Category: Selling Our Stuff

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Selling Our Stuff

Re-Entry

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Imagine running into your ex-boyfriend, while on a date with your husband. Awkward, right? That kind of happened to us, but with houses.  We had planned a later arrival date, but our Realtor called Wednesday evening (well, texted actually) that we had a great offer on the house but they wanted to know by Friday night. We knew we had to at least LOOK at the house before agreeing to sell, so we raced across Nevada with only a quick overnight stop at the Bonneville Raceway. We pulled up to the house in our Airstream Friday before noon and I probably felt more dread than anything else. I knew what was coming. After a quick photo, we parked alongside the house and the kids jumped out of the truck and ran inside.

I walked in a bit more slowly and then proceeded to cry. I couldn’t help it. So many good memories, so much happiness in the house. The kids ran gleefully from room to room excited about seeing everything they had left behind. Cara pulled out every. single. toy. in her room and ran up to me with a huge grin on her face to show me them one by one. They were so happy. Rachel had been asking for days when we’d get back as she could barely contain her excitement. Toys! Friends! The House!

After a quick lunch (more tears from me) the kids ran off to a friend’s house and played their little hearts out. It was Spring Break here, so friends were out of school and readily available. Happiness. Love. Excitement. Joy.

On the other hand, I wandered around in a bit of a daze all afternoon completely overwhelmed by all the stuff we own and need to get rid of. Wow. Why did we even by that? We don’t really NEED it do we? Such conflicted emotions. Do we NOT sell the house? Do we stay? Is this really where we want to raise our family?

It took us until about dinner time to have our hearts and  heads agree that we did really want to sell the house. This is not our path. Ours is a bit more…windy. As much as we have loved living here, love our neighbors, and are happy to have a short stay, we are ready to move on. The kids agree. As happy as they are, they are also excited about the next phase of our life and totally on board with selling everything and moving back in to the Airstream. *whew* The only one that is having a few issues is Cara. She told me the other morning that she wants to sell the Airstream and keep this house, but “move it to a campground”.  🙂

For Sam and I, we remembered why we bought and loved this house, but also why we “broke up” (the ex-boyfriend), and the more we are here the happier we are with the Airstream (aka husband) and our decision. Great metaphor, huh?

So now comes all the work. We’ve known it was coming, but I didn’t really expect to feel so incredibly overwhelmed. We are taking it one day at a time, one room at time. Planning a HUGE yard sale (in about a week and half!) and working on the improvements to the bedroom in the Airstream. Until then, we’ll play, dream, build, and try to get back on the road as soon as possible!

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Categories
Faith Selling Our Stuff

A Fresh Start

Weeks ago while attending church with a friend, there was a table outside the Relief Society room (women’s meeting room) with some extra handouts from weeks past. Many times teachers will give little handouts with quotes, or other reminders of their lessons as a way to encourage us to think about the messages in the upcoming weeks. This particular one was very applicable to our situation, so I asked if I could have one. I now have it in my thought journal and see it weekly.

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There IS something incredibly hopeful about starting over. In January 2014, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf wrote a First Presidency Message titled, “The Best Time to Plant a Tree”. He refers to computer hard drives and how clean and fast a new one is before it gets cluttered and begins to slow. In comparison, our lives can be like that. Not only our spiritual lives, but I believe also our physical lives. We can have so much stuff, so many activities, so many distractions that we forget what is really important. We forget that our family relationships and our relationship with God come first.

Elder Uchtdorf continues, “An old proverb says, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.’ There is something wonderful and hopeful about the word now. There is something empowering about the fact that if we choose to decide now, we can move forward at this very moment. Now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be—not only 20 years from now but also for all eternity.”

How true that is! We have decided that we want to be different. We want to be simple. Focusing on memories and relationships instead of material things. To that end, we are selling 90% of our earthly belongings, including the house so that we can travel more freely. As I look over the house, over everything we have found, bought, made, and acquired over the last 10 years, some of it is hard to let go. But, I just tell myself that there IS something hopeful about a fresh start, and when we settle down it will be exciting, new, and deliberate. I can’t wait.

Categories
Finances & Money Selling Our Stuff

To Sell, or Not to Sell? What to Do With the House?

To Sell or Not to Sell. What to do with the House
Traveling so far we have run into so many families that have sold everything for their life on the road. Whether out of necessity, or to just downsize and live simply, selling the house and everything in it is one way to fund and maintain a life on the road.

Others we have run into rent out their house or simply leave it empty if they know they will be back. Many families are out for a year or so, quitting their jobs, pulling the kids out of school and living on savings. This makes sense to keep the house since their return is inevitable.

Leaving Utah last July we never imagined we’d end up with an Airstream and want a life on the road. As such, we still have a house in Utah we need to go home and deal with. Our home exchange partners have left, so we have friends keeping an eye on it for now, but we can’t ignore the giant hole that our money is draining down.

The problem is, we love the house. Well, maybe we love the idea of our house. It’s our first one. We brought Cara home from the hospital to that house. We put a lot of love, sweat, and tears into turning it into our home. The idea of selling frankly scares me to death. Our kids are adamantly against it and I don’t really blame them. Prior to traveling, a large portion of their identity revolved around where we lived. We live around the corner from our best friends and it would be really hard to give that up. Plus, I just finished sprucing up my office and I love it. Being in there makes me happy.

Being on the road makes me happier. There’s the problem.

As a culture, why is it we become so attached to things? Even thinking of selling our dining room table that we hunted for, or the downstairs couch I agonized over and went to 5 different stores before picking out the perfect one makes me want to break down in puddle of tears. Why is that? We’ve gone over and over it. Its just stuff. Its replaceable. We never wanted to end up in Utah anyway. But why is it so hard?

So there’s our current dilemma. To sell? Or not to sell. We’ve been told the REAL estate market in Utah is great for sellers this year. If we are going to sell, now is the perfect time. And yet, we are all not sure if we can let go. We hope we’ll know when we get back there. Most of our journey so far as been by faith, and I think this will have to be as well.

Just to get nostalgic – I thought I’d share a few photos of our cute house with you. You know, because in another few months it could be on the market.

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