for our new life, that is. We know that in Mexico we will need to "roll with it" and our practice starts now.

That's because the people who were going to buy our house backed out at the last minute. We were actually up in Seattle at the consulate getting our FM3's when our realtor called and told us not to go to the escrow company the following day to sign papers. Talk about the highs and the lows - getting our visas versus our house deal starting to fall apart.

There was some chance it could be resuscitated but it didn't happen. We go in to the escrow company to pick up our check today, which thankfully is large enough to provide decent consolation.

Our realtor is confident that it will sell quickly since it is such a unique property, and it is already back on the market. Unfortunately without any furniture it won't look as good! We have hired a caretaker to come over once a week and check on things and are in the process of hiring a landscaper for the final mowings of the year and some leaf collection if it goes that far.

While I have some mood swings with the ups and downs of this new reality, we are still excited about heading out of here next week. We leave next Thursday, and I think I will probably be screaming with joy for 100 miles or more!

I think we must have needed a lesson that things don't always go the way you expect them to. We are resilient and positive - and nothing is going to diminish our enthusiasm and excitement for the adventure ahead.

We got our FM3's and menaje approval on the same day we submitted for them! Crazy! I really, really, hope that there will never be a reason for anyone except customs people to take a close look at the pictures. They are pretty horrifying. At least I hope we don't really look like that!

We are heading out this morning to our son's family in Bellingham. The air is crisp and there is fall in the air. I plan on taking the grandkids school shopping. Paul is hoping that everyone will have fun playing with his new Nintendo Wii. The dogs and parrot are looking forward to the car ride. It will be kind of a preview of our big trip that is coming up soon.

Almost more than anything, though, Paul and I are looking forward to sitting in a comfortable chair! (Just kidding)

We are getting down to the last couple of weeks in the Pacific Northwest. It has been a very strange summer here - and not just because of the strangeness of wrapping up our life here. The weather has been cold and rainy, which is very unusual for August. It has made Paul and me long for Mazatlan even more, as if that was possible!

On the urging of a friend in Puerto Vallarta, we decided to go ahead and check into how difficult it would be to get our FM3's up here. We had been planning on getting them in Mazatlan.

So, yesterday we headed to Seattle and were told that we needed a notarized "good conduct letter" from the State Patrol. The State Patrol here in Washington are the recordkeepers for all criminal records for all jurisdictions. So, we headed south to Olympia to the State Patrol headquarters, and an hour later had our notarized letters!

Then I made a bunch of calls to our bank trying to find out how to get a notarized letter stating that our income is sufficient ($1,500/month for both of us.) We got refusal after refusal from everyone we spoke to. So, I decided to call the woman at the bank who had helped me out with our wire transfer hassles when we bought the house in Mazatlan. She's a career banker (as opposed to some of the people we had dealt with who were younger and probably less committed to their careers - and also less willing to try to help...) and she said she would do what she could for me. So I jumped in the car and gave her the sample letter from the Consulate. An hour later she had a notarized letter ready for me that was everything I could have hoped for! YAY!

Today we are spending the day at home, pulling weeds and generally taking care of things that we couldn't do over the last week of almost incessant rain. Tomorrow we head back to Seattle to submit for the FM3. The fellow at the Consulate said it would be ready the same day! We will probably head back there on Friday to pick it up since we will be out anyway going to the escrow signing on our house!

So, we are making progress. Next week we head to Bellingham for a nice visit with our son and his family. I'm looking forward to taking the kids school shopping and having a nice relaxed visit since it will be a while before we see them again.

While we are still here with all the proper addresses attached to our credit cards, etc. we have been getting some things set up for our life South of the border.

We went ahead and signed up with Earth Class Mail. Formerly called Remote Control Mail, it is a mail forwarding business that is set up for people who are comfortable with doing work online. When a piece of mail arrives, you are sent an email. They attach a picture of the outside of the envelope. You can then choose whether to shred or trash the document, or if you'd like them to open it and scan the document for you. You can also have the envelope shipped to someone. So far it is functioning well and we are moving all our mail to them. (The link above gives us credit for each purchase, by the way...)

We also bought a Vonage phone and service. We are really happy with it so far. It hooked up with no problems and we love that we get an email when a voice mail is received - and attaches a sound file so you can listen to it without dialing in to voice mail. They also have a great web interface for managing your account, voice mail, and features. Our Vonage phone has the same area code as our Earth Class Mail address, which we assume will help keep things less confusing along the way.

