale for 3 months. After that the price would be reduced, and if it still didn't sell, we'd be able to donate it to a local charity. There were other options, of course, but we can't take it back!
We walked around the house, finding only three more things we'd missed. Our calendar on the wall. We couldn't possibly live without that! Our cat clock - a gift from my sister-in-law in Tacoma was still telling time in the family room. We're hoping to find a place for it in the motorhome. My rooster measuring spoons were displayed on the wall in the kitchen. That was the last of it! We left our keys and mail box keys on the kitchen table (purchased by the new homeowner). I asked Steve if he felt just a little bit sad? He said no. I didn't feel sad either. It just feels like this is the right next step for us. We're excited to move ahead and see what the next adventure is!
We drove out of our driveway one last time, but turned and parked across the street in our neighbor's driveway. We had to go and have one last visit with Don and Nancy Barnes. That is, one last visit this week! We certainly plan to keep in touch with them. We've teased that they'll be wishing we'd stay away! Perhaps we'll go sit with Don in his driveway to watch the airshow in August. They are simply some of the nicest people we know. When we moved into our Hillsboro home in July of 2006, it was too late to plant a garden in our raised beds. Don showed up on our doorstep with tomatoes, zucchini, and onions. He was alone after losing his wife to cancer. Then Nancy, who had also lost her husband to cancer, joined him a couple years back. Such lovely, lovely people! We are so happy they have each other.
After leaving the neighborhood, we ran over to Camping World to pick out our satellite service, and it's accessories. Our technical advisor, Eric, made it simple and straight forward. Done. We checked in with the financial wizard, Dave, and got some final instructions. Then, Steven, our salesman, came by and asked if we wanted a quick visit with our new "Moby-Homa". They had him parked right up front. We had forced ourselves to walk right by earlier, in order to stay focused on the tasks at hand. It was a relief to be offered a visit! All I can say is, it is SOOOOO nice! The stainless steel refrigerator had all the packing materials removed and was ready for business. My Steve had a question about starting the diesel engine and noted the 100 gallon fuel tank was FULL!! Wow! That means we don't have to worry about finding a gas station we feel comfortable getting in and out of on our first day. That was huge!
After a few minutes of questions, soaking in our almost-home, we had to rush off to the title company. There, we signed all the appropriate sale papers, basically closing the books on our life in a stick house. We learned also that we wouldn't be needed at the house for the walk through, which was running a couple hours late. The new owner was driving up from California today and was behind schedule. So, instead, we ran off to deliver a check to the cleaning woman.
From there, we ran over to the Credit Union to try to arrange a quick turn-around of the cash we are going to receive via wire transfer on Friday, turning it into a cashier's check for the motorhome purchase. Eventually, we got some assurance they'd be watching for it. We learned that once the money shows up in our account, we could drive up to Wilsonville to the local credit union to get a check. We called from the credit union parking lot to speak with our "financial guy" about some of the financial decisions ahead of us also. Did you know we can write off interest on a motorhome loan the same as a stick home? That means if we take a loan beyond what we need, we can write off the interest of the purchase of our tow vehicle, (called a "dingy" or "toad"). It's a good thing! We should be free and clear in just a few years - a day we will look forward to!
That done, we decided to head back to McMinnville, via Sherwood, where we dined at Red Robins for dinner - enjoying our celebratory turkey burgers. Perfect!
We got back to the 5th wheel and Parsley, the cat, at about 6:30. Back to peace and quiet. Steve asked me if I realized we no longer have a home? I said we DO have a home - it's our 5th wheel trailer at this moment. Either way, there is no longer any lawn to mow, let alone a lawn mower to maintain. It was a great six years at that home, but it's time to move on to the next thing!
To be continued ....
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