Down to One Home

We decided near the end of 2014 that we would sell our home in Gilbert for a couple of reasons.  First: there had been a few rounds of layoffs at Mike's work and, though he was assured his job was safe for another year, we did not want to be in a position of "having" to sell a home.  Second: we felt we could save money by not having upkeep on two homes.  We had already decided our retirement future would not include two homes, so getting out of our Gilbert home would allow us to focus our time and efforts on one house.

After the deck was built, we began to focus our work on getting the Gilbert house ready to go on the market in March.  We had a number of tasks and activities to complete within a short span of time, but got it all finished and on the market on March 14. By the end of the weekend we had numerous offers from anywhere below our asking price to many thousands over.  We picked one from a family we actually got to meet the same day we made our decision and then the clock started ticking.  Everything went smoothly towards the May closing date until about a week before the close.  The new owners had been misinformed about their ability to get financing and they were unable to qualify for the loan.  They asked us to consider renting to them until they were able to purchase the home in October. We decided we would leave it in God's hands by checking on the people with previous offers and if nothing came through, we would go with the rent to own option. Our realtor put in calls to two of our backup offers and found one who still wanted our house and had met Laurie when he toured the house originally.  Even though he had entered into a contract on another house, he did not like the school district.  Then just before he was contacted by his realtor about our house being available again, he received news that the other house did not appraise for the purchase price.  He was able to back out of that deal and go for ours.  We were able to fast-track the process and closed only two weeks later than originally planned. Although the original buyers were originally very sad that they couldn't buy our house, they later realized that it wouldn't have been the best time for them to purchase a home and so it all worked out in the end.

In the meantime, we had rented an apartment near Mike's work for him to live in during the week.  We moved a number of items he would need while living there and then everything else was moved to the Payson house.  We made a few of our regular weekend trips with as many boxes as would fit in the truck or car to help reduce multiple trips later with a rental truck.  Since the Payson house was already pretty full, we had to get creative with our storage.  We have quite a bit of room in the attic of the workshop, but the opening is narrow and not too many large boxes can fit through.  With the new insulation in the crawlspace, we decided to put down plastic and use it to store plastic totes (we heard it was not a good idea to put cardboard under the house).  To make it easier for Laurie to get into those totes, we removed the boards Matt and Mike put up to cover the openings many years ago to keep animals out.  Mike then reattached them using hinges and hooks as he had with the one door we have been using to access the crawlspace.  Now we have 4 separate openings and the only cost was the hardware.

We can now access the crawlspace from more than just one door

What's behind door #2?

BOXES - mostly decorations or camping stuff

Then the real moving day came and we made one Penske truck trip to Payson with most of the big stuff we were keeping (and some we would get rid of later). We did that trip in one day, packing the truck the day before and then driving up, unloading and returning in the afternoon.  The whole process went well until, near the end of the unloading, Mike fell off the truck onto his back and side.  He missed the ramp while trying to get a better grip on a piece of furniture and down he went.  Originally he felt fine enough to complete the move, but as the days went by, he started having pain that could have been from a bruised or cracked rib.  It took over a month to completely heal.

Now the Payson house was packed with boxes and furniture and it would be Laurie's task to sort through it all and choose which items to keep and which to set aside for a future garage sale.  This should have been accomplished quickly, except Laurie started a new full-time job near the end of May.  Since the clearing process could take longer now, we decided to get a storage unit in Payson to store all the boxes and give us room to move around in the house.  Luckily Mike was on a three-week work trip in Hawaii while all this was going on and, by the time he returned, Laurie had quit her job (due to a difference of opinion with her boss over the legality of deducting certain expenses).  Just when we thought we were set to move forward getting the house arranged, Mike came down with bronchitis and was sick for about a month and Laurie developed a bad infection just as Mike was feeling better.

Even though Mike was not feeling 100%, he still came up to Payson (but he did make a trip to the local Urgent Care while in town). Laurie really needed a washer and dryer since she was in Payson full-time now.  We were able to keep our front loading units from the Gilbert house and had decided to use them in Payson.  In order to fit them best into the area we have for the laundry, we had to stack them so we ordered a stacking kit that is made for our washer and dryer.  We spent the afternoon putting the units together and then into place.  We had to buy a few extra parts to complete the install, but it worked out very well.  We still had the external dryer venting in place that we had installed when our son and daughter-in-law lived in Payson for a few months in 2013, so no extra work was required there.

Our stackable front loaders

Mike also put together the expresso Ikea bookshelf we brought up from Gilbert.  It will be one of two large items we kept that will now be in our den in Payson.  It fits like a glove along the back wall with the closet in our den.  However, Mike thinks having both this and a large desk in this room may be too much.  We will see.

Stats: 6 Home Depot trips; 4 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 2/04/15-6/22/15: $161
Remodeling expense to date: $51,367