A step closer to getting the new house!

Well, it is looking pretty good for the house. It’s just an awesome property. There is a 3000 acre preserve owned by the city that is right next to the property. It has lots of trails for biking and horseback riding. As a preserve this huge area will not get developed. Very cool to have this set aside right in our back yard!

I just love this place and it’s looking real good that we will get it.

Yesterday we sent an addendum to the contract for terms that are required as a result of the appraisal. There may be some negotiating to see who pays for what repairs. We expect that the seller will pay for all the repairs but still need to hear from the seller.

Very good family friends have just moved back to san diego. They lived in Paris for the past couple of years and flew into LA Monday night. We surprised them by bringing the bus up to pick them up at LAX. Several friends came with us and it was a fun welcome back party! Champagne and laughter and food. There were four ladies, six kids and Me, the driver (BTW I only had one sip of the champagne for the welcome home toast). It was a blast and Sophie was surprised to see we picked her up in our bus. She hasn’t had a chance to see it since we finished it. The kids were playing back in Ben and Eva’s room most of the time. For me it was just awesome to look in my mirror and see everyone having a good time.

I think there will be a basic difference now in the way we use the bus. For the past year the bus has been our home and our platform to live a traveling lifestyle. In the luggage bays I have all my tools, spare parts for the bus, gold mining gear, fishing gear, survival gear, camping gear, and gear and gear and gear.... On the car we have bikes and boat and stuff that just couldn’t get squeezed into to the luggage bays.

But now I see us using the bus more as a vacation RV. Most of the gear we have now won’t be needed on the bus all of the time. We can just bring what we will use for that trip. The mentality of vacation travel verses "the traveling lifestyle" will be much different too. We loved the traveling lifestyle, don’t get me wrong, but naturally there’s going to be a difference as we use it more for vacations now.

The past three weeks has been an intense period! I am looking forward to things settling down a bit and spending more time with Sylviane and the kids.

Bluegrass festival

Ben and Eva spent the last four days at the bluegrass festival in Vista. They were part of a kid's camp where they learned and practiced some songs. In the picture Eva is on the left side, in front, looking at her guitar (well, her grandpa's guitar!) and Ben is also in front but on the far right. They both had a wonderful time making friends, performing and spending time with grandpa and grandma. I wish I knew how to put a video on the blog that way you could hear them play and sing too. It was so cute! I had tears running down my cheeks... can't help it!
They will be back tomorrow morning.
While they were gone, instead of shopping for flooring, I did some spring cleaning... just to try to keep my mind off the house... the wait and uncertainty is driving us nuts!

Thank you for keeping your fingers crossed for us!

Sylviane

Still waiting...

Today an appraiser is coming to see the proprety. Maybe we'll find out what his price is late today or more likely tomorrow. Our offer might be higher than the appraisal price which will result in more negotiations. We just need to buckle up and hang on to our seat for this roller coaster ride!

Today Ben and Eva are going with their grandparents to a bluegrass festival which they've been going to every year since the festival started six years ago( Eva missed the first year!). They will both be part of a kid's camp where they practice some songs together or as different bands and will perform on stage on Sunday. They will both be playing the guitar. They couldn't wait for this day to come. It's always a bunch of fun spending a week end with grandma and grandpa... staying up late, sweet treats and who knows what else... it's their secrets! I am so grateful for this close relationship they have with their grandparents.

What will I do without them for four days? Well, I will go check out some charter schools in the area that offer homeschooling program and learn more about them since it would be the first time we use them. I'll go get some color samples for the walls of the house and look at some flooring... a lot of fun stuff!

As if all this wasn't enough for excitement for this month our good friend Sophie is coming back to San Diego next week. She has been gone for a whole year living in Paris, France. August is a very special month indeed! Lots of great changes...

Sylviane

Some news on the house.....

This roller coaster has been a nerve wracking ride with thrills and tense moments. We did not hear anything yesterday as we expected to, regarding our offer for “The House”. Last night and morning was a bit low and we were looking at other possibilities from the list we have on line.

There were three houses that we liked the most out of all that we saw. But still none of them fits us, not nearly as well as the one we really want. "The House" fit us just perfectly. Looking at everything else on the market made us want “The House” even more. I felt drained, and I felt tired. I wasn’t feeling as positive as I have up to this point.

I called the lending agent to ask a question but only got his voice mail. He didn’t call back for awhile.

Finally I saw a call come into my cell phone...... it was from our agent!

He said that we had a counter offer from the Owner (a bank). So now we are back in the game after feeling like we were out. The news of the counter offer finally, slowly, sunk in, it looks real good for us at this point!

There is still a concern about how the appraisal comes in, and what things need to be fixed to be eligible for an FHA loan. But we are still in the game and in the lead. It looks real good right now but it’s not for certain. Dang this feels great. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I will keep everyone updated as we hear more.

Memories and Feelings

Sylviane has said much of what I am writing here but I want to share my perspective. Some of what I write here has already been said on the blog, but I needed to repeat it just to try to make sense.

