I know it's been quite a while since I posted anything. Mainly because our life right now is pretty boring. Not boring to us, mind you, but would be really boring to all of you. Much like last week when I pulled out a vacation photo album to show a friend a few photos (only four pages, that's it - not the whole album!), and Nathan started rolling his eyes and making rude comments about looking at other folks' vacation photos. That's what it would be like for all of you to read a weekly post from me right now! Just not much going on.
A funny thing did happen in applying for my government passport. I have to get a government passport, even though I already have a regular passport (and as a side note, my traveling around Europe has to be done on my regular passport; the govt passport is just sort of...extra). But into the government passport has to be stamped a special Visa from the Italian Consulate. In filling out the passport application, I noticed the instructions to mail in my regular passport with the application. Why? This made no sense. So I called the handy, dandy 1-800 helpline, just to verify that they would actually send my regular passport back to me. The representative from the State Department who answered my call actually said to me, "We don't normally send back your passport, so just put a post-it on it requesting it back." A post-it! Are you kidding me! Nathan insisted I had to follow the instructions, so yes, I actually mailed off my passport with a post-it note taped to the front. In the days of iPad and Blu-ray and GPS, I have entrusted one of my most prized possessions, the thing that gives me freedom to move about the world, to a post-it note (and prayer). I'll let you know if I actually get it back.
We did go on our family visit vacation and had a great time visiting with all our family over the course of two weeks. Despite the fact that we'll hopefully see our families as often as we currently do, it was a weird feeling to say goodbye and know that we'll be across an ocean from them. Living in the continental US, even when we lived in southern California, there was always the knowledge that we could get in our car and drive "home." No matter what happened, as long as we had a car and gas money, we could get to family. Just having the ability to do such a thing can stave off homesickness. We've been reading books, articles, blogs, etc. about Italy and the rest of Europe, though, and are enjoying talking about all our, "It would be fun to..." plans. So far, we've come up with enough vacation plans to last us for two lifetimes, so we'll have to cram all of that into three years.
Once we're moved "over the pond," then I do intend to post weekly, at a minimum. Possibly more often. For now, just occasional updates. Next week, we should get our schedule for the actual flight. Because we'll be travelling with Crazy, I mean Scully the Dog, then we'll most likely be put on a military, Space-A flight. In doing some research, we found there is a military flight every two weeks out of the Norfolk area, so our guess is we will be put onto that. But who knows. This move is full of interconnected pieces, each one managed by a different person or office. I don't play chess, but I feel like a pawn right now, just being shuffled about the board, with each move depending on prior actions and anticipated future actions. Very confusing.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Moving Forward
I just realized that I never posted...our boat is sold! Mafalda will officially belong to another couple by this weekend. Actually, she's belonged to them unofficially for over two weeks now. We head out this weekend, during this gorgeous weather we've been experiencing, for a turnover sail. Mafalda will then return home to a new slip at the marina while Nathan & I drown our sorrows at the marina's tiki bar...or at least one of us will. The other one has to drive home (Kids, don't drink & drive...and stay in school). The day we sold the boat was NOT one of the happiest days of our lives, which just goes to show that you really can't trust a cliche.
In addition, tomorrow we sign the listing agreement for our house to go on the market as well. We were all set to list and felt great about the neighborhood "competition" until we found out that a townhome just a few doors down from us hits the MLS tonight...for significantly less than we'd planned for ours. Now we're having to hold off a bit in hopes that this place has a bidding war and goes quickly for well over list (for those of you in different parts of the country, that is actually fairly likely on our street, despite the housing meltdown).
I have a really cool picture to post here, but I'm lazy (really, really, really lazy) with photo organization). To the point that I don't even take them off the camera until the memory card is full. Anyway, the picture is of Nathan and his uncle working in a constant, unrelenting downpour last weekend to get our planter box (large, 3' high, built-in planter box) shortened and off our neighbor's property. They succeeded, although they had to battle the rain and mud that Uncle Ted said was more like cement than mud. Since I spent Monday putting in all new plantings in said planter box, I can now attest to the fact that this mud is no ordinary mud. It's evil and pervasive and still under my fingernails. I returned home from babysitting my three lovies to find they had not just thrown in the proverbial towel and headed down to the local pub. Amazing! Thanks, Uncle Ted!
