Not Quite a Mid-Life Gap Year

My toes are a disgrace and I needed some down time so I am at the salon having a pedicure.  God knows if my toes will ever see the light of day where I am going but at least I feel more prepared and tidied-up!

I planned this last minute, right after one of the realtors left, so I wasn’t thinking very straight and have jeans on (so can’t pull my pant legs up as far as I would like) and didn’t shave my legs today so all in all it is not the best look. 🙂

I liked the realtor that came today.  She seems willing to be a bit assertive on the price, which I like.  I have another realtor coming tomorrow who happens to be the agent that sold the house to the owners before me (Adam, for those of you that remember the homeowner).  I bought the house straight from Adam, it never went on the market. They realtor is excited to get back inside and see how the place looks.

The way that the relo works is that I need at least two realtors to submit a Broker Market Analysis and then I am supposed to put the house on the market at the average of the two.  I have three agents coming all told and will pick the two that I think have done the best assessment.

Tomorrow I also have the moving company coming to do an overall estimate of the move.  Even though I won’t be moving the furniture until later, this step has to be conducted so I figured I might as well get it out of the way.

The car is being picked up on Friday afternoon, between 4pm-6pm.

I am slowly inching forward!  Lord, I hope I am doing the right thing! 🙂 If one more person mentions the weather “out there” I think I’ll have a fit!

That’s how I feel today, inundated!

It seems to have started last Friday, all of a sudden I am getting phone calls and e-mails from all sorts of people concerning my move to the Pacific Northwest (PNW)!  There are all sorts of different people arranging my corporate housing, scheduling the transportation of my car, mortgage brokers calling about pre-qualifying me for loans for home purchase, etc.  Plus, I have loads of documents to read and sign and scan and return regarding all sorts of things ranging from direct deposit forms to relocation reimbursement forms to documents concerning selling my home in N.C.  Lots of stuff!

Plus, my mother’s birthday is coming up and I need to get her something and ship it to Ireland before I leave or God knows when I will get around to that and if it arrives late I will never hear the end of it!

Earlier today I headed over to the outplacement office to print all of the above documents out.  I assume I will be returning there tomorrow to scan and e-mail it all back!

In regards to the car, I was told that I have to take absolutely everything out of it which was a disappointment as I was actually hoping I could put some unbreakable stuff in it as a means of getting some of my things out to the PNW rather than having to pack them in a suitcase.

One good thing, though, is that while I was clearing out the inside of the car a little while ago I found my missing iPod Touch!  I had misplaced it right before Christmas and as I have gone through virtually every inch of this house over the last few months sorting and cleaning, etc., I was convinced that I left it at the hair salon and that someone had gone off with it!  It never showed up on “Find my iPod” so I figured they just threw it away as they couldn’t crack the security code I have on it.  Well, today I found it stuck down tight between the driver’s seat and the center console of the car!  YEAH!!!   I am particularly excited as it has the cutest Paul Frank monkey case that I regretted losing!

Of course, the people at outplacement all wanted to catch up on the status of my move and two of my cousins have called in the last two days wondering if we can do lunch or dinner or something before I go.

It is a bit overwhelming as the days start to run out!  I am good under crisis, though, so am pacing myself out as best I can and telling people that trying to schedule lunch and dinner are just more ‘to-dos’ on my list right now so I can’t deal with that until I have everything else under control.  It may have to wait until one of my return trips when all my stuff is actually moved, etc.

I still need to get a realtor selected and get the house on the market, that’s my priority right now!  Hence, my little drink respite is now over and I must be off!

OMG!  My one-way ticket to the Pacific Northwest was booked today!!!  I just received my e-mail confirmation, I leave midday on Saturday, June 23rd.

This is considered my ‘final move’ ticket as it is just in the one direction, but I will be back here in NC two more times or so to oversee the move and punch-list stuff from final inspection once the house sells.

I had a long conversation with the relocation agent today.  She was very nice, and there are some monies in the relo package that were assigned to my move that I will not be using so she is going to try and have them redirected to me in such a way that I can use these funds as additional buyer incentives.  For instance, I will not be taking the house-hunting trip which included round-trip airfare, 5-night hotel stay, car rental, meals, etc.  Plus, I sold the Honda so that is one less car to ship.  Stuff like that all adds up.

I am offered money to help with “staging” the house which can cover a wide variety of things like painting, landscaping, cosmetic repairs, etc.  I have pretty much used all this money up already with all the painting, electrical, and tile work that was done this week, but the kitchen needs some face-lifting so if I can offer the buyer some money to shop for new appliances or countertops (or whatever), that would be great. The relocation package is really very generous.  Nothing to complain about!

Other fun stuff I did today to get ready to move included vacuuming dead flies from the window sills!  Those little buggers like to get behind the plantation shutters and drop dead back there while looking for a way to escape.