Living on the bus the past 11 months has been an awesome experience. As we contemplate settling in one spot, many of the memories and feelings flood back to me. From our stay at Malibu beach, Campland on the Bay (San Diego), the desert in Quartzite Arizona, Disneyland, windy Bodega Bay, Mendocino and Quincy. The hiking and fishing, crabbing and gold panning, the exploring of new towns and new rivers all come back to mind. Swimming in the surf and time with the family. I think time with the family just hiking together, or telling stories around the campfire were awesome. The special things like abalone picking, horse back riding, seeing all the deer and so many other things, are great memories too. This has been a trip we will all remember for the rest of our lives.

One of the reasons that we wanted to travel is to find a place to settle down. My goals were to just work remotely via computer wherever we found the most desirable location to live. Be that Mendocino or the Sierras, Oregon or anyplace in the country that we decided was the best. Of course the thought of not living near the ocean is just out of the question. We tried real hard to convince ourselves that maybe if we found a place with a river and/or a lake that we could sacrifice being close to the ocean. But after a lot of thought and discussions we decided that we just can’t live away from the coast. Mendocino was awesome. We all liked it a lot. The fishing, the abalone, the basic attitude of the residents, are all great. But it was very secluded. Sometimes my job would require me to meet in person. It is hard to avoid meeting in person or on jobsites completely, even though I would like to do all of my work remotely I now have learned that is not practical. To fly out of Mendocino was a tough couple hour drive to San Francisco, then another flight to wherever I needed to go.

Not sure I ever described what I do for work on this blog so I will give a quick idea of what that is:

I work for a construction company as a project manager. So I negotiate and write contracts, change orders and basically over see specifics projects to make sure that it completes on time and below budget. I also work to insure the client is happy with our services. I made arrangements with my employer that I would work half time for half pay as we traveled. It has worked out generally well. The biggest frustration was having poor internet and cell phone signals, often we had a complete lack of service. It was taking much more time for me to do my work, often I worked 5 or 6 hours in stead of just 4 hours. There were so many fun things to do like fishing and panning for gold or getting some more abalone, that sometimes I felt like there was not enough time to do all that I wanted to.

A month or so ago Sylviane and I decided that we definitely want to end up living in San Diego. Up until 12 days ago we had planned to travel at least one more year. But I tossed out the idea to Sylviane that maybe this is the best time to buy a house. We know where we want to live and it appears to be a very good time for buyers right now. When we add into the equation that our cash flow is slightly negative as we are traveling, the conclusion is that we may not have the cash in a year from now to buy a house.

I expect that we will still be able to take extended vacation several times a year. The bus is all set up for working as we travel. Depending on what stage a project is in there will be times that we can take month away without affecting the project. The start and finish of a project takes the most time so during those periods there is extra work. I don’t mind that type of "seasonal" highs and lows, if fits my style.

We looked at a house last weekend that we like a lot and made an offer. With luck we will hear tomorrow if they accept it. I hope they do because we all love that property.



Bill

Nothing yet

Latest update on "our"(positive thinking helps!) house:
The propriety is being appraised tomorrow. Things seem to be going in the right direction. Bill was told that the final decision would be made on Sunday. I think they like us and we are with no doubts the ones who want it the most. We'll see....

Thanks all for your comments!

The kids and I spent the afternoon at the beach today with our friends.... it was cold... we didn't stay long. The air is quite smoky from the fire in Santa Cruz.

Sylviane

Surprise!!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for leaving you without any news from our adventures for so long.
Here is briefly what we’ve been up to for the last month.
We left Quincy and the mountains in the middle of July to come south to the Monterey area. Bill had to be around to help start a job on the navy base in Monterey and has been going to work everyday. We’ve been staying in a koa camp near Santa Cruz that is geared toward children and families. Ben and Eva have been having a blast and made new friends. We’ve also been visiting with our friends from Modesto... many play dates and sleepovers... a real summer vacation!
This stay also had us reevaluate our priorities and needs as we ran out of steam. Is "a life on the road" the right choice for our family anymore? Traveling is a full time job just by itself. It has been a challenge to keep our needed routines and habits going. Working part time for Bill has often turned into a full time job where the internet connection was slow or intermittent. It’s very frustrating especially when the outdoors is calling you. Anyway, it would take me pages and pages and more pages to explain everything that went through our heads during the last month.
A week and a half ago Bill and I made the decision to buy a house. The market is at its "best" for buyers and it’s the right time for us. San Diego is our choice, THE place that feels like home to us. We contacted a realtor, went through long listings, drove nine hours down to San Diego last Saturday, visited some proprieties, found the perfect one and made an offer. That easy... well, it has been a roller coaster of emotions condensed in such a short amount of time. We are waiting to find out if our offer is accepted or not. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow! The wait is just so unbearable. We haven’t slept much lately. Bill trying to learn everything about buying a house since this is our very first one and me repainting, remodeling and furnishing the rooms in my head.
To us it is a great and exciting change in our life but the down side is that we are stopping the traveling full time. We will still take "Thelma II" out for more adventures during numerous vacations (I hope!) and the rest of the time it will make a lovely guest house.
These last eleven months on the road have been awesome, a very positive adventure, and have taught us a lot about our family dynamics and what our needs are individually. We do not regret any bit of it... we’ve gain so much from it!
Hope that this gear shift isn’t too disappointing to you! (I still expect to keep the blog going)

I promise to keep you updated on the house hunting.

Sylviane