House for Sale

 

I moved down to this area a little over 30 years ago for a job. It was a good move as it got me to a less crowed area than where I grew up in North Jersey. In 1991 my wife and I bough a house. The real estate market was in a recession when we bought our house so we ended up getting a slightly bigger house than we were looking for. Our house has 5 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths so there are a few rooms the two of us almost never use. The house has a good layout and is in a good neighborhood so we have really enjoyed living in our house. 

When we bought the house is was in good condition although the people who owned the house before us made some questionable decoration decisions. There was the PINK bathroom, the bright YELLOW kitchen with matching rug and of course the sparkles on the popcorn ceiling. The house sort of had a 60s feel but slowly over the years we made improvements to update the house. This included updating the kitchen to give it a brighter more modern look

 

 Updating the bathrooms to not look like a relic from the 60s

and adding a sun room to let us enjoy the beautiful yard my wife created.

We have really enjoying living in this house and making it our own but it does require a good amount of up keep. With my retirement looming in the next 3 to 5 years we have decided it was time to downsize and start to simplify our life a little. We could of course stayed in our house and paid people to do the all the maintenance. However if we don't move now it will be harder to do in 10 or 15 years so it makes sense to find a smaller place to move to now. 

For the last 3 months we have been preparing our place for sale. Mostly cleaning and getting rid of clutter. And after living in a house for 30 years we had a lot of clutter. We got rid of all the furniture we know we didn't and a lot of stuff we no longer use. It actually felt good to clean house. 

After a little paint and some minor repairs the house was ready for sale by the first week in April. We put the house up for sale on a Thursday and by Friday we already had a full price offer. The current market is starving for homes so any decent house on the market is gone in a few days. We had at least 15 people come through the house between Thursday night and Saturday. We had enough interest and other possible offers that we actually canceled the open house on Sunday. 

 On Monday we accepted the offer and are now in the process finalizing the sale of the house. The people buying the house want to delay the closing until July because of their current lease and that is okay with us because it will give a little more time to enjoy our current house and find our next one. 

I will miss the house when we leave especially the work shop I currently have...

but I'm looking forward living in smaller place with less maintenance so I can dedicate more time to other things like riding my bike.

Holy Kickstand Pandemic Edition

The Holy Kickstand has been in hiding for most of the pandemic but after a member in the insane bike posse had their second minor crash(they're fine but their front wheel needs a little work) I decided to bring it out again. For those of you not familiar with the Holy Kickstand its a is lucky charm that is meant help us stay safe and keep upright at all times during a ride just like a regular kickstand keeps a bike from falling down. Check this link for more details on the the original Holy Kickstand.

Since the pandemic the Holy Kickstand has been enhanced. It has been wrapped with the shroud of bubbles that helps cushion any fall a rider has. It also now contains the medical mask of droplet reduction to help riders ward off bad vapors and humors. 

Before this weeks ride to Neshanic, I performed the Holy Kickstand blessing. Instead of using the Britta water of purity I used Purell sanitizer of surfaces to clean the area we will be riding in. Hopefully this blessing will help keep the posse safe for this riding season. 

We did have a good ride to Neshanic with almost all of the posse in attendance. It was a cloudy day in the high 50s so not a bad day to be on the road.We did this route which put most of the hills in the beginning of the ride. Unlike last week there were no bridge out but we did end up going over bridge on the new 206 bypass across from Mountain View Rd. The bridge wasn't exactly finished but the posse will not pass up a chance to go over a bridge under construction. 

It was a trouble free ride so hopefully the Holy Kickstand will continue to work its magic. It may just be a plastic kickstand wrapped in string, bubble wrap and a medical mask but I'm happy to perform any stupid ritual if it helps keep the posse safe or a least gives them a laugh.

Happy Banter

 

For the past two weeks I haven't been able to ride with the posse as I'm doing some work on my house to get it ready to sell (more on my impending move in a later post). 

I don't mind occasionally riding on my own but after two weeks I really wanted to get back together with the group so I sent out an invite for a ride to Vincentown. We met in Bordentown and it was good to have some other people to ride with. Since the last time we all road together all of the us who weren't already vaccinated managed our first vaccine shot. So now all of use are on our way to being fully vaccinated. Because of this I think the mood of the ride was a little lighter and there was a lot banter going back and forth. 

It was a slightly cold but sunny day and we quickly made our way south towards Vincentown. We did run into a bridge out just north of Cookstown but were able to make our way over the cut in the road by climbing over a little dirt. Of course a bridge out is nothing new on my rides. It fact the ride felt close to normal. I hope as the vaccine is available to more people the case count will finally drop to a point that we can resume most of our normal activities. 

At this time of year as the weather gets warmer and I can do longer rides I always start thinking about possible bike trips. Last year a trip or any travel wasn't safe but this year I'm hopeful there a trip our two in our future.