Penthouse? Really?

As you probably guessed by my last entry, we have the most ridiculous schedule the next two months. Movers AND cleaners are in Wednesday as we move half our stuff in storage to stage the condo. We go to Atlanta for the weekend and the realtor takes pictures of our place. We get back for two days and leave for a week to Houston for house hunting. While we are gone, they will be doing two open houses. Come back for a week or so, then Vegas (solar conference folks in da houz! Those kids can!). 

Depending on sales status, we are then packing the rest of our stuff and making the trek to Houston. The current goal (as of yesterday) is by the beginning of October to allow for yet-another-blood-test. 

We're seeing some great listings but Eric keeps threatening to put a bid on this penthouse. Sure the list price is only $299,000 but the monthly HOA is $3200. 

Seriously? There are several units up for sale in this particular building and you are asking for what in HOA fees? No wonder it's been on the market for almost a year! Eric thinks if we can get the price reduced and the HOA knocked in half it would be worth it. Because funny. I think he is delusional if he thinks he'll live through this move with suggestions like this one. 

Pretty sure this space was previously owned by a country rap pimp drug dealer.

How I picture the current owner - lover of old skool appliances, white marble, hot tubs, mirrors, white leather/chrome/mirrored furniture, fur, cowboy hats, and teeth bling. Wonder if they'll leave the water bed...

The Theory of Moving in Practice

Weeks of planning, discussing, and cussing, we had a moving plan. In theory anyway. Half our stuff would go into storage. Homejoy would come in and clean after the movers leave. Our home would be staged for photography and then for the open houses - all while we were on one of our trips out of town. Home would be sold by the time we got back from Houston.

Of course, what's nice in theory doesn't always work in practice.

The moving company charges nearly a $1000 for the additional move/storage. A smaller company could do our move but the items in that storage won't be insured by the other moving company during the official move. After some hemming and hawing and multiple discussions with  our realtor, we decided to go ahead with the cheaper mover since the stuff going is covered by our own insurance and is not anything we can't live without.  

Next obstacle. Bay Bridge will be closed during some of this so Homejoy has to show up an hour or so after the movers. And all of this is happening the day before we go  to Atlanta for Dragon*Con. It's okay...we'll sort our stuff to make it easier for the movers and have the cleaners focus on the rooms that are done or won't be touched by the movers.

Next obstacle. Pam had our spare keys. We  thought she had dropped them off with us the  other weekend but it turns out...wrong keys. She's mailing them to us. In the meantime, the realtor has Eric's set.

I won't have a panic attack...I won't have a panic attack.

Eric had some stressy moments this weekend. Hard to blame him, his travel schedule is insane. Much of this will fall to me. Still...I must admit I come super close to throttling him when he suggests  delaying anything.  I have to remind him that the further we delay...the closer we get to the holidays. "Rip the bandaid off, Eric. You're making it worse," I tell him.

Today we took down personal items and I almost started to cry. Without our artwork, without our personal pieces, this place is no longer home. Moving is suddenly more real. Why can't we just load up our condo onto  a truck and ship it to Houston??

Houston? Really?

I had known for a while that Houston was an inevitability. Eric works for Chevron after all and, while they are headquartered here in San Ramon, the jobs that most interested him were in Houston. So when my company flew me to the holiday party in Houston, we looked around a bit. Admittedly, it was a halfhearted effort. We had just bought our condo in San Leandro and hoped to stay at least two to three years.

Less than a year later and here we are.

Even though I moved to California to be with Eric, I didn't move here just because of him. Many many years ago, I had lived here and loved it. I had always intended to come back. This time...well...I never did make such a vow regarding Houston. Or any part of Texas for that matter.* So this time...I move for him.

We've talked to relocation specialists and realtors and moving companies. I've been sorting through listings. There are open houses to host and the city of Houston to tour. There are trips that were planned far in advance. Eric's mother is coming to visit tomorrow. Last minute good-byes to plan. All before the beginning of October.

Stressed? Me? Nah...

Since we are going on this grand adventure, I thought it might be good to document it. And while this is not the best entry in a blog EVAR, it's gonna have to do. I'll hopefully write more tomorrow.

* No offense meant to the state of Texas. My only time spent in Texas prior to the move threat was for work to our Ft. Worth office. I saw the office, the hotel, and a couple of restaurants. My only impression was that they are really fond of meat products.