Plans

The planning phase is my favorite of all the phases required for change.  I always feel a little hopeless dreaming, as if the dreams won’t come true.  They often do, though, even if not in the same form originally imagined.  Until recently I had a hard time recognizing that my dreams, all of them, have come true.  This life I have is exactly what I wanted.  Still, this knowledge doesn’t prevent me from disbelieving my dreams.  In other words, my dreams seem to be just dreams with no chance of coming true, no matter how many times they have come true.  Oh me of little faith.

I love planning.  Planning is better than actual action.  I’ll explain that in a minute.  Planning is action, without the work.  Planning is researching mortgages, calling the real estate agent, making lists of things that need to be done before it can go on the market, finding a new place to live, figuring out whether the cost savings of a do-it-yourself move is worth the work and hassle.  The action (or adventure, in keeping with the theme of my blog) is the actual doing.  Accomplishing the things on the list, physically packing, lifting furniture into a moving van, driving the moving van over 1000 miles of freeway, unloading the moving van.  Those kinds of tasks are Dave’s forte.  He’s good at action.  I’m good at planning.  Together we get a lot done in an organized manner.

Yesterday I mentioned arranging for Clipper to move.  Later in the afternoon, I priced UHaul compared to the professionals at Bekin.  I expected that UHaul would save us a lot of money.  Our savings will still be thousands of dollars but renting a UHaul van and packing, loading, driving, unloading, unpacking, etc. is still going to cost several thousand dollars.  That was a surprise.  And the short house hunting trip that I’ll take in a couple weeks will cost close to $1000.  We were prepared mentally for sticker shock on a new place.  We weren’t prepared for the cost of actual moving.

I also researched financing companies yesterday, only to learn from an experienced real estate agent that it’s best to be flexible about the financer.  A mortgage broker may be the best option.  I’ve used them before satisfactorily.  Now I know enough about mortgages to be dangerous.  Fortunately I haven’t committed to anything with my chosen mortgage company so anything I have done so far can be undone.

Today will be an action day: painting, sorting through the piles of papers I’ve accumulated in graduate school, sorting through clothing I haven’t worn in years, scaling down.  Tomorrow we meet with the real estate agent then solidify househunting travel plans.  I have much to anticipate.