It has been an interesting 10 months since our last true adventure. What has happened could be categorized as adventurous by some I suppose and for us there were plenty of thrills, spills, uphills and downhills.

First, after Ben tells us in the spring of 2023 he plans to live on on his own the moment he graduates and gets a job, Christy and I decide to sell our beloved Beaches house now, close in the fall and then find a way to help Ben land on his feet after he graduates in the spring of 2024. The house has always been a big part of our retirement plan but selling now accomplishes a few things:

• takes advantage of the market which is still good but declining
• avoids us having to renew our mortgage at 7.5+% in the fall which would be killer
• gets us completely out of debt now
• massively reduces our monthly expenses
• finances our next adventures!

The problems are getting it ready and saying goodbye to our way of life for the past 23 years. It will be emotional.

The house fights back a bit, I guess it doesn’t want us to leave. The pre-inspection uncovers termites which adds a ton of work and expense and creates a negative impression. There’s a bunch of other stuff we have to deal with too. Still we get through that and finally find a lovely family buyer who adore our home and buy it for a price we can all agree on.

We have a Thanksgiving party for all our friends and our kids’ friends and it is the usual blast. Very emotional scene with the Plaxtons on the back deck late in the evening. We will miss them terribly.

Final Thanksgiving dinner with Blair and his lady Diane and that’s the last big meal in our beloved home.

Christy has the great idea of buying a condo with our extra funds and within a week we’ve found and bought the perfect 2+1 at Greenwood and Danforth. This helps us, Audrey and Ben and we close the same day as our house sale.

We also secure a storage locker in Huntsville. The moving out and moving in is, of course, a massive amount of work but, of course, it gets done.

Ben is stoic on his departure for school in September but Christy, Audrey and Perry bawl our eyes out on the final departure moment when the house is empty and we leave for the final time. It feels surreal.

This all happens the last week of October 2023. Christy and I make a few (too many) trips back and forth to set up the condo.

And speaking of surreal, the new owners of 174 Silver Birch are having a problem with the rads in Audrey’s and Ben’s old rooms (still feels weird to say that). I know exactly why – when I fixed the rad in the dining room last summer, I inadvertently turned OFF the rads in the back rooms. So I go over there to show Kate where the rad shutoff is in the basement. Talk about strange to park, walk up to the old house that is no longer mine. Their decorating style mirrors ours and it is hard to believe this is no longer my house. I choke up a bit as I say goodbye to Kate.

Choke up even more a few days later when they send us their plumber’s bill for $1200.