Thursday, May 30, 2019

Picking up speed

When I first started this blog I spoke about our plans to sell the house, get a winter rental, retire next year, buy an RV and head out next spring. Well, scratch that! We are most certainly still going Fulltiming but our time frame has changed. My how it has changed. To catch you all up:
  Let's see, Paul retired the end of March from his fulltime job. Since then he has been crazy busy getting the house spruced up and working part time. He has done an amazing job, painting, fixing, cleaning, etc. Love that man!
  I have put in my retirement papers and my last day after almost 30 years at the library will be September 27. Now that's a great birthday present to me, LOL. I too have been busy sorting, tossing, planning, going over the finances again and again. With this is mind we have decided to fast forward the timing of heading out. If all goes as planned and the house sells relatively quickly we are looking at sometime in October to be on the move.
  Speaking of the house. We have a realtor and the place is going on the market! Wish us well for quick sale.  Now thinking of the logistics of selling the house and having somewhere else to live was getting a bit nerve racking for us both. Which led us to decide, well just go for it now. We have purchased our new home! A Coachmen Freelander 27QB, Love love love the floorplan of this one. A Class C motorhome, no slides, 30 feet bumper to bumper, a true queen size walk around bed. It has a dinette and a sofa and adorable kitchen space. I fell in love at first site seeing it at one of the many RV Shows we have gone to, it showed up at a our favorite local RV Dealer, Scotts RV Center, in Lakewood, NJ. I like to think they got it especially for me as I have been back and forth with Anthony (salesperson) about what we wanted and low and behold, there it appeared! Thank you Anthony! After going down to look at it on their lot and Paul (who we call Taller Paul for obvious resaons) (other salesperson, Anthony couldn't be there the day we went down) giving us a great tour and overview, pointing our feature after feature, we decided to talk turkey. We had already been online looking at what other dealers were asking for this unit so had a ballpark figure of what we would be willing to pay. When they came in even lower then that right off the bat, well, yes, done deal! I highly recommend this dealership to anyone looking to buy an RV. They are straight shooters and show you what you want not what they want you to buy.










So there we are with a new RV and hmmm, okay, so now what are we doing to do with it? Certainly can't park it in our parking lot. We wanted it close enough so I could travel easily back and forth to work after selling the house. We found a great site at a local campground. The owner was so helpful, explaining the way she runs her place and suggesting several sites for us to look at. Told us to walk around the park and let her know when we settled on one and if down the road we weren't happy with that site we could easily move to any other open site. So that's what we did, we walked around and around and back and forth, eyeballing each site as carefully as we know how. Walking front to back looking for evenness, bumps, roots, ruts etc. I think we found the best site for us. Signed the agreement and will be moving the rig in Tomorrow!!!!
  Phew! yes, tomorrow we go back to Scott's, get an approximately, 4 hour training session to learn all the ins and outs of our new home. Then we get to drive it over to Pine Cone Resort and Campground where we will stay until heading out Fulltime. Oh my my my. As I said our plans have certainly accelerated.   With all this I am hoping to post more here about our experiences learning our RV and our new life adventure.

Of course More and better photos to follow.

Ta for now!


Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Catching up

It's been a while since I have posted anything so thought I'd catch everyone up on the goings on.  We've been quite busy clearing out and cleaning up. Since Paul retired he has been a whirlwind of activity here. The spare bedroom ceiling and walls are painted and is now our staging area for going through things. He is working on sanding down and repainting the kitchen cabinet doors, 14 down, 4 to go. He has gone through his music collection and now has a plethora of songs on the IPOD. We have gone through each closet and cabinet getting rid of things right and left. Amazing how much one has! Several will need to be gone through again and again. Patio and front garden have been spruced up and planted with pretties. Floors scrubbed, rugs cleaned. Still have a couple of things that need tending and then it is ready to put on the market!  WOW! 

 Yes, things are moving fast, actually faster then we original thought. If all continues to go as planned could be as early as Mid Summer to buy the RV and heading out in October. Oh My. It seems so unreal at times. The mixed emotions one feels is like being on a roller coaster. So very excited to be finally able to live this dream but yet again, it is scary as all get out. The "What Ifs" run strong and sometimes it is real hard to quiet them. What if we don't like it. What if we hit really bad weather, What if we breakdown, What if one of us gets sick, What if, What if, WHAT IF????? Seeing the house get emptier and emptier is exhilarating, but no wait, how can I get rid of that, its my stuff! It's what I know. It's my life. Can we actually be doing this??? WHATAREWECRAZY!!!!

 Phew, calm down, you got this, just need to focus on what's ahead, where we will go, what we will see, the incredible wonders of our great country.

I read a quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau, "We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, then leap in the dark to our success." Yes, that is so how I feel at this stage.

Well enough for now, back to sorting, tossing, sprucing, planning,

Oh and since it was read publicly at last night's council meeting I guess we can call it official. My retirement date is September 27!!  Yep after thirty years I am leaving the library, another mixed emotion. Will so miss the people but am so done with the working!
 Little bragging moment: The business administer of the boro went on the record to say I was Classy and Professional, whoa that is an ego boost! 

Okay til next time! Ta

And Our Next Great Adventure Begins!

 Well, it certainly has been a while since I wrote anything here, and a lot has happened. As I mentioned in my last post, we had decided to ...