Back in August I posed that Mrs. EMS Artifact and I have decided to move out of state. Specifically to Texas, which will be the fruition of a long time desire.

In the earlier post I listed a lot of what we did to make the house saleable at a good price. In mid September, the house went live on the market place.

Below is some of what happened after that. Things are moving so quickly that from when I started this post until today a lot more has happened.

Anyway the moving update.

We had the place sold two weeks ago at a bit over asking price. The P&S was pending inspection which should have gone quickly. Should have. Turns out that the buyer is, well, nucking futs. After three visits, her totally crooked home inspector found her that out that she had clearly been looking for. Why she changed her mind, I neither know or care.

The immediate effect was that we had to pull our offer on beautiful house in the suburbs of Austin.

My wife and I were in a panic, and not a mild one. If we couldn’t disprove what her home inspector said was the issue, we’d be stuck until next year trying to figure out if there was a real issue. After two days, no one could figure out what he was saying and the report he sent us had no standard range of values. A friend who is an experienced environmental health and safety engineer said he’d never seen anything like the report in over a dozen years in the field.

Our realtor decided to go ahead and relist with the bogus report disclosed. That was exactly a week after the deal blew up. A wasted week as we couldn’t continue looking for a new house.

House was listed Friday, realtor called me Saturday morning that she had multiple showings scheduled with the first in about an hour. I woke up Mrs. Too Old and we executed our “Abandon Ship” drill. I went out for breakfast with a friend and she did something. We met later in the day and then drove around for a few hours until the “All Clear” was sounded.

We got two good offers. In fact, they were several thousand more than crazy broad had offered. Plus one of them had rock solid financing and was waiving the home inspection. Deal.

There was only one problem. The buyers have to be out of there house by the end of October. We now have three weeks to complete six weeks of moving, cleaning, packing, disposing of 43 years of accumulated crap. The Yard Sale idea went right out the window.

The P&S is signed, we have a closing date, we have notified our moving company. Now we just need to find a new place to live. 2,100 miles away.

That search starts with a couple of Facetime showings with our TX realtor. Unfortunately, someone else fell in love with the house that we wanted, but actually there are others just like it in the same area.

We looked at a couple with our realtor via Face Time. One looked beautiful from the outside and had a very well set up office space. At least it looked beautiful in the realty posting on line. When our realtor went out in person iPhone in hand it was a different story. There were several indicators that there is likely possible foundation damage that will need to be repaired. Mrs. EMSArtifact and I have decided that we don’t want a “project” or “handyman special.” We want a house that needs nothing more than maybe some interior painting.

Yesterday we looked at another house. It was in better condition than the first, but has carpet that needs to be replaced with different flooring, many rooms need painting, and as it sits is only worth $10,000 less than the asking price.

We’ll keep looking as new houses come on the market in that area every day or so.

Meanwhile the packing, sort, tossing, donating, and giving way continues. It’s amazing how much crap you end up accumulating in forty three years. Things that were important to us turn out to be of limited of no value to anyone else. We had plans of a moving sale, but the hard truth is that the few hundred dollars we might realize from that are outweighed by a full day of not being able to pack, sort, toss, …

We’re giving a lot of tools and other items to friends and neighbors who will put them to good use. Clothes are going to a charity organization, as is some food.

Oddly no one seems to want furniture. Maybe because it’s hard to move, but I’d think that someone could use furniture that is in good condition.

We decided to have our movers come and pack up Mrs. EMS Artifact’s kitchen. Hopefully during that process she we realize that we don’t have to feed a family of four and will reduce what we move. Hopefully.

We’re going to technically be “homeless” for a few weeks, but we’ll be living in a Homewood Suites hotel not far from our old place. Once we take care of a few obligations up here, it’s off to Texas.