Ending the old and beginning the new

We may not know what we don’t know but after a great deal of thought and research we’re moving along with plans — these first steps feel good, feel right.

We’ve acquired our new home. We picked up the truck last week and this week we settled on a 39′ 5th Wheel RV trailer which is still being prepped. I’ve been researching and reading about RV living, towing and making the transition. There are some very interesting RV blogs as information resources.  Also, when we settled on the trailer the dealer tossed in a “free” book, “All the Stuff you need to know about RVing.” I thought the chances of it being worth reading were pretty slim but it turned out to be wonderful, full of tips and good information for us newbies.

For example, when arriving at an RV site you should hook up in order (1) electricity, (2) fresh water and (3) sewer because your hands will be dry for (1), clean for (2) and can be washed without touching anything else after (3). Common sense useful tips. I’ve a couple of other books I’m reading also.

That new truck is large and in order to get comfortable with its size I’m driving it as much as possible. It sits high and we worried Maggie might have some difficulty jumping into and out of it but those worries were quickly proven groundless — she’s already claimed full ownership of the back seat area and want’s to ride all the time.

When we take possession of the trailer I’m going with truck and trailer to a local closed mall and practice turning and backing in the empty parking lot with the help of a few traffic safety cones. I’ll do this for several days — until it feels natural.

We’ve called a local real estate agent who’s already stopped to see the house. The visit went very well and she seems eager to list it. Before visiting she said maybe next spring would be the best time but now she’s saying we can list anytime…which I take as a positive about the house. She says there’s nothing we need to do to sell it. We know we’ll never get our money back from the renovations we did but we didn’t do them as investments, we did them for our own enjoyment and they will be very attractive to perspective buyers. We are listing the house for sale as of December 1st.

I think we’re going to arrange for an estate tag auction to dispose of most of our household and unneeded personal belongings — of course after our kids get anything they may want, but hey, we don’t deliver! There’s simply not the time or energy to do all the work ourselves with yard sales, second hand shops and CraigsList.

One car was traded in on the truck and the other two will be sold between now and our departure.

It’s going to be tough not taking some things but there’s not room to bring them. I may allow myself a couple of sentimental objects as long as they’re small and not heavy. The clothing we bring will have to be very purposeful. I have a couple of nice leather jackets and while I don’t wear them very often I do love them — they will have to go. ~sigh~

Bonnie’s already given away some of her business dress shoes — giving away her shoes, WOW, that tells you how serious she is!