I know it has been awhile since my last post but I was waiting until we could declare victory on the dreaded basement, and now we can! Finishing the basement coupled with our first garage sale (more on that later) has finally broken the logjam in our very cluttered abode. Imagine approximately 1000 sq. ft. of unfinished basement stuffed from floor to ceiling with only a couple of very narrow paths to navigate through. Now imagine a corner of that same basement with stuff for the next garage sale, Christmas in October, and another corner with stuff accumulated from the relatives that will be gone through before the next garage sale. The rest of the basement is clutter free and ready for the furniture and other stuff that the professional house stager tells us to remove for the sale showings. Depending on timing this furniture and stuff will be for the next garage sale or the estate sale at the end.
The garage sale also did wonders for removing some of the clutter. There were good bargains to be had, about $1000 in exercise equipment for about 10 cents on the dollar but hey it is gone and is now a place to hang cloths in somebody else's basement :) Although we did earn almost $300 it was a lot of work, so much that we decided it on only one more garage sale.
To keep our eyes focused on the prize we recently journeyed to a local RV dealership to look at 2 of our favorite floorplans. One of the them had just sold so it was in the shop getting prepped for the new owners. Seeing them outside you do not realize how big these units are so seeing them in a garage was an eye opener. The slides were also in so we got to see how cramped it is with them in and also how easy it is to open the unit up, simply at the push of a button. We plan to keep visiting every few weeks because we left there so fired up!
I am also pleased to note that I have been keeping in touch with some of those I left behind and are still working. This of course involves food as you know it had to as we meet for lunch. I also keep up with goings on at the old plant via the RIN (Retiree Information Network) and I got to say it is pretty good.
We are still working on the outside work while the weather cooperates. The new grass seed is doing quite well, the trees have been trimmed, new plants have been added, retaining wall was fixed, and tons of mulch added. Have some edging and mulching left to do along with some brush cleanup. Then we will tackle the painting and cleaning of windows and doors, cleaning the siding and concrete. At some point we will get a professional home stager to give us some advice.
I imagine some are wondering if we are still planning on fulltiming with the gas prices and supply questions swirling about. To be honest it has caused us to pause a little but I think that has been good. We have talked about how we may have to stay longer in places and thus move more slowly across the country but we are still planning on it and really looking forward to it. Our fulltiming 'carbon footprint' will be significantly less even with the diesel. Instead of trying to heat and cool a 3500 sq. ft. home and all that goes with living in a sticks and bricks we will be in a 400 sq. ft. RV in 70 degree weather. Every time a situation arises which may impact our fulltiming plans we talk it through and so far have emerged each time more determined to live this lifestyle.
Finally I have made some updates to the KC list based on some suggestions.
Till next time,
