As impractical as it may be just 45 days before moving to France, we are taking a break from the frenetic pace at home. Our happy place has always been Hawaii, what with it being an easy 5 hour flight from San Francisco. So, the remaining tasks at home are on hold for a bit.
Meanwhile, preparations are being made for our arrival in France. The owners of the house we will rent are clearing out closets and moving furniture around to allow for us to store some things. Once our shipping container arrives, sometime in June, we will be able to move some of our furniture into the house. We already have commitments from friends and family to visit us at the rental house in May, July, and September. Our new car has been received by the dealer and is awaiting our arrival. Our new banker confirmed our account is ready to receive funds to be transferred in preparation for the house purchase. All these balls we’ve been juggling are starting to fall into place.
As far as our house, the purchase is still not final. And this week when I pestered our architect with too many questions about the status of our house plans, I received a terse response reminding us how busy he is and offering to turn our project over to someone else. Sigh.
It will all happen eventually. It’s time now for the beach.
We have 60 days left before we board that flight to France to begin our grand adventure. The days are going by so fast now that it feels like we are on one of those moving walkways at the airport and somebody sped it
Some big things recently have been checked off our seemingly never-ending list of things to do before we move:
- Sell both cars (and to buyers who can wait a while for them)
- Schedule movers
- Obtain our French visas
- Sell our house
That last one is a really a biggie, obviously. We were planning to list our house next month, hoping it would sell quickly. Turns out it sold before we were even ready to list it. We were approached by buyers who made an attractive offer that we couldn’t refuse, so now we are in escrow. What a relief not to have to worry about that anymore. We signed the papers for the sale today, and it was bittersweet. I love this house so much and it will be hard to leave it.
Meanwhile, the purging continues. It’s of course quite painful but cathartic to go through all your worldly possessions and toss a good portion of them out. Or donate them. Or take them to a consignment shop. Or give them away. Just having to make the decision about how to part with these things is exhausting. Decisions are made a tad bit easier when you hold an item and think, “is this important enough to send in a shipping container to France?” I’m trying to channel Marie Kondo and focus on whether an item sparks joy. Yesterday we took out a favorite plant, a huge succulent, to take to a friend, and before we left with it I quietly thanked it for giving me joy for many years.
Recently I’ve become hyper-aware of things we are going to say goodbye to when we leave the US. Some things won’t be missed. But many things will be hard to leave behind. I know there is a whole new world waiting for us in France, many wonderful things that we don’t even know about yet, and we will enjoy the discovery process. In the meantime, I am starting to mourn the people and things we will leave here.