Limbo

 I'm now biding my time at my with my son, daughter in law, and two grandsons, who have generously and graciously put me up temporarily while I look for a house. I'm doing my best to help out financially and with cooking, weeding, and other things around the house. But I find I have a lot of free time on my hands. This is such a change -- almost a shock -- after weeks of constant, hurried activity. But we are all getting along great and I'm getting used to the down time. Frankie is loving it here around so many of the people he loves and going on walks every day. We have had a small problem with their 2-year old, 90 lb. lab eating his dinner, as Frankie has a habit of ignoring his dinner until he decides he wants to eat. Now, if he doesn't eat right away, I have to put the dish up until later. In the meantime, Sophie has learned to be a good girl and wait while he does eat. But the second he finishes, she's over there cleaning every last lick of the bowl. The dogs are very good together otherwise.

I went to look at a house last week. But it was a former rental and in poor condition. Especially the backyard which was such a total wreck, it would take thousands of dollars just to clear it and put down sod. Just too many projects inside and out. And it's a very tiny house, and on a main entry into the subdivision, which I don't like. It's the very low end of both size and finishes of this type of house in the neighborhood, and not really what I want. So I'll keep looking. 

After a long summer with no single level houses coming on the market, we seem to have returned to the former routine of one new listing a week. If that continues, eventually one will come up that's right for me. 

There's a house just three doors away from my son where the people have been moving stuff out of the house using a small trailer for the past three days. We are curious if they are slowly moving and possibly selling, and we're keeping a close eye. We don't know the people, so we've refrained from being nosy. However, if they happen to be outside when we're walking, I think we'll stop and chat. It would be far too convenient to find a house just three doors away. But anything is possible. This house is at the opposite end of the scale when it comes to size and quality of houses. It's much bigger and has a beautiful finished yard. Far more aesthetically pleasing outside, and I'm assuming much the same inside. Obviously, it will be higher priced, but I believe still within my price range. *wishing / hoping* There are many houses of a more in between size, layout, and finishes, and I would be happy with one of those as well. I don't need a really big house like this one. But I don't want a little cracker box either.

There is no way to speed up this process. I tried posting a comment on the neighborhood group on FB to see if there were any homes coming up. But that didn't go well as it attracted some troll-ish comments. I won't do that again, but will just wait this out. The kids are in no hurry to get rid of me and want to see me in a house I like. 

So, it's sort of a limbo. But Frankie and I are enjoying our stay here and making the most of the opportunity to be supportive and helpful.

Moved

 It was a gargantuan effort with the help of all my local children and grandchildren. At one point, it felt like I couldn't possibly meet the deadline. I had agreed to close a day sooner as the buyers were so excited to be in their new house. I left it as clean as I possibly could in the time allowed. There were things I had planned to do that never got done. But it's all over now. 

The movers came on Monday and put everything into the storage unit. That went very smoothly and pretty fast as well because of the preparations we had made. The storage unit was just the right size with a little room to spare. I don't know how I lucked out choosing the movers and storage, as I'm completely a novice at that and had no time to learn, and very few options to choose from. It was luck.

 

Tuesday, I signed a million or so papers to complete the closing. It is quite a process. The money reached my bank yesterday, Wednesday. Also yesterday, I finished getting all the utilities switched over and address changes made at the bank and other places I do regular business with. I had submitted the address forwarding to the post office a week earlier.

One very remarkable thing about this move: I did it without really writing any list. Me, the maker of lists. Hard to believe.

I did have my original list of 80 things to do that I had created a year or so ago. But that was just the things to get the house ready. With the move itself, I just did everything on the fly and didn't have time to think much about anything. Every day, I had a motto of  "do something, anything." It was chaotic and stressful. Not my cup of tea. But, somehow, it all happened on time.

And now, a day later, I'm living in my son's house temporarily hoping for one last bit of luck. My son's family is really wonderful to me. My daughter in law is more of a daughter. The grand kids are my longtime summer buddies, and it is just a good place for me to be. Their big, gregarious yellow lab, Sophie, gets along with Frankie, but she's only 2 and Frankie's an old guy, prefers to sleep over playing. And we do have a small problem of Sophie eating Frankie's dinner if he hesitates. But we're working that out.

I don't want to overstay my welcome. The number of those one level houses has dropped to zero over the summer. One finally appeared in the listings. But it's not really to my liking. It's the smallest, cheapest of the houses they built in the neighborhood, with a tiny galley kitchen and a minimal number of cabinets. But I'm starting to think I should at least look at it and see if it might do with some modifications.

I'm impatient. I want to finish this move. I'm only halfway there.