In other news, Nathan has had an order modification, meaning we now will not leave for Italy until September. I have no idea whether we'll go early or late. I loved it when our Realtors (they're a partnership team) looked at us quizzically and asked where we'd go if the house sells quickly. My response: "I've lived in hotels plenty of times before and for a lot longer than a couple of months." Now finding one that will take Nutjob, I mean Scully, might prove a little more challenging. When we were first moving to the DC area and despaired of ever finding that home that was perfect for us, Nathan suggested we live in a "van down by the river." I suppose we could always revert to that plan, although we have a station wagon, not a van. It would probably be pretty comfy though.
In addition, tomorrow we sign the listing agreement for our house to go on the market as well. We were all set to list and felt great about the neighborhood "competition" until we found out that a townhome just a few doors down from us hits the MLS tonight...for significantly less than we'd planned for ours. Now we're having to hold off a bit in hopes that this place has a bidding war and goes quickly for well over list (for those of you in different parts of the country, that is actually fairly likely on our street, despite the housing meltdown).
I have a really cool picture to post here, but I'm lazy (really, really, really lazy) with photo organization). To the point that I don't even take them off the camera until the memory card is full. Anyway, the picture is of Nathan and his uncle working in a constant, unrelenting downpour last weekend to get our planter box (large, 3' high, built-in planter box) shortened and off our neighbor's property. They succeeded, although they had to battle the rain and mud that Uncle Ted said was more like cement than mud. Since I spent Monday putting in all new plantings in said planter box, I can now attest to the fact that this mud is no ordinary mud. It's evil and pervasive and still under my fingernails. I returned home from babysitting my three lovies to find they had not just thrown in the proverbial towel and headed down to the local pub. Amazing! Thanks, Uncle Ted!
In other news, Nathan has had an order modification, meaning we now will not leave for Italy until September. I have no idea whether we'll go early or late. I loved it when our Realtors (they're a partnership team) looked at us quizzically and asked where we'd go if the house sells quickly. My response: "I've lived in hotels plenty of times before and for a lot longer than a couple of months." Now finding one that will take Nutjob, I mean Scully, might prove a little more challenging. When we were first moving to the DC area and despaired of ever finding that home that was perfect for us, Nathan suggested we live in a "van down by the river." I suppose we could always revert to that plan, although we have a station wagon, not a van. It would probably be pretty comfy though.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Unemployed
Yesterday was my final day of work. And guess where we went to celebrate! To get gelato! It's a real gelateria in Arlington, and the pistachio flavor tasted just like we should already be strolling down those ancient, Italian streets. Nathan went for Chocolate Guiness - it was pretty good but tasted more like regular ice cream.
Today, it was so wonderful to sleep in a little...or I imagine it would have been if Scully the Dog had allowed it. Nathan left about 5:45am, and the Dog promptly decided to stand in our family room and bark. After three episodes of this in half an hour, I made him come into the bedroom and shut the door. He hates the door being shut and proceeded to spend the next hour jumping on the bed and off the bed, on the bed and off the bed, standing over my head and panting, standing at the door and whining - you get the picture.
We hope to put our house on the market by next week, so I've been working on cleaning and organizing. Today has included painting the bathroom ceiling after Nathan's repair to the joint tape, and deep cleaning/staging of the dining room, bathroom, family room, and kitchen. Plus all the ironing and posting a book review on Library Thing (Love Library Thing - it's an online site for the OCD book lover where you can catalog all your books. One of the neat features is that publishers provide pre-releases of books, and users can sign up to review one/month. If you haven't heard of it, check it out!).
This weekend, I'm off to babysit my lovies (niece and twin nephews) while Nathan works in the yard. Oddly, he suggested he'd have an easier time getting his project done without me around telling him how to do it. Confusing.
Today, it was so wonderful to sleep in a little...or I imagine it would have been if Scully the Dog had allowed it. Nathan left about 5:45am, and the Dog promptly decided to stand in our family room and bark. After three episodes of this in half an hour, I made him come into the bedroom and shut the door. He hates the door being shut and proceeded to spend the next hour jumping on the bed and off the bed, on the bed and off the bed, standing over my head and panting, standing at the door and whining - you get the picture.
