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Sunday, October 9, 2011

Marti's Musings: "Now where is....?"

Ok, we have now been living in a "show ready" house for nearly 4 months.  Being the newbies to this whole selling-a-house and retirement bit, we never considered we would be hanging around this long.

So, having put most of our belongings in storage, and another large amount in the RV for our FT days ahead - well.... you can guess what the frustrations are (besides not having yet sold the house!).

For example,  I finished reading my book this weekend, and where are the rest of my books?  Yup, in the RV.  So, we make a trip over there, and  I pick out 3 books.  Get back home - oh brother - I have read all 3 of them.  So, now I wonder if I gave away the bag of books that I didn't read yet, and kept the ones I did read.  Sheesh.

You can apply the same thing to various other items - Paul has already blogged about the various kitchen utensils we need that are already in the RV, so we had to buy replacements for the house.  Again.   Various cosmetic items, that I figured I wouldn't need for a month or more (replacements etc) are now not where I need them, at home if I am in the RV and in the RV if I am home.  Not to mention: sweatshirts, athletic socks, various T-shirts... on and on and on.  I really don't want to bring stuff BACK from the RV, remember, we have bare minimum here, so it is always neat and uncluttered.

As a result, most of the time we do without, unless we can't.  Nothing like straddling 2 lifestyles, huh?  I sure hope this doesn't sound like complaining - it isn't meant that way.  We are blessed more than we deserve, it is just getting a little interesting trying to figure out this whole limbo thing.  Sure would be nice if we didn't get to be experts at it, though.  LOL! ;c)

Thanks for visiting, and feel free to leave a comment.  ~Marti

22 comments:

  1. I would like to suggest that you switch over to E-books via Kindle or Kindle for PCs - thousands of books at your finger tip - no storage - never being without.
    This would at least solve the book problem. After selling our home 2 weeks ago we moved into a very small apartment for 6 months before we go full time - we have been back to the storage unit 4 times - digging out stuff we should have kept for the apartment! I refuse to buy another thing of something I already have - unless it's another 1/2 gallon of ICE CREAM!!!!

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  2. I know just how you feel ;o(( It is frustrating!! I keep believing we are meant to learn something from this experience.

    We've been in limbo for almost 17 months now and I can't for the life of me figure out the lesson I am suppose to learn!!

    Any idea what that lesson might be?!?!?

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  3. When we had our show room house we lived in the rv in order to keep the house show room ready.

    We were also looking for things that were in the house. Now we're needing warm clothes that are in our storage shed...in another state.

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  4. We did it for 18 months...that was over 7 years ago...it's amazing how much of it has been lost in our memory banks. Especially now when all we have is what is in our rig...LOVE IT!

    Someday this will all be a memory to you as well once you begin living out here and enjoying the open road feeling.

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  5. I like Karen and Al's suggestion--- I think I would start to live in the rig, and just carry a bag into the house kinda like staying at a motel... and be able to scoot out quick and return to the rig if need be.

    Of course that would only work if you could be in a campground nearby rather than storage, as you can't keep your rig in your own driveaway, right?

    (we are lucky, ours is in the driveway so I think we will be able to do that next spring when the house goes on the market)

    *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~\
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

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  6. This is why the only things that are going in the rig at this time are empty bins and containers. When we go at Christmas for 5 or six weeks I will cart a lot of necessities up to the Alfa, but if we get to take a weekend trip, only the bare minimum will go.

    If I need it in the Rv, I will probably need it in the house. So back and forth things will go!

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  7. Definitely check out the kindle app for pc. I am currently reading a great book on my computer. There are thousands of free books as well as more thousands for just a couple of bucks. It's really neat and I didn't think I'd like it. Here's hoping the house sells quickly for you and then you won't have to worry about it.

