T-Minus 150 Days: Inlaw Moving Planned

 With 150 days left before the big move, things are starting to feel real!

My parents live in an in-law apartment attached to the New York house. They are moving to a 55+ community at the end of February. I have the movers all scheduled and paid. I simply called uHaul and told them what I needed. UHaul is provide a 15 foot truck, two guys to load the truck at our house, and then two guys to meet us at the destination to unload it. The cost was $500.

We have a place in Florida reserved for our mid-February trip. That is exciting.

We are also planning out May and June. My youngest is graduating from high school at the end of June, so, we will have a graduation party. We are actually going to combine the graduation party with several other activities. It will also be my wife and my 30th wedding anniversary. And, we want to have a good bye party because it may be a very long time before we see our family and friends again. All three events will be part of one big party. Because of COVID, it will be a physical and zoom party.

We are planning a May and a June garage sale. May will be the first opportunity for a sale due to the New York weather.

In order to be in Florida by July 1, our move date would have to be Monday, June 28. We have tentatively set that date on our calendar. 

We have 150 days left to hit our Marketplace Move Budget goal. We haven't started selling any big stuff yet, so, I'm hoping the big stuff will close the gap. 

I write a lot about purging because purging has become a big part of our life consuming a lot of our spare time (what little spare time we have). I am busy digitizing papers, photos, and video tapes so we might not have to take them with us. My daughter is still going through the dozen of her totes in Tub City to decide what she wants to keep from her childhood and what she wants to get rid of. We have started cleaning out closets and draws in the main house. And in February we will be packing up the in-law apartment for their move. 

I am still doing the technical training in preparation for my Florida job. I had hoped to be 50% done with that by now, but am only 25% due to everything else going on. A recent promotion at work is taking away many cycles that would otherwise be spent on training.

That's the update for today - probably not much different than other recent updates. Rinse, wash, repeat. Eventually it'll either get done or we will run out of time. 

T-Minus 152 Days: Mortgage Update

 Video Link

Update/Correction: The 3 days in the contract was for us to get all the qualification information into KB Mortgage within 3 days of signing the contract. KB Homes needs that to make sure we can really afford the house before they start building it. We don't have to commit to a lender until later in the process.

T-Minus 155 Days: Contract Signed

 Video link: https://youtu.be/tQL7cVBECME

T-Minus 156 Days: Seller's Market

 Latest update on building our Florida home.

Video Link  (3 minutes)

T-Minus 157 days: Purging, Selling, Donating

 Video Link (40 seconds): https://youtu.be/xUcwuICsK1A

T-Minus 163 Days: Purging The Gym (and other updates)

We continue to work in the basement cleaning stuff out. It is amazing how much stuff a basement holds! As we free up space, we bring down items from the other two floors (although, honestly, not that much has come down). 

If you saw the basement tour, you saw what the gym looked like before. And here is it after pictures. Much of the stuff has sold, I fixed the ceiling, did some painting, and rearranged the floor mats. 

I went back through books I had previously purged and found another bag full to donate. We went through my shop and pulled out two or three garbage bags of stuff. Our garbage collectors limit how much garbage they'll take each week, so, we have to stage it to make sure we don't go over the allowable amount. 

My youngest son is in school to be a carpenter. He and I returned to the basement office and did some much needed work on that DIY project. We framed in the basement window, completed the shelfing backboards, and drywalled a portion of the ceiling that didn't get completed when the room was originally constructed.

Marketplace has been busy, slowly chipping away at the pile of stuff we have to sell. We are hoping for a huge yard sale in the spring to get rid of a lot of stuff that won't sell on Marketplace. In the end I believe we will be lining the street with tons of free stuff and trash.

While this is happening, I'm thinking about my Florida Job. I work from home and my job is going to keep the bills paid through November 2021. I would like to find my next job in July. In preparation, I have completed two Scrum certifications and an ITIL certification. I just started a cloud security certification. The training for the cloud certification is not difficult, but it is time consuming (there are many labs) and will probably take 120 hours of technical training. That will eat into my purging time, but, it is all about finding a balance. 

T-Minus 165 Days: Homeless

 I don't have anything against homeless people. There are a million different circumstances that could lead someone to becoming homeless and I don't judge. I donate. I pray. And I don't judge. I just don't want to live next to a homeless encampment.

