Change of Address

Selling your current house and moving to new home is a complicated process. There are so many little details to take care that it can almost be a full time job. Then there is the stress that come with worrying about all the things that could go wrong and totally derail the process. Our move was even more complicated because we were trying to do a simultaneous sell and buy on the same day which is harder than completing the triple lindy.

I am however a man who enjoys a plan especially when it involves challenging logistics. We were also lucky as the people who were buying our house did not make any unreasonable requests for repairs or changes to the house. The only thing they really asked for was for more time as they had a lease until the end of July. This wasn't a problem for us as we were not in any real hurry to move and actually worked out for us as the people we bought our new house from needed some extra time to take care of a death in the family. Although I'm sorry for the families lost it did allow us to do a simultaneous closing which meant we only had to move once.

Even though all the parties involved were reasonable it was still a very stressful process. There are just so many ways for the things to go wrong and turn the transaction into an adversarial process. As our realtor said there is at least once catastrophe in every sales she does that puts the sale on the edge of falling though. Both she and our lawyer said that this was one of the smoothest transactions they have been a part of. I'm not sure this was because we worked hard to get the house in good shape before the sale or if we were just lucky.

Still is was a lot of work getting the house ready for sale and cleaning up 30 years of living in it. Then there was the packing up of all the stuff we wanted to keep while at the same time looking for a new place to live. The last week was the hardest as we had movers come in and put most of our stuff into storage then we had to clean up the house for the new owners. In the middle of this there was a small plumbing problem I had to fix. The last two days before the move I worked 12-15 hours a day to do all those little last minute things that needed to be done before we could leave the old house. This included packing the last bit of stuff we needed to live until the movers delivered our stuff to the new house as well as cleaning up the old house for the new owners. 

Finally around 1:30 pm on July 15 we left our old house with our car's fully stuffed to drive to the new house. It was a little emotional to leave a place we have lived for 30 years but we knew it was time to move on.

It was about a 25 min drive to the new house where we unloaded our cars. I also asked Jack and his van to help us with the move since all the stuff we needed for the two weeks until our furniture arrived won't fit into our two cars. 

Although this move was stressful for us I was concerned how Frisket would take it. She is almost 18 years old and doesn't like change. However she seemed to be okay in the new place after exploring it for a little while. 

We brought just enough stuff to camp out in our new house. This included an air mattress to sleep on.

 

As well as a TV and a couple of chairs as well as some minimal stuff for the kitchen. 

After a busy Thursday the plan was to relax Friday and just organize the house so we could live with the minimal furniture we had brought. The reason we didn't have the furniture delivered right after moving in is because we wanted to have the place painted. We had hired a painter and they were expected to start painting the week after we moved in but by lucky chance they were able to start the job on Friday right after we moved in. This was good because it would mean that we would get the place painted right after moving in. 

The only problem is that it meant that we couldn't sleep in and couldn't really organize the house. The company we hired to do the painting brought in 6 people to do the work. They worked fast and did a really good job. They were there for 10 hours both Friday and Saturday and painted the entire 2500 sq ft of the house. It was a quick transformation that really got rid of the outdated gold paint and updated the place to a more modern look.

During the painting I did what I could to organize and set up what I could. That meant getting the internet working which took a couple of calls to support and a trip to the Optimum office  to replace a faulty modem.

Sunday I spent setting up the little furniture we brought with us. Our living room is just a TV with two recliners.

And our dining room is just a card table and chair but it is enough to get by for a couple of weeks. 

 

I also set up an office in the library. The office is not as functional as I want it yet but good enough to work at until the furniture arrives.

There is still a lot to do to make this new house our home but the hard and stressful part is over. There are still a few weeks of work to get the house fully set up but we can now do that at our own pace with no deadlines so that will be easier than the last few days have been.

 

Perfect Bike Weather

 

There are two important things I want to know when I go on a bike ride. First what is the weather going to be so I know how to dress and prepare for the ride. Second I want to know where will we be stopping for a break so I know if I should bring food with me or buy a tasty treat at the stop. Although we can control where we stop for a break we can't control the weather and have to deal with what comes along. I will ride in a wide variety of weather conditions from 20 degrees to 95 degrees and don't care if it is sunny or overcast or even how windy it is. However I try not to go out if there is better than 50% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms. Weather predictions are not perfect and in fact they can be down right wrong at times so there will be time you will be riding in weather you were not expecting. 

That's what happen at last weeks Belmar ride. Laura had listed a century from her house with an option to do shorter distances if you met her a certain points. I chose the 68 mile option. The weather was suppose to be in the mid to upper 70s with overcast skies clearing later in the day. There was a 10% chance of light rain at 11am. It was a good day for a long ride as it wasn't going to be really hot. 

Laura picked us up in Etra and we headed through Jackson, where we stopped for our first break, and then through Farmingdale towards the shore. As we approached the coast it got a little darker and there was a spritz of rain as we were waiting for a few people behind us to change a flat tire. 

When we got to the beach it was overcast and foggy but there were still plenty of people on the beach. We made our usual stop at the tables in front of the Dunkin Donuts before heading back. As we rode past Allaire State Park the clouds got darker and it started to rain. It was a heavy rain that was not in the forecast. Luckily it was just heavy rain and not a thunderstorm so we just had to ride through it. It was warm enough that getting wet didn't make us cold. The rain lasted about 10 mins. We then almost dry off before we rode through another downpour. 

It was definitely not fun to get wet but it did cool us off so in some ways it made the ride a little easier. Despite the rain and the miles I felt pretty good after 68 miles although I know I didn't really want to do too much more.

This past Saturday the weather forecast had a 50% chance of rain and not wanting to get wet again I moved my ride to Sunday. This was the second club ride I lead this year. The weather was perfect low 70s , low humility and abundant sunshine. I lead a hilly ride out of Lambertville to Frenchtown on the NJ side. I took the easy way up the hill and we got some good scenic views once we got to the ridge. 

We headed down the hill into Frenchtown for our break. It was congested and crowded but it was still nice to sit buy the river and enjoy the scenery. Eventually we headed out of Frenchtown and down Rt 29 for 5 miles before heading back uphill on Warsaw. It was the toughest climb of the day and we have a few more easier climbs before we got back to Lambertville but all in all it was one of the more enjoyable rides I did this year. 

Monday I did my own ride with a few of the members of the insane bike posse. The weather was about 10 degrees warmer and a lot more humid. My legs were tired which is why this ride was flatter. We headed from my house to Chesterfield and back on a 44 mile route. We cruised along at a decent clip. 

After the stop in Chesterfield we had tailwind most of the way back. It wasn't enough however to keep me from cramping up as I did a few miles before the end of the ride. I guess the heat and riding two days in a row caught up with me but after a little stretching I was able to make it home without cramping up again. 

We are now entering the dog days of summer so hot and unstable weather will be the norm. Although I will check the forecast before I ride I know the predictions will not always be reliable so will be ready to ride in whatever conditions come along.