by Michele | Sep 12, 2012 | Preparation Stage
So, I realized today that’s it has been a good three weeks since our last blog post. Holy cow! I’m sorry we have been such big slackers for the last couple of weeks, it’s been crazy at our house! We fully intend to never go this long without a blog post again, dear reader(s). *Scout’s honor* (ok neither of us was ever a Scout, though I was in Girl Guards for a while.)
Anyway, the biggest thing that’s been happening lately is we are working furiously to prepare our house to sell it. I’ve been sorting through clutter and giving things away to Goodwill for a couple of months now, but over Labor Day weekend we got down to some serious business. I’m talking scrubbing toilets, trimming bushes, repainting doors and trim…serious business. We made appointments for last week with a couple of local realtors, so we wanted the house to be in ship-shape (pun intended) before we had people coming in to determine the value of our house. It was certainly the most laborious Labor Day in my memory.
Finally, the day had come to find out how much our house is worth. Kind of. We had done some of our own market research on our area and similar homes to ours before calling for an outside opinion but it was still nerve wracking. What would we do if the professionals thought we were way over-valuing our home? I actually had a nightmare that all of the realtors came back and told us it was worth less than we owed! It is a rather frightening proposition because we are essentially counting on the sale of our house to fund the purchase of our future boat.
Luckily, the verdict came back very favorably. Two of the realtors (both of whom we had already liked) came back with the exact same recommended list price, which was only about $5,000 less than what we had thought on our own. I think we did pretty well considering how much more training they have in the business than we do. The third realtor was waaay out of the ballpark, suggesting a list price lower than what the house was purchased for in 2003. We actually just laughed at her, especially because we had already written her off after our original meeting with her. She obviously just didn’t know what she was doing.
All-in-all we got some good advice, and have chosen our listing agent for the house. We’ll keep you posted on some of the things we did to spruce up the house for almost no money and what the agent’s home staging specialist has to say as well. The best thing is, we’re finally moving forward and my house has never been cleaner!
by Dan | Aug 22, 2012 | Preparation Stage
I realized a few days ago that it has been a year since Michele and I first talked about cruising. Looking back, I’m amazed at how much we have been able to accomplish in that time. It also puts into perspective what we have ahead of us. Up to now, much of what we have accomplished has been intangible. We’ve learned how to sail (we’ll never be experts), rid ourselves of tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and many other things, big and small, to prepare ourselves for the cruising life. Now, however, we stand at a precipice… where our preparations will transition from intangible and easily reversible to life changing. A few minor touch-ups notwithstanding, our house is ready for us to put it up for sale. I’ve had several successful interviews in Florida as well as locally (more money). Basically, things are starting to get real. Really real.
Both of our LASIK procedures went wonderfully and we can see 20/15 now. The clarity of our vision is amazing. Unexpectedly, the change in physical vision prompted me to take stock of our preparations, goals, and dreams. Now, more than ever, we are committing to following the dream. Sure, it’s scary at times… but its extremely fulfilling living life intentionally. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Follow your dreams. Follow the Horizon.
P.S. We’re done with the cheesie eye related post titles… sorry we put you through that.
by Michele | Aug 15, 2012 | Preparation Stage
Yea, it scares me too.
For those of you following closely, you will know that LASIK eye surgery is on our To-Do List before we leave (aka lose insurance coverage.) Both of us currently wear glasses and contacts and while we understand that people certainly can go cruising with prescription lenses, we would prefer not to. Losing or damaging expensive glasses is an inconvenience when it’s a pair of sunglasses, its a danger when its a prescription that allows you to see anything farther away than the bow of your boat.
The flip side of this coin is the fairly high cost. Eye surgery is considered an elective procedure by most insurance companies and is generally not covered. We’ve been quoted $1000-$2000 per eye depending on the type of lasers used and the warranties included. That’s a total cost for 4 eyes of up to $8000, a cost that will be coming directly out of our cruising kitty. Seeing as how we’ve moved up our planned departure date by a few years, that’s quite a chunk of change that has to be seriously considered.
After a lot of consideration, (and some help from my parents’ insurance plan) we have decided to go through with the surgery. This Friday to be exact. Let me just say that it definitely does make both of us nervous. While LASIK is a very common surgery at this point, there are no true guarantees that something won’t go wrong. It is a little scary when going wrong could mean permanent damage to our vision.
