Way back over the summer, we realized that with the economy and Don's age (soon to be 68), we would be in a heap of trouble with our mortgage payment. We called our local Real Estate agent and asked her about selling our house. She came and looked at our house and said, IF we could sell it, we PROBABLY would have trouble getting an appraisal high enough for someone to get a mortgage on the house. So we said OK but still felt like we wanted to try because we thought we wanted to buy the little house that is behind Matt and Carolyn. So we called her and told her we wanted to list our house but she told us that the "Little House" behind Carolyn(that had been on the market for over 2 years) had sold! that day! God is in the details. We decided to go ahead a list our house and we would look for something else because it would take a while to sell anyway. 7 weeks later, we did sell. We did get an appraisal for the amount of the selling price. We did lose about $100,000 on the house we sold BUT we no longer a strapped to a high mortgage payment. We also found a nice little house that is about half the size of the one we sold, with half the amount of property. If we would have bought the house behind Carolyn, that house is weird and the only thing it had going for it, was that it was behind Carolyn. We are so glad we got the house we did. As of today, we are still waiting to close escrow but we should close ANY day now.
But I will tell you what happened during our BIG move. The sellers of this house agreed to let us rent until our FHA mortgage came through. So we got possession of the house on Dec1. I came over to put shelf paper in the cupboards. Don and his friend were building a chicken coup. When I came in, I turned the heat on because it was 47 degrees inside. But nothing happened. We called the owners and they said the propane tank had been RED flagged and turned off until the leaks under the house could be fixed...they would come out on Friday, Dec. 4 and fix it. when they did come out, they broke a water line to the hot water heater. Saturday, Dec 5, we had our Church friends and our family come they all helped us move. What a mess. We were trying to move a house that is 2150 square feet into a 1144 square feet. We had a 2 car garage plus another 1 car garage...into no real garage...only 2 carports. It was a very cold day but everyone worked really hard. We have so much stuff and I was so humiliated that everyone had to deal with all this stuff. Because the new little house is small....we had already sold 2 couches, 2 TV's with cabinets. We had 2 garage sales and ended up taking 5 loads to the thrift stores. We also, paid a guy $350 to take a huge load to the dump. Needless to say, I was a mess. All I could do was cry. But the day ended and we were IN the new house. When Don was taking his first shower that night in the new house, he was making weird noises..I thought, boy, he is really enjoying his shower....but the reality was..we had no hot water. I said why would you stay in that cold shower...he said.."I was dirty"...not me, I would stay dirty..no cold water for me.
Don and Matt and Carolyn had been training for the California International Marathon for the last 6 months and the timing could not have been worse....but they ran the marathon the next day (Sunday) They all finished, but when we went to pick up Don's car...it was dead...not the battery...something else. We called a tow truck and got Mac Donald's and drove home. Matt and his Dad came over and they lite the pilot light on the hot water heater and fixed that problem. Don did not know how it worked but Matt's Dad did...thanks Paul. We went to bed and I thought, wow...it is really quiet here and dark...little did I know....we had no power and it had snowed about 2 feet. It was 15 degrees outside. We have never seen it that cold here. We found out later...it was the worse snow storm in 20 years here in the Sacramento area. We are about 50 miles east from Sac and about 50 miles west of Tahoe. Record low temps all around. So here we are,in our new house....no power, no food because they did not bring the food over out of the refrigerator. No heat because we need power to run the propane heater. We have a generator, but it was at the other house. So we called our friend and Real Estate agent Patti and asked if she knew someone that could help Don get our generator from our old house. She sent her friend over and they had to carry the generator up the hill to the truck because of the snow. The snow was too deep to drive down where it was. They brought it here and we hooked it up but we still did not have heat, because we need a special cord for the heater....(our new house is a manufactured home and needs different things than a regular "stick" built home). But we had a space heater and warmed up a little. Don and I had gone back on Tuesday to empty the house and I needed to clean. I vacuumed and when I tried to use the water, I noticed...there was no water....I told Don and he walked around the house and saw that the water main had broken,but We called Patti and she said she would get a plumber out ASAP. We did not own that house anymore, so it was not our responsibility. Patti had her brother come and plow the road at our old house, because the U-Haul truck we had rented way back on Saturday..was due to be returned. On Wednesday, our good friends Fred and Rick came back and helped Don get the remaining stuff out of the garage. Patti could not find a plumber because so many people had broken pipes. So Fred...jack of all trades...fixed the broken pipe at the old house and saved Patti or the new people some money. I forgot to mention that we had Satellite Tv problems too..but that got fixed also.
We are doing good now. We have put our stamp on this little house already. We have painted the kitchen and living room and Don is painting his office today. No work for him right now...hopefully, things will pick up or maybe he can get another job. We really like it here. We are up a little in elevation, about 3000 ft. Matt and Carolyn live about 4 miles up the road from us. All our animals have adjusted well to the new property.
This has been really hard.. It was our 13th move in 36 years. Our 12th house to buy. I don't remember having so many problems in the past....but we were a lot younger then. We have learned many lessons from all this. Get rid of stuff. No one needs 28 boxes of Jello or 20 boxes of cake mix. We have things that we have not seen in years. We have worked at getting rid of so much stuff and as I mentioned, took 5 loads to the thrift stores. Good stuff, but not stuff we need. We still have a lot more stuff to go through and get rid of. And we will. It was very hard to go through all the boxes and try the decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Many memories and things that belonged to my Mom. I kept, of course, the memories. I got rid of many boxes of fabric, but still need to work on more. Today, I am going to look for a razor...I need to shave my legs. I know I have at least 1 bag of them if not 2...so I am not going to buy anymore. The hair can grow until I can find them. I will update you when I do....have a great day.
Through all this, I have been reading a book; The Promise, Robert J. Morgan. It is based on Romans 8:28....All things work together for the good to those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. On one of those nights without power or heat, I sat with a flash light reading this book and pondering this scripture. I said to God..REALLY???? He does know best and we have learned from all this..I think...Yes we have. He is in the details of our lives and He did not want us to buy the house behind Carolyn and that is OK because this is a better house. We were not hurt from going through all this...we are healthy and happy with this little house and know that this was a good move for us after all.