Getting closer by the day

Winter has flown by...and it hasn't.  The calendar is moving but I wish the weather here in WI would play along.  We were teased with a day in the 50's and now headed back to the 30's.  Come on Mother Nature, we have alot of work to do outside to get the house ready for selling in mid-April!  Plus green grass would be nice for the real estate pictures!  Drab brown with no leaves and no flowers blooming is just, well, drab!

We have been busy with inside work and the sorting through of everything!  Even though we have moved a couple times over our married lives, we have still managed to accumulate stuff.  Stuff that I am getting excited to get rid of and live more simply.  Just the other day I was going through all of my office stuff and found a landline phone we used way back when we were first married...why???  To all my UnitedHealthcare peeps, I finally shredded the manual for the conversion to the new Facets claims payment system, well new back in 2011!!!  LOL  It just shows that we hang on to alot of stuff over the years that we never refer back to or use again.  It really has been liberating to see large stacks of paper be eaten by the shredder and things we no longer use or will use in the future be put in the sale pile.  I know we will get to stuff like the things the boys made growing up and such, that will require a box of Kleenex or two to get through, but I figure we can take picture of the precious things and they can keep what they want.  

We have been interviewing estate sale companies and have had three stop by to look at what we have.  We have narrowed it down to two and should be making a decision this week.  We will have the sale three weeks after the house goes on the market, in mid-May, as it coincides with the annual village wide rummage sale here. Hopefully this will allow enough time to get an accepted offer based on the recent sales trend in the neighborhood, which have all been less than a week.

We have been receiving weekly updates from Burlington RV on the status of our upgrades and repairs and we are down to waiting on two parts to come in and be installed.  We will be going to look everything over on Saturday and our hope is to bring her home Good Friday.  Then the task of starting to pack everything in begins;  optimizing the just over 400 sq feet of space and basement storage in our Solitude.  I must say our basement storage is probably some of THE best for a 5th wheel and you would think we could pack it to the hilt with everything and anything BUT there is one tiny thing we need to keep in mind, and that is WEIGHT.  The frame and suspension of the RV is rated for soo many pounds of additional cargo.  Our Unloaded Vehicle Weight (UVW) is 14,200 and our Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) is 16,500.  This leaves us 2,300 pounds to play with.  That means all of our belongings AND water and propane cannot exceed that.  It may sound like alot but when you start to add up all of your clothes, food, dishes, computer, kayak, tools, camping accessories, etc. , not to mention that a gallon of water weighs just over 8 pounds and we have a 93 gallon fresh water tank on board, it can add up quickly.  This means that the cast iron pans we love to use on the campfire will be limited to one and the awesome heavy duty Calphalon pans we use at home will need to find a new home.  Bringing items along that are lightweight or multipurpose is the name of the game now.  In fact, I found an all in one printer/fax/copier that alot of folks use on the road and it weighs 5 pounds, whereas the one I have at home is over 26 pounds!  I even thought I could help the cause so I am loosing weight too!  LOL

If we do pick up the RV on March 30th, that gives us two weeks to get it packed and move it off site for the house to be ready for real estate pictures and listing.  My dad and stepmom are putting in a 50 amp plug for us on their property just north of us, so that we will be able to hang out there in between our camping this spring and summer and when we return to WI to visit family & friends.  It is good to know we will have a place to land, that can accommodate our 42 feet of home when we are in WI.  Thanks guys!

We also have been working on getting all of the medical/dental/vision squared away as well.  I just had the PRK laser eye surgery done as a f/u to the Lasik I had done many years ago so I should be good for vision for awhile until I have to break down and get cheaters.  Rick is scheduled for his eye exam and the boys are getting all their vision checks too.  Dr visits are underway, prescriptions refilled and discussion with Dr's for refills down the road.  Dental visits scheduled and poor Rick needs a root canal before we go, perhaps two.  Ouchh!!  As we get more acclimated to the full-time lifestyle, we will probably look into the dental and pharmacy benefits to be had in Mexico.  I have read many blogs on their dental tourism and how wonderful it is and how cheap too.

That is all for now and I suspect our next update will be when we bring the RV home.  Til then, Happy Easter!

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