Sept 27, 2019
Coordinating a move is nerve wracking when it’s a short drive across town, but moving to another state is another story altogether. We started the “Keep or Toss” game six months ago when my grandma passed away and my mom was moving in with us. Take it from my emotional breakdown experience that it is not easy to purge a craft room/office (aka, the catch-all room) in a month. Everything I touched in my house and Grandma’s came with the question “is it worth eventually moving to Oregon?”. This taught me that purging a whole house will take at least a year and will require handling items many times. I’ve gone through boxes in the garage four times and expect at least one more before putting them in the moving truck.
The big factor in coordinating The BIg Move is Pops’ finding a job that will pay his bills in Oregon AND the expenses in California till next summer. Finding a good job in his field can take a while, so he started looking early. And now he’ll be moving seven months ahead of me.
In order to keep costs down, we decided that renting a house or apartment wouldn’t be good for the budget, so instead we’ll be living full time on the property in a 33′ travel trailer (“TT”) and mom will get an apartment in town. (Surprisingly, a one bedroom senior apartment plus a TT payment costs less than a two bedroom apartment.) The bonus is that we get to live at the property sooner than if we rented a place in town.
Now that Pops has accepted the position, he has four weeks to get everything together that he’ll need to live in a TT, including tools he’ll need to work at the property. He’ll fly down to LA a few times over the next several months, but he’ll really only have Saturdays to do any projects so the big ones have to be finished right away. This means I’ll be taking on his chores and the small projects, like rehoming the aquaponics system.
- Finish projects around the house
- Buy travel trailer, do inspection/training, and schedule delivery
- Buy all kinds of TT specific items, like a small dish drainer and a heavy curtains to hang over the door to keep the cold out
- Order water to be connected
- Order a temporary “construction” electric panel
- Order trash pick up
- Notify the post office of a new address to have mail delivered
- Reserve storage space till a shed can be built
- Book a flight for me to return to California
- Drive to Oregon, unpack the truck at storage, and move into the TT
Maybe the distraction of getting things ready to take up will keep me distracted enough to not cry all the time about Pops leaving. I doubt it.
Sept 30, 2019
We braved the largest Ikea in the US (22 acres) on a SUNDAY AFTERNOON. WHAT were we thinking?? I thought I was the one who had issues with big crowds, but Pops announced before me that he was done. Unfortunately, you can’t get out without following the cattle path, er, the store layout that leads you through every section against your will. Seriously. If you’re ever in Ikea during a major disaster, just find a corner to hide in and wait for the rescuers to find you. You’ll have a better chance of being found alive after the stampede has passed.
We were there to buy living necessities for the travel trailer, like dishes and trash cans. Can you imagine happily shopping in LA Mall Traffic and there stands some woman crying her eyes out with no tissue to be found? Thankfully I got it under control before the tears actually flowed. Other than that, it was a good day and I’m glad to have finally visited one of the largest Ikeas in the world. It was like Disneyland, except the lines move faster.
Maple Creek Farm PNW 