We purchased car insurance from the same agent we have our house insurance in Mazatlan. We got a one year policy for all of Mexico for our 2003 Honda minivan for $408.00 USD. He emailed the policy to us so we have it ready for when we cross the border.

We are going to give our son a bunch of deposit slips to our bank account for the odd check that may need to be deposited. We are changing our car registration to his house so that we can keep up on our Washington State car tabs in case we want to drive to the US.

I have talked to our US car insurance and they will put our insurance on a kind of "hold" for six months for $50.

We've changed all our bank accounts to be "online only" for bank statements. Our main bank is Wells Fargo. When we get to Mazatlan we'll set up an account with Bancomer. The Wells Fargo account can link to the Bancomer one and we can transfer (up to $3,000 per day) from the Wells Fargo to Bancomer. This type of account was created to assist Mexicans here in the US who want to transfer funds to family in Mexico but it works just great for our needs, too. (There is a $5 per transfer fee)

Both of us have been to the doctor in the last couple of weeks, too. Paul needed a tetanus shot and we both needed Hepatitis A. The Hepatitis A is two shots, six months apart, so I will need to get the second one in Mexico. We also had labs done and got written prescriptions so we have them with us in case we are questioned at the border. All in all we feel like we are pretty healthy. Our COBRA coverage from Paul's job will cover us until we get health insurance set up in Mexico. We intend to have just "catastrophic" coverage, and will set aside a chunk of savings for medical use if necessary. We plan to pay out of pocket for our appointments and lab work.

More later!

Wow, what a trip.

In hindsight I can see that I overscheduled myself with stressful activities - two travel days, a house closing, and a dental implant really were a bit much.

But whenever you challenge yourself you grow, and I know I did on this trip.

I got home last night and found out that we have an offer on our house. We are meeting with our realtor this afternoon to discuss the particulars and sign it or counter. I am in such a stunned state from the trip I can barely absorb the news.

I have some more vacuuming and cleanup this morning but after I'm done with that I intend to just sit and have some quality time with our dogs. I guess that's resting up after a vacation!

I haven't posted in almost a week because the only thing I wanted to talk about was something we didn't dare discuss....

But four days after putting our house on the market we had an offer - from someone who needed occupancy on June 18! See what I mean about too good to be true? Paul has to work until August 3 so I scrambled around and got us booked into a long term stay hotel, got started packing our menaje de casa, etc., etc.

The buyer wanted to make some changes to the property - adding a building and running a small business, and the county won't allow it, I guess.

So we are back to square one...which is usual in real estate, I guess.

There is a broker's open house scheduled for the 31st, and I'm sure that after the brokerage community sees the place we will start having more showings.

What a week this has been! The house is in total disarray and at times I feel like I am never going to get done....then Paul comes home and calms me down and shows me how much progress I've made. Last night I was close to meltdown and thankfully we went out for dinner. Afterwards I felt hopeful again.

This week the handyman came and boxed in a beam in the basement. I caulked, and sanded, and primed.

I sanded the butcher block countertops in the kitchen and gave them two coats of sealer.

I weed-whacked the animal pen since its entrance was blocked by the huge pile of bark so Paul couldn't get the mower in there. Thankfully the bark pile is reduced now so he could mow after I knocked it all down.

We moved a lot of things around....a bench that I was ready to toss looks beautiful now tucked up under a cedar tree - a perfect place to survey the property. Our duck house got moved, too, also under a cedar tree, and is now the place we keep the duck feed and barley straw.

The carpet people came and installed the new carpet in the basement. It looks great, but they scuffed up the paint some so when I paint the beam I will touch up the paint they scuffed.

I started painting the bedroom. I've been dreading it since the ceilings are vaulted, there is a skylight and a window seat, and I had to prime one wall since it was painted a dark color. I did about half the room yesterday and should be able to finish the room this morning. Last night we slept on the hide-a-bed in the tv room.

I moved a ton of bark...still have a bit left, which I need to haul and spread on the beds closest to the house.

This afternoon I'll start moving our office down to the basement. Our plan is to spend tomorrow (Paul is taking the day off) moving the rest of our furniture to the old office and tv room so the house is ready to have the hardwood floors refinished.