We hope to put our house on the market by next week, so I've been working on cleaning and organizing. Today has included painting the bathroom ceiling after Nathan's repair to the joint tape, and deep cleaning/staging of the dining room, bathroom, family room, and kitchen. Plus all the ironing and posting a book review on Library Thing (Love Library Thing - it's an online site for the OCD book lover where you can catalog all your books. One of the neat features is that publishers provide pre-releases of books, and users can sign up to review one/month. If you haven't heard of it, check it out!).
This weekend, I'm off to babysit my lovies (niece and twin nephews) while Nathan works in the yard. Oddly, he suggested he'd have an easier time getting his project done without me around telling him how to do it. Confusing.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Orders Arrived
Nathan got his actual, written orders. This means it's truly official, so now the hoopla begins: government passports, overseas health screenings, setting up personal property moves, and so on. And the biggie, we can actually list our house. We plan to do so in a month to give us time to finish all those projects I've already talked about.
And in bigger news, our boat is sold! I don't think the saying is true that the best two days in a boat owner's life are the day he buys the boat the day he sells it. We're pretty sad to be saying goodbye to Mafalda. We will be especially sad this summer during sailing season when we're spending our weekends in the city and dreaming of sitting in Mafalda's cockpit, at anchor, in a beautiful, Chesapeake cove. But, it's a load off of us in that our marina slip was up at the end of March, and we had no other arrangements. So now, only the house and car to go.
And in bigger news, our boat is sold! I don't think the saying is true that the best two days in a boat owner's life are the day he buys the boat the day he sells it. We're pretty sad to be saying goodbye to Mafalda. We will be especially sad this summer during sailing season when we're spending our weekends in the city and dreaming of sitting in Mafalda's cockpit, at anchor, in a beautiful, Chesapeake cove. But, it's a load off of us in that our marina slip was up at the end of March, and we had no other arrangements. So now, only the house and car to go.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Step One
We created our To Do list for getting the house ready to sell. For something that I think looks well-maintained already, that list is awfully long. Nathan began ripping out our back fence, which is the biggest (and really only) project that must be done before listing. We have LARGE, built-in planter boxes with three mature bush/trees. Sadly, these planter boxes are built up to the fence...which as it turns out, is on our neighbor's property. She is putting up a new fence, and quite understandably, would like our planters off her property. We tend to first get quotes from professionals, then when we get the quote, tear it up and say, "Why pay somebody when we can do that for 1/3 of the price." Then about halfway through the project, "Why aren't we just paying somebody else to do this?" We'll see how this one goes. I'm sure it will be easy, especially since my role will probably be something along the lines of standing on the deck providing helpful "suggestions."
We also showed our boat today (please let them buy it, please let them buy it, please let them buy it.). We only have four weeks left in our marina slip. Then we have to move the boat to an as yet undetermined location.
Today, I also found there are just loads of short-term, furnished rentals in great neighborhoods (that take a dog) around here. So assuming our house sells, we may not be living in the local Motel 6 after all. My original plan was for us to move into my sister's house. This is a house that she does not yet own. It's a mythical house that lives in both of our minds. She is house-hunting and does plan to buy a house, but who knows what that timeline looks like. And when I suggested to Nathan that we move into her spare bedroom (or possibly, just the mythical futon in her mythical family room), which will mean an approximate 1.5 hour commute one way for him, and he'd then return home at night after said commute to a house with three children under age 3 plus our nutso dog running amuk, he responded with utter silence. But that might have meant yes.
We also showed our boat today (please let them buy it, please let them buy it, please let them buy it.). We only have four weeks left in our marina slip. Then we have to move the boat to an as yet undetermined location.
Today, I also found there are just loads of short-term, furnished rentals in great neighborhoods (that take a dog) around here. So assuming our house sells, we may not be living in the local Motel 6 after all. My original plan was for us to move into my sister's house. This is a house that she does not yet own. It's a mythical house that lives in both of our minds. She is house-hunting and does plan to buy a house, but who knows what that timeline looks like. And when I suggested to Nathan that we move into her spare bedroom (or possibly, just the mythical futon in her mythical family room), which will mean an approximate 1.5 hour commute one way for him, and he'd then return home at night after said commute to a house with three children under age 3 plus our nutso dog running amuk, he responded with utter silence. But that might have meant yes.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
In the beginning...
Welcome to my blog. It will be pretty boring to start (well, it will probably be boring all the time) since we don't move until August, but we have lots to do to prep for it.