We’ll be heading up to Chicago for our surgery Thursday night for our appointments Friday morning. And if you think of us as you’re getting to work on Friday, send a little prayer our way. Hopefully, we’ll “see” you on the other side!
by Michele | Aug 2, 2012 | Preparation Stage
Dan’s mom, Shelly, and Carter at the pumpkin farm last year.
Step 1: Put a big sign in front of your house that says it is for sale.
Step 2: Wait for your family to freak out.
Okay, this is exactly what we didn’t do and hopefully anyone reading this blog will try to avoid this approach as well. We were not looking forward to telling Grandma and Grandpa that their adorable grandson would soon be living on a boat out of easy cuddle range, however we decided that it would be very unfair to put our house up for sale without letting them know first.
Let me just insert a little history here to help everyone understand why we were hesitant to tell our parents. First of all, we have a very good relationship with Dan’s parents. They live only a few blocks from us, which means that we see them a lot. It will be a major change for us (and them) to not see each other basically every day. Secondly, sailing off on a boat is not the first time that we have told our families that we are moving somewhere else, but it will be the first time that we actually do it. We wanted to make sure that we were far enough along in the planning and preparation that we would be taken seriously, as well as have as many answers to their questions as possible. Finally, over the last year we have been trying to prepare them for the idea of cruising by talking a lot about sailing and other people that we have met who are currently cruising.
To be honest, I think our general preparation worked to make the idea sound feasible, but I’m not sure that we overcame the obstacle of being taken seriously. We told Dan’s parents at dinner at Cracker Barrel (his mom’s favorite restaurant, mine less so) that we were putting our house up for sale in August and that we planned to move to Florida as soon as possible to find a boat to live on. And then…nothing happened. It was extremely anticlimactic. Eventually they did ask some of the basic questions like “What about pirates?” and “How do you make sure Carter doesn’t fall in?”, but the overall mood was so subdued I almost wished someone would cry or yell or something. It felt like being a kid again…
“Hey mom! I’m going to be an astronaut when I grow up!”
“That’s great, honey, now wash your hands for dinner.”
Since that day, a week and a half ago, there still hasn’t been much reaction. Things have been mentioned in an off-hand kind of way, but no more questions or concerns have been voiced. I have a feeling that may change once we are actually leaving, but for now I just don’t think that it is real to them yet.
Note: some of you may have noticed the lack of information on my family’s reaction to the news. That’s because we would like to tell them in person, but we haven’t been able to get up to Chicago to talk to them about it yet.
by Dan | Jul 25, 2012 | Preparation Stage
Zoe during better times
It’s been a hectic week! We weren’t kidding when we said There is a Lot Going On Around Here.
As a follow up to Good Bye Awesome Car, Hello Future our second awesome car has been sold! We have been looking for an opportunity to sell it, as eliminating our last car payment will really boost our savings. We’re now driving my parent’s Jeep which they are selling us for a very good price that we think we should easily be able to recoup when we sell it. Parting ways was much easier this time… each step forward is a step closer to cast-off day. The bedroom has been painted, the carpet is on the way, and I’m done with the classroom portion of Divemaster training. Next up is assisting with classes and student training dives.
Of all of the progress made this week, perhaps the most momentous was telling my parents. My family is very close (we live 2 blocks away from them)… so we weren’t exactly sure how they would take the news that we are planning on moving thousands of miles away. More on that in our next post.
On a much sadder note, our dog Zoe passed away on Saturday. Although she was only four years old, she had been battling Addison’s disease for three of those. Steroids twice a day for three years allowed her to live an active life but also took a toll on her small body. Even though we understand the necessity of giving up our dogs before leaving for life at sea, this was definitely not the way we had planned on saying good-bye. It also has given us just a little reminder of the good things that we will be leaving behind. Even fulfilling your dreams can be bittersweet at times.
Follow your dreams. Follow the Horizon.
We are normal (well ok, not so normal) people that have a dream to see the world and live life as it was meant to be. We both have successful careers in the healthcare industry, even in this terrible economy. We want to break free of the current cycle of trading time for dollars and dollars for more and more things we don't need. So, we have decided to forego the fruits of our economic success and "retire" well before we are 30 and set out to see what is over the Horizon.