The kids have flown to their own lives, we want to live leaner, and now it’s time to let go of our beautiful big house that has sheltered us so well for 20 years. The new dream house is a place in the country with a little land around it, no more than an hour’s drive from Portland.
Big order. I looked at the map and saw all the wide open spaces around Portland and thought it would be easy to find a couple of acres with a view. Something with an elevation so we’re not living on soggy bottom land. It turns out a lot of people want the same thing, so our choices appear limited. Our search has been cursory, though, we need to get serious and settle on an area and engage a realtor.
And we have to do this while my husband works at his stressful job and I pack up our goods and work on the interior of our house to get it ready to sell.
Ah, packing. I’m astonished at how much of my stuff I really don’t care about, how easy it is to let it go. It’s not downsizing as much as shedding. Room by room: a big box for Goodwill and one for a garage sale, a trash bag, and boxes for the things that make the cut.
A corner of the basement is stacked with boxes of items we’re taking with us. Lord, just the idea of hauling these boxes to a storage unit, carrying them into our new forever home, and then unpacking and finding a place to put everything makes me want to chuck them all.
Signe Kopps 