Tomorrow afternoon we take the dogs and birds to the kennel. I need to write up instructions for the birds and get together all their food. Paul is buying a cage for Tiko this afternoon which he'll use at the kennel and that will be his travel cage when we drive to Mexico.

Sometime during all this we need to pack, too, since we head to Mazatlan on Saturday. It has been in the 50's here for a couple of weeks, so we will be happy to see the sun and feel warm.

When we come back there are still some chores to do but we are hoping to list the house sometime during the week of the 15th. So we actually will meet our goal!

We'll post sometime while we're in Mazatlan to report on our househunting progress. For now, it's time to head to the bedroom and my waiting paintbrush!

It's funny how I am fully experiencing every day lately. Not like sometimes, where only looking back do you realize how great a day was, or how much you liked something.

For example, today is a day to remember. The painters are here, and plastic is draped all over everything. The kitchen was totally taped and plasticized before I realized I was hungry so while they were out in their cars eating I untaped a couple of places and grabbed the bread and peanut butter. I then went back in the office, where both birds and their cages are sitting on a big blue tarp...and putting a silice of bread on my knee, smeared on peanut butter and folded it over. Just like when I was a kid.

The painters are listening to Olivia Newton John singing Grease, and a couple of the painters are talking to each other in Spanish.

It's been raining off and on so I have gone outside a few times to work on the photinia hedge and then get driven back inside when it starts up again.

I have a lot of outdoor work that I've been saving for this week, so I'm disappointed by the rain...but it is a happy day today, and we're still making good progress. ¡Somos casi listos!

I sat outside this morning with my coffee, listening to the birds and noticing all the signs of spring.


The dogwood is about to bloom, and the japanese maple behind it already has its leaves.

We had a busy weekend, mostly moving wood chips to make the place look neat for when the house goes on the market. We are about halfway through the huge pile of chips our tree trimmers left us last winter.


We spread weed block fabric and have almost finished the bed here with the buddleia bushes.


Next week when the painters are here painting the interior ceilings I won't be able to be inside so I plan on putting new plastic on the raised garden beds we aren't using this year. You can see I probably should make a rhubarb crisp for dessert tonight!


I know I'm lucky to be able to take this time to say goodbye to this property. I'm not sad, I am just noticing all the lovely things about it every day and enjoying them. I am ready to move on, to move to Mexico. My enjoyment of the present in no way reduces the anticipation and excitement of the next chapter in our lives.

We started this blog to document the process of our move to Mexico, and right now most of our focus is on getting our house and property ready to sell.

It is exciting now because everything I do is so visible. We still have a lot to do but I have a week-by-week to-do list and so far our progress is just what I wanted.

This week I have repainted the terra cotta wall in our kitchen. I also painted the seat in the kitchen and found ready-made cushions for it. I cleaned the carpet in the basement room - so now we don't have to replace it!

Our Maytag dishwasher was subject to a recall and after a lot of hassle I negotiated that they would reimburse us the price of the dishwasher when we bought it. It was funny to me that they have an "escalation team" who made the decision to reimburse us $499 when the only thing they offered originally was the repair made at no cost...of course after waiting two months they said the part wouldn't be available for another three weeks! Score one for Nancy! I have a new dishwasher being installed on Friday, which should be another plus for when we sell the house.

Last weekend we went to several "Open Houses" to see how our house stacks up. Then we met with a realtor and reviewed her comparative market analysis. We were pretty pleased about the market value and feel if we price it right we shouldn't have too much trouble selling. Interest rates are still ok, and activity out here is warming up now that it's spring.

My birthday came and went this week, too....although it really continues since Adam and Martha will be here from Mexico City this weekend to help celebrate. Son Phil and our grandkids are coming from Bellingham, also. Daughter-in-law Jen is staying home to take care of the business so they can come down.

Adam is planning on really limiting his time in the US this year so that he won't have to pay US taxes - so this trip is a real treat. He has business up here and then heads to El Salvador for more business. Martha just finished Mexico Fashion Week and said she is bringing show-and-tell for the event so we can see what it was like. Who knows, maybe we'll be down there for next October's Fashion Week!

Phil and the kids are always up to something new. Hopefully he will bring his pickup truck so he can take the pinball machine we are giving him, as well as the ladder and other miscellaneous household goods. It will be fun to have an Easter egg hunt with the kids, and I imagine the Easter bunny will find them here, and maybe also at home!

