Change

I believe in change.  That it is inevitable and that if we don’t embrace it and learn to live with it, if not benefit from it, we suffer.  Call it the Taoist in me, know that I have read and even thrown the iChing.  Still, despite my beliefs, change can be hard and painful, even when it is an indication that you are fulfilling your hopes.  Today (yesterday by the time you read this), change happened as we had planned for.  It’s a bit sad, but worth blogging about because of the fond memories it brings and because of the future it affords.  In short, Ann and I are no longer home owners.

As most of you know, we recently sold our house.  A little over a month ago we put our home on the market.  We asked for more than we thought we’d get, and certainly more than we’d originally discussed nearly a year ago.

The house hadn’t been posted for more than a few hours when Korenza, our niece/realtor got the first call.  “Do you guys mind taking off for a bit?  Someone wants to see the house.”  The first offer came later that night.

Also that first afternoon, there were multiple requests for showings for the next day, so I went into town to work, and Ann spent the day running around trying to keep busy.  

We’d had an open house scheduled for Saturday, so Ann and I took off for the day.

By the end of day Saturday, we had 4 offers.  Deciding that 4 was enough to choose from and us wanting our lives back, we considered the offers on Sunday morning and were done.  While we didn’t pick the highest offer, it was above what we asked for.

Korenza treated us to a celebratory bottle of wine and I made a nice Blue Apron salmon dinner for us.

That was a few days before everywhere started locking down due to the corona virus.  Within a week or so, Oregon said no more open houses.  We had timed it right.

Knowing we were going to move, Ann and I took some nice photos for Korenza to use in advertising the house. 

What can I say other than this was home for the past 20 years.  Even when I was away in Iraq or Liberia, I knew this was what I was returning to.  This and, of course, Ann.

It was such a wonderful place to live in and to share with Ann, Hans, Mina, Maxine, the guys and everyone else who shared time with us there.

But it sold quickly and we had a month to move our stuff out.  The buyers knew we might have to adjust the closing date a bit, because we were still awaiting our visas (a blog post that never got written because I was too busy with . . .  this).  That uncertainty did not last long given the visas arrived about a week or so after we had signed the papers.  

We mostly packed ourselves, doing about 90% of the boxing.  We saved only the delicate and awkward stuff for the movers to pack.

Move out happened last week.  I didn’t have the heart to photograph the piles of boxes we had strewn throughout the house.  When the initial packing guy came, he was impressed with how much was done.

Here’s one of the few photos I took as the movers were hauling things away.  

Once they were done (I still have to translate the inventories into Portuguese to get our baggage certificate from the consulate for our household goods) it was time to clean.  I still had stuff in the garage to do, but Ann started on the house.  And on Saturday our housekeepers joined in to get the place ready for the new owners.

Here’s our house as they will see it.

They are first time home buyers, a nice younger couple who had written us a letter as part of their offer.  Korenza told us they stopped by 3 times on the open house day.  And that their realtor had called her Saturday night, and their finance guy called her Sunday morning before we met.  

This is now their home.

I doubt I’ll ever live in a place that I put so much energy into.  I married into the floor plans, but helped pick materials, finishings and the exterior design.  Ann and I did a lot of clean-up during the building of the house, and I installed the rain chain and did the wiring for the built in stereo speakers.

Ann and I personally picked and planted each of the Japanese Maples, except for the small red one in the front yard, a gift from Beijing and Hao Qi.  And I hand built a stone wall along the street and drive way.  During that time I took the photo of Hans that is my home screen on my phone.  I look at him with his head resting on one of the stones every time I pick up my phone.  

Now, it’s time to let go of the place, but not of the memories, and time to look forward.  Because, as the REM song puts it, “And change is what I believe in.”

Anyway, we can’t stop now because we still have a few more things to to do to make our move to Portugal happen!