Tim is our oldest son; he’s about 53 years young. He’s a good guy, too.
Here’s the old “greybeard” giving his daughter Jessica away at her wedding in 2017.
Tim’s been through a lot, and he’s put us through a lot, as well. There have been plenty of ups and downs in his life trajectory, but he’s persevered and right now, in his early Fifties, Tim can see some light at the end of the tunnel.
He has a great wife and excellent kids…a lot to be proud of.
Tim’s probably my best friend among the sons, only because we see each other a lot, we talk, and have some common interests, like politics, sports, raising kids, and laughing about stupid shit (like the Trump presidency).
The poor bastard has my sense of humor.
Luckily for us, Tim is a Realtor, in addition to his full-time job as a manager at Idexx, one of the largest veterinary labs in Southern California. Tim sold real estate in Murrieta and here in Bear Creek for a number of years, and was real good at it (until the economy tanked). His real estate experience is going to help us sell our home here in Murrieta as soon as we skeedaddle north in our RV on April 30th.
We’re in the process of packing up our personal crap and deciding what to take on the road in the RV and what to store in “Pods” until we take possession of our new home in Mesquite (Oct/Nov?). It’s a big job; we’ve got a lot of junk.
I talked to Tim today about the house sale plan of attack. Although no house on our cul-de-sac has sold for over $470K, he is pretty confident that we can list it at $519K, hold some open houses, and find a buyer. He’s confident of this because: our home model is the largest square footage; the interior plan is the most desirable; we have the longest driveway; we have the best exposure to the sun (i.e. not facing it as it sets!); we have two backyard patios; our backyard view is the best (we’re on a promontory, looking out at lots of trees); every room has been upgraded; and, we’ve nicely staged the home with art and furnishings.
I hope Tim is right and our digs sell fast. We leave on April 30th, he’ll do open houses starting the next weekend, and we’re hoping that a deal can be had before the end of May. Depending upon the length of escrow, we may have to re-jigger our RV travel itinerary in June or July. I hope not.
(Normally, we spend September and October at the beach in Southern California, at Paradise by the Sea. We may have to curtail some/most of that this year, as our Mesquite home will be approaching the finished stage. I hate the thought, but we may have to RV camp in hot Nevada in late September in order to attend walk-thru, etc. Or, maybe we’ll leave the rig at Oceanside, have our sons use it (and watch the dogs), allowing Charlie and I to drive up and do the walk-thru.)
Like everything else this year, we’ll have to play it by ear.