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!