The ‘fun’ starts
It all started in February 2017 when my husband’s company asked him to “help out” at one of their locations in the Southeastern side of the Pacific Northwest (Southern Washington). I thought it would be fun to join him and see a new place I have never been to before. Well I didn’t realize the southeastern side of the Pacific Northwest was mostly desert and during that time it was right in the dead of winter and one of the worst winters they had had in 20 years. For miles in every direction all I could see was white, white, white against gray skies everywhere. It was all so desolate and I just couldn’t understand why. Then I realized there were no trees! I couldn’t wait to get back to sunny California and all of our trees! Then, just when we were getting ready to head back home, my husband sat me down and told me the VP of his company made an offer to him that he couldn’t refuse… a promotion, to stay there. It would be a great boost for his retirement; he retires in three years so we gladly accepted. We thought this would be great, we could sell our home and start over and see what it’s like to live in another state.
Not so fast!
Well it wasn’t that easy; our home in California was being remodeled and they wanted my husband to start immediately. They gave him two weeks in California to get the moving arrangements together and the sale of our home done. We got back home in March 2017 and assessed everything that needed to be done. We were going to need more than two weeks to get our home ready to put on the market. We already had the demolition started on our master bedroom and bathroom before we left for his business trip. So we put it into high gear to see how much we could get completed in two weeks before my husband had to head back to the Great Pacific Northwest. I have to hand it to him, he did a lot in those two weeks! He was very exhausted though by the time it was time to go back work.
I stayed behind and hired a few people to help with the completion and after a grueling two months of hammering, painting and cleaning, in May 2017 our home was finally ready to put on the market. Yippy! We were ready to sell! I loved our home, we lived in it for 12 years and it was our first home we bought together after we got married. And did I mention our home was waterfront property with a beautiful view of the Delta waters and sunset views over Mount Diablo? It was beautiful… I so love our views.
Selling a home in Cali
The first day on the market we had multiple offers but all were contingencies upon selling their home. My husband’s company offers a relocation package to all managers when promoted as a bonus, they handle all the details of selling our home to protect for our best interest and to make the relocation as easy as possible. Well they made it easy but refused to allow contingency offers. And this is where the headache began.
Our home sells! Sort of.
After two more months of getting nothing but contingency offers, it finally happened! In mid-July, we got an offer and it went under contract – yes! My husband and I decided we had been apart long enough and it was getting expensive flying back and forth to see one another, so my husband flew back to pick me up….we loaded up my car with a couple of suitcases and our fur babies, “Poopie Cat” And “Winnie Dog” and drove to the southeastern side of the Pacific Northwest, Kennewick, Washington.
We rented a one bedroom furnished apartment to wait for the close of our home. We had all these plans, we put an offer in on a beautiful home on a hill overlooking the Tri-City lights (one of my requests was to have a home with a view.) but the Lord had another plan for us.
Taking things for granted
After another two months of living in the one bedroom apartment with no washer and dryer in it, and fires all around us causing smoke to fill the air so bad that we couldn’t see daylight, and could hardly breathe we needed to wear respirators….All of this was so very humbling I have to tell you. The little things, you don’t realize how much we take them for granted until you don’t have it anymore. (Oh how grateful and thankful I am for the air I breathe and my washer and dryer and all the other little things I have taken for granted. Thank you Lord!) Well after all that, the sale of our home in California fell through, the market dropped and therefore we had to cancel the purchase of the beautiful home we had on contingency out here in Washington on the hill. Yep, after all that, we were back to square one.
Coming out on the other side!
So October 2017 comes, and we let the Lord lead us and decided to just keep our beautiful home on the water that we had so many wonderful memories in and rent it out. At that same time a lovely 2-bedroom apartment came available at a different complex we had looked at a month prior here in Washington and they were running a great special on it along with a garage to store all of our belongings we couldn’t fit into the new apartment (for it’s only temporary). All the doors of life were being thrown wide open! We now will be able to save a boat-load of money and it has a little view of the Tri-cities, a beautiful sunset view and a washer and dryer in it!! Yaaay!! So in spite of all the difficulties and trials we went through, all this has brought me and my husband closer together, closer to God and I was finally able to complete my Tammy’s Tune Totes website from all the time I had being stuck in the little one bedroom humble apartment during all the fires. As I look back on all of it now it was all rather sweet and I am so very thankful.
Thank you for sticking with me on my story, clear through to the end. It has been an adventure!
