SOLD! WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Such excitement this past week (how much excitement can Ray and I stand), and now I can finally talk and post about it.  My house sold!  Contract signed, settlement date set, and we are out of here.  More on my disgruntled commute from the lake house to work to come I'm sure!  BUT hey, no having to keep the house squeaky clean to show it.  No having strangers walk through commenting that they want bigger closets, more of an open floor plan, a finished basement, or granite counters.

 So now why can't we sleep?  Oh yeah, lots to do, sell, clean, store and so much more.  I know those friends and virtual friends Ray and I have that have made the trek to Panama and are living the adventure already know the anxiety and angst.  I will write about it just as a reminder of how far we still have to go and yet, how far they have gone in their short time in Panama :)

How did our house sell?  Our wonderful neighbors did indeed buy the house.  They wanted a larger home with a larger lot, and this is just such an easy way to go for all of us.  And what a great thing to know the family that is moving in, the plans they have for the house, and for the yard.  And for our daughter to know this as well.  We can all picture their child now growing up in Carly's bedroom, and playing in our office.  I can picture the trees they are going to plant, the shed they want to build, and I can imagine the peace they are going to have staying in this small neighborhood still surrounded by all the fantastic people that live here.

Now that the house sold, Ray (not me haha) had to call our realtor.  His stomach was in knots, but there was nothing to be done except to let her know we no longer needed her services.  Oh, and to find out if she still wants to buy the furniture in our family room.  Okay, this is why the call was most important.  She was wonderful!  She told Ray that in no way was there any reason she could possibly tell him to not sell our house in this fashion.  She wanted to make sure we have a superior attorney (and we do), and that we are getting the most out of the sale for us (we are).  And yes, she still wants the wall unit and will pick it up within two weeks.

While Ray was making this call to the realtor, I was visiting an audiologist (ear specialist).  I had made the decision after our last trip to Panama that I would at least consider wearing a hearing aid again.  Not that I really ever wore one to begin with when I was younger.  I do remember wearing the aid that wraps behind the ear when I was in fourth grade.  I also remember it spending a lot of time in its case.  Then I tried one again for a trial period when I was twenty (right out of college).  I wore the kind that sat nestled inside my ear.  I think I wore it past the trial period resulting in my parents not getting back a lot of money that they spent for me to try it.  I didn't like it.  In 1985, the technology still wasn't right.  I couldn't filter out that background noise.  Who cares if I could hear the leaves crunching, the water running, the wind against my car windows when I couldn't hear anything else.  That hearing aid spent a lot of time in its case as well (I just recently tossed them both into the trash).  But now, maybe I could do it.  Maybe I should at least look at the latest and greatest models.  Off to my appointment I went, and into the ever so familiar hearing booth I sat listening to those beeps.  Or not hearing them.  Clenching my teeth to hear if I really heard the sound.  Looking at the floor so as not to make eye contact with the audiologist through the window.  I didn't want to not hear the sounds, but I knew I wasn't hearing them.  There were too many long pauses in between them.  Then I spoke the words back to her.  This was tough!  I was now trying to remember the words in Spanish!  Oh brother!  And if I didn't know the word in Spanish, I was stressed thinking "I must learn that word!  Hot dog, ice cream, popcorn (food related words were not a problem), yard, step, toothbrush, and, that, where, were, been, car, paper and so on and so forth.  First of all, let me say that in forty years my hearing has pretty much stayed the same.  No big changes.  It hasn't gotten worse.  The next step was to discuss hearing aids.  AIDS?  Plural, meaning two?  What about just one?  What the heck?  This is what I used to wear.  Just one.  Nope, not with today's latest and greatest technology.  Seems that now the computers transfer hearing back and forth between the ears (how they will get through all the intense and intelligent brain matter I haven't a clue--they will have to work extra hard!).  If one ear doesn't pick up the sound, the other one will, and now they have bluetooth compatibility along with microphones to give to that tour guide, so if I am at the back of the bus, I will hear perfectly.  (Without the microphone, and yes I asked, I will still hear the tour guide, but possibly not as intense.  I would hear the guide just like a normal hearing person would hear--imagine that.  I could have better hearing than Ray.  He could be asking ME "what did she say?")  I left the appointment a bit whiny.  I called Ray.  Free trial to try them for thirty days and then $5000 to buy them.  I did like the behind the ear model.  It is small and comes in colors other than "BEIGE".  Beige does not blend in by the way.  I didn't like the price.  I thought "try them and buy in Panama".  This is what could happen.  Then I contacted an old next door childhood neighbor.  She wears hearing aids.  It is a love/hate relationship.  The background noise is still aggravating.  But she bought hers at Costco.  Costco!  I looked it up.  Same style and colors. A one hour hearing test necessary.  Perhaps I will go to the audiologist, try them for thirty days, and then purchase them at Costco for $700 less per unit?  Or still buy them in Panama?

