Monday, June 28, 2004
Temporary Sporadic Internet & Other Challenges
Just wanted to post an update for any of my friends or family who may be checking the blog. We are having our internet cut off here at the house on the 30th of June...2 days from now!! Yikes!! It will be my first time without the internet in the house in nearly 8 years!! I may feel 'nekid'!! *lol*
As soon as we get set up at the campground we'll be having a phone line installed since we'll be in one place for several months. I won't have my fast cable connection, but at least I will have a phone modem so I can stay in touch and update my blog.
On to happier news...I've found a home for my two house cats!! Yippee!! I was beginning to panic and be seriously depressed about this as I've been turned down by just about every no-kill shelter in Ohio! One of my friends, Laura, who lives in Michigan said she would take them if I could get them to her! It's about a a 6-hour drive one way, but if it means finding them a good and loving home, then I have no problem with delivering them! I am ecstatic!!
Mark and I have been working diligently on the wood trim in the motorhome. All that is left is the entry door and some decorative trim in the cab section. We should be able to knock that out with one more day of good hard labor. We've also made some inroads into the chaos that is our woodshop. That's going to take more work than either of us imagined, but it's the last biggest job we have left.
Now we just have to figure out HOW to get the things we are taking packed into the storage boxes in the most efficient way and have them ready to store when we get the cap put on the pickup. Some days it seems we feel we have to take all kinds of things and the next day we feel we barely need more than a toothbrush! Condensing two lives into a space as small as our motorhome and truck bed (with an eye to weight considerations) is a challenge!
I love a challenge!
As soon as we get set up at the campground we'll be having a phone line installed since we'll be in one place for several months. I won't have my fast cable connection, but at least I will have a phone modem so I can stay in touch and update my blog.
On to happier news...I've found a home for my two house cats!! Yippee!! I was beginning to panic and be seriously depressed about this as I've been turned down by just about every no-kill shelter in Ohio! One of my friends, Laura, who lives in Michigan said she would take them if I could get them to her! It's about a a 6-hour drive one way, but if it means finding them a good and loving home, then I have no problem with delivering them! I am ecstatic!!
Mark and I have been working diligently on the wood trim in the motorhome. All that is left is the entry door and some decorative trim in the cab section. We should be able to knock that out with one more day of good hard labor. We've also made some inroads into the chaos that is our woodshop. That's going to take more work than either of us imagined, but it's the last biggest job we have left.
Now we just have to figure out HOW to get the things we are taking packed into the storage boxes in the most efficient way and have them ready to store when we get the cap put on the pickup. Some days it seems we feel we have to take all kinds of things and the next day we feel we barely need more than a toothbrush! Condensing two lives into a space as small as our motorhome and truck bed (with an eye to weight considerations) is a challenge!
I love a challenge!
Friday, June 25, 2004
How Time Flies
Only a few weeks left until the auction! July 21st is the revised date for our household auction. Some days I think it can't get here soon enough and other days I'm worried sick that we can never be ready by then!
But we will be ready! Or we'll deal with it as best we can...July 21st it will be! We have the remaining pieces of wood trim cut out; as well as a new laptop table we decided at the last minute to add to the Navigator (Passenger) Seat side of the Cab. We still have to cut out and build the box which will hold our CB and radio as well as our office supplies. But that's the jobs left that we need the woodworking shop to complete. We think we can get them all done this coming week, which will leave the remaining time for clearing junk out of the shop and cleaning up the tools and machinery for the sale.
We have already picked out and paid a deposit on the campsite where we will move when we leave here. Before Mark got called to go back to work, we were planning to try to leave Ohio by the end of August and start our travels early with a trip to Tennessee to visit my family. This plan called for several month-long stops rather than going wherever the spirit took us, but it was necessary because we were planning on traveling on severely limited funds.
Now that Mark is back at work (and hopefully I will be soon), we can stick with our original plan. We will stay in a local campground as long as the work lasts, which should be late autumn. Then we will be able to travel at least until the following May and our resources won't be so seriously limited.
