The Move.
We sold the house in a week! Truly – we thought it might not sell. If it didn’t, it would be business as usual. But it did. So now we had to pack and get out. We had nearly 60 days until closing, but we had a lot to do. Ben had to deal with logistics of closing his office, continuing with clients and unfortunately letting go of employees. I had to speak with my principal and go through all the what if’s. (I have to say that I dreaded that conversation, but he was amazingly understanding and we laughed a lot). My children had to tell their teachers and friends. Again, everyone seemed excited for us.
Then the bottom fell out, the sale of our house fell through. We were devastated. We had already put a deposit on the RV, had the hard conversations (I was on my last week of work) and started selling furniture. Just the week before we traded in Ben’s truck for one that could pull our new home, and now we had a new car payment. My thought process is that things happen the way they are supposed to and even if we are not always where we want to be, we are always where we are supposed to be. That held true. Two days after our initial offer fell through, the true buyers put in an offer on our home. It was meant to be!
So now, we had 30 days to get out! I literally sold 80% of our belongings on Facebook MarketPlace. It is a great tool – but after becoming addicted to my phone for a month, I never want to use it again. Moving four people, 1 cat and 1 dog from a 3000 square foot house to less than 300 square feet of living space in 30 days is something only an insane person would do. My children and I have slight hoarding tendencies. But, it seemed that we were all willing to let go. We purged so much stuff – it’s amazing to see how much you accumulate over time. Five years in a house allows for a huge hoarding stash of little stuffed animals, clothes and useless items. Some we stored, some we would take with us, much was sold or given away. We sold my car, we sold the boat, we sold all the toys, but we stored the Jeep.
Then it was there – the day before we would leave. Ben was wonderful, he kept telling me how great I had done in downsizing. I, on the other hand, was freaking out. There was no way to pack the rest of what we had for storage and load the RV before closing the next day at 9 am. We worked in a frenzy and by 3 am we were just throwing things into the RV to get them out of the house. That was the first night we slept in the RV, so Chessie (so named after our wonderful bay) was officially our new home and earned her first sticker.
Everything, looking back is a blur. The morning came and we had to push our stuff aside to close up the camper. We closed on our house and not a tear was shed. The new owners were so happy to have the place we called home and we were so happy to start a new chapter. Moving on was easy. Ben was a rockstar driving us out of Maryland and into our first campsite in Williamsburg, VA. We all sat in amazement as our cat and dog cuddled with our children in the backseat of the truck and eased into traveling full time. Again, all was right with the world.
Then things went sideways again. Williamsburg brought a weekend of nice weather. We realized how friendly and helpful other RV owners are. We had to de-winterize and set up the camper for the first time, lots of little things went wrong, but the biggest problem was that our floor and furniture were covered with belongings that needed to be organized. While the north was getting bombarded with snow storms, we were getting hit with near freezing temps and rain. I spent the entire week (minus 2 outings) organizing the RV. Filled several trash bags for donation and more boxes to store at my in-laws. My OCD was in overdrive and I couldn’t send the kids outside to play. Ben was trying to work and we were all trying to adjust to our new living arrangements. Christmas was coming and we were getting ready to head back north and tell Ben’s parents we were moving in.
But, we took some deep breaths. We reflected. The RV was organized, our adventure had begun, we could do this. And we were right. A break for Christmas was what we needed. It was wonderful to see some family. By the end of the trip, we were ready to get back to our own beds in our tiny tin can home and head south. So that’s just what we did.
Here is where I need to say thank you. Thank you to the family that took furniture and plants and dishes off of our hands. Thank you to the family that helped move everything and to the family that is currently storing our junk. Thank you to the friends, neighbors and colleagues that made meals, and wine, and gave us send offs. Thank you to our community for supporting us and letting our RV sit in the driveway for 3 weeks without complaint. We do not miss our house, but we do miss you.
