Several years ago when Dave and I chose the date of July 24, 2019 to be fulltimers – we didn’t think the act of selling everything we owned and making the transition would be that difficult. But when you sell your house in 36 hours and need to close in 4 weeks – the timer starts ticking pretty quickly and then it’s OMG we need to get rid of A LOT.
Here’s our story…
About a year before we were going to put the house on the market (spring 2019) we started the purging and some remodeling. Our 1921 CT farmhouse bungalow had a 1980s kitchen that we hated from the day we bought it YET we never remodeled it. We could never decide what we wanted to do with it – from ripping down walls to keeping the same footprint – so we lived in it. Once we decided it wasn’t our forever home, we knew spending 40K on a remodel was stupid. The decision – we needed to re-do the kitchen for the next owner.
First the purge then the demo.
We had our first BIG yard sale the week before Dave and I took our adult kids and their significant others on a grand family adventure to Ireland and Scotland. We sold about 3K worth of stuff and our barn was still FULL. We realized then how much stuff we actually accumulated. Let’s just say, we channeled Marie Kondo and prayed for the best!
While purging we also demo’d the kitchen and removed everything from the first floor of the house so the floors could be refinished. Locked up the barn with all of our unsold “stuff” and headed to Europe – where some beer and Jamesons made us forget about the insanity of selling it all!
Once back state side we finished up the remodel and started looking at new RVs. Our Newmar Baystar 3215 “Newman” as we affectionately called him – had to go. We knew we wanted a smaller coach and after much debate we decided on a Tiffin Wayfarer versus the Leisure Travel Van. Living in CT we don’t have a lot of options for dealers – but did find one in Massachusetts who had some Tiffins so off we went. We immediately liked the coach, but from previous experience we knew we had to head to Florida to buy – because the MA folks simply would not wiggle on MSRP. I’ll talk more about buying new versus used in another post.
We tried selling Newman on our own – with zero hits so we decided to trade him in. We thought we had plenty of time – until we put the house on the market.
We had 2 offers in 36 hours – one 8K above asking price. They wanted to close in 4 weeks.
We said yes.
We had to sell everything so we utilized Facebook Marketplace, had two more yard sales, gave the kids everything and anything they wanted and donated the rest to charities.
We had to drive to Florida – LazyDays near Tampa – and pick up our new Tiffin Wayfarer RW – sight unseen. Yes – we did that. In face we never even saw in real life the model!
We had to Purge. Purge. Purge. And work all at the same time. Oh and I had to plan for Dave’s 50th birthday party – that was go day.
We did save some stuff – art work, pictures, and Dave’s tools. Those are stored in a relative’s basement.
Those 4 weeks were INSANE. I was a zombie. Dave was a zombie.
The closing got pushed off 10 days but the new owners had to close on their house – so we ended up letting them move in early.
We driveway surfed at Dave’s dad’s house, my son Max’s house and even the hunting club where we are members.
On Dave’s 50th birthday – July 24, 2019 – our original Go Day. We closed on the house. Collected our money and the adventure began.