SOLD!!

As of today we are officially DIRTLESS!!  It has been a very long two months since we returned to PA.  We had decided when we were in Phoenix that we were going to go ahead and sell the house in Murrysville so in mid-February we contacted our realtor Leslie Schupp in PA and she said we needed to put the house on the market right away as their was not another house for sale in our much desired neighborhood.  We had not planned to return until the end of May so she took over and did everything to prepare the house  … she had it cleaned, windows washed, when the garage door broke she had it fixed, she got it staged and had it on the market in two weeks … as we continued on our planned journey to the FMCA Rally and on to Tiffin for our warranty work on the coach.  Leslie was amazing through this whole process and really is one of the best realtors we have ever worked with while buying and selling homes.

After two weeks on the market we had an offer!  It took a bit of negotiation but we finally had a deal by the end of March.  That meant we had to change the rest of our plans to visit family in Florida and dash back up to PA to start cleaning out the house.  We had a POD dropped in the driveway and then had Rebecca and Jason one weekend and Alex the next, come in to collect everything they wanted out of the house.  Then we added all of the items we needed to keep and still the POD was only half full.  We secured everything and sent the POD to Seattle where Rebecca and Jason have moved it all into a storage unit near their apartment.  After everything we wanted was out of the house it was then time to clean out everything that needed to be shredded and to organize things for the estate sale.

We had originally planned to use an estate sales company called Everything But the House to clear out what was left.  Unfortunately, the day I was suppose to meet with them to start the process they sent an email to inform me they no longer serviced the Pittsburgh area.  EEKKK!!  It was a mad dash that week to interview three other companies and to choose Turn Key Estate Sales.  And unfortunately, their first available day for the sale was June 2nd which meant we could not close until today.  Our buyers are expecting their first child and had a due date of the last week in May so it put us in a bit of a bind.  As it turns out everything worked out great.  Brandy (our buyer) is overdue and we were able to let them move into the house the day after the estate sale.  With the help of lots of their family they are getting settled while they are still awaiting the arrival of their baby girl.

The hard part of all of this was the expected (but still unexpected) emotional attachment we have to stuff.  As we were living in the coach, Turn Key was able to get into the house two weeks before the sale to prep everything.  Unfortunately, Joanna had to go to the house several times for various reasons (like putting out all the recycling) and it was very difficult to see a lifetime’s possessions laid out with price tags.  She knew that she really did not have a need for anything that was left but even still it would bother her every time she left the house.  Once she was back at the coach it was completely different.  She had no desire to keep anything else and was completely content with the whole process.  The day after the sale it felt so freeing, like a weight lifted off your back!!  We were no longer tied down to a bunch of stuff we didn’t really need and now no more worries about a sticks and bricks house.

While all of this had been going on we have been staying at a beautiful campground just southeast of Pittsburgh.  Fox Den Acres Campground is tucked away next to a wildlife preserve.  We have so enjoyed walking the campground each morning, getting our exercise, watching spring blossom around us and releasing all our stress.

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While we waited for the house sale we also took care of seeing all of our doctors and dentists to get our yearly checkups done and to finally get Jon’s crown put on.  We have been poked and prodded, squished and analyzed and deemed fit and ready to hit the road.  Now we have a year till we have to find new doctors in Florida which will be our new state of domicile.  We will be in PA for another week and then we will head to Florida to visit family and to complete all the requirements for setting up residency, new car tags, driver’s licences etc.  We have a couple of stops to make along the way but we hope to be down south in a couple of months.

It is hard to believe that we bought our first RV 16 years ago and we embarked on this journey which has lead us to fulfilling this dream of going full time, living life on the road, and exploring this beautiful continent.  Let the new adventure begin!!

Till next time!