Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

Tuesday, 31 May

A few hours ago, we closed on the sale of the townhouse.  We signed the paperwork and handed over the keys and garage door openers to the young woman who is now responsible for making the mortgage payments.  Our portion of the pay-off amount should be in our bank account by COB Wednesday.  We’re anxious to get our hands on that money since we already have plans for it — a chunk of it will pay off the mortgage on the motorhome, thus rendering us debt free.  That’s a good thing.

Over the years, we’ve owned three homes … all townhouses.  We bought the first one in Salt Lake City, Utah, where we lived for eight years.  In 1991, when Mui accepted a government position in Washington DC, we made the cross-country move and eventually bought our second townhouse in Vienna, Virginia.  Our third townhouse was supposed to be an investment, but somehow Mui convinced me that we should live in it instead.  Although we moved just a short mile away on that occasion, it was enough distance to put us over the city line and we ended up in Fairfax, Virginia.

Selling a home is always bitter-sweet, but each time we did so, we knew we were making the right move (no pun intended).  This time, our exciting retirement plans for rollin’ around North America to see and experience new places, and revisit favorite haunts, temper any feelings of sadness.

I know we’ll one day want to look back, so here are photos of the place we called home for the last seven years.  (Sorry for the distortion in the photos; the only lens I had handy at the time was my ultra-wide angle.)

I posted this collage before, But I forgot to take a picture of the exterior of the house,
so until I can find a better one, this one will have to do.

We’ll start in the basement … this was Mui’s “man cave,” so to speak … only because I always found the temperature down there a little too cold.  Hmmm; now that I think of it, maybe that was on purpose!!!

A closer look at the map to the right of the cabinets in the center bottom photo above.
Over the years, we’ve annotated this world map to show the places to which we’ve traveled.

The main floor had a relatively open floor plan … the living and dining room (which, I’m sorry to say, was seldom used) …

… and on the other side of the wall, the family room and kitchen/breakfast nook … all of which got plenty of use.  The family room was dubbed the “travel room” as it held many of our cherished travel memorabilia.  (There used to be a sofa where the two chairs are in the picture; it was “downsized” before I thought to take these pictures.)

Finally, on the top level … two guest bedrooms (one of which served as my home office) and the master suite.

And that completes the tour of 2994 Thompson Park Lane. Join us at another time for a tour of our digs for the next 19 months as we continue to plan and prepare for retirement.

Blogger Commenting: Could This Be the Answer?

Tuesday, 31 May

We've all been having intermittent problems commenting on posts. Sue (from The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales) and I may have hit upon the potential solution.

Earlier today, I went into Blogger to change my comment settings from embedded to pop-up window. Coincidentally, I received a note from Sue that she'd been able to comment on some of the other blogs, but not on mine because the embedded comment box was not editable. When I mentioned that I had made changes to my settings, she did a couple of tests for me. Success! She was able to comment using both Chrome and IE.

Now, neither one of us saying that this is the answer, but perhaps it is ... and only time and more commenting activity will tell.

If you'd like to check your Blogger comment settings and are not sure what you need to do ...

In your dashboard:

1. go to the Settings tab
2. click the Comments tab
3. scroll down to Comment Form Placement to see which radio button is selected
4. select the "pop-up window" button
5. scroll to the end of the page and save your settings
6. ask someone to send you a test comment (be happy to oblige)

Hopefully this is the answer to our frustrations ... and if it isn't … well I guess a lack of comments on this post will tell the story.

Salute to Memorial Day

Monday, 30 May

Although we’re still in the midst of settling into the condo, we managed to find and hang our flag to honor Memorial Day.

Here’s a bit about the genesis of Memorial Day from a website I came across when I was researching the history of this special day, which was first observed on May 30, 1868.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service.  There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day.  There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920).  While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.  It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868.  It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established.  Memorial Day is not about division.  It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Click here for more information about Memorial Day, including the story of how a poem entitled In Flanders Fields brought about the tradition of wearing red poppies to honor those who gave their lives in the service of their country.

Move to Condo √

Monday, 23 May

We’ve had three sleeps at the condo and so far so good.  No distracting sounds from neighboring condos; no street noises to interfere with a good night’s rest; no fire alarms going off at 2:00a (that was a problem at the apartment building we lived in when we first moved to the DC area).

As scheduled, the moving company that we contracted with arrived bright and early on Friday.  We’d already done quite a bit of work to prepare for this day, grouping and organizing all of the stuff we wanted Quality Moving Services to transfer to the condo.  Our prep work paid off — nothing got left behind; nothing extra was moved.  The three guys assigned to our move were professional, courteous, and careful.  They did a good job wrapping the furniture to ensure nothing was damaged during the move.  We had only one breakage — a glass shade on a floor lamp; no biggie as far as we’re concerned.

