It all started with our friend Tori saying 'you should buy the house next door'....fast forward 3 months and we are now living in another state! Not what Tori had in mind at all... :)
So... first let us apologize for being remiss on our blogging. Real Estate sure takes up a lot of time...and worry...and psychic energy!
We started thinking about our friend's comment. We were pretty sure we didn't want the house next door to them, tho we did look at it (wacky floorplan) but maybe a little house in Truckee. We thought that since we were now up in Truckee full time that maybe we needed just a bit more space. The condo (which we love) was a little small, perfect for the weekends but maybe small for full time living. So we put the condo in Sacramento AND in Truckee on the market. And started looking at houses in Truckee. We saw houses we liked, but holy cow, you had to be fast with an offer. Houses in the price range we were looking at were being snatched up quickly and lots of cash buyers too. We soon realized that we were shopping at the bottom of the market in Truckee (Tahoe Donner) and we were going to have to take what we could get..and fast.
Have you ever heard of the mobile apps Trulia and Zillow? Very addictive when you are buying/selling homes..So in looking around we saw that Bend Oregon had a lot more house for the money!! And nice houses too. We had both been to Bend before, to ski and cycle, and liked it allot. Bend is very similar to Truckee in that it's sporty (tons of mountain bike trails, a river for SUP and kayaking, a big mountain to ski on, and lots of groomed trails for Nordic skiing) it's just a bigger town. In many ways Bend is the town that Truckee aspires to be when it grows up.
So here we are.... In Bend Oregon. Living in our Motorhome with the kitty...who has been a great sport about this whole thing. Cats are not known for embracing change.
Both condos sold, Truckee was a cash buyer and a fairly easy transaction (tho he did want a fast close and move in date) and Sacramento sold but the transaction moved at a snail's pace. We packed up Sac first, and for the first time in a long time all our stuff was in the same town albeit the Sac stuff was in a storage unit in Truckee. Then we packed up Truckee and that stuff in also in storage in Truckee. We are pretty familiar with the routes between Northern California and Bend Oregon. so if you want to know where to get a good peach shake just ask.
We found the most perfect house here in Bend. On Awbrey Butte, a great house with spectacular vistas of the Cascades. Made an offer, was accepted.....except.... the owner is building a new house in the country and it's not quite ready yet. So while we now own the house, he is renting it back from us for a month or so while we live in the RV. We are Oregon homeowners, just not homedwellers. A strange situation - being homeless but being landlords.
But we do feel the house is worth the wait. And hopefully close to this time next month we might be moving our stuff in!
In the meantime we have been exploring our new town. Bend is a wonderful town that feels almost custom made for the activities we enjoy. Doing hikes and mountain bike rides and festivals and such! Here are some pix of our outings
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| Our new house....someday |
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| Jim along the Deschutes River |
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| Wiener Dog races at OktoberFest |
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| Dana at Smith Rock |
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| Shrine on the ELV trail on Phil'sTrail |
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| Kitty taking in the sun |
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| Tumalo Falls |
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| Hike to Benham Falls |
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| Enjoying Belgian beer at BrokenTopBottleShop- our soon to be local pub |
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| Crooked River at Smith Rock |
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| Moooooo! |
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| PawsCrossed we move into our new house soon! |
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Stay tuned for more exiting adventures as we explore our new town!
