Anatomy of a Move Part 1

When we moved to Florida in 2001, I thought it would be the last time I moved. We had all the things we enjoyed—a beautiful house, golf, tennis and the beach nearby. But one never knows what life may bring. Here is what prompted our sudden move from Florida to Arizona.

Our original plan was to spend about 5 ½ months in Arizona near our granddaughters and the rest of the time in Florida.  I came out to Arizona in April 2012 when our second granddaughter was born and knew I didn’t want to be so far away for the whole year and knew with two kids that my daughter wouldn’t be making the trip to Florida as often. Going between Jacksonville and Tucson is an all-day affair even on an airplane. So I started looking for houses during the five weeks I was here last year and found one. I convinced my reluctant husband that we should do this. So we took the plunge. We came out here last November. My husband flew with his mother, and I drove my SUV loaded with household items and most importantly my computer. We enjoyed the winter in Arizona and especially enjoyed seeing our daughter’s family on a regular basis. My mother-in-law who was living with us because of poor health passed away right before Christmas, but she enjoyed so much the time she had with her great granddaughters. She taught the older one to play Crazy-Eights, and they had play tea parties. It was a delight to see them together. When the time neared for us to return to Florida, we decided that we should put our house up for sale and move into the Florida house that my mother-in-law had lived in for nearly 25 years. We figured we would have six months to a year or more before the house sold because nothing had been selling in our neighborhood. Houses had been for sale for a year or more. So in early April we told a realtor friend who lived down the street that when we got back to Florida at the beginning of May, we were going to fix up our house to put it on the market. She said she had clients coming that weekend and asked if she could show our house because she was sure they would like it. We were hesitant because the yard was neglected and the refrigerator was sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor because we had pulled it out to turn off the line to the ice maker. Also all the door frames were marred because my mother-in-law had banged them up with her walker. But our realtor friend said she would explain. She showed the house. The people made an offer very near our asking price and wanted to take possession May 29. We didn’t want to pass up the chance to sell it, but there was one problem. My mother-in-law’s house had long-term renters in it. We couldn’t move into the house. So we took this as a sign that we should move to Arizona permanently. We intend to stay in Arizona as long as my daughter lives here. Her job could take her elsewhere, as she is the breadwinner in the family. Her husband is a stay-at-home dad. If they move, we will then decide what we want to do—stay in Arizona, go back to Florida or split time. We left behind a storage unit full of furniture for the house in Florida. That made packing twice as hard because we had to decided what to move to AZ and what to leave behind. We managed to leave behind a couple of boxes with things that were supposed to come out here, and we brought with us some stuff that was supposed to remain in Florida. But it was nothing too important for either place. We will come back to the island at some point, even if it is only for a vacation. We were glad to miss the tropical storm last week.

So here we are in Arizona along with the cacti and the mountains.

Part 2 in the “Anatomy of a Move” will be up sometime later in the week. Have you ever had to make a sudden move?