What have you done that you never would have done if SIP didn’t occur?

[DaveNV]

I think it is a very smart move. I doubt home prices will be going up in the next couple of years. Increasingly I am seeing "Back on the market" on homes that were in pending sale. We love our home but we are also saying in the unlikely we find something that we love more for a steal, we may consider swapping homes.

That's a very good point. In the case of this home we were thinking of buying, the seller lives in another state, and this was his second home - purchased less than a year ago. (Our real estate agent there had shown us this home last June, when it was still for sale from the previous owner.) The current owner works in the petroleum industry, and his situation has deteriorated so quickly, and to such a degree, that he can't afford to own two homes. He put this one back on the market at his cost, just to get out from under it. He'd only used it a handful of times.

To quote the title of an old W.C. Fields movie, "If I only had a million..."

Dave

 

[Panina]

Update: We decided not to try and buy the Nevada house. For as much as I really wanted that particular home, the timing is just not right. After crunching all the numbers, and even though the Seller in Nevada was willing to accept a deal contingent on us selling our home here, there are just too many details that are unknown or that are up in the air right now. So we've decided to continue with our existing plan, which is to get our current home ready to sell, then put it up for sale (probably in a year.) Once it has sold and closed escrow, we'll go to Nevada and buy what we find then, with a much stronger financial position on the deal. There is no shortage of nice homes for sale there, and we've discussed the option of having a home built that is exactly what we want.

On the other hand, if the economy goes in the tank, we may opt to just stay here in Washington for now, and travel more. You remember travel, don't you? We all used to do that - some of us even did it a lot. We'd like to try doing that again.

Dave

You have a plan and a roof over your head, both the known. Traveling more sounds good and that is your worse case scenario.

 

[mdurette]

For our house, it is business as usual. I always worked from home, DH still goes to work, and kid is in "school" 5 hours a day upstairs.

But......
1. I have stayed on a diet longer than to "just my next vacation" I hit my goal this week!!
2. I cleaned my house. Granted even though it has been 2 months I still haven't cleaned every spot my housecleaner did.
3. I let my husband take our DD14 for a ride on his motorcyle.

 

[DaveNV]

You have a plan and a roof over your head, both the known. Traveling more sounds good and that is your worse case scenario.

Exactly. First World problem, for sure. I'm not complaining in the least.

Dave

 

[geist1223]

¿After you sale your house have you thought about renting in your planned new location to make sure it is the location you want?

 

[Luvtoride]

Getting rid of a lot of junk that has accumulated in my house where I have lived for most of the last 50 years. After my wife passed 6 years ago, I had done a lot of clearing of her things and now its my turn..

I've been thinking about doing this for a few years but since there's not much to do "in the world", I finally started.

Im sure my kids will appreciate it after I vanish.

Cheers

x3 Skier, I've been thinking a lot about that too lately. My mom passed away in December and my sister and I have been cleaning out her house to sell (it sold in 2 days during this Covid 19 lockdown here in NJ). Its gotten me thinking about all of the "stuff" my wife and I have in our home of 39 years and that someday our kids will have to go through it all. It is a depressing thought but it is also cathartic to get rid of so much stuff that we haven't used or needed for years. We aren't that sentimental about things and if our kids didn't want it themselves, then we're fine chucking it. My younger daughter has been selling some items on a website called "mercari" so anything that might be of value we give to her to try to sell.
The only thing I've thought about "memorializing" is all of the thousands of photos we have found. I am going to use one of those scanning services that will digitize a box full of photos (I will need several boxes). But other than that, what is there really to save and keep and how would you do it?

 

[geoand]

What ever you decide, your Washington neighbors will miss you.

 

[DaveNV]

¿After you sale your house have you thought about renting in your planned new location to make sure it is the location you want?

Smart idea, for sure. Given the number of times we've been there in different seasons, the alternative locations we've already ruled out, and my summer spent at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, I'm pretty clear on this location. If we're going to leave Washington State for a warmer climate, the choices (financially) are limited. The alternate is to stay here and snowbird it someplace. But that is a completely different conversation.

Dave

 

[Quiet Pine]

...thousands of photos we have found. I am going to use one of those scanning services that will digitize a box full of photos...

We took boxes of slides from the '70s and sent them to Scan Cafe www.scancafe.com. They shipped them to India, where all were scanned and put on a DVD. We sorted down to a number that would fit on a single DVD. I was happy with the result, and got copies for my 2 children. This was 5-10 years ago, and I there may be many competitors now.

 

[Quilter]

Learned how to finish the semester taking college course online which involved learning how to use Zoom, taking a test online, converting it from Word to Pages and back to Word and to drop it in instructor's drop box. Learned how to make a video presentation online and submit it. All new to me. Final second semester grade 98.17. Have worn a medical mask for the first time. Wore gloves and wiped down an ATM machine before and after using. Walked to local grocery store, went through all the sanitary stuff, walked home with groceries. All the sanitizing of packages, groceries, home. Ordered groceries online for pickup. Read the newspaper a day later as each day's stays outside for 24 hours. Same for mail. Don't open delivered packages for two days. Haven't driven a car for six weeks.