Meanwhile, all we have to do is try to keep our noses to the grindstone in preparing for this sale! This shouldn't be so hard as we are both "chomping at the bit" to get out of here and into our new lifestyle.
But we will be ready! Or we'll deal with it as best we can...July 21st it will be! We have the remaining pieces of wood trim cut out; as well as a new laptop table we decided at the last minute to add to the Navigator (Passenger) Seat side of the Cab. We still have to cut out and build the box which will hold our CB and radio as well as our office supplies. But that's the jobs left that we need the woodworking shop to complete. We think we can get them all done this coming week, which will leave the remaining time for clearing junk out of the shop and cleaning up the tools and machinery for the sale.
We have already picked out and paid a deposit on the campsite where we will move when we leave here. Before Mark got called to go back to work, we were planning to try to leave Ohio by the end of August and start our travels early with a trip to Tennessee to visit my family. This plan called for several month-long stops rather than going wherever the spirit took us, but it was necessary because we were planning on traveling on severely limited funds.
Now that Mark is back at work (and hopefully I will be soon), we can stick with our original plan. We will stay in a local campground as long as the work lasts, which should be late autumn. Then we will be able to travel at least until the following May and our resources won't be so seriously limited.
Meanwhile, all we have to do is try to keep our noses to the grindstone in preparing for this sale! This shouldn't be so hard as we are both "chomping at the bit" to get out of here and into our new lifestyle.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
What A Difference A Day Makes
We've had a wonderful turn of good fortune at a time when we needed it most desperately! Today Mark received a call from the company he worked with last year and they are starting up a new job on Monday. He'll be operating a loader for them and the job should last until it is too cold to dig and lay pipe! Yes!! Yippee!!
For over three years Mark and I have planned on the day we would sell our extraneous belongings and move into the motorhome fulltime. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would both have medical setbacks at the same time which would require us to be off work for several months...and then for bad weather and a poor job market to leave us unemployed for a couple months beyond our normal winter "down time".
But this is exactly what happened to us! We both made it nearly to the end of last year's work season, but Mark was so sick with lung problems (for a while there we were both very worried about his condition!), and I ended up having a complete hysterectomy. We are both much better now, but for a while there it was looking pretty bleak.
But one day has made the difference. We've reached a turn-around point. Mark is going back to work, and I should be getting a call from the Union any day now to go back to work myself. Hopefully, we will both be able to work until early winter and earn enough to replace our lost savings, and buy a few "goodies" we wanted for the motorhome and our travels.
We have already starting planning to have an auction rather than dragging on with yard sales....yard sales will wear you out in a hurry!! So, on July 20th, we will have an auction here and no matter what the outcome financially, we will be well and truly done with all these belongings that just feel like boat anchors to us now. All the proceeds from the auction will go toward replacing our savings.
And less than two weeks after the auction we will be moving the motorhome to a campground as convenient to our jobs as possible. So, all told...we have just 5 weeks until we are free of the house and all the work we've had to do leading up to becoming fulltimers. It's hard to believe that after all the planning, working and waiting we are about to embark on what promises to be a big adventure!
For over three years Mark and I have planned on the day we would sell our extraneous belongings and move into the motorhome fulltime. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would both have medical setbacks at the same time which would require us to be off work for several months...and then for bad weather and a poor job market to leave us unemployed for a couple months beyond our normal winter "down time".
But this is exactly what happened to us! We both made it nearly to the end of last year's work season, but Mark was so sick with lung problems (for a while there we were both very worried about his condition!), and I ended up having a complete hysterectomy. We are both much better now, but for a while there it was looking pretty bleak.
But one day has made the difference. We've reached a turn-around point. Mark is going back to work, and I should be getting a call from the Union any day now to go back to work myself. Hopefully, we will both be able to work until early winter and earn enough to replace our lost savings, and buy a few "goodies" we wanted for the motorhome and our travels.