So, life continues, and the house continues to look better and better. Today since it is gorgeous and sunny I plan on spending the day weed whacking instead of inside painting. I can always paint on a rainy day, but a gorgeous day like this is too nice to spend inside!

Time is just flying by!

We are in our last month before we list the house and lots of projects are being completed. It feels so good!

We have been working outside quite a bit and the property is looking great. I'm glad we had the tree trimmers leave us a huge pile of wood chips when they were here last winter, as we have been putting them on all the beds. I have been transplanting and dividing lots of plants so it should look beautiful once they get established.

I love to garden, and I'm excited about learning how to garden in a warmer climate. It will be nice once we get our place to know what kind of garden we'll have - will it be only in pots on a patio or will there be some real dirt to dig in?

The laundry room now has its cabinets and counters installed, and I plan on painting the room tomorrow. The seat in the kitchen is reinstalled and I need to paint and fix that up, too. I need to find an uphosterer or make cushions for the seat there and also in our bedroom. There are a couple of other rooms to paint also so I should stay busy for the next month.

There are boxes everywhere....one for each family member - I keep adding items to them as I come across things as I'm sorting and clearing out.

All my worries about whether we could get everything done seem to be groundless...and that makes me very happy!

It's a big project to move out of the country...but things are proceeding pretty well. Just this week I realized that I'm not as tense as I was since more and more of my tasks are either completed or planned.

Our garage sale is this weekend, and we have a pretty good feeling about how it will go. Our pet sitters and my hair stylist have passed the word, and I have put up advertisements and an ad in the paper. We really hope it doesn't rain, although the forecast calls for it. I think people might be ready for the first garage sale of the season!

Mr. Mike (the handyman) comes Monday to install cabinets in the laundry room. These are off the shelf cabinets that we're having installed since our house was built without a linen closet! He's also putting in a new laundry sink and changing out the light fixtures. When he's all done, I'll paint. He is also re-installing the bench seat in the kitchen that we removed to make a parrot nook. Then I will make a new cushion and repaint in there, too.

Landscapers come Monday also to put in a bunch of Nandina next to the foundation and to clean out a bed that has been bothering me a lot. We are also having them put a thick layer of play chips on our garden paths in between the raised beds. I worked out there all day yesterday and will be back at it today to clean up the raised beds, and divide some of the perennials. I have a lot of knifofia (red hot pokers) now to plant somewhere else and also some daylillies and alliums. Paul and I still have a lot of wood chips to spread around.

The painters will be here in late April. They'll paint all our interior ceilings and also a couple of rooms.

In May the floor refinishers arrive. When we get back from Mazatlan we should be ready to list the house.

I haven't had a laptop since I was a property manager back in the early 90's. I had a Ricochet modem and I thought I was pretty hip.

I had not wanted a laptop since then, never seeing myself as the type who computes in the local coffee shop or at a picnic in the park. Although, I will admit that my morning news fix would be a lot more comfortable in the kitchen than at my desk.

But here I am, all fixed up on my new laptop, and enjoying it like crazy. Vista seems ok so far, too.

This brings us just another step closer to packing the car!

We're made our reservations to return to Mazatlan in early May. This time we are going to rent a car so that we can explore every nook and cranny of the city and the surrounding countryside.

We'll only be there a week, but we hope to make headway in locating a house for ourselves, the dogs Lucy and Henry, and our Yellow-Shouldered Amazon, Tiko. (his picture is below)

All of the projects I have been working on here are starting to come together, and we should be in good shape to put our house on the market when we get back.

As regular readers know, I am not working outside the home anymore, but am "project managing" our move to Mexico. I am a very organized person and I really like to work efficiently....but project managing is harder than I thought!

The way I look at it is I need to work backwards from our desired result - which is to be moving to Mexico by September or October of this year. Pretty much all the work around the house needs to be completed by the time we put the house on the market, or early May.

We live in a rural area, on ten acres. Our house is about 30 years old. We have a vegetable garden with about 15 raised beds, a couple acres of grass, and numerous fruit trees, grape vines, and perennial beds. It rains a lot here so there is always painting, gutter cleaning and repairs to do. I'm sure once it stops raining for a few days and I can get started outside I will feel better about our progress.

So, here's my schedule:

March 1-15 - Get bids for painting. Hire handyman. Call landscapers. Call fence company. Get floor refinishing bids. Find a new home for our Maximillian Pionus, Maya. Get Nancy's new laptop all set up.

