Here is the story.....
Yep, I'm moving to California. To an amazingly beautiful very small (population about 3000, of which 1200 live on the grounds of the California Veteran's Home) Town, not even a city, called Yountville. It is the first stop of the 'up valley' of Napa Valley. It is one of the communities with the highest rated Michelin stars collections of restaurants in the country. And we all know how much I like good food. To add to that the CIA, Culinary Institute of America is between St Helena and Yountville.
Lynn was hired to be the new CEO of The Boy's & Girl's Clubs of St Helena/Calistoga. St Helena is about 10 miles up valley from Yountville, and Calistoga is about another 7 miles north of that. Each of those cities have populations of about 5000 each.
It is GORGEOUS! Vineyards, wineries blue skies, rolling hills. Warm, sunny.
Anyway. My lovely home in Lynden is for sale. Pretty slow market up here. We have been on market for 2 weeks and only had two viewings. But I'm assured that it is just a slow time of year these few weeks, with end of school and should pick up soon. If it doesn't sell by Sept 1, we will list it for rent.
Our new place will be quite a difference for us. We are going from a 1950 square feet home, on a 11,000 square foot lot, to an end unit townhouse that is 1213 square feet. We have a lot of green space around us, but no responsibility to keep it pretty! Someone else does that!!! So it really will be a downsizing experience for us.
Lynn starts work on August 6th, and will move into the new place on August 1st. I'm hoping that we'll drive down around the 25th and get him moved in, then I'll fly back home in time to get to have Carter and Henry come and stay with me for a few days while Kyle and Genie have their annual Vegas getaway with her family.
Prior to that we are flying down for a week in mid July. He has work stuff to attend to, and I'll continue to scout out the area, and check out the two nearby hospitals for potential employment. I will be sure to have my camera then and get some shots of the area to share here.
Lynn has been wanting to move somewhere that the weather would be better, and this is going to meet that desire. For about 20 years I have "felt" that we would have a California residence at some point.
Yes, I will miss my children and grandchildren tremendously. Our timing is good though. As my SIL Kathy pointed out, we aren't facing the challenge of finding new schools and services for our children. Jillian and Ethan are in school, and are growing up so fast. By next summer, they will probably be spending more time home alone.....Carter and Henry are another story. I'm hoping that with the amazing world of Skype and Facetime, I'll still "see" them often and get to chat. Right now my plan is to come back to Washington at least 3 times a year for 2+ weeks at a time. Hopefully worked around my favorite quilting retreats up here! Kind of will depend on what my employment situation might be.
We will still be loyal UW Husky fans, and plan to be decked out in all our purple and gold and go the games they play at Cal and Stanford. And for Mariner action it will only be an hour away from seeing them when they play in Oakland (and we'll get to take the CalTrain and the Bart!!) instead of traveling almost two hours up here.
Yes, I'll miss my family. My parents are 85 and only getting older, so that will be a bit of a challenge. Sister Carol will come to visit often, especially since she was the one who took the road trip and helped me find my new home!! Sister Nancy and BIL Terry will come to visit, they LOVE wine tasting, and this is the capital of that!! Brother Kevin and SIL Sandi will come to visit as a side trip to their annual Reno trip. Brother Steve and SIL Kathy? Now that they are mostly retired, maybe we will get a chance to visit with them more often.
As far as friends? I hope they will come visit!! I was so happy that I was able to find a 3 bedroom just so I could have a guest room for friends and family. Thankfully we have the internet to keep in touch.
Next to selling the house, our biggest concern is moving the CATS!!!
So pretty much that's the story. Between cleaning carpets, painting the master, keeping the house sparkling I'm hoping to write more stories here on my blog.
Stories of Looking Back, and Moving Forward.
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