Embarking on the Next Chapter. Follow along.
Yeah, this is a thing for me. I am tired of cutting grass and I can’t wait to get into our new house. The HOA that will take care of the lawn work for me.
I fully admit I’m at that point in my life where this is what makes me happy.
Yipee!
Photo Credit: Daniel Watson on Unsplash
It happened so fast. After 2 weeks of crazy updates, de-cluttering, repairs, and general freshening, the open house had arrived. Originally scheduled for Sunday, May 19, our realtor recommended that we move the date forward to Saturday, May 11 — the day before Mother’s Day.
Why? Well there was SO much interest in the house leading up to the open. We were not going to show it to anyone until the day of the open house. That added just a bit more pressure to get everything done in time.
A professional real estate photographer came in, spent all of 20 minutes here and came out with a glorious collection of images. Our house had never looked so good.
Take a look at this gallery of shots. Gorgeous.
Carol and I enjoyed a late morning movie, Avengers: End Game, at the local Movie Tavern, while our realtor held the open house. By the end of the day, we had a firm, full price contract with only a termite inspection required. Perfect. Carol and I signed the agreement at the end of the weekend and we are on our way.
We breathed a sigh of relief. All our hard work had paid off. Now we are able to focus solely on getting packed up to move into the new house.
We spent 12 wonderful years here.
Onward and upward to the next chapter.
We’re doing a thing! This Old House is for sale. Yep! We pulled the trigger, made the leap, ripped off the band-aid. Insert favorite cliche here.
We are leaving small town heaven and heading west. No, not that west, only about 10 miles. But still, we are leaving the Borough of Downingtown, the place we have called home for the last 19 years. Our sons have grown into the fine men they are today courtesy of this town and its wonderful schools and community.
We’ve been able to walk to St. James’ Episcopal church for all those years. Now we’ll have to commute to church on Sunday. Now THAT will be different.
Carol and I have grown very fond of walking a 2.25 miles loop every weekday morning for more than 2 years. We wind our way down Pennsylvania Ave, up Wallace and cut through behind the new Downingtown Library. We wander through Kerr park past the new disc golf course, back across (or under depending on how high the Brandywine is) Pennsylvania Ave up past the Log Cabin to Business 30. We follow that all the way to Rt 113, passing our church, ‘This Old House’, and the boys elementary school – East Ward. We turn north on 113 back to Pennsylvania Ave and follow that back to Dustin Drive where we cut through the St. James’ Place parking lot, waving hello to a number of friends we know by sight there, behind the church and back to ‘This Old House’.
I’ll miss that.
But it’s time. Time for downsizing, minimizing clutter, cutting out stressful distractions, focusing on what is really important. Time to GET RID OF THE LAWNMOWER and SNOWBLOWER!! Can you spell HOA?
It seems we are going to have a grand baby later this year, our first. Carol and I, or should I say, Nana and PopPop, couldn’t be happier for son Taylor and his new wife Abby.
And the good news keeps coming. Our second son, Connor, has proposed to Carley, and she said ‘yes’. A wedding next year will be nice.
So there’s so much more that we want to spend our time on. While This Old House has been a wonderful home for these last years, it’s time to move on.
Goodbye old friend.