Do You Believe in Fairy Tales? Moving reality!

Have you ever known someone that moved quickly?  Their house was sold for cash, they found a new house in one day and the movers came in, packed for them and took them to a new house.  Does this ever happen or is it just an urban legend floating around out there like smoke in the air?

I love those stories.  It is so much fun to hear a good fairy tale but don't expect me to believe.  I am funny that way.

Condo Memories!

How about the "Karma" stories?  Do you believe that somethings are just meant to be and others not?  Do you roll over when things go badly and shrink in fear of what might happen next?  Bad Karma and change is frightening.  But let me tell you, you can overcome it.  I know.

We are moving.  There is only one more line to be signed before we are totally committed.  And it has not been easy.  A buyer made an offer and then the inspector found that our condo building was not perfect.  They wanted to hold us responsible for the whole 10 building complex.  The buyers representative was even doubtful about writing an ammended offer with the demands.  Thankfully, we had an experienced Realtor working for us.  She didn't even blink.  She just forged ahead.  Write it up! she told the agent.  We responded, worked with the HOA board and resolved the problem.  We are very near to an agreement.  I don't know if it was her tenacity or our unwillingness to roll over and give in to "Karma" but we have managed to over come a big obstacle. This is not a fairy tale move.  This is just plain hard working reality!

We are packing and visualizing this next step in our lives.  We are making the move to overcome the physical obstacles of a condo three stories high.  The move is not a necessity prompted by illness or injury. We did not want to wait until it was.  We are both feeling positive about this new path.   I still walk about in the condo space gazing out at beautiful views and mountains in the distance.  I will miss the lofty space but a change is good. We like to think that this is going to be fun.  We will have a tiny yard and a very light space.   Life is good! We will move in a little over 2 weeks.  This is no fairy tale...this is a true story.

b

How to Move! Tips gathered from experience! +Info Links

We are in the process of packing to move...we hope.  Even though there are a few problems with the sale, the closing is is scheduled for July 22.  Talk about being the pickle in a sandwich...this has got to be it.

So we are putting things in boxes, sorting out and disposing of unused or wanted clothes.  We are trying to simplify our lives and make this move easier. We have moved in cars, farm trucks, pick-up trucks, u-hauls and moving vans.  There has been the dorm room to apartment rental move, apartment rental to small house rental move, small house rental to small house purchase move.  Moves up and moves down only to move back up again!  For most of those moves we have used old stuff from family or bargains I have found.  We have very few valuable things.

There are a few things I have learned as I traveled "around the block of experience."  Just in case:

Moving Van?
Image by Andrew Torris

1. When you hire movers, always buy their insurance.  Your insurance may say they will cover it but we learned the hard way that their exclusions were our problems.  A box of china  was crushed by careless movers and my insurance company would not pay!
2. Check on the movers carefully.  If you are storing items, insurance becomes more important that ever. 
3. Buy a package of boxes ( at Costco) that are sized correctly.  This makes loading a van easier.
4. Don't assume that bedding, towels and clothing are lighter.  Those boxes can be very, very heavy.
5. Mark all boxes carefully.  Note what order you want them taken into the new house.  Some things can be left in boxes for a few days (or until you move again!).
6. If you are moving with your partner or husband try to pack together. Both people should know what is in each box. This can be a stressful time and cooperation really helps.
7. I like to downsize before I move.  I do not want to do any sorting when I move into the new house.
8.  Pack suit cases as though you were going on a trip so you have the necessities on those first days.  
9. Accept that your storage areas and garage is very full of things. Allow room for those things.
10. Remember, when you think you are through packing, you still have a lot to do.  I once forgot how much room our gardening supplies could take up.  What looked like a pickup load turned into much, more.

We are not young and we are eating an elephant just one bite at a time.  The trick is to take it slow and easy.  Gulping does not work.

Just a thought.

b

Moving Day Checklist

How big is your kitchen? Finding happiness in simple things.

Interesting Links:
In this Golden Age of Aging
Elle Decor:  Kitchen Design
The Kitchen:  Margaret Roaches Vibrant Green Kitchen

We are moving (I hope)!  We have lived in a multi-level home for 10 years and we are ready to move to one level and maybe do a tiny bit of gardening.  The house we have chosen that may be ours (if there is a closing and a buying on the same day) is in a 55 and older community of about 20 homes.

