Leaving Home: Stage 3

Leaving Home—Stage Three

After the holidays, it took us about two cold months (January and February) to begin again feeling that we need to leave Seattle, find a home elsewhere before the $800 per year raises in property taxes and utility prices polished off our savings.

We had accomplished getting Brad out of his job and onto disability and starting me blundering around on Medicare—a debacle that cost me money and time to begin figuring out…not there yet, but better.

By this time, Brad had really determined he couldn’t move to Eastern Washington—the daunting seven-hour trip to places we liked and that had cheap enough houses to woo us and the on again/off again availability of I-90 for trips to see his aging parents.

My initial response was to point out that we’d already combed the west side of Washington and not found any decent prices…ones that would leave us with some cash to ease our retirement onto small fixed incomes. I figured that we needed to find a house in the one hundred thousands to make it. So I wasn’t hopeful as my searches had turned up those only in remote small Eastern Washington towns. I started to look for solutions that would help us stay in our paid for home without going broke.

In the meantime, I’d become somewhat addicted to daydreaming over Zillow and Redfin ads—looking longingly at decent homes for good prices, or even dumps for really cheap, mentally plotting how I’d make those inexpensive places prettier and more functional. Just a pastime.

One day, tired of looking again at Dayton, Walla Walla, and thereabouts, I meandered back down to Olympia where we’d gone to an open house only to find our lengthy drive was wasted…house already with offers, agents not showing up. The traffic, too, was at least as bad as in Seattle.

But, I was bored, so I started looking “around” the area—cheapest houses in the two, three, four, five hundred thousands. Wandering a bit to the west, I began to recall favorite spots I’d visited on trips to the ocean with my parents, then husband and daughter. So many memories. I meandered to Montesano, where we always stopped at the Bee Hive for burgers and malts. Pretty houses, a bit cheaper than around Lacey and Olympia, but still in the two hundred thousands.

Then, I got to Aberdeen and Hoquiam—names that spurred the excitement of “almost to the beach.” Many houses in those towns had prices as good as the small Eastern Washington towns! I found one I couldn’t get out of my head. Big sixties type structure with hardwood floors, a jetted tub and a huge window in the 2nd floor living room—a really unusual house and with a fireplace and hardwood. It was $179,000…more than most of the homes in the center of town, but in an area called Bel Aire…ritzy sounding and still within the higher limits of our budget.

I showed it to Brad, and he fell for it too. We contacted the listing agent and went to see several in the area but ended up putting an offer on our favorite—daydream candy, indeed. The inspection report was a downer…many things needed fixing and the slope of the back yard and concrete patio to the back of the house scared my horticulture savvy hubby. Reluctantly, we let the house go. Other homes in the area, proved either too damaged/old or in the flood zone—a large section of downtown Aberdeen and Hoquiam.

In the meantime, we’d been told about Faira, a business that takes a smaller cut for realtor work. We decided to go that route. And, every time new homes came on the Grays Harbor market, I checked them out. We went down a second time to look at several and found another one that took our breath away, Though it was $210,000, I excused the slip upwards because we liked it so much—bigger than our current house, some nice hardwood, and especially cantilevered beams in almost all the rooms. I was particularly fond of the fact that the kitchen and laundry room were on the same level…unlike our last dream house. The bedrooms are a hefty 13 steps down but can be accessed from a sliding door at the back of the house. The main allure was the large wall-sized window in the living room, looking out onto a forest. Bliss.

We offered with a contingency for inspection and for selling our home. Then waited with bated breath for the dreaded inspection report. As usual, there were many things including some scary dampness and wood rot along with the presence of previous treatment for carpenter ants. Add in two of four toilets being broken, two of the wall heaters and two ceiling fans dysfunctional, the large deck with some wood rot and needing lag bolts as well as staining, and a few other partridges in our pear tree. This time, however, we weren’t minded to give up as easily as we had with Dayton’s Bluey or the Bel Aire doll house. We settled on asking for the inspector’s Major Concerns list—mend of the wood rot on buildings and deck, broken toilets replaced, cleaning the moss and mold off the roof, and repairing the broken shower stall and bath surround.

At the same time, we listed with Faira—a daunting week of an open house and having perspective buyers and agents trooping through our domicile. This time we staged more dramatically—renting a storage unit to hold excess stuff—a second printer, boxes of books & DVDs & candles, wrapping paper. Christmas and Halloween décor, lots of “décor” items, an extra dresser still filled with clothes, a video case—full, etc.

I painted, touched up, and cleaned until my back was stiff. Brad faithfully fed and scooped boxes for the cats as well as holding ladders for me while warning that we couldn’t afford two disabled people.

When preparing for our guests, we were instructed to hide as many personal items as possible, including any paper products like Kleenex or paper towels. We developed a hectic routine of hurrying from room to room, turning on all the lights, the waterfall, electric fireplace and hiding most everything else. Our cats hid themselves, coming out afterwards looking a bit overwhelmed. As we were ourselves.

During that week, I had a procedure (long scheduled) so we only showed for about five and a half days. Amazingly, we got a cash offer on the first offer review date. Now, we had taken our price down by $40,000 from the first one we’d had when listing in October. Our asking price was near the bottom of acceptable but allowed a quick negotiation to arrive at one still mutually agreed upon.

At the end of our third stage of leaving Seattle, we are waiting to see how all this will play out. Will the sellers accept doing the repairs? Will they be well done? Will there be any surprises in the closing process that we’ve only done once, thirty years ago in 1988? And how about letting my students and venues know I’m actually leaving this time? How about working into a new community? Setting up our TV, internet, phones? Whew. Let alone packing and moving. Why are we doing this again? Stage four comes next.

Ariele Huff hosts the Sharing Stories website and is a third generation Seattleite still living in Seattle…for another month.

SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.). SHARING STORIES is featured on www.northwestprimetime.com, the website for Northwest Prime Time, a monthly publication for baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and those contemplating retirement. The newspaper can be found in the greater Seattle area and other Puget Sound locations. For more information, call 206-824-8600 or visit www.northwestprimetime.com. To find other SHARING STORIES articles on this website type "sharing stories" in the search function above.