Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Houseless - For Now

Photos from Zillow Listing
Six years.  We've lived on our boat for almost SIX YEARS!  How can this be?  Where has the time gone?  Time truly does fly when you're having fun.  In all of these years we have barely missed living in our townhouse back in Corpus Christi.  Looking forward to the next adventure has kept us from missing the past and while we've had family living in our townhouse it has been easy to just not think about it.

Until we had to... Then fast-forward three short months, and suddenly the townhouse is SOLD!  We expected it to take a year to sell as many of the other townhouses in our neighbourhood were on the market and moving slowly.  Within two months we had a contract!  I almost didn't let myself get excited because so many things can happen in real estate.  We closed today!

I have to tell you that having a daughter in the business turned out to be a life-saver for me.  She took care of most of the back-and-forth drama involved in selling a house, AND she kept my (rather inept) realtor on her toes.  In fact, she basically bypassed the woman altogether and kept our deal moving forward by providing updates and helping all parties involved to get everything submitted in a timely manner on our end.  When it came time to close, she and I went over the closing documents together and got the MANY mistakes corrected going in so that there would be no surprises at the last minute.  

I know you think perhaps my opinion is biased, and I would have agreed with you before I learned first hand with a real life comparison, Melissa Honeycutt is a cut above!  If you're looking for a house in Florida, you might give her a call.  OK, enough with the commercial advertisement... moving on...

I'm storing the pictures from the Zillow listing here so that I can remember the home that Bruce and I so lovingly furnished and enjoyed for some years.  I want to remember the place, and then close that chapter because it makes me melancholy and there are so many new ideas bumping around in my head.  

As they say with Cruisers - Plans are made in sand... at low tide.  And how true that is!  Three months ago, all of our plans were changed.  Three months ago we were just going with the flow, living here in the Caribbean with no particular place to go.  Three months ago, we were just going to chill and cruise up and down the Eastern Caribbean until we were done cruising and ready to sell the boat.  

Now, just three short months later, we have options!  We have cash in the bank that is just burning a hole and with our cruising grounds made more finite, and Bruce's strong desire to get back to Puerto Rico... a new plan is born!  

We've got  a new bimini and enclosure in the works for Dos Libras, and as soon as that, and hurricane season are done - we will cruise back north to Puerto Rico.  We are still working out the details with our insurance agent, and we will make multiple stops at favorite spots and spend some time in places we dashed through on our way south, but we are thinking of buying a condo and dividing our time between land life and cruising the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.  

The more we think about it, the more in love with the new plan we become.  Flights from Puerto Rico are CHEAP and I can hop back and forth to see my kids very easily, AND they can come see us too! We can shut the condo up and take a Cruise Ship to the other islands very inexpensively from Puerto Rico.  We can revisit the many places we loved on the island and we can host friends in our guest room when they stop by on their cruise east and south!  AND... Amazon Prime works there!

The other, more sobering consideration is our health.  Bruce will be 76 years old in a few weeks.  And while he is very healthy and spry for his age, it will be a comfort to know that should he need something, his Medicare will work in Puerto Rico, and it's a short flight to the US if he needs something more serious.  For me, I've got a very inexpensive international health plan that restricts the number of days I can spend in the US... And Puerto Rico is not considered part of the US!  Perfect!  It's the best of both worlds for us!

We are both really looking forward to our new life and in our minds, things are already changing.  No... we are NOT done cruising entirely, but we will no longer be "liveaboards".  We will live in Puerto Rico and have a sailboat just like everybody else for at least the next couple of years.  We want to take advantage of and enjoy some of the big $$$ we've spent on upgrades in the past year!  We will be so close to world class cruising grounds that we can just hop on the boat and be in the BVIs or USVIs or simply enjoy the many beautiful spots in our own back yard.  

The possibilities are endless and we are super excited!  The question has always loomed over our heads "What does Life-After-Cruising look like?" and now we know.  We are looking forward to finding a new condo to live in that we can love as much as we did our last... At least that's the PLAN! 

Coming in the front door, to the right is the living room.
Follow that to the informal and formal dining areas...
Dining room with custom wet bar and the patio (now painted white - the murals gone) 


Our beautiful custom kitchen!


Master Bedroom where I drank my coffee every day, watching the seasons change outside the windows.

Master bathroom.  I left the paint in the shower room but painted over the flamingos i the ante-room.  
Our peaceful seafoam guest room
Our office/TV room
Bruce's/Guest bathroom

Downstairs half/bath with the picture Bruce loved left for the new owner
That's it.  We are looking forward.  If there is anything we have learned in this life it is that you can be happy anywhere.  Life is what you make of it and while "things" can make you happy temporarily, it is the experiences and memories that you make that mean the most.  Bruce and I are looking forward joyfully to the new plans and memories we will be making very soon!

3 comments:

  1. Wonderful news! Those shifting sands of plans are a good way to go for Grateful, as well. We took our disappointment over being unable to cross the Pacific (due to the delayd because of engine problems) and set our sights in the opposite direction. What a joy! Engine problems continue, but nothing has stopped is overlong . There's a big festivál onshore in Palma that beckons.

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  2. I LOVE your plan! It sounds like it's going to answer all those issues that retirees have. A base, easy to get to, healthcare, sun, sand, surf! I hope you find a beautiful home in PR.

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  3. Just now catching up on some reading as we are in Aruba and have decent internet. We can certainly understand the desire to go back to PR. We both loved it there. Were on the island do you think you will settle?

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