Category Archives: Moving

The Selling Continues: There Goes the Corvette

We have been continuing to steadily sell our stuff.  Some has been easy to sell, some a bit harder.

This last weekend I sold my 1975 Corvette that I’ve had for 13 years.  I woke up and thought “Today is the day I sell my car”.  So I took some pictures and listed it on Craigslist.  It was sold that night!

Last_Vette
Picture of the Corvette the Night it Sold

It makes sense to sell it on a few levels.  First, it doesn’t make much sense to take it to PR.   Second, it would cost a lot to ship.  Third, the frame would most likely rust away quickly.  Fourth, it’s almost 40 years old.  Fifth, well the list goes on for a while….

corvette
On one of our first dates 13 or so years ago

I was pretty lucky with the car though.  I sold it for what I paid for it and I got to enjoy driving around in an old Corvette for many years.  Those memories will stay with me forever.   We took it on some of our first dates. Schnoodle rode in the cubby area. We took it on our wedding. I even got my first speeding ticket in it.

 

 

Corvette Hill

On the flip side, I don’t have to worry about it any longer.  It did leak just about everywhere it could leak from and I was always afraid that it was going to break and cost a lot of time / money to fix.  Now I don’t have to pay insurance and registration on another car too.  I no longer have those worries floating around in the back of my head which is nice.

Another big item, gone. And another step closer to Puerto Rico.

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Clearing Space and Filling It

These next few months will be all about clearing out our space in order to move into a new one (even more than we have in previous purges). And I don’t just mean physically, but also figuratively. Physically we have to sell, give away, donate, pack or toss almost all of our belongings. But as we do this, we are also figuratively making space for new things to move into it.

I think we all know the feeling of clearing off a table only for more things -keys, coins, papers, etc- to “magically” creep onto it again. We have to constantly keep a check on our space to make sure it holds what we want it to. In the same way, we must do that with our lives and what we bring in it: people, money, jobs, hobbies, our thoughts, our dreams, our purpose! Nothing stays a void very long. We are constantly filling and refilling. Creating and re-creating.

Often our physical artifacts are representations of our thought realm. When we aren’t careful and selective, it can be become cluttered -a mess. We must be careful what we bring into our lives- our home, our mind, our body – so that it will be a true reflection of what you want to see, to be.

And so in this way, it has been a real re-awakening to what is important to us, especially when we got new carpet and had to move everything that had been in every room. Most of our “stuff” really is just stuff. They are representations of things that were once important to us, and some of what still is. But most of it is not necessary in our transition to what we really want, and where we really want to be: which is 3000 miles away on four jungled acres in a tucked away surf town on a Caribbean isle.

I think we are coming close to a point where we will be looking more at what we want/need to take with us instead of what needs to be discarded. For instance, this is the list of things we will take so far:

Kumquat and Mexicola
The two plants I’d like to take

Clothing– we will need a little clothing to get us started. And most of my jewelry because it is small, easy to take and a lot have meaning (like our wedding rings for example).
Sentimental items– some physical photographs/albums, journals, small gifts, small wall decor items
Computer/lap top– for our music, files, blog, and digital photos
Paperwork-like licenses, titles, taxes, identification
Kitty- We have chosen to take Kitty. It will be a mini-adventure for sure to take our cat with us. And through his eyes we will see our reactions somewhat mirrored
A couple of houseplants– I would like to take our Mexicola avocado plant that I grew from seed and a kumquat tree.
Bikes -We are not sure on this one. I love my beach cruiser and it would be perfect in Rincon, but is it worth shipping? Same thing with Britton’s mtn bike. It is old but reliable.
Guitar/bass- We will probably be using a lot more acoustic instruments like bongo drums and acoustic guitars, but this perhaps will be a sentimental item for BK to bring. He is selling his amp, however, which will literally clear a lot of space.

Marshall Vintage
Amp for sale!

I think these are good representations for what we are bringing into this new space that we will be creating. Our knowledge, history and experiences. Responsibility. Living things. Love. Music. Hobbies and interests. Health.

In 7 short months, we will be walking into a new space and filling it with the building blocks of a new, exciting adventure. And we are thrilled!

Rincon House Fish Eye
Thanks to Linda for capturing this fish-eye picture of our place in Rincon!

 

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Never Let Your Fear Decide Your Fate

Going out on a limb. Taking a risk. Trying something new. Following your calling.

They all sound so romantic when you read about someone else doing it. When it is you, it takes a lot more guts. Britton and I really have a good life here in Colorado. We have relatively high paying and highly esteemed careers, we have a house, car, extra houses, extra cars, friends, family. We have time on our hands. We are fairly healthy, happy and numbingly comfortable.

So why leave it? Some people have asked, or rather, told us. Why leave a good thing? And logically, I really don’t know. I mean we have everything “they” tell you we should aspire to have. Everything the school system and the government and our parents and everyone with a stake in “us” turning out to be productive people said we should try to be. And we have. We are!

And yet.

And yet there is something that pulls me -us- out of the comfortable. That says that excitement will not be found in doing the usual. That growth and adventure do not lie in the routine. That there is more to life than being a cog in that same system that had a hand in making us one. But it is oh, so hard to let go once “you have it made”. Or at least it is for us.

We have some idea what our life will look like when we move to our property in Rincon, Puerto Rico. But not a whole lot. Anything is possible. It is much less predicable. Here in Greeley, on the other hand, I know exactly what to expect more or less. Little things change, but for the most part, life will go on exactly as it did last year and the year(s) before that and so on.

And so.

And so there is something inside of me that says: “There is more out there in the world for you to uncover. You have played this game, you have passed this level. You are ready for a new adventure.You have even set yourself up so that it is very unlikely to fail at the next game. Why are you scared?!”

This is a part of my lesson that I must do to learn: To never let my fear decide my fate.

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The Waiting Room

After we got our new carpet installed, we decided that anything we weren’t going to be using right away, would go into the empty upstairs guest bedroom. We called it the “waiting room” as all the items in it would be just waiting to be sold or given away. We made a goal of listing at least 3 items on Craigslist each week with the hope of selling them.

Dresser
We sold this dresser in about 10 minutes!

We really don’t have that much stuff if it can all fit into a 11×11 room. But it is still enough that we have to figure out what to do with it. The hardest is stuff like my shoes and closet full of clothes that I love, but will have absolutely no use for down there and which, to be perfectly honest, I really don’t wear that much here anyway. I have about 5 pairs of shoes that I always wear. Similar story with my clothes. The rest are just for fun or special occasions. So far I haven’t sold any of my shoes, but I hope to at the right price. It would be a shame to have to toss these nearly new shoes and boots!

Shoe Collection
Some of my shoes I have collected over the years

We also have all of our various houseplants and gardening tools to contend with.

Lime Tree
We sold this beautiful lime tree and I think we made some new friends in the process as well!

Germination Station
We also sold this germination station heat pad super quick!

We’ve also made some bigger sales including one that is pending and Britton has started to go through and sell his old records like this autographed Guns N’ Roses album that he sold on Ebay.

IMG_2823
Guns N’ Roses Album

It’s been a lot of fun going through all of our stuff and selling it in sort of a laid back garage sale sort of way. Craigslist is cool because unlike a garage sale, people aren’t just browsing…they actually want your stuff, like we did with when we bought a  Kitty carrier we found on there. It’s not as cheap as garage sale prices, but it’s a LOT less than full retail and you can do it any time of the year.

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