It's starting to sink in that we're actually, finally, really going to be moving to Europe. After 14 years of hoping, the dream will come true. I've been pushing to the backburner of my mind all the things that have to happen first, mainly, selling our townhome in Old Town Alexandria...and our sailboat...and a car.
Now I'm not truly worried about any one of those things, but what keeps me up at night are the thoughts of our military pack-outs, pack-outs in the plural (pack-out is the term used when the movers come "pack-out" all your belongings, load them on the truck, and take them to mysterious warehouses where very odd things get lost or broken, such as an ugly, already broken, beat down step-stool that no one in their right mind would actually want except for you, while the boxes you've pointed out to the movers and suggested could "fall" off the truck are delivered safe and sound, move after move after move). But back to our overseas pack-outs...as I understand it, we will have three. One for items to go in Long-term storage, the Main pack-out going on slow-boat travel, and the Express shipment of items we can't live without for our final 2-3 months here.
The problem lies in the fact that we live in a small, 2 bedroom townhome. I love all the helpful advice I get that goes something like, "What you do is designate 1-2 rooms of your house where you put all your long-term storage items, close the door, and put a big sign on the door designating it for your storage pack-out." My husband and I live IN THE CITY. We don't have extra rooms! We could use the 2nd bedroom for this, but selling our house quickly and for lots & lots of moolah depends on the thing looking pristine, clean, free of clutter. I'm not sure the one and only 2nd bedroom filled to the gill with crap (I mean, cherished belongings) that WE don't even want to take to Italy with us is the best way to accomplish our sales goal.
Problem #2: When we first got the news of our move, we started house dreaming. Lots of folks who'd been stationed over there told us all about their lovely villas, views of the Mediterranean, wonderful landlords, and so on. Exciting, right! Then we find all incoming families are required to live in base housing. Okay, we'll still be living in Italy, so we're good. Problem is that the housing ranges from a spacious, 3-level townhome w/garage to a 1200 sq.ft. apartment into which is fit 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms. And we'll have no clue which we'll be in until we arrive in August! How on earth do I pack (or send to storage) for these two ends of the spectrum? Nathan's answer is to take nothing, so for those of you thinking you might actually have a bed to sleep on when you visit, well...no guarantees.
It's starting to sink in that we're actually, finally, really going to be moving to Europe. After 14 years of hoping, the dream will come true. I've been pushing to the backburner of my mind all the things that have to happen first, mainly, selling our townhome in Old Town Alexandria...and our sailboat...and a car.
Now I'm not truly worried about any one of those things, but what keeps me up at night are the thoughts of our military pack-outs, pack-outs in the plural (pack-out is the term used when the movers come "pack-out" all your belongings, load them on the truck, and take them to mysterious warehouses where very odd things get lost or broken, such as an ugly, already broken, beat down step-stool that no one in their right mind would actually want except for you, while the boxes you've pointed out to the movers and suggested could "fall" off the truck are delivered safe and sound, move after move after move). But back to our overseas pack-outs...as I understand it, we will have three. One for items to go in Long-term storage, the Main pack-out going on slow-boat travel, and the Express shipment of items we can't live without for our final 2-3 months here.
The problem lies in the fact that we live in a small, 2 bedroom townhome. I love all the helpful advice I get that goes something like, "What you do is designate 1-2 rooms of your house where you put all your long-term storage items, close the door, and put a big sign on the door designating it for your storage pack-out." My husband and I live IN THE CITY. We don't have extra rooms! We could use the 2nd bedroom for this, but selling our house quickly and for lots & lots of moolah depends on the thing looking pristine, clean, free of clutter. I'm not sure the one and only 2nd bedroom filled to the gill with crap (I mean, cherished belongings) that WE don't even want to take to Italy with us is the best way to accomplish our sales goal.
Problem #2: When we first got the news of our move, we started house dreaming. Lots of folks who'd been stationed over there told us all about their lovely villas, views of the Mediterranean, wonderful landlords, and so on. Exciting, right! Then we find all incoming families are required to live in base housing. Okay, we'll still be living in Italy, so we're good. Problem is that the housing ranges from a spacious, 3-level townhome w/garage to a 1200 sq.ft. apartment into which is fit 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms. And we'll have no clue which we'll be in until we arrive in August! How on earth do I pack (or send to storage) for these two ends of the spectrum? Nathan's answer is to take nothing, so for those of you thinking you might actually have a bed to sleep on when you visit, well...no guarantees.
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