Selling and Moving

US Journal

September 22, 2013

Closed and Moved

Wow! Selling a house and moving is a fascinating experience!

First, we listed our house with the same realtor who sold it to me 17 years ago! Cathy sold 4 houses on that same day, and 3 of us were buying each other’s houses. We even shared moving vans after the closing!

Cathy’s great, and she knows this area very well. She was on vacation the first week we had it listed, but it didn’t seem to matter much. Her associate walked us through the listing process, and by the time Cathy returned home 4 days later, we had a contract! Sounded too good to be true? It was! Two weeks later the deal fell through…financing didn’t go through for the buyer, but 4 days after that we had another contract. This one has proceeded smoothly, and Friday was the closing. Today, the movers came at 7AM, and were finished at 11! They had told us it would be 1pm, so we were very pleased.

Now, I’m sitting on the empty dining room floor in the empty house I sold, waiting for Plumber 911 to show up! Eek! When the last item…the refrigerator…was being disconnected, the T Valve (Don’t ask me!) was stripped, and we couldn’t turn off the water to the refrigerator. This means that the hose is disconnected, but the water is still on. The movers jury rigged the hose finally, and it is keeping the water flow down to a minimum. Jason is on his way to our house from Plumber 911 in an hour.

I just talked to the new owner, and she is very pleased that she can go ahead and move some things in early. She’s also pleased that we have arranged to have the plumbing problem fixed before her refrigerator arrives, although we were told it would be no problem at all if they attached a new refrigerator…the problem lies in  not having anything to attach to the hose.

So, after this slight hitch is rectified, we are headed on an adventure that we hope ends in another move… to the townhouse that we chose in Decatur...Oct. 15ish! In the meantime, we will camp out in Peter’s condo for 10 days with our blow up mattresses until his condo contract closes there on September 30. Everything else is in storage. Then, we are hoping to only have 2-3 weeks before the Decatur contract is closed, and we have invitations from lovely friends to camp out at their houses a few days at a time. Sounds like a vacation to me!

We feel blessed to have things going as smoothly as they are. More news and some pictures to come!

Colleen

San Francisco: Adventure in the City

US Journal

Friday, September 6, 2013

Adventure in San Francisco

https://plus.google.com/photos/105096135818321367223/albums/5920662963322571537?authkey=COSJ_MDXmeT9wAE

This morning started our adventure in San Francisco by going into the city.  Cati, Hugo, Harldur and I went to the harbor to see the Fog Bridge…aptly named because every half hour about 10 minutes of fog comes out of sprayers, and the 40-feet foot bridge is enveloped in fog. As 3-yr. old Harldur put it, “The cats can’t go with us because there’s too much fog!” It was quite an experience.

Our wonderful experiences continued as we entered the nearby Exploratorium that held all sorts of wonders of science…a large 5-tiered layers of metal circles that could be submerged in the ocean by pushing a button. That was fascinating, and the next button inside the Exploratorium made a round piece of material twirl around out flat as if it were a woman dancer’s skirt. Another thrill came when Cati sat in a seat about 30 feet away from our seat, and we could whisper to her and she could still hear us. A special color room allowed us to walk inside and we could see images of ourselves in varying color on the far wall. When I waved my arms or legs, it looked like a fan was around my body.  Several other events were equally intriguing, and the last was a magic card trick shown to us by a magician there. It was all great fun., and we determined to return there on my next visit to San Francisco.

We left before we really wanted to, but we had special people meeting us for lunch at the Ferry Building. The children’s long-time nanny Lelli met us there, after not seeing her for too long of a time. Also, Arne came to surprise the boys, and Brandi’s dear friend Sara came to meet all of us. Sara has just moved to San Francisco and is very pleased to get to make new friends nearby. What a very sweet young lady. I look forward to seeing her and meeting her husband and 3 girls the next time I come.

A good time was had by all, and a long afternoon nap and rest proved it!

Thanks for a lovely day, Harldur, Hugo and Cati,

Nonna

San Francisco: Hiking in the Canyon

US Journal

Tuesday, September 2, 2013

Hiking in the Canyon!

https://plus.google.com/photos/105096135818321367223/albums/5919144103049819025?authkey=CKH6icmUstXh4AE

Here is my 18 minutes that I have “free” to write you after 10 days here in San Francisco with Cati and her family.

It has been a whirlwind, with lots of work for me in the children’s daycare centers and everybody except Hugo going through a bout of fever and stomach problems. We’re all well now, and tomorrow I will spend the whole day at Monkey Bird House instead of helping at Puddle Jumpers or Little Village! How are those for great preschool names!!!

Yesterday was a holiday, and Arne was still recouping, so Cati took Hugo, Harldur and me on a hike in the Canyon nearby. We had a great time watching birds, watching dogs, blowing bubbles, climbing on fallen trees and up hills, and actually hiking about the length of a football field in all. It was super, and it was great to get out into the fresh air. I do love the weather here!

OK, my 18 minutes is almost up, and I want to add the pictures, so…more later! I return to ATL Sunday evening, but there’s lots to do here before then!

Love to all!

Colleen