Progress!

For those that have asked for photos!

Bumps, Bruises, and Bug bites

Despite entering into a sales contract for our house, Anna provided the highlights of our week. On Saturday we visited Reach Road, where we plan to return following our cruise.  After a morning of play and exploring, she said to me, “Mom, this is an excellent place for exploring!” I couldn’t have said it better and she had provided the exact reaction for which we had hoped. With her hair pulled back and wearing her bright red rubber boots, she stomped through mud, dug crystals out of rocks and plunged her hand deep in the water to discover the treasures below.  Her contented smile as she told me she was covered with bumps, bruises and bug bites, was satisfying and thought-provoking.

I thought a lot about my childhood on that long drive back to New York, and also about the boat trip to come. Bumps, bruises and bug bites are part of the journey, without them, you know you probably haven’t maximized the fun.  I’ve always said that the best thing about living in Upstate New York is the lack of mosquitos and yet, here we are anxious to return to the northern New England coast where the mosquitos are large enough to carry off a small child.

Bob and I have had our own share of figurative bumps, bruises and bug bites over the past week, but we too have managed to come out of it with smiles on our faces. Yes, our house is under contract BUT not to the buyer that made the offer I so optimistically blogged about last week. After a verbal agreement to our counter, Buyer No. 1 asked if we would throw in the lawn mower, seeing as how it doesn’t fit in the Lazarette (I think that is name of the storage locker on the boat) we had no problem agreeing to that request. And then we waited. After two very long days, we learned that the buyer was having second thoughts. In addition, we had three additional requests to see the house that I knew would demolish any hope of achieving anything else during the week. I walked for an hour during the showing on Tuesday and had just finished turning all the lights out upon my return, when the buyers drove in the drive way, what a way to be caught off guard!  Wednesday’s buyers also didn’t show at their designated hour, instead calling five hours later asking if they could come right over. I was totally prepared on Thursday and they pulled in the drive ten minutes early, as I was taking out the trash.  Fortunately, the third time was the charm, despite the trash-wielding, crazy lady in the drive way, and an offer came Friday afternoon. We countered Saturday and received a verbal agreement (as long as the non-lazarette-conforming swing set was thrown in.) We then had a major déjà vu as we waited, and waited…and waited for the agreement to come back. Finally, Monday afternoon, the agreement came; after what seemed like 24 years but was, in reality, only 24 hours overdue.

The third highlight of the week was also provided by Anna.  A friend, stock broker and former neighbor enjoys music in his spare time and is typically found at a small pub, the Press Room, in Portsmouth, on Friday afternoons. I had told him about Anna’s interest in guitar and he had invited her to join him sometime. We finally took him up on the offer and after a good warning on the way over that Anna could sometimes be shy, reticent and even distressed about new and overwhelming situations; she proved me completely wrong and joined right in like she did it every week. Anna at the Press Room  Several family members joined us and we all thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment and watched in joy and wonder as Anna played her rehearsed pieces and picked away at songs she has never heard before. Perhaps she was paying attention at all those lessons…

Our trip east was scheduled to achieve several needs related to work, money and moving logistics but we utilized the trip to further our move including bringing a boatload (literally) of hard-to-pack items. This included the wheel barrow, tools, picnic table and bicycles, all packed tightly into the fishing boat. The boat is now resting snugly in Maine, awaiting our return or a lucky day when we have the time to launch and enjoy a day on the water prior to making the official plunge with Midwatch. Speaking of official plunges, discussions here are focusing around whether or not to bring Midwatch north for the second half of the summer. Time will tell.

We have an offer on the house!

I’ve been debating how to develop this blog for a long time and I finally decided that I just had to start and eventually I would reach a point when I was ready to share. I admit I am a bit reticent about posting my writing for all to see, even brief blurbs on Facebook. I am not necessarily a perfectionist but am self-conscious enough about imperfection and I know I have spelling and grammatical shortfalls. But, hey, that is the point of this trip, isn’t it? If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never go.

Our infamous car shopping trip was a year ago this coming weekend. We went car shopping and just couldn’t get excited about spending $25,000 to $30,000 on a new car. As we were test driving a new VW TDI, one of us, I don’t remember which said, “We should just sell both our cars and buy a boat.” The idea stuck. Within a week, Bob was hunting for boats on the internet.

We started reading everything we could get from the library and on the internet. Everything we read said that it was a two to 10 year preparation period for cruising. Finn was not quite two last summer as we began developing our plans and we decided he needed a year or two to mature prior to setting sail. As we continued to read, it became obvious to us that a late fall departure was the best choice for us which gave us a one and a half or two and a half year planning and preparation period. Once the decision was made, two and a half years seemed like an eternity. We knew that a one and a half year turn-around would be very challenging, but hey if you know Bob and I, you know that we have never backed down from a good challenge especially one with such a great reward!

The big task items for setting sail include finding a boat, quitting jobs and selling your house.  My job was already in transition. Hunting for a boat was fun and involved some travel. Bob’s job would be much more of a challenge. Selling the house, hopefully, would not be that difficult.  We knew that the best time to list was early spring so I began searching for a realtor this winter. I met with several and finally selected one.  We were gifted with a late winter and early spring that was unseasonably warm and we managed to paint the porches and tear down the old lean-too all before the official listing date of March 15^th. Both of us were optimistic going in, the house looked great! We had a call within hours of listing and the first showing went well except the family needed more room. We had a second showing within a week and figured we would be out of here by June. Then, NOTHING happened, for a long time.

We have continued to make improvements, redid the milkhouse, installed a new door on my office, moved gobs of stuff to New Hampshire and packed our little sailboat full of yard sale items. We planned the yard sale for Memorial Day and Bob planned to redo the barn sills the following weekend. Brother Tim, made the trip from the North Country to assist. Within a half hour of Tim arriving we had a call for a showing and within four hours, an offer.

We recognize there is a chance of derailment in the coming weeks but the optimism around here has been overflowing.