Time for Another Trip - But This One's Different

Our very soon to be ex-home in Murrieta, CA.

When we moved to Southern California back in 2006, our intent was to be located midway between our daughter Briar, in San Diego and  our son Grant, in the San Fernando Valley. Murrieta wasn't exactly the midpoint but any farther North would have put us into the cesspool that is Los Angeles.

A lot has changed since then. Briar and her husband Gus had a son and daughter, Nikos and Maya and then relocated to Central Massachusetts. Grant married Melissa, bought a home in Ventura County and had three children, Colton, Riley and Cooper. As things ended up, Murrieta just wasn't close to any of them (Grant's house is 2 hours away on a perfect traffic day and LA has so many of those) and the town just didn't feel like the right fit for us.

We decided a while back that it was time for us to sell and relocate. Our initial conclusion was that we were finished with trying to follow the kids and grand kids. Briar's family was far, far away and Grant has told us many times that he could end up anywhere and that we shouldn't base any decisions on his location.

We looked at quite a few different areas and, as late as last summer, had decided on the area just across the Columbia from Portland, OR. Then Grant interviewed for a job in Massachusetts last Fall. It was offered but he didn't take it. Not long afterwards, he accepted an internal transfer to a department that has a large presence in Cambridge, MA. He now says that it's very unlikely that they'll move him but during that brief glimmer of hope, something clicked and we decided to move to Massachusetts.

We've never had a house sell quickly before so we were kind of surprised when we listed it in mid-March and had 2 offers the first weekend. I'd like to say that we had a bidding war, but one of the offers was low ball and had some contingencies that we were unwilling to accept. Fortunately, the other offer was exactly what we were hoping for.

The close will be on Thursday, May 7 and we have the movers coming on Tuesday, May 5. We'll be moving into our trailer in an RV resort in Hemet on Sunday, May 3 and, once everything settles out, we'll be heading East on Saturday, May 9.

We plan to reach Central Mass on June 1 at which time we will start our search for a new home. We have a realtor lined up and will be sending her our wish list so we can hit the ground running. We've booked a spot at an RV resort in Massachusetts for the entire Month of June and will have to play the rest of the time until our escrow closes by ear.

Our furniture is going into storage in Riverside. Once we have a move in date, we'll contact movers and arrange to have them ship everything East.

Our planned route.

-JC-