Counting down the days

Oh! The past few weeks have been busy! (I haven’t had time for so many of my online habits, like visiting all of the blogs I generally frequent daily.)

First of all, buying the new house is just one email, phone call, amended agreement, proposal and counter proposal after another. There are deadlines every day for which stuff must be done. I am glad our real estate agent in Santa Fe keeps us up to date on what comes next. I just don’t remember all this paperwork and deadlines when we bought our previous houses in Texas, Michigan and Kansas.

Then there is our house here in the Midwest, which still requires so much work to be done before we are ready to put it on the market. We are aiming for mid-April. Things are starting to look really good as far as the remodeling. The kitchen is coming together and really looks awesome. What concerns me is the garage full of stuff that needs to get tossed out (<---- my solution) or sorted through.

While John is working on the remodeling, I am cleaning and cleaning and cleaning so this house is spotless when we put it up for sale. And I am still finding things to get rid of to lighten our load when we pack up to head west.

A radon test (two of them actually) turned up elevated radon gas levels in the new house and the sellers have agreed to pay for the remediation. That will occur after closing.

Next thing on the schedule: closing on the house on April 11, which will mean another trip to Santa Fe to do a walk through of the house, sign the closing papers ….. And finally finally finally GET OUR KEYS TO THE HOUSE!!!!!

I keep telling myself throughout my busy days here: “This is really happening!!!!”

(Edit: Just noticed that in the picture above, you can see the backside of me taking off my boots to enter the house..)

The new year and our new adventure

WOW. It’s the new year! It’s 2008!!!

2008 is the year that we expect to change our lives.

My husband will retire in 2008, we will put our house here in the Midwest up for sale, we will buy a house in New Mexico and we will move to Santa Fe.

What I am hoping for is not a year of stress, but a year of anticipation and excitement and fun as our adventure takes place. Our dream comes true in 2008.

Here is the status of our hunt for the perfect house for us: In October 2007, we looked at 14 houses in Eldorado at Santa Fe, New Mexico. We narrowed our search down to about 6 houses we really liked, never dreaming months later any of them would still be for sale.

As of yesterday when I checked, five of the houses are still listed for sale. One has been removed from the market. The price of four of them has been lowered. Several new listings look interesting, so it looks like we will still have a good number to choose from...all of which have the main features we are looking for.

Our house-hunting trip to New Mexico will be in just a couple of months. I’m ready! I’m so ready to get on with it!

In my kitchen on a shelf I have a small covered wagon which I bought some years ago. On its side it says “Santa Fe or Bust”, and it has been a talisman for me, the symbol of our big move west.

And now it is happening. It’s 2008 and it is finally happening!

The plan and the other plan

We always had two plans.

Plan A was to buy some property, design our dream house, and when retirement approached, have the house built on our lot. We did everything right, I think. We bought one of the building lots in Eldorado with the best views. That land is all paid for, and the value has increased six- or sevenfold in the past 15 years.

With the direction of a wonderful architect in Albuquerque, we designed the house of our dreams, down to the very smallest detail. It was designed with our lot and the views in mind….and everything we agreed we wanted in a home. We did an awesome job, I believe!

Then came the ugly part: finding someone to build the house. We met several good builders in the fall/winter of 2006, and inspected many of the homes they were building. A third builder was recommended to us by a realtor in Santa Fe. We were impressed with him, too. The bids submitted by all three were WAY over the top of our budget that we are willing to pay. Discussions with all of them about finding ways to cut our costs proved to be unsuccessful.

So…we are left with a perfect lot, a perfect house plan, and no one to build the house within our budget. We are unwilling and unable to go over the price we can afford.

Plan B has been there all along: sell the lot we own, make a really nice profit on it, and give up the idea of the dream house. Then look for an existing house on the market within our price range, with the square feet and the features we want. We check the Santa Fe real estate websites regularly, and are finding a nice variety of homes in our range that we like and might be acceptable to us.

It is beginning to look more and more like Plan B is going to be it. It comes with a lot of disappointment about giving up our perfect lot and our perfect house plan, but we are finding it necessary to be realists about this.

Stay tuned…