A smooth trip

It took us 18 hours to reach Switzerland, including two layovers, one in Minneapolis and one in Paris.

We had about four hours to wait in Minneapolis so we decided to have one last American meal before crossing the Atlantic. 

In Paris we got to walk on the tarmac. Just like when I was a little girl going on vacation to Spain with my parents. It is rare to get this experience nowdays with those new flexible corridors that bring us right to the plane's door. There, we could smell the aircraft exhaust...love it :-)

We are back...living in the bus!

2015 has been very eventful, right from the beginning. It all started with the decision to put our home on the market.

It is amazing how much stuff we accumulated in five years. We had lots of help from our friends to clean up the yard, paint railings and pack.

 Ingrid Pasco, our friend and realtor, organised a beach party in celebration of everyone's hard work and a smooth, profitable sale of our house.

My parents were also here to lend a hand. They actually came for their annual relaxing vacation, not knowing what was about to happen. They both worked hard. My mom helped me with cleaning the house and keeping the daily shores done while I was packing. My dad work in the yard with the kids.To make it up to them, we rented a vacation home by the ocean for what was left of their 2 month stay. After the craziness of the move we all enjoyed a bit of "doing nothing"...well, doing nothing never lasts very long :-)

Late March we moved into our dear old bus with our two dogs. It is a great feeling to down size and go back to just the essentials. I think we still have too much unnecessary stuff in the bus, though ;-)
It has been a great period for our family!

Staying cool

These last couple of weeks have been quite hot in San Diego, especially inland where we are! Good think that our A/C is working well. Today I brought my friend Sophie to see the house. We exchanged some ideas on interior decor. I am very anxious to get the green light to start furnishing and decorating but until then it just happens in my mind. After the house visit Marion (Sophie's daughter) and Eva arranged a tea party under the slide out... with chilled sparkling cider instead of hot tea, of course!

Aren't they precious?
Hope that you are all staying cool!

Sylviane

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.