The crazy thing about going to the doctor yesterday to discuss hearing aids is that once I did this, everyone came out of the woodwork wearing aids.  Okay, not everyone, but three people in twenty four hours started sharing hearing aid stories with me.  First, I asked a lot of questions to the above said childhood neighbor.  Then, while selling off our household furnishings the woman buying our Hoosier cabinet showed me both her hearing aids.  They were the exact one's I had just looked at but hers are purple.  So now Ray could see what I had seen, and what I might actually bring home as a show and tell item on Friday.  Background noise is a nuisance for her, but she is totally deaf in one ear and has forty percent hearing in another, so I think she should really hang onto hers.  She is a home health nurse and wears a remote around her neck.  This is also part of bluetooth for her cellphone (no need answering the phone--the calls go right to her ears).  Doubt this is an accessory necessary for me.

This buying of our Hoosier cabinet now brings me to Craigslist.  Thursday night we felt comfortable enough to show our dining room table set to a man that was hoping to buy it for his wife for Valentine's Day.  Since we were pretty certain the house had sold, we went ahead and sold it letting him pick it up and carry it right on out of here.  If the house didn't sell, we would show the dining room empty.  This was a large piece of furniture that we didn't want to wait and see if it would sell for the right price.  He came over and bought the dining room set and a jelly cupboard.  Another woman bought another jelly cupboard.  Then the woman with the hearing aids came over for the Hoosier cabinet last night (this was in the basement and could be sold with the house being sold or not).  But before she saw it and bought it, a fireman came by to possibly buy it.  It wasn't old enough for him, but he bought some old Ball mason jars and two plant stands.  He said he had to leave with something.  This morning a co-worker of Ray's came back to the house (she was here last weekend looking at Christmas things) to buy Carly's old bed frame and mattress.  Ray threw in the curtains and rods.  Back to the woman with the hearing aids.  She liked the Hoosier cabinet and would come back today with a truck to move it out of here.  This is when we chatted about her purple hearing aids.  She also saw the ten or so crocks we had lined up in the office.  She bought those, too.  "Do you want to sell that sewing machine?" she asked.  After she left with her purchases, Ray posted many more items on Craigslist.  The same man that bought the dining room set came back over to buy a few trunks.  Funny, because he didn't realize he was emailing Ray again.  Today, the Hoosier cabinet and the sewing machine left the house.  Along with three small and ugly Christmas trees.  Once she left with her husband, Ray and I had the exact same thought that she is buying things up and selling them once home.  She just looks around too fast, has a lot of cash and seems to need and want many things.  I asked her if her house had empty rooms or something.  She lives two hours away in a large house in the country.  She even wants to buy my car haha!  Hey, if the price is right!

While everyone was buying and moving things, my daughter had dropped her car off at the service station.  She had just had maintenance done over winter break, but the belts had loosened.  She brought the car back to the shop to have them checked and tightened.  Then she did her taxes with her dad, and I packed up some Easter decorations for her to take with her.  We consolidated her totes and decided on a  tiny storage facility.  Then we can slowly take things to Panama (not store it all in lake house, since it looks like we will be moving there sooner than I thought!), and she has a place for her things.  Ray's dad and his wife came over to pick up a very old dining room table (Ray's grandmothers), chairs and highchair (we have been storing that in our basement).  He did not want that sold or given away.  We actually used the table for about ten years when living in another house down the road (the house was decorated very country on six acres in the country).  We all went to Chili's for lunch and to chit chat, we picked my daughter's car up and off everyone went with all their "stuff".  My sister will get our bedroom set and family room tables which are a few more big pieces we are glad to have claimed.  And a lone chair with ottoman might be gone tomorrow.

My neighbors, without even seeing a For Sale sign let alone Sold sign, must be wondering what the heck!  This neighborhood is like Wisteria Lane though.  Things don't stay hush hush for long, but everyone knows Panama is now truly just months away.  Now that I have shared the news of the house selling with one co-worker, I have to figure out (I think I have a pretty good idea) when my last day of work will be and when I trust sharing this information and giving my notice to my employer.  Maybe I will learn how to say it all to him in Spanish?

Things I learned this weekend, and it's only Saturday, is that everyone coming to buy my furniture have been so excited to hear why we are selling it all and our move to Panama.  A few have even researched moving to another country like Panama in retirement.  In regards to hearing aids, they will need to be tried out first and may not have even changed over the past twenty years when it comes to filtering out background noise.  I will most likely stay vanilla and not go with purple color.  And lastly, the piano is going to be one tough sell.  Hopefully will just roll out the door even if for FREE.  Anythings possible though...just like selling this house without having to show it  and retiring to Panama.

Add five more to this (1, 4, 5 gallon, etc), and the crocks went out the door.

Handmade chest Ray gave to me and to Carly (but the termites would eat up the wood!).

All different colors and even sizes and shapes!

My mom's "Floridian" style chair and ottoman I acquired years ago.

Carly's old bed before she took the guest room set.