The house is designed with plenty of room to move about.  There are double doors into the bedroom and the den. I think the kitchen is big enough for a wheel chair bound person to function.  Now, we are very agile and frisky so we don't need a kitchen designed for a wheel chair and I woke this morning with visions of stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops spinning in my brain.  I was actually visualizing a remodeled space.  I was on a roll.  See, this is why I love Apartment Therapy!  The website always brings me back down to earth.  While there is some kitchen articles on this website that are about those WOW spaces, there is always a good mix of creative people living in small spaces.

This morning I noticed at article called Margaret Roaches Vibrant Green Kitchen.  Margaret lives in an ordinary space, the photos showed a kitchen that was not well lit or glamorous.  But the thing is, Margaret is a gardener...her beauty lies outside her kitchen door.

After reading the article and reflected on the reality of how we live, I came back down to earth.  My kitchen in our new house will be beautiful, not because of the stove or refrigerator, but because we live there.  The food, friends and family will make it shine...no appliance can do that. Thank you Apartment Therapy and The Kitchn.

How big is your kitchen...and would you really be happier if it were bigger, a different color or fancier...really?  Take a look at Small Cool Kitchens 2011 

b

Google Search:  Margaret Roach - home

margaretroach.com/ - Cached

MARGARET ROACH, former editorial director for Martha Stewart, blogs at nationally acclaimed awaytogarden.com, and founded the blog network ...

Learn to be old...be true to yourself!

ME:  Wife, mother, teacher, retiree, blog writer....no more no less!

I submitted an article to the AARP blog editor the other day.  It was very hard to write because I was attempting to be more professional and newspaper like.  It was a terrible article even though I struggled for days to make it perfect.  I was trying to be someone I was not.

First of all, I am 69.  Who I am is pretty much set in stone.  The molding part of my personality happened about 68 years ago.  Oh I try to make a minor improvement here and there and always have.  But, let me tell you, changing a major pattern in my personality is very near impossible.

I had all the information.  I love the research part writing.  I was trying to writing an article that described the unique qualities of an organization called TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) and the online TED Talks program.  I talked about the positive impact of people sharing their knowledge.  I talked about the prestige and intellect of those who attended or presented.  People like Jane Goodall, Aubrey de Gray and Bill Gates were mentioned.  All the key ingredients were there but the thing that was missing was ME...the real me.  My voice could not be heard.

I do believe there is a lesson to be learned here.  In Hamlet William Shakespeare wrote "This above all: to thine own self be true".  I have always thought he had it so right...the rest  "must follow, as the night the day."  That piece of wisdom is as true today as it was when Hamlet was first performed.  As we grow old we need to remember we were gifted with  unique qualities at birth.  There is no subtracting or adding.  We are what we are.  We can learn new skills but any piece of art or writing will reflect what is true.  As Shakespeare would say "Thou canst not then be false to any man." I have decided to rejoice in that!

Just a thought.

b

Note:  I urge you to head on over to the AARP website and read the article about TED (that I did NOT write).  It is wonderful.  AARP, TED and William Shakespeare can teach us a thing or two.

Style, the Mirror and a Pose!

In my minds eye!
Style from Pendleton

I love fashion blogs.  Ari Cohen's Advanced Style has a found a place my heart.  Aging divas from around the world read Ari's post and love his eye for finding stylish older women.  He knows what women of an "advanced age" know.  A girl never feels old until she looks in a mirror.

What I might really be wearing.
Duster from The Tog Shop

Imagine a world without a mirror...suppose at the age of 66 you were denied the use of a reflection of yourself and all you ever saw was what was reflected in the back of your eye.  How would your life be changed?  Would you look in other's people eyes for a reflection of yourself? Maybe you would see yourself in the expression on a child's face or a smile from a passing strainger.

I think we would somehow continue to think of ourselves as younger.  We would wear clothes as though they we hanging on a mature but beautiful woman's body.  Style for us would be what we saw on a woman of a beauty walking down the avenue. We would live as though she lived in our body.

