We’ve had a significant absence from any update in our articles.  There have been some notable changes during that time and deserve to be mentioned.  And, of course, we know that big changes came to us all in recent weeks.  So, allow us to review the past few months.

For quite some time, Valerie’s Mom had been talking about the prospect of selling her house and moving to Maryland to live with her daughter, Cyndie.  So, in November, we talked with her to see if she thought it was a good time to execute that plan.  We began some planning to see what timing would work best.  We also interviewed some realtors to get their perspective on the market value of the house and timing for a sale.  Essentially, we were told that the local market was very strong with extremely low inventory of houses for sale.  Therefore, they thought that we would have an easy time selling.

So we began working on identifying the items that we needed to remove and what Mom would want to take with her.  We got a home inspection and identified work that was needed before putting it on the market.

In January, Valerie’s other sister, Jenny came out from Virginia to help with preparing the house and to accompany Mom out to Maryland.  The listing went live in the 3rd week of January and within a week we had received multiple offers.  Once we settled upon a buyer, the closing took place on February 20.

Over the following 3 or 4 weeks we had a few appointments scheduled so we took up residence in an Extended Stay hotel.  Beyond that we had plans for a short trip to Tahoe for possible skiing, a visit to friends in Arizona and a trip to Virginia in late April for a wedding and a visit to Mom for her birthday in early May.

Well, by this time, we all know that those plans had to be changed.  For everybody.