Now Playing - Here It Goes Again by OK GO
Life -
The more we think we have a plan figured out, the more
curves life seems to throw at us. A few months ago, we laid out our plans for
the rest of 2013 and our moves in 2014.
It was a fine plan, but a number of major problems presented themselves. Our
house in Idaho was severely under-appraised due to a bunch of foreclosures in
the area, making it worth less than we actually owed on it. That's a situation
that will likely improve, eventually, but for the time being, that means my mom
buying it would be a bad move for both her and us. She could get a better house
in the area for less money than our place and find one that would suit her
needs better. We'd end up losing over $30k if we sold now. On top of that, our
Christmas was dramatically worse than we'd predicted. Between the government
shutdown, a late Thanksgiving and a myriad list of other reasons, people
weren't shopping as heavily as predicted. Our shop wasn't doing itself any favors
either. Apart from our soaps, which we'd debuted too late to really get the
full benefit, we didn't have anything new and exciting to draw in shoppers.
After we'd gotten the news of the house, I made a trip out
there and we decided that the best option would be for Lindsay and I to move
back to Idaho, to our old home on Rosewood. That would mean forgoing our plans
to move to Washington, but it wasn't all bad news. We still like the house on
Rosewood, we just never really gave it a chance. The whole time we lived there,
we were looking for plans to move away. Which is really how we've spent the
last... seven years or more, actually.
The initial plan had been to sell the trailer and abandon
Maine as soon as the holidays were over, traveling south to avoid the weather
and get back to Idaho in late January. It would mean us losing money on this
trailer, selling it as fast as we could, just to get out of here, the exact
reasoning that had kept us here before but this time it was compared to how
much we would lose if we sold the house... a number nearly twice as large.
Unfortunately, the holidays underperformance now means that
is delayed. We will have to wait until at least spring, when we can sell the
house at closer to what we owe and in the meantime I can concentrate on the
shop, conventions and possibly a part time job, while Lindsay re-dedicates
herself to writing. (Despite not releasing a book in over a year, her romance
novels are still selling regularly if not in great numbers)
So this is kind of a non-update. But despite the setbacks,
we are actually quite excited about the next few months. It would be more
exciting if we were moving back to Poky and better still if our original plans
of Washington were possible, but we aren't rushing to escape Maine quite as
urgently and that should allow us some time to do it properly. Eat at Red's
Eats one more time, do some sightseeing and photography, I plan to hit a number
of conventions in the area. It should be good stuff.
The ROUS FAMILY -