The purple box is where our home development is. The green box is where the prison is. The red box is the woods that hold a homeless encampment. 

I asked my real estate agent about this and she said the homeless encampments move around and she would look into this one. In the meanwhile, several facebook groups are gathering up supplies to provide to them: food, blankets, and clothes.

 Do I really want a homeless encampment to be just a few miles down the road from my new house?

Our second option was to build on the east side of Grassy Lake. That location might be slightly further away from the prison but is closer to the homeless encampment. 

Perhaps the encampment will move someplace else (further away?) and this won't be an issue for very long.

T-Minus 167 Days: Planning the next 10 weeks

 

We have a plan that takes us right to move day. The following shows the plans for the next ten week:

===GENERAL ACTIVITIES ===

BACKLOG

Find a painter to paint several of our rooms

Find a New York Real estate agent

Real Estate Agent Walk Through to tell us improvements

ALSO

Work with sons to get their driving licenses so they are ready for Florida

Get Movers for Inlaw move in Februrary

UPCOMING

Jan 31 - House Fix-up Consulting and quotes

Feb 13 - Go to Florida for the house building arrangements

Feb 27 - Move Inlaws

March 13 - Reserve tables for Spring rummage sale

March 26 - Finish fixing up the house for sale

March 26 - Finish cleaning out the garage

March 27 - Reserve St Paul for June Grad Party/Anniversary/Going away party

March 31 - Will insurance cover our move?

Then in April... we stage the house and get it listed.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVTIES

Income Taxes

Plan furniture layout in new house

Find doctors, dentists, etc in Florida

Purge Purge Purge

What if we have to rent in NY?

Where will we rent in Florida?

===PURGING AND PACKING TIMELINE===

Prepare the area for move day. (A) Pack it (B) Discard it (C) Keep only what is necessary

BACKLOG

Storage Room

Tub City

Wood Shop

Gym

UPCOMING

Feb 13 - Office closet

Feb 20 - First Floor hallway

Feb 27 - First floor coat closet

March 6 - Bedroom 1 Closet

March 13 - Bedroom 2 Closet

March 27 - Kitchen Closet

ALSO

Pack the inlaw in preparation for the Februrary move

T-Minus 169 Days: February Trip to Florida

 We are planning our February Trip to Florida! We'll be in Florida for three days. During that time, we want to walk the lot where our house will be built, go to the Design Studio to pick out everything for the house, look around the surrounding area, and visit some furniture stores to get ideas for our furniture budget.

We were on the fence about returning to Florida only 3 months after our last trip because COVID is pretty bad in both Florida and New York. Also, the two week quarantine that is required when we return to New York is very harsh. But the timing is right to get off from work, and we found an incredible discount on airline tickets.

My wife has been pouring over AirBNB to find a place for us to rent. The place we rented in November was good but it isn't available for our February dates.

We will be moving to Florida in July but our house won't be ready until sometime in August. Therefore we will need to rent a place for four to eight weeks. This trip will give us a chance to confirm a few short term rental communities we might want to live at during the Summer of 2021. 

We are excited to be making these plans and look forward to our upcoming trip!

T-Minus 170 Days: Going To Prison

 We are very excited to be building a house with KB Homes at the Reserve at Lake Ridge in Minneola. We used Google Maps and looked around the area. There is a winery nearby, a gym, McDonalds, CVS, and many other items in this mostly rural farmland area.

While looking at some areal shots, I noticed a water tower in the distance.

A few weeks passed by and I decided to use Google Earth to check out the water tower and see what was around it. To my shock.... it was a water tower for a prison!

This community is only a mile or two away from a prison! It is the Lake Correctional Institute. 

I was immediately concerned and turned to several Minneola groups on Facebook to ask them about this. Everyone said there was nothing to be concerned about. I even heard from several people who live closer to the prison than I will and they said it was fine - nothing to worry about. I asked my agent about property values and she said it shouldn't be a problem in most cases, but there are always some people who have various preferences that influence their decisions.

My wife and I thought over whether or not we were comfortable being this close to a prison. We weighed what our agent said and all the input from those living in the community and we decided to accept the location. We will continue with the process of building our house at KB's Reserve at Lake Ridge.

