22 years in Orinda: NEXT!

Why move? This was not a capricious decision, not at all. The idea of living in the Rocky Mountains was a dream of both Amy and mine since we were young. The idea of having a ski pass, being able to hike at a moments notice, fly fish without making it a vacation trip and just generally enjoy the outdoors was a dream. But California has all of that? Of course it does and if you can find a parking place in the Muir Woods parking lot you can enjoy it with millions of other people too.

It was time for something different, maybe a bit bold, maybe even a bit scary - it was time.

We promised Lily and Paige we would have one more Christmas in Orinda so December 2018 would be our last Christmas in the house where they grew up. It was fun, and memorable, and stressful, and a bit melancholy, but exciting and hopeful nonetheless.

We made it through the holidays, even having an open house where we didn’t announce to our friends and neighbors we were moving. We remained mum about the whole thing, even though a few people knew already.

On December 28 we started to pack the house and move our belongings into the garage for storage so the stagers can prep the house for an open house in early February. We had some sprucing up to do so ALL the furniture had to be removed so we could re-finish the hardwood floors and paint etc. With that big chore done the house was listed. It sold quickly - twice. What a pain in the butt selling your house can be - seriously - not a fun process. I must say that our real estate agent and dear friend, Finola, was a pleasure to work with and a true professional. The staging was silly - poorly conceived but that’s what you do in NorCal. It is seriously a racket run by bad decorators that have convinced real estate agents that generic was what moves homes. The funniest part of this part of the story is that the people that bought the house, saw it with NO furniture at all while the floors were being finished and the old paint was still on the walls - HA! I’m done with this rant.

So the house is sold to a nice couple with two teenaged daughters so that felt really good.

Next is getting California to Montana - moving vans are ordered and the date is on the calendar!

The truck pulls up, it’s loaded and off they go, off we go to meet the truck at our home in Montana on April 4th.