Week 3: Not the house for us but another will be

Being even more intentional than usual in my daily life while continuing to appreciate the present.

MOVING?

On Tuesday Hubby examined the house of interest with our son and realtor while I joined in via Facetime or phone depending on how well the connection worked. Bottom line? Half the living space was in the basement and Hubby said the stairs felt unsafe for an early 70 year old couple especially since the laundry, garage and lots of living space were down there. 

He went to an open house for another one while he was there and it was too small for us. We have learned a lot from this first excursion into the market and we have another house that interests us. They are starting to come on the market regularly. I remember how many houses we looked at and how many months it took to find one before buying our all time favorite 35 years ago!

I contacted each bank/investment co where we have our money and found out what we would need to do to wire transfer money to escrow when we do buy a house. We started researching local realtors for selling our current home, but won't contact them until we have a new home. Here it is easier to sell your home if you have moved out and that is certainly easier than keeping is spotless all the time and leaving with the pup on short notice for someone to view it!

FAMILY (including the pup):

We agreed quickly to have our granddaughter visit for a week during the summer. Of course that will look different if we do manage to move by then.

Our local DIL's parents are visiting and staying at their home for a month during the worst of Michigan winter. They all came out to have lunch at our local brewery, go to the coast to sightsee, and then back to see the delighted and excited pup. This son and DIL are off now for a month in Thailand with friends and then 3 months in Portugal (thanks to a home exchange). We joked that if we move while they are gone we will give them the new address!

The pup is showing more and more signs of maturing in terms of behavior now that he is almost one. He puts himself to bed in his crate and accepts staying in it when we have to leave him home. He is figuring out how to tell us when he needs to go outside, etc. And he is learning to better calm and entertain himself instead of demanding attention when we can’t or won’t give it to him. 

Once we get through his neutering and recovery in late February I think for the most part he should be a well behaved adult dog though still hi energy and very social as his breed is. He’s a sweetie and we are glad we chose him although he is adding an extra set of requirements to our house hunting!

HEALTH: 

My private Pilates sessions are a strenuous 55 minutes and I seem to only sleep for 4 hours the night after before waking for the day. I am getting stronger though and my leg and ankle strength are more balanced. I have learned though how much weaker my left arm is and the arm muscles that are strong vs not depending on the type of motion. I've decided to limit the sessions to one a week for now.

HOME: 

The new second bath shower faucet works great and the small hole in the wall is repaired and ready to paint with pain we already have.

Decluttering and upgrading: Just the easy stuff for now - don't use, too many, not in good shape - and more when we pack to move.

The kitchen and laundry room are finished for now. I’m enjoying the less cluttered and rearranged kitchen space despite having to remember how I rearranged it! After following a lot of British bloggers, I also decided to get an electric kettle instead of our stovetop one. We'll see how that works out.

This week - 2 out & 1 upgraded; Total YTD - 47items decluttered and 11 replaced with upgrades