Good prep work … smooth move.
(I moved what little was left in my walk-in closet, leaving the big stuff to the big guys!)

The guys pow-wow their move strategy.

By the time the movers left on Friday, all of the furniture was placed as we had directed, needing just a few adjustments here and there.  Boxes were stacked out of the way, ready for us to unpack.  Saturday started early — like 5:00a early.  By the end of the day, we were dead-tired, but felt good about our progress.  We even managed to restore our connection to the outside world by getting the phones and computers hooked up.  (No thanks to our cable company; plenty of kudos to Apple Care!)

In reasonable shape by Saturday afternoon.

Sunday was another day of hard work.  I am pleased to report that most of the boxes the movers brought are unpacked.  We’ve put the few boxes that we didn’t get to in the storage area we created for ourselves … you’ll laugh at our ingenious solution when I post a picture (later).  Time will tell if we have everything in the right place or if we need to re-arrange a few things.  For now, it feels good to have no boxes cluttering our living space.  (Sorry, no photo from Sunday; I was dead on my feet and didn’t feel like getting the camera out.)

We still have some stuff to bring over from the townhouse — plants, knick-knacks, my cross-stitch artwork, and the like.  No worries; we have all week to do that.  Actually, we have through the end of the month since closing is scheduled for 31 May, but we’re getting the carpets cleaned on the 27th, so we’d like to get everything out before then.

More to come … including photos of the new place.  This is all I can manage on my lunch hour today.

Making Headway on Retirement Plans: Step 2 √

Tuesday, 10 May

Step 1 towards “goin’ a rollin’ around North America” after retirement was buying the motorhome.  That was accomplished in May 2010.  Here we are a year later, and step 2 is also accomplished.

The earliest Mui can retire is December 2012, so we really weren’t planning on selling our townhouse this early.  Our plans changed when we went for a neighborhood walk one Sunday morning in late March.  Nothing unusual about that; it’s something we do frequently for exercise.  Except that this time we deviated from our usual path and found ourselves at the site of a brand new subdivision going up not far from us.  Hmmm!

Construction was still in the start-up phase, but the way buildings go up like Lego toys these days, it wouldn’t be long before the market was flooded with new builds.  So, we called the real estate agent who helped us sell our previous townhouse seven years ago.  When we determined that there were no other properties even remotely like ours on the market, we decided to test the waters, so to speak, and put the townhouse up for sale.  That was on 30 March.

Fast forward to April 22.  On the last day of our vacation in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, our agent called to tell us that we had an offer on our townhouse.  We countered.  The buyer countered back.  The second offer was acceptable to us, so we signed the amended contract.  We don’t usually travel with our scanner, but we had brought it along with us this time — a premonition perhaps!  Thirty minutes later, the paperwork was on its way to our agent.  Ain’t technology great!

Pleased with how things had worked out, we celebrated the impending sale.  No, not with a bottle of bubbly; but with something even better …

All of the inspections are complete; the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted.  Closing is scheduled for 31 May.  In the meantime, we’ve rented a duplex condo not far from where the townhouse is and we’ve started taking small stuff there already.  The heavy furnishings for the condo are tagged; movers are scheduled for 20 May.

Weeding down to fit into 1,500 sq ft (139 sq m) from nearly 3,000 sq ft (279 sq m) is progressing smoothly.  We’ve sold stuff on Craigslist; donated a bunch of things to charity; thrown out a whole lot of stuff that served us well, but which we no longer need; and set aside a pile of things that have sentimental value to go into storage.  Even as I’m writing this post, an estate sales guy is downstairs packing a bunch of knick knacks we no longer want.  You know the saying — one person’s trash …   Yup; things are on a roll!

Now you know why my “in the spotlight” series for our OBX trip has been derailed.  I’ll eventually get back on track.  Until then, I’ll leave you with something sweet …

No, you’re not seeing things.  In the midst of the controlled chaos of the sale and the move, Mui somehow managed to find time to make strawberry jam.  Twelve jars of it to be precise.  Crazy?  Perhaps; but it’s because he does things like this that he’s the chef in our household and not me.

X-Stitch: Patchwork Pillow

Most of my cross stitch projects hang on the walls around the house. On occasion, however, I’ve made baby bibs, birth and wedding announcements, fingertip and kitchen towels, tablecloths, and even throw pillows. Most of those were gifts that I’ve long since given away and I don’t have pictures of them — except for this one pillow, which I kept.

The loveseat, currently in the master bedroom, is one of the items we’ll be selling as we downsize for retirement; I’ll have to find someplace else to put the pillow.