On to Phase THREE of the BIG MOVE!

Well, hello...yes we are still working on THE BIG MOVE!

Phase One was de-cluttering and getting the house on the market. I worked like a team of equally yoked oxen to de-clutter all the closets and the craft studio! My husband worked all the hours of the day to do small repairs, including painting ALL FOUR bathrooms! Since we are downsizing, he has sold a lot of our extra stuff on Facebook Marketplace!Phase Two was selling the house and finding a new house. That went by so fast I have whiplash! As I said last post, we put the house on the market on a Friday and had a contract by Sunday evening! We quickly offered on a lovely home, but after about 10 days the sellers backed out! We had to go back to searching...with a ticking escrow clock!

We closed escrow on the Oceanside house and praise God we negotiated a "rent back" with the new owners! We need the extra time to close on a new home!

Which puts us at Phase Three - Buying a new home!We placed an offer on this cute, single story house in Menifee, CA and we will close escrow on it in less than a week! We are very excited to downsize our living space since we will be empty nesters in a matter of days! 

You read that correctly! Our youngest son, who has been living with us while he goes to a local university (very local with COVID), is moving out! He won't graduate until December, but he has been offered a job which will allow for him to work full time while finishing his degree! He plans to move closer to the office location which is in Santa Ana, CA. The position begins in a few weeks so the pressure is on for him to find an apartment to rent!

If you have been following this saga at all...you know we just helped our oldest son move into his new home in June (he is in El Cajon, CA), plus our big move from Oceanside to Menifee is a huge bag of stress, then adding on the youngest son's move to Santa Ana area is just...icing on the moving cake! (I counted, and this is my 14th move since I left home for college! I am a professional now!)We are really happy to be starting this new stage of life, but it is a lot earlier in the timeline that we thought! We had decided to stay in our large home until Matt retires in about 10 years. But, the housing market exploded in our area and we were able to sell the big house at top dollar (as they say on HGTV). 

We are not totally happy to leave the coast to move inland where it is so very, very, very hot! But, this is the view we will have from the back patio! We plan to add a pool to that grassy area as soon as possible! There can never be anyone building behind us due to easements and zoning. (Well, never is a long time...)

Our new community is near a lake, which is walking distance or biking distance (or with the heat, driving distance). This is the clubhouse and pool area for the community. We will have lake access to enjoy paddle boats and catch-and-release fishing, plus a walking path goes all the way around the lake! My husband is excited about the lap pool. We still plan to add our own, small pool for private cooling times! {smile}

I have the Oceanside house mostly packed. This is most of the craft studio, stashed in one of the empty bedrooms! So, craft world is put away for now...

I confess, I did unbox some of my coloring supplies! I was going a bit bonkers with not having anything artsy to do these past weeks! I cannot wait to get settled and get my new studio all set up!

Phase Four will be moving and getting settled! (I sincerely hope there are only four phases!)  We are replacing some carpet at the new house, and maybe painting a few rooms. We are so happy we have the "rent back" at our Oceanside home which gives us a chance to do a few things at the new house before the actual move.

I will document the studio transformation for you! I currently have a 21' x 17' space with access to a large walk-in closet. Plus I have "borrowed" the closets in the empty bedrooms! I will be downsizing quite a bit!

The new studio space is a smaller room, 13' x 11' with a small, reach-in closet. We plan to replace the carpet with Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) which we hope will stand up to the craft mess! Plus, I am considering a build-out in the closet rather than using it as a closet. I will also have use of a smaller closet in the hall for "overflow" storage! 

I will be purchasing all new storage, shelving, and desks for the new space. I am preparing to create my dream studio, all within a modest budget, of course! And I will take you with me as we go along!

I hope by next spring we have a pool instead of a trampoline! Actually, I hope the trampoline is gone by next week! {grin}

Stay tuned for more updates! With a lot of hard work I could have the new studio up and running before Halloween! 

Edited to add: as I sat here typing up this post, a beautiful ocean breeze was coming in the windows. I cannot lie, I am going to really miss the weather and climate here on the coast! Everyone keeps asking us WHY we are moving to the (extremely hot) hinterlands! Well, in a nutshell, cost and availability of housing. Once we decided to stay in CA in order to be close to the kids, we had to make some serious compromises. The ocean breeze was one such compromise. {sad face}