Sprinting to the Finish Line (or at least plodding)

 

As I predicted last month there were periods of time with little or nothing to do but wait punctuated by short bursts of running around like crazed weasels. Our house went on the market in early April and within a few days we had a serious offer and the buyer accepted our counter offer. This triggered the usual flurry of activity with inspections, appraisals, addressing any issues on from the inspection report the buyer identified as important, having the septic tank pumped, having the well water tested, and finishing off some title work. The sale is set to close around mid May (a week from the day I am writing this). And during this time of busyness the water pump on the tractor (which we are selling to the buyer) broke and so I had to replace that too.

April was my last month as an active employee at Oracle (I am still an employee, but on a personal leave of absence for the foreseeable future). This was not a secret and I had been reminding other groups with whom I work about it for months, but naturally just about everyone waited until my final few days until fully realizing that I would soon not be available. And so my last three days were packed full of meetings and requests for back ports and enhancements and diagnostic sessions right up until late night of my final day.

Now we are in the emotional roller coaster process of house hunting in Sacramento. Adding to the difficulty (for now) is that we are doing so remotely. We found a local realtor -- Mallori, an endurance rider; Tiffany, our realtor in Oregon is also an endurance rider (the community is both supportive and tight knit) -- and she has answered questions about different properties in which we have shown an interest. We found one house we really liked and in the spirit of unbridled (and unjustified) optimism we put an offer on it, but there was a bidding war in which we did not participate (nor were we invited, given that our offer was only a meager 10% over asking).  We did not feel the place was worth more than we originally offered (at least not to us) and so we shook off the disappointment and are still house hunting.

We have mostly narrowed our search to the more urban areas of Land Park, Curtis Park, East Sac, and even midtown. These are popular neighborhoods with limited availability and so it may take some time to find a place that suits our needs (that we can afford). The good houses go quick and the problem houses... linger. If a house is on the market for more than a week in these areas then something is wrong with it, and so we need to be prepared to act quickly. But at the same time we do not want to inundate Mallori with requests for in person video tours, and so Elayne and I carefully screen each potential place before asking for a tour. Thus far we have only asked for a tour once, but some new houses we like came on the market this week (see the photo of one example below) and so we may have a house or two for virtual touring on Monday. Who knows, maybe we'll make an offer on one.

Because the house hunt may take a few months (or the house we buy may require some work) we have leased for a few months a small apartment in the Arden neighborhood, north of the Sacramento River (see the image at the top of this entry). Just finding a place that was affordable and offered a short term lease and had an available unit when we needed it was a major undertaking. But the search paled in comparison to the paperwork and information the management company wanted. This process was far more invasive, cumbersome and bureaucratically driven than purchasing (or selling) a house! I felt less violated during my last colonoscopy.

Each week for the rest of May has at least one major event. Next week we need to reserve storage space for the bulk of our belongings and the sale of our house closes. The following week we take Taylor and Topaz down to Gibson Ranch where they will be boarding (photo below), and while we are in town we will complete the rental agreement for the apartment (and get the keys). We will bring down a handful of items for the apartment, but then we fly back to Oregon (leaving the truck and trailer in Sacramento). The following week the movers come and pack anything we've left for them (fragile items and furniture) and then load up and haul everything away. They will deliver a handful of things (a bed, a TV, the couch, etc.) to the apartment and the rest goes into storage. The actual day they will get to Sacramento is still TBD -- it could be late May or early June. As soon as the movers leave we will drive down to Sacramento ourselves and, well, we will have arrived.