“Maybe God is telling you not to go.” A comment from a well-meaning friend.
“Maybe God really WANTS us to go and Satan knows how good it can be, so he’s doing all he can to prevent it from ever happening” - our reply
When we decided to sell our house, buy an RV, find a new job and travel the country, we knew it would be difficult. We severely underestimated that level of difficulty.
Stay with us here, the next few weeks are going by fast!
In the weeks before leaving for our adventure, life, in general, felt near impossible. The rough (goal) timeline in Spring 2022 was:
April - put the house on market, purchase RV, Justin finds a job, purchase a Jeep, sell a van, sell a Jetta.
May - sell the house, pack up our whole life
June - kids finished with school, soon after = depart.
In reality, life went more like this:
After Easter, it was time to move fast forward to sell our house. We had successfully sold a house in Lancaster City by ourselves in the past, why not do it again? A multitude of friends helped us prepare our home, take pictures and advertise our house, now it was time to go “live” on the web and in the neighborhood.
Open house - All our hard work the weeks before paid off for a successful open house. Multiple people came through our home and there was a lot of positive feedback. The night after the open house, we went to bed certain that the house was as good as sold in a day or two.
Offers, dying, death… Monday started as a day to return phone calls and emails from interested buyers. By mid-day, that plan shifted. Sarah received a phone call from her mother that her father states “he is dying” (he wasn’t, but I’m sure he felt like it). Sarah’s dad just had major cardiac surgery and the recovery was not smooth. Blood work and pain levels were all over the charts leaving him in the hospital with more questions about when he could go home. Several minutes later, Justin’s mother called stating that his grandmother was about to die and he’d better go say “goodbye” soon. All the while, we’re fielding offers phone calls, lining up showing and talking with potential buyers. Oy.
Queen Bea (our RV) arrived…and was decapitated…that’s another story.
“Pitching change”. We were so burnt out with decision fatigue/overload. With so much stress on top of the “normal” daily function of a family, we recognized we had to make a change in the process of selling our house. We had to make a call to the bullpen for a real pro. Time for the closer. Enter Josh Wood, an elite real estate agent to finish the deal. Honestly, one of the best decisions that we made.
Purchase a Jeep…In Utah. Jeeps are a top-rated vehicle to tow behind an RV. We made a quick decision to purchase a Jeep already set up with a tow package. The only problem was it was in Utah. Our friends were selling their Jeep, and we were confident that they had taken great care of their belongings. Aside, from the distance, it was a perfect situation.
Drop off friends to fly to Utah to pick up the purchased Jeep.
Just days after arriving in Lancaster, the Jeep was broken in to late one night while parked on our street. Police knocked on our door at 1AM to inform us of the break-in. Ultimately, there was no damage or lost property, just an annoying trip to the police station at 2AM. In 12 years living in Lancaster City, we never had more than a book of CDs and a bike stolen from our properties
Also filed under the category of weird things that happened in our final few weeks in Lancaster: As kids got ready for school one morning, there was a woman parked on the step of our front door. Apparently, the elderly woman had a diabetic episode and had to stop on our front porch. That alone is not a cause for concern. A combination of the woman’s attire of trash bags from head to toe, a fluorescent vest, no teeth, and drinking a can of Coco Lopez however did bring forth further questioning. After repeated denial for help, we contacted the paramedics who were very familiar with her, and gave her the additional help she needed. Yet another event that never in our 12 years living in the city occurred before this day.
Modify Queen Bea - To make sure that each of our kids has a bunk in our motor home, we needed to make some modifications, mainly, converting queen bed into bunk beds (Thank you Jessica!) and painting the new bunk bed. Also, an extenstive list of small modifcations like converting a microwave to a cabinet to an open shelf, install a new mattress (Thanks Fred), and new curtains.
Our dear friend Jessica build these bunk beds, fitted into what was once the Queen size bed space and bedroom. We basically flipped where the “master bedroom” is so that each kid could have a bunk that was always set up and then we would sleep in the front of the RV. We’ll do a full here at some point. Modify Jeep - add a third-row seat (Thanks, Uncle Steve) because we can’t put extra kids on the roof rack (thanks for the installation, Dad)
A doe, a deer, oh my! Deer on the loose in the backyards of our neighborhood eventually jumped through the window of our next-door neighbor. Luckily, a giant Terracotta warrior statue stopped it from getting into their house.
Incidentals - Sarah’s multiple dental appointments to remove decaying fillings. Spring middle school concert. Multiple little league games. Girls On the Run practice and race.
It really was a family affair— all the packing and prepping required lots of cooperation from the kids. Death of a clothes dryer. Sure, our house is under the agreement, inspection complete, now the dryer dies. Time to quickly replace before moving.
By the time we closed on our house, we had multiple sleepless nights (due to working out issues and problems and packing, not stress, there was no time to stress), we had an army of friends and family come to our rescue and in God’s provision, we got it all done, on time, without injury.
Wow. What a list. I knew some things, but not the who kit and kaboodle. What perseverance ya'll had. I'm proud of you!
LOVING reading this!! I recently asked Rita how it was going for you guys and she sent me your blog. Safe and fun travels you guys!!