I could never pose like the ladies on Ari's blog.  That bent leg or tilted head is not my style.  Maybe he has a way of making his models feel coy and shy.  I have never been either so it would take a wizard to transform me.

I have a few pictures of myself that are truly the way I see myself...neck slim, hair shining and a clear relaxed smile.  If all the mirrors in the world were gone tomorrow I would live with that image in my minds eye. Life would be good.

b

Related articles

• Style Never Goes Out of Fashion (advancedstyle.blogspot.com)
• To Be or To Be Looked At: Beauty Redefined on Objectification (dontconformtransform.wordpress.com)

Moving On....will the family and our ghost be happy?

In a perfect world it would all go...perfectly!  We would list our home and the buyer would come with cash, no questions and pay to have us moved out.  But we all know that the world is not perfect. At least not where I live.  Of all the things my husband and I have done since we were married 50 years ago, moving has got to be the most difficult.

I remember the first apartment...the one I would still be living in because I did not know how to move.  I was barely 20 years old.   Now we are planning for what I hope is our final move.  The house we have found is perfect and we will not get too old for it.  Our condo is going to a good owner so whatever ghosts that live with us are not throwing a fit....yet.  We have sorted and disposed of most of our junk already so the move should not kill us physically.  Still....

There are things that I just hate to do.

1. Fill out and sign forms
2. Wait
3. Worry
4. Decide
5. Work hard
6. Talk about finances
7. Sort
8. Clean top to bottom
9. Face a deadline
10. Worry (again)

When you are the member of a family, you know that everything you do has an effect on everyone else.  It is true in our case too.  We will move closer to our daughter (is that good?).  Our grandchildren only know us in this place.  Will they mind a new "grandma house"?  Are we being financially wise?  Will the move be a burden to our family?  Will the move kill us!!!!

It will all be fine.  We are very excited to be getting a home that has no stairs.  The house is the same size as our condo but it has a tiny fairy garden in the back and is landscaped front yard.  I will have an office so I can continue to write for you.  We will have a great room layout with no division between the kitchen and living.  I will also have a desk in the kitchen.  We will over look a tiny green space and our neighbors will all be retired.  We will be able to walk across the street to a neighborhood with walking paths.  We are within walking distance of the downtown here in Hillsboro.

It all seems good right now.  The ducks are all falling into a row and, good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we will be moving by July 26th.  YIKES!!!  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

b

Hang onto your hats! Tom's Shoes founder commented on my blog and I sold our Condo!

I'm very sorry...it has been a very busy month, week, day.  I am trying to wrap my mind around what has happened.  It started very simply.  My Granddaughter and Grandson had birthdays.  My son and his family flew in from China.  Then the grandson graduated from high school.  My blog was recognized on Virtual Granny and I received a comment from Brent Mycoskie, founder of Tom's Shoes, for a piece I wrote for Blog Critics. AND to top it all off my house sold today.  Two offers came in within 24 hours and it seems we have sold the condo.

But other than that nothing much has happened.  Sorry to disappoint you.  Life as a retiree can be very slow.  But not today!!!!

The house sale was huge and greatly desired.  My grandson graduating from high school was the best.  Being recognized by Virtual Granny is so important to me.  But a comment from Brent Mycoskie is beyond anything.  Really.  He has done such a wonderful thing by creating a for profit business that supports itself and also provides one pair of shoes for a child that is barefoot for every pair sold to people like you and me.  I am sure that my grandson would hope to do something as meaningful during his lifetime.  I want you to read his comment, go to his website and reflect on what he has done:

Thanks for the mention of TOMS in your blog. Yes, the ATT ad was a driving force in moving the company to a profitable position which has now allowed the launch of a new one-for-one giving vision back to people in under-developed countries. Hopefully, there will be more to follow. ATT continues to be a great partner with TOMS on many fronts. They sponsored a "shoe drop" in September during which the 1 millionth pair of shoes was given. ATT execs traveled with TOMS to Argentina for that milestone event.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/tv-ads-with-a-social-conscience/#comments#ixzz1QXdMfbWQ

So what does a retiree do all day?  She just hangs onto her hat.

Have a wonderful week.

b