March 15-31 - Garage sale March 24/25. Have fence repairs done. Start landscaping cleanup. Turn the office back into a bedroom.

April 1-15 - Get handyman to make repairs here and there. Install tile in TV room. Paint master bedroom. Paint upstairs bathroom.

April 15-30 - Pump septic tank, test well water, have furnace & heat pump inspected. Have ceilings, basement room, and outside trim painted. Have wood floors refinished, install new carpet in basement. Interview realtors.

May 1-15 - Trip to Mazatlan to secure housing. Nancy appointment with new dentist. (that's a long story)

May 15 - List house with realtor. Paul gives three months notice at work.

July-August - Sell house! Hold second garage sale where we sell everything! See if it will all fit in the van. If not, see about options for movers. Assemble paperwork required for FM3. Sell Paul's car. Make arrangements for mail forwarding. Maybe a quick trip to Mazatlan for paperwork relating to housing. Set up Mexican bank account.

Couple weeks before we move: Have a party!

Week before we move: Get health certificates for the dogs and parrot.

September/October: Load the van & drive!

I know I'm downplaying a lot of the tasks - like "securing housing" in Mazatlan. That could be an easy task, or it could be hard. The place we like may need some remodeling or repairs. Selling our house here could drag out. There are a lot of variables.

In addition to this we still have our normal life going on - with meetings, volunteering, family get togethers, etc. We're not really "out" to everyone about our move - for example I haven't told the community newspaper where I volunteer doing their website yet. (I will this week) Paul's boss only knows it will be "before the end of the year."

Why is it that when you are excited with anticipation for something new to come that time moves so slowly?

Having made the decision to move to Mazatlan, we are able to focus our attention on what we need to do to make that happen. There is a lot to do, as anyone who has ever disassembled a household can attest! And to move out of the country adds a whole layer that complicates everything.

I believe I have the tasks we need to accomplish pretty well lined out. Some of them are complicated - like refinishing our wood floors before we put the house on the market. We are thinking that we will coordinate the work for our next trip to Mexico - board the dogs and the birds, have the work done, and then lock the door so they can cure while we are gone. (We hope that is in April, when we go look at property in Mazatlan)

The thing I am working at is to try to stay in the present as much as possible. Life here is still good. I still love our property. We enjoy ourselves, and always do, no matter where we are. So I am trying to not think so much about the future that I miss the present.

This is our last winter here. I should enjoy it! Spring is coming, and that is my favorite time here - with daffodils, quince, and cherry in bloom! (One thing about life in the North, you really appreciate Spring.)

The present is great. The future will be great. Life is wonderful. I am lucky to have a great partner and to have the ability to choose my path.

Enter at your own risk...it's kind of a mess here!

The first picture is of me at my desk working on moving all our music from cds to the computer. We recently bought a Creative Zen 60 GB MP3 player as well as a 160 GB hard drive for backups. Our thinking is that all our music as well as our data will be on the new hard drive. Of course the new MP3 player will be a treat to use not just for music but for Spanish lessons and general goofing around.

The picture also shows (horrors) the boxes under my desk full of books and other stuff to sell on eBay. The cds on the floor are what remains to be ripped to the computer. The blue bone belongs to Henry, the schnauzer-poodle mix.


The following picture shows all the cd's I have finished. This has been an amazing project, but we should be pretty happy with the result. I think I'll donate the cds to our local library before we head down.


When we move to Mexico we'll bring our little stereo from the kitchen which has a wire to connect to the MP3 player, and "presto" all our music will have moved along with us!

I was trying to think of a blog topic that was not just sufficiently interesting but also related to our move to Mexico, and I was coming up against a dead end.

I think the reason is that I am totally pooped out after several days of non-stop painting. And then I realized that the reason I am painting my little heart out is because I am working on getting the house ready to sell! And....presto! I had my topic.

Of course it still isn't very interesting, but activities like painting are what are going to get us out of here because the place looks so sharp. As I work I am probably doing a better job than if we were staying here because I keep saying "this will get called out in the inspection if I don't fix it."

So, the upshot is that I have learned how to retexture walls and have finished painting our spare room and the upstairs hallway. In order to finish the hallway I need to rent scaffolding, and that will wait until after Paul's daughter visits next week.

-Nancy