We have already starting planning to have an auction rather than dragging on with yard sales....yard sales will wear you out in a hurry!! So, on July 20th, we will have an auction here and no matter what the outcome financially, we will be well and truly done with all these belongings that just feel like boat anchors to us now. All the proceeds from the auction will go toward replacing our savings.
And less than two weeks after the auction we will be moving the motorhome to a campground as convenient to our jobs as possible. So, all told...we have just 5 weeks until we are free of the house and all the work we've had to do leading up to becoming fulltimers. It's hard to believe that after all the planning, working and waiting we are about to embark on what promises to be a big adventure!
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Disrobing
Whew!! Getting rid of 4 closets and two dressers full of clothes turned out to be a bigger chore than I thought!! After two days....and a dozen lawn-sized garbage bags...we've done it! We now own 45 pounds of clothing for each of us, not counting coats and work boots, which will be put into Space Bags and stored in the "toad".
It is very liberating to realize we've taken this big step toward getting free of our belongings. Realizing I'd become a person who felt attached to a closet full of dress clothes was disturbing and I feel much better having them out of my life! If I'm going to be attached to anything, I sure as hell hope it ain't silk shirts and high heels! That is not the life I envisioned for myself when I was growing up! I WILL be an intrepid adventurer...damn it!!
At the rate we are moving along, we will be living out of the motorhome while parked at the side of the house long before the July 17th auction! Mark and I are both so excited, we just want to get it all done and be on our way! Even with the stress of all the things we have to get done with the upcoming move into the motorhome, Mark and I are feeling a bit like conspirators with a big secret! We are both excited at this new phase in our lives...our first big move together as a couple. And it's shaping up to be an excellent adventure!
It is very liberating to realize we've taken this big step toward getting free of our belongings. Realizing I'd become a person who felt attached to a closet full of dress clothes was disturbing and I feel much better having them out of my life! If I'm going to be attached to anything, I sure as hell hope it ain't silk shirts and high heels! That is not the life I envisioned for myself when I was growing up! I WILL be an intrepid adventurer...damn it!!
At the rate we are moving along, we will be living out of the motorhome while parked at the side of the house long before the July 17th auction! Mark and I are both so excited, we just want to get it all done and be on our way! Even with the stress of all the things we have to get done with the upcoming move into the motorhome, Mark and I are feeling a bit like conspirators with a big secret! We are both excited at this new phase in our lives...our first big move together as a couple. And it's shaping up to be an excellent adventure!
Friday, June 11, 2004
Hunt & Pack
What a crazy time this is for us! We have an appointment for an Auctioneer to come to the house on Monday morning to look at our stuff. I'm not sure why exactly...perhaps to give us some idea of how much money we can hope to make off the remainder of our belongings...perhaps to tell us all the rest of our stuff is crap and we don't stand a snowball's chance in Hades of making money on it! *g*
Anyway, we have been trying to sort our belongings into piles based on whether they're items to be sold, stored at Mark's parent's house, or carried out to the motorhome and put away. Already I can see that we are going to have to really keep an eye on the weight we are wanting to carry.
We plan to be out of here by the end of July, but we plan to have all our extraneous belongings sold on the auction date, which has been set for July 17th. Only 35 days left until the auction and 51 until we are completely out of the house and into a local campground for a while so we can catch our breath and regroup.
I am so excited I can barely sleep. Our house is a mess of boxes and piles of "things" everywhere! I really hope things go well for us; we could use a run of good luck!
Anyway, we have been trying to sort our belongings into piles based on whether they're items to be sold, stored at Mark's parent's house, or carried out to the motorhome and put away. Already I can see that we are going to have to really keep an eye on the weight we are wanting to carry.
We plan to be out of here by the end of July, but we plan to have all our extraneous belongings sold on the auction date, which has been set for July 17th. Only 35 days left until the auction and 51 until we are completely out of the house and into a local campground for a while so we can catch our breath and regroup.
I am so excited I can barely sleep. Our house is a mess of boxes and piles of "things" everywhere! I really hope things go well for us; we could use a run of good luck!