I’ve thought about your post for a couple days now and figure if you can finish a college course online I surely can learn how to make sourdough starter from an online course.

 

[LStormont]

I’ve thought about your post for a couple days now and figure if you can finish a college course online I surely can learn how to make sourdough starter from an online course.

I just got a starter from someone else but have been keeping it alive and baking a ton!

And to Glynda, as a professor who had to take some of her classes online - good on you! That is NOT as easy as people think!!

 

[Glynda]

I’ve thought about your post for a couple days now and figure if you can finish a college course online I surely can learn how to make sourdough starter from an online course.

Sure you can! Go for it!

 

[Glynda]

I just got a starter from someone else but have been keeping it alive and baking a ton!

And to Glynda, as a professor who had to take some of her classes online - good on you! That is NOT as easy as people think!!

Thanks! I am self taught on the computer and I know I do many things the hard way because I don't know differently. Still, got through it! I have to say that our instructor was very generous in allowing us to receive, take and submit quizzes, tests, the final video project and exam using different methods.

 

[Quilter]

Never say never........

How about searching for remote areas to pee because you don’t want to go into building at rest area? We did this in the 12 hours door-to-door going from FL to NC and again today as we drove another 12 hours from NC to MI.

Wearing a dress helps.

First stop today I warned DH about the poison ivy. On the last stop I put on boots in case of snakes.

DD is soooo proud of me

 

[TravelAmore]

"DaveNW" Update: We decided not to try and buy the Nevada house. For as much as I really wanted that particular home, the timing is just not right. After crunching all the numbers, and even though the Seller in Nevada was willing to accept a deal contingent on us selling our home here, there are just too many details that are unknown or that are up in the air right now. So we've decided to continue with our existing plan, which is to get our current home ready to sell, then put it up for sale (probably in a year.) Once it has sold and closed escrow, we'll go to Nevada and buy what we find then, with a much stronger financial position on the deal. There is no shortage of nice homes for sale there, and we've discussed the option of having a home built that is exactly what we want.

I think it is a very smart move. I doubt home prices will be going up in the next couple of years. Increasingly I am seeing "Back on the market" on homes that were in pending sale. We love our home but we are also saying in the unlikely event we find something that we love more for a steal, we may consider swapping homes.

DaveNW, I agree with your assessment and the sentiment of VacationForever. We have been pondering a second home in the desert - comparing pros/cons of Palm Springs, the greater Phoenix area, and most recently Las Vegas - as several retired co-workers have relocated there. We've been looking closely at the Vegas area for the 6 months or so and finally decided last week it is just not the right time. Timing is everything and we are better off for starting a refi application on our primary home in mid-Feb when the rates dropped - closed that yesterday, shaving 1.35% off our prior rate. We'll keep an eye on the market and see where Vegas and PS are in 2021 or 2022.

 

[TravelAmore]

Back to the OP question - a good one:
I appreciate much about this break and disruption...it has provided me with time to reflect, to be grateful for friends (FaceTime & Zoom), my church community (now on Zoom, as well, and streaming services), my family - especially DH and DS, who lives with us. We are blessed to have paychecks still coming in (retirement for hubby) and to live in a beautiful neighborhood. I've been using the 3 hours per day from not commuting to take a walk, participate in an online exercise class, and bake (yes, this is why I need so much exercise). I love baking!!
I've tried to find ways to volunteer and have signed up for our state volunteer corp - no assignment yet. I'm of the age our volunteer activities need to be from home...so I'm thinking contact tracing or phone referrals...We'll see what I am assigned.
Meanwhile, Saturdays are "Closet Cleaning Days" - we have a jingle and everything! My son hates it!

 

[Hobokie]

Virtual Church. And to support it, I've had to learn Apple's iMovie and other video editing tools.

I'm part of the Worship Team and am co-hosting the Zoom sessions. While Zoom was new to me, the skill of hosting Virtual Meetings is not. I'm currently busy trying to overcome the challenges of "doing music together" via virtual meetings, thus learning iMovie to create as compact a file as possible for streaming during our time together. (I've used lots of photo editing tools over the years ... but had always remained a bit shy of video editing. Now I'm spending hours each week producing and sharing video. Whee! New Skill!)

@VacationForever , I have a stovetop water distiller but it is too expensive to operate for any significant production. Rather, it sits on top of our propane room heater and makes a liter, or so, every few weeks during the winter months if/when I'm running the heater anyway. If nothing else, it looks interesting and raises the room's humidity levels when the heater is running.

Which video editing tools are you using?

 

[rhonda]

Which video editing tools are you using?

I ended up sticking with Apple's iMovie. Neither Clips nor QuickTime were appropriate/sufficient and neither of my older tools from GoPro Studio (c2016) and iSkySoft (also 2016'ish?) would load under MacOS Catalina. The final product requires a bit of work from Apple's Music, KeyNote and iMovie.

Edited to add: I'm also using Pixelmator for editing static photo content used in the backgrounds.