As soon as the Sailor came home we were up and at 'em with some minor repairs to our home. We aren't doing anything too extreme or expensive, we're just trying to give people every reason to buy our home when the time comes. We have completely gotten rid of junk and organized both the attic of our house and the one above our garage. Cleaned out our basement and gone through all the nooks and crannies of our home like the closets and drawers.
We had a yard sale today and will continue it tomorrow. Whatever doesn't sell will not even come back into the house. We will take it immediately to Goodwill and say good riddance. Today's profits were quite spectacular as we made over $400 and I really hope to bring in another $100 tomorrow. Yard sales are awesome and when I get a chance I'll share some of my tried and true advice.
It hasn't been all work and no play here though. Everyone needs a break sometime...
A couple weeks ago we left to go to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure where the amazing Wizarding World of Harry Potter resides. We had a fantastic time in Orlando and at the theme park. There was not a ton of people and the roller coaster lines were super short. Which was fantastic since my daughters are now roller coaster junkies. They must get that from me. The Hulk is all of our favorite roller coaster.
And by the way Butterbeer is heavenly. It is definitely a must if you are in the park. Actually the whole Harry Potter/Hogwarts area is majestic. So much detail and whimsy. It was breathtaking.
I may have to try to make some Butterbeer at home, it's that good. We do have some birthdays coming up...
Since this is a personal finance blog, I will share with you that we did not go over budget for our vacation. We were a few hundred dollars shy of the max (of $3000). Realistically I could have made this trip much more economical, but I wanted to have a bit of a care free vacation. So yes we stayed in a townhouse type hotel with a full kitchen, but the only meals we ate there was breakfast and a few lunches. But not having to do dishes or cook was part of a fun vacation for me too. :) It's exactly why we saved up and why we didn't worry one iota about how expensive dining out was.
After our vacation was over we had to get back into reality, which for us is our impending move to Guam/Hawaii. The Sailor is leaving at the beginning of June to head out to Guam for nine months. The rest of us are moving to Hawaii. Originally we weren't going to be leaving/moving until closer to the end of the year or possibly even the beginning of next year. This is where the changes to our plans come in. They involve speeding things up a bit.
Some new information has come to light and it looks like we will be heading out as soon as we possibly can. Which means we are putting our house up for sale within the next week or so. It seems that there are a lot of buyers looking around right now and it is ideally the best time to show our house too. This changes my first thought of DIY home selling. If we had nine months to spare I would have delved into selling the home myself, but since we are wanting to get out of here ASAP, a Realtor is probably the best way to go.
I was a little apprehensive about rushing into this move, but it does make a lot of sense. Summer is the best time for the kids, since they won't be missing any school. We won't have to worry about moving in three feet of snow come the Pennsylvania winter and it puts us on the list for base housing sooner rather than later. Which is always ideal.
In short, life is crazy at the moment, but I am looking forward to this whole adventure.
This is where I tell you guys that I am still not 100% sure when I will be able to come back to blogging full time, but I definitely have lots of things I want to share and when there is some semblance of normalcy around here I will. And while I don't feel particularly prepared for the enormous life changer that is ahead of us, I know that I would be completely frazzled and panicked if we were still in debt. It's nice to know I have that on my side going into this.
Hoping to give more updates soon and hope everyone is doing well. I do miss all my blog friends! I will be catching up soon!
