During all the clearing out and cleaning,
this question was always going through my mind.
I considered the pros and the cons . . .
Yuma, Arizona is aptly called The Armpit of the United States,
not only because of its location (check out a US map),
but because it has to be the ugliest city I've ever been in.
If it weren't for the winter warmth and the low cost of living,
no one would voluntarily live there.
I realized one day that no matter how nice I made the house,
we would still be living in an ugly city, with no place to go
(how many times can one visit the Yuma Territorial Prison
in 120-degree heat? Answer: 0),
and with way too many bad memories. Even the house,
despite my smudging it, seemed to have such bad karma;
I never felt that my Mom was very happy here,
and so many little (and big) things went wrong while I was here
that I knew I could never live in this house,
either part-time or full-time.
Once I'd made this decision, I felt a burden lift off my shoulders.
Even my chiropractor (yes, I had to start with a chiro due to
all the lifting, stretching and stress) said a day after I decided to sell the house
that I seemed much less tense than I had been in all my previous visits.
So . . . I asked Sue & Ken (neighbors across the street)
for a recommendation for a realtor. They put me in contact with
Diana Bingham of Realty Executives,
who turned out to be the "Realtor from Heaven."
Already, the Karma was improving!
As of 28 May, I was the house owner of record.
The car had been co-titled with me since May 2011.
So, I was ready to sell it all . . .
incuding anything in the house I didn't/couldn't dispose of.
I met with Diana on 30 May. She is a dog lover; need I say more?
As I was booked to fly home on 6 June,
everything pretty much went bim bam boom.
As I'd already had a house inspection, the process went very smoothly.
Within a few days, we agreed on the asking price and I signed a one-year contract
(with unemployment at 33% in Yuma, I was NOT anticipating a fast sale).
Diana gave me some advice on what to leave in the house
(I showed her the closet full of paper goods
and told her that would be a great selling point!)
and how to do some staging, for which I used items I planned to leave,
and purchased a few others, like placemats and plates.
I gave Diana the electric piano, the antique rocking chair,
and the trunk in which my family brought its household goods to the USA,
back in 1954. Whilst going through papers, I found items and photos
relating to this journey and specifically to this trunk,
so I scanned them and included them in the trunk;
Diana & her mother were delighted to have them,
and I was happy that these antiques would have an appreciative home.
Many of these items were from my childhood;
I was more interested in going forward than looking back.
I packed and shipped 24 boxes of items I wanted to keep;
all but one made it safely to Kenosha.
Meanwhile, this is what Neal (and his older brother, Norm)
were doing while I was slaving away in the heat . . .
I sold the Honda to Ken LeRoy; Linda gave me a ride to the airport.
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