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  8. Well we sure do know how you feel!! That's why we just stayed in the MH the last time we were at the house for a few days. We too feel like we are stuck living in two worlds. It's frustrating but we have it better than many people. Patience is a virtue.
    Syl

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  9. This all seems to be mirroring me. I have had mine on the market for 3 1/2 mo and just an hour ago I got an offer for 70k less than asking price. I did not go for it. I would rather rent out the place than give it away.

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  10. Heck no ... look at the color Nook. A huge advantage over the Kindle is that you can buy books and read their format from many different shops and not be stuck with just getting them from Amazon. You can also have magazine subscriptions on order, newspapers, PDF files, word documents, photos, videos and the list goes on and on.

    Eventually your time will come and you'll be out there giving support to those that are still trying to sell their house.

    Chin up!

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  11. I had the kindle app for my droid phone before my sis bought my kindle for me as a present. It is awesome. So many books are free. Plus no weight to carry around from multiple books. It is worth the investment.

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  12. Good fortune and some luck have added a third level of difficulty. We put away the Discovery, that we have lived in for the past year and a half, for the winter and are hanging out in our farm house here at Dogpound North, just waiting to move into the LQ trailer for our journey to Dogpound South. So not only is what we need not where we are it is likely not where we think it is either.

    Here's hoping your buyer is just making his/her way towards you as you wait.

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  13. Hey, folks. I actually do own a Kindle, but had so many paperbacks to read that I told myself I would not download on the kindle til I made my way through all the paperbacks I had purchased... I may regret that decision if I kept the books I already read, and got rid of my other books... anyway, - my Kindle is powered up and ready... I may use it sooner rather than later...

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  14. Understand your frustration, at one time we had sailboat, motorhome and house. It was difficult to keep moving stuff back and forth. We were never sure where anything was.

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  15. I hear ya and feel your pain! We are trying the same thing and it is really hard. We do have one advantage and that is the motorhome is in our drive. That helps....

    Have you considered selling raffle tickets for your house? Take the amount you want out of your house and divide by $100.00 and sell the sum's amount of raffle tickets.... keep selling them until you have the proper amount then draw a winner! That is what someone suggested to us.....

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  16. Hate that you might have given away the wrong bag of books but I sure can see how that can happen. After a while your eyes start to cross. Where is X???? I have trouble enough with just the motor home.

    You have obviously struck a nerve here. Limbo is a place none of us likes. And the frustration of being there for months and in Nancy's case over a year.....oh boy. Sadly you have comrades in arms on this one.

    Love the raffle idea! I don't know enough people to hawk them to would be my problem.

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  17. life in limbo is no fun at all..either is living in a house that has to be 'show ready' all the time...the minimal lifestyle sure must make it easy to keep clean though?...we hope you get a buyer sooner than later!!!..the right person is out there they just don't know it yet!!

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  18. Sue's got it right ... being in limbo is no fun. I thought I had it all worked out with having some stuff at the RV all the time, but then we started raiding that stuff to take on non-RV trips or to use at the condo, and now I have no idea what's out there until I get to the Phaeton and realize that whatever I'm looking for is not there in fact.

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  19. It won't end when the house sells. We look all through the RV for something and then try to figure out if it is in storage or we got rid of it. It is all good...

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  20. I never have that problem with books. With my lack of short term memory, I don't even realize that I already read a book until halfway through and then I still don't remember the ending.

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  21. Four years ago, we sold our house in less than two weeks. And just last month I sold my mothers condo in less than six weeks. How? Did it myself without a real estate agent, and put a realistic price on the unit based on market conditions. Given that a real estate commission is give or take 4%, just take that off the price you come up with. It will sell fast, but you can't be greedy about the price. If it doesn't sell in three months or less, you're asking too much money, so it's better to put the right price on it in the first place.

    Just my opinion, but you did say "feel free to leave a comment"! :-)
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  22. I knew I'd never be able to find anything if we split our time between 2 places, so we just moved into Lucy so we could have everything we needed in one place. I feel for you. It's got to be so difficult balancing between the 2. Our fingers are still crossed :)

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