Sold - Pending Inspection!

What were we thinking?!  A year or more to find a buyer?  We were wrong!  Did someone say quick?  By Monday morning, we had a cash offer from the first people to see the property.  Our buyers plan to live in the house, the inspection will be next.  We hope that will go smoothly - with the age of the house taken into consideration.  Forty-years is a good long life for a 77 manufactured!

We both feel somewhat under the gun - to find something in Iowa!   Our to-do list is huge!  Butch has his work cut out for him...  Hauling away all the stored piles of stuff  he's accumulated.  We have a new neighbor up the road - working to improve another older property - who's going to come & take a good portion away.

Managing multi-family residential, meant for years we'd been required to live on-site.  As we climbed the management ladder - we had to make the move ourselves - from smaller to larger properties.  We'd purchased a VA repossession in Marysville as an investment property.  (Since an apartment came as part of my employment package, we wanted a place of our own, just in case.)  The income from that investment - we used to buy the Homestead. 

Jentry burning the boxes~

I can't say how much I dislike moving!  I know some do it routinely - but I prefer to stay put!  We'd save our nice moving boxes, using them over & over again.  Once we were done with them this time - we had a celebratory fire!

Now - we're buying boxes!  Unreal!  Watch out what you wish for!

We List the Homestead~

Here we are, listing our Homestead in Western, WA.  Never something we expected to do.  When we moved here - I told Butch I never wanted to ever move again!  Our hopes were so high - we were excited to have found our dream spot.

Over the years, we completed most of the items on our punch list.  Home has been a home we've enjoyed immensely.  Both of us have recognized the changes in the surrounding County - haven't actually been improvements.  At least not as far as accessibility to work, family, recreation etc.  Butch almost spends more time on the freeway commuting - than he does at either work or home.  Worse every year & now escalating beyond anything we could have ever imagined.

From the Cottage~

Then - there's the neighborhood...   If I stop to remember all the tracts of forest that have been cleared since we've lived here...  Now, of the wholesale development going in behind us, up the road & to the south...   I'm overwhelmed with sadness.  Once native environment is gone, it's gone forever...  The projections for future population growth in Snohomish County are unbelievable...

The Cottage~

 We've had some beautiful, if warm evenings this month. I was cleaning in the Cottage as Butch came home Tuesday.  Working in Arlington - so close to home - for the first time in years - has been so nice.  We were sitting on the steps, watching Farah graze when Janelle called to ask if we were ready to list.  Neither of us hesitated - but just answered;  "Do it!"  So it's done - the listing went live today.

Friendly Google~

Today, I read Google is building a new server farm near Council Bluffs.  Inexpensive power is an important consideration.  We know first hand the changes that kind of farm may make in the area.  Employment opportunities for people in the field - but not much help to the local economy.

Google Server farm~

We've contacted our friend & realtor - Janelle.  She has provided us with a workable number - a number good enough to get the ball rolling.  We are hopeful she will instrument the sale of the Homestead - which we expect could take up to a year.  We have contact information for several realtors in IA - we'll start the search now.  Though we both love my hometown - Butch will still need to work - so proximity to Omaha tops our list of must have's!  Glenwood has become a bedroom community to Omaha, boasting a short commute distance.  It's also located in the Loess Hills - a beautiful natural area - hard to find in farming country.

Some Midwest friends from the GreatHorseTrailRidersDistanceDerby - have convinced me I'll have places to ride.  Originally - we were thinking of a small acreage - but they're hard to find.  Farmland is more valuable as farmland.  We're both ready to be done with all the work an acreage entails.  A home with some privacy, either in town, or nearby.  At least a large yard & house with enough room for our things.   A place to call home, where we can re-establish.  Challenging, busy & fun times ahead for us!  We both look forward to learning about a new locale & new state.

Changing Our Stars~

  As the years have gone by & things have changed around us - so too has our attitude toward the property  in Washington - we've called home for so many years.  What would have seemed unthinkable almost 27-years ago - selling our Homestead - is something we're contemplating now.

  To follow through with this possibility - we're working on a plan.  Contacting realtors, crunching numbers & doing the research to see if we should consider a move to the mid-west, where I was born.  The thought of semi-retirement is appealing to us both.

The Hoge Home Place will chronicle the changes as we journey toward the possibility of a new home, in a new place!  Glenwood, Mills County Iowa, is at the top of the list.