Desert Star PDQ 36: Winter Activities

For the last couple months we have been busier than even our normal busy lives. We keep raising the bar on what one would call "overloaded", but we then add even more to the mix and then say this is all we can handle. Until of course, more comes along.

Our goal is not actually to kill ourselves, but rather to 'downsize' so that we can move to Annapolis, have minimal monthly bills, live part of the year on the boat, and be 'semi-retired'. Now that the kids are all over 18 and out of high school, we are taking to this next phase of our lives with a lot of gusto.

Here's the list of the big items:

Shrink-wrap Dessie for winter [DONE]
Decide whether to enlarge, sell, rent, or something else with Fishing Creek [RENTED]
Find a house in Annapolis at a great price, but would like it to be bigger, newer, near Fishing Creek, have a water view, and be large enough for all the kids to visit. [DONE] (Okay now I know I live a charmed life!)
Sell Bonnie's house in Alexandria. [CONTRACT for March 1st Closing] (another miracle)
Make new house livable; working water, hot water, heat and patch roof [UNDERWAY] (the water is warm and brown in the tub, cold and brown dripping from the ceiling and the house is warm enough)
Get rid of everything Bonnie and I don't need. [UNDERWAY]
Pack and move to Annapolis [SLOW BUT STARTED]
Beg for student loans for all the kids [IN PROGRESS]
Get Casey off to WyoTech [LOTS TO DO]
Don't volunteer for anything else. [FAILED] I'm now the Membership Chair at philsoc.org, Piers & Harbors volunteer at Oyster Harbor,
Bonnie to build Internet business so we have income we can continue from Caribbean [UNDERWAY}
Eric to figure out how to reduce billable consulting time, but still make money. {PONDERING]
Plan for BVI trip with friends in March - right after we move. [UNDERWAY]

So far so good. We sure have been lucky with all of this so far! ....knock on wood :-)

Here are some photos of what has been happening:

To ensure one aspect of life is stable, we paid to have Dessie shrink-wrapped for the winter. Parker recommended Above the Waterline out of Annapolis and they did a great job at a very reasonable price.

So that's one thing done. Other than checking on her, there is not much to do until James comes to fix the steering in the early Spring.

Fishing Creek is Rented to a very nice couple from Richmond - thanks to listings on VRBO.com and Rent.com.

We purchased the ugliest house we have ever owned! But it sour has a lot of potential (and leaks).

We started remodeling right away...

Here's why we bought the house....

Our first dinner. We felt like twenty-somethings again...

We have over 100 products on Amazon and EBay, and have exclusive distribution rights in the US to one of them (http://www.groasis.com) on Amazon and EBay. This is probably temporary though, but we are enjoying it. Check out www.ardentideas.com to see where we are going with all of this...

Hanukkah slipped by and Christmas came and went without offers on the Jane Way house. We were starting to worry...

Of course there is always time for a social life. Events at the Philosophical Society, Smithsonian Opening Night, Company Christmas Party at the Natural History museum, and Change of Watch at the Severn River yacht Club were loads of fun.

Then we got the contract on Jane Way. The Home Inspector found almost nothing wrong with the house. Bonnie had it in amazingly good shape when we put it up for sale. This is a big step for Bonnie, as big as when I sold the house in Herndon to merge our households.

We had a planning meeting today with our friends for our trip to BVI in March. Two 46' catamarans with 16 people in total. It will certainly be our reward for all the hard work from October to February.