BLOG SILENCE....! WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

It has been a whirlwind of activity here these past few weeks.  With Christmas preparations, our children coming for Christmas, Christmas celebrations and meals, taking the 5th wheel out of storage and doing some needed installations, and generally preparing to leave on our southward RV'ing journey, all heck broke loose when our home suddenly sold.  You read right!  We sold our home.  That happened on New Year's eve.  Unbelievable!

See the trees and high surround cedar hedge

More hedge - completely surrounding the yard.

Chronology:

Regular readers may remember an earlier blog referring to Jeanette's flight, from here on the Canadian west coast, to Edmonton, Alberta; the province's capital city.  She went to check in on her parents.  So in early December I drove her to the Abbotsford Regional airport - about 35 minutes from our home.  On the drive back I drove by a housing  development we both had been scouting for the past 18 months or so.  One specific area, within that development, really appealed to us but there have not been any listings available.  On that particular day there was one listing.  It seemed to be a property that suited our needs.  Once home I went online and found the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) listing.  That property clearly met about 95% of our criteria.

Seven days later, when Jeanette returned from her trip, we drove past the property  and Jeanette's eyes and general reaction said, "IT FACTOR."

That led to one long viewing in mid December- followed by another longer viewing the next day.  The result was an offer to purchase.  The usual subjects were written into the contract and included a condition on the sale of our current home.  Our Realtor convinced us to list our home immediately following the offer to purchase.  We thought that holding off till the new year would make more sense.  She convinced us otherwise. We did just that.  Because it is winter, we attracted serious buyers - by appointment only.  The third couple in to view the home wrote an offer to purchase within 12 hours.

More evidence of hedge & plants

RV'ing schedule revised:

As a result of these activities - subject removals, title searches, building inspections, etc. - we had to delay our departure from Thursday, January 6, to Monday, January 10, 2011.  (That means at least one more OPEN MIKE COFFEE session guys.) We need that extra time to get all of the necessary paperwork in place and schedule movers and moving dates.  The legal work will happen in our absence. The buyers of our home must also remove all conditions by this Saturday.  It is necessary for us to be here till then.

Plants and trees galore

Breezeway

Because possession for our property and the new home is for March 19, 2011, we'll have to cut our first snow birding adventure back by between five to six weeks.  Although we're saddened by that, we're also happy with the new house and the future possibilities for travel..

The good side:

We did not plan for this to happen so soon.  We were surprised by the quick sale but we are thrilled to have everything in place before the fiver leaves our driveway.

More time for this

...and for this...

...and for this  too.

Some have wondered if we are downsizing.  The answer is yes and no.  With our two children educated, both living in Edmonton, Alberta, and well on their way in this world  -with successful lives- this home is larger than we really need.  Our yard is another thing altogether.  It is a high maintenance yard that is surrounded by greenery galore.  It requires regular intervention for upkeep.  That was OK when 'all in the family' lived here.  Not so now.  Not so now that we desire more free time to motorcycle, golf, RV travel, visit with our kids, etc., etc. There is not enough room to park my 5th wheel here.  We have to keep it in storage when not in use. There is room at the new place; lots of it.

Downsizing or rightsizing:

Our primary objective - these past few years - was to downsize and find a place that would require less time to clean and to maintain - inside and outside.  Although the home we have purchased is as large as our current home, it is a rancher (also known as a bungalow) with a loft that also has a bedroom with 4 piece en suite and a large (I mean large) games room....soon to be office.

The yard is a professionally landscaped, ZERO maintenance, installation with in ground sprinkler system and fountain.  Can you hear the shouting?  YIPPEE!!!  No lawn cutting.  Only trees and plants to maintain.  That means we can just head off in the summer months and not worry about hiring a lawn maintenance service or rushing back to mow the lawn.  The house faces south and has a huge finished driveway with a 14 foot wide space to park our 5th wheel....and plenty of room for another one too.

Although this new home is only six years old, it requires some interior decorating.  We'll take care of that in short order after we move in on the 19th of March, 2011.

A big attraction was that the house is across the street from operating range farms in the Agricultural Land Reserve.  In essence (or till some politician's jeans are greased with greenbacks and the law is changed) this land will never be developed.  It is truly 'big sky country'. We face beautiful Mt. Baker (in Washington State) and all other surrounding mountains to the east south and west.  The entire development is wonderful and all properties are very well maintained.  The new house takes us away from our ocean side community and into the Fraser Valley, Langley Township, but it is a great trade off.....at least in our view it is.

View from the pier @ White Rock Beach, BC, Canada

Clearly rightsizing:
We have lived in the White Rock area of British Columbia for 30 years now.  Although we are moving about 22 - 25 minutes east, this seaside community will always be home and, when we can no longer travel, we'll move back here for the next stage in life.

So we will not really downsize (cause the new house is as large as our current one) but we will certainly rightsize.  Everything we wished for (or at least 95% of what we wished for in a new property) awaits us this mid-March.

Must run off to meet with the building inspector and have a listen at his report on the new property.

I took this photo from the MLS listing.  The photo does not do justice to the size of the yard and 14' wide enclosed RV parking on the left side of the house.  Directly across the street is wide open country surrounded by beautiful snow covered mountains - featuring the famous Mt. Baker.

I will place photos of the new place when the sun shines again and we have the time to do that. It has been raining since early this morning so it's not a very nice day for photographs.

Thanks for stopping by.