T-Minus 173 Days: Almost Ready To Quit Facebook Marketplace

 Facebook Marketplace has turned into a lot of work. I'll often have three to five things selling per day. I'll get anywhere from five to ten contacts per day asking question. I have a lot of people who will negotiate a price and then back out. I have even more people who will agree to do a pickup and then never show up. When they don't show up, I am left trying to contact them multiple times to figure out what is going on. Recently, I have started shipping items, which brings an entirely new dimension. Everyday, I am posting products, updating prices, and renewing products. Few of the items being sold are over $5.

I am busy. I have a full time job and many things going on. Facebook Marketplace is a huge distraction! 

I have sold several hundred items and made thousands of dollars. Because of that, I will keep going. But there are days where I'm ready to just quit!

One such day happened today. Someone agreed to buy a book and was going to arrive in an hour. I spent that hour looking everywhere for that book! It wasn't in the Marketplace Street in Tub City. It wasn't at the Photo Studio. It wasn't at the Marketplace Staging Area. I finally found it in a misplaced tote in Tub City. I spent an hour looking almost everywhere for a $5 book. 

Hopefully it becomes less crazy, but I suspect it won't because we need to ramp up Marketplace selling as we march closer to move day.

T-Minus 174 Days: House Selection Compromises

This video will review 12 of the compromises we have made.

Video Link

T-Minus 176 Days: Tour Of The Basement Purge Project

 Why is it taking so long to purge our basement?

Video Link

T-Minus 177 days: Another Weekend of Purging

 Whether using PODS or a moving truck, moving items to Florida is expensive. The best approach is to only take to Florida what you really need. Under that theme, we had another weekend filled with purging. We have so much trash that we have to stage putting it out for collection because we can only put out a limited amount each week. And our Market Place is huge. Most groups on Marketplace only want you posting 3 to 5 items per day, but, I have so much that I have been breaking the rules and getting kicked out of some of the groups as a result. Best of all: we have emptied many totes and Tub City is getting lighter and lighter.

My wife and I got married almost 30 years ago and you wouldn't believe all the stuff that we kept from that day. Catalogues from dress shopping, catering notes, wedding cards, and more. I took all of the bridal shower and wedding cards and took pictures of them, then uploaded the pictures to our google drive. That allowed us to keep the pictured digitally and then throw away the physical cards. 

I have a room in the basement that used to be my office. It was then taken over by my youngest son, who is studying to be a carpenter, to use the room as a workshop. We have to get the house ready to sell, so, this became our first room to get "Broom Swept Clean."

BEFORE:

JUST STARTED

PART WAY DONE

ALMOST DONE

FINISHED

My wife also went through many of her items from high school and got rid of most of it. Out of sight, out of mind. Those high school items were stored away in Tub City and forgotten about. 

I put some baseball cards on Marketplace. I researched the selling prices on Ebay, and marked them for sale. Within an hour, someone jumped on them and said they wanted them. But the next morning, he said 'they are worth a lot more and I don't feel right ripping you off.' He was lying. They aren't worth more, he just wanted to get out of having to buy them after he committed to. In fact, most people are interested in buying my baseball cards and then turning around and selling them for the price I have listed - thus, they only want to pay half of what I have listed so they can make a profit. That was today's disappointment. So, I'm going to keep them at the price I want, and then lower the price every month until the cards sell. 

I like to hit the After Christmas Sales every year and stock up on new lights for next year's Christmas. If you hit the sales right, you can usually get a box of lights for under a dollar. Instead of untangling old sets of partially working Christmas lights every year, I use brand new ones. As a result, I have a significant stock of new Christmas lights that I sold on Facebook Marketplace for $1 per box. I probably didn't make much money on the sale, but the lights are now out of my house and has freed up two totes.

Most of the weights from the gym are sold too. There is still some gym equipment, but that is going to be a lot harder to get out of the gym and sell because they are big and heavy. 

We continue pushing forward in this monumental chore. We have only 177 days left to get it all done!

T-Minus 178 Days: Facebook Market Place

 I have sold nearly 200 items on Facebook Marketplace using something called a "Porch Pickup". In this video, I explain how the porch pickup works.

Video Link