• 26Jun

  Odds and Ends

  packing the house 3 Comments

  When you are reducing your worldly possessions from a big house to what will fit in the minivan, a lot of odds and ends come up that you wouldn’t face in a normal move….

  • I have been packing books. Should I keep a dictionary? Or will the computer be enough?
  • What should I do with my grandmother’s binder of typed poetry? It is awful but it is hers!
  • What should I do with my favorite heavy turtleneck sweater that I knitted for myself? How about the socks I knitted, also?
  • How do I feel about imposing on people for help with things like our car license, which must have a street address associated with it?
  • I am going to need to sell or give away the middle seats to the van. Isn’t that strange?

  We have been letting all of our subscriptions lapse, and have changed all of our banking to “online statements only.” It is very strange to go to the post office and have one little old piece of mail. We are going to use Earth Class Mail for most everything except the car license.

  Every time I take a roll of paper towels or something like that out of the cupboard I realize that I won’t be buying them again in a large quantity….we just won’t be here long enough!

  I am going through the cupboards and getting rid of all the food items that are old or that we won’t eat in the next two months. I had better make some lentil soup this week, and sometime soon, lasagna.

  The van always has at least a couple of boxes for Goodwill in back. Last time I went I attempted to give two boxes of hangars - mostly the clear ones that came from the department store when we bought something. And guess what? Goodwill won’t accept them. They’ll only take the all white plastic ones. So, I guess a huge garbage bag of hangars is going to the dump.

  They are finally about to make an offer to someone to take over Paul’s job at work. About time! He likes the guy and we are hopeful that they will actually have some time to transition. Paul has been taking Friday off each week, and is counting the work days until August 3. (21!)

• 25Jun

  Here are a couple books to read…

  books 6 Comments

  Mexico: The Trick is Living Here by Julia Taylor is an e-book available for sale at her website. I believe I had Googled “retire Mexico” or something when I ran across her site. I bought the book and have been enjoying it for the last couple of days…even though I am not too keen on reading books on the computer.

  She gives a lot of factual and anecdotal information. As a former resident of the Pacific Northwest, I feel a kinship to her…and I love her writing style, too. She and her husband Luis live in Cuernavaca.

  
  Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario is a pretty strong and upsetting look at a boy’s journey from Honduras to the US - travelling on top of trains as he pursues his dream of being reunited with his mother. His mother left him in Honduras with relatives when he was five years old to go to the US in order to be able to support her family.

  The descriptions of poverty in Honduras and Mexico are upsetting - people having one inadequate meal a day, teachers keeping the children’s shoes at school so their parents don’t sell them for food, and story after story of parents making the dangerous journey to the US in an attempt to provide a better life for their children. Those children, however, generally are resentful and feel rejected.

  The story also describes many heroic people who help the migrants along the way. The author describes many examples of the generosity of the people near the train lines in the State of Veracruz - who even though they also live in poverty will run out to the trains as they pass and throw food and clothing up to the migrants riding on top. I’m sure this generosity was the difference between life and death to some.

  
  Gardening in the Tropics by Holttum and Enoch is a book that was recommended to me by LaGringa in Honduras. It is about gardening in Malaysia. I bothered LaGringa for a request for a couple of gardening books I could purchase before I moved to Mexico. I thought other tropical gardeners might be interested, too. Click the picture above to go to the book on Amazon.

  Plants for Tropical Landscapes by Rauch is the second book LaGringa recommended. It is from Hawaii, and while it doesn’t give a lot of information about each plant, there are lots of pictures that come in handy when you take it with you to the nursery. These two books will be coming with us to Mexico soon! Thanks, LaGringa!

• 24Jun

  Yahoo!

  our new life, packing the house, worries 5 Comments

  Our big news is that the Buyers have removed their inspection condition - we have to do a few things but we have agreement and there are no further conditions or contingencies. So, the house is sold!

  Now I can really get going packing things up. This will be fun!

  The deal has to close on or before September 1, so we know we will be in Mazatlan sometime around the middle of September. The hottest month of the year….which is kind of crazy but that’s the kind of nuts we are.

• 19Jun

  The inspection is over…..

  our new life, packing the house 2 Comments

  The buyers of our place here in Washington had their inspection yesterday. I was a nervous wreck running around here trying to make the place perfect! Of course that is an impossible task, but I feel it went very well.

  I was surprised to come home after their inspection and find a copy of their inspector’s findings on our kitchen table. I called our realtor and he called their realtor to discover that they inadvertently left it behind. So I was able to put my mind at ease and realize that there was nothing too awful in his inspection.

  We’re now waiting for the buyers to send something to us detailing what they would like done in order to remove the inspection condition. They have until the 25th to do so.

  I have to wait until then to start really packing here since there is the possibility they could walk away and we would have to start marketing the place again. I really don’t think that will happen since they have already agreed to purchase a lot of our furnishings and tools. I think they are really excited about the place, so I am working on remaining positive and packing and disposing of what we can right now.

  I read blogs every day where people report that they sold and moved to Mexico in just a couple of months…..and I am impressed since I can’t imagine being able to do it in such a short amount of time.

  It’s a sunny day today - this afternoon I am going to head outside to the hammock to watch the birds and the clouds and dream of Mazatlan.

• 12Jun

  Cross your fingers for us…..

  our new life, worries 2 Comments

  

  After a lot of negotiating, our house is sold!

  I guess I should qualify that since they still need to do the inspection, and if something comes up that we can’t negotiate through, the deal could possibly flip.

  But we are cautiously optimistic….and are anxious to be through this condition period so that we can get started packing and selling. Until we know for sure about the inspection we want to keep the house looking nicely staged in case it has to go back on the market.

  The deal has a closing date of September 1 or sooner…which should work out pretty well with the timing for our house in Mazatlan.

  It’s been a long process, but I feel us getting closer and closer to realizing our Mexican dream!

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