Good friends rent a condo for 6 to 8 weeks at the Townhouses at St. Augustine Beach and Tennis Club, where we own some timeshare weeks, said the above quote. They, like us, bring their computer and printer, and just continue their activities as if at home: except they are in a better climate for the winter! That was our goal too, to get away from the snow.
We now own five weeks at the Townhouses at St. Augustine Beach and Tennis Club (TAS in Interval Internal exchange company), 3 fixed in January and 2 floating. We purchased there since we liked the area so well after attending Ron’s military organization’s reunions there.
We bought the first week there on eBay, the first time to buy such a large item. The seller had a (0) feedback around his name: Oh-oh, red flag. We wrote him and he said that his wife had died that year and he was giving the reserved week in November that year to the new buyers as well. We wrote back and forth a few times. We called the resort to check his ownership; it was okay. We decided to take a chance and waited ten minutes until the end of the auction and bid. The runner up bidder tried to catch us, but couldn’t . Five minutes after the end of the auction, the phone rang: “That’s Buzz!” we said. It was, and we were immediate friends. We now get together every time we are in St Augustine and he even keeps our car for us at his home in Daytona Beach when we fly to Seattle to see Joan’s mother or Little Rock to see Ron’s.
We accumulated the other weeks there, mostly by eBay.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Logistics
There were some logistic issues to decide on. We rented a mailbox at the local UPS Store to have a street address and changed the addresses of our accounts, even though we do almost all financial transactions on the Web now. We also use our son’s address in Seattle since we are there almost every month anyway (Joan is the power of attorney for her mother.) We changed all the magazines to Seattle two years ago.
We rented a small environmentally controlled storeroom to put our many boxes of photos and photo albums. The baby grand piano, from Joan’s grandmother, is at a friend’s house. The antique pump organ, from her other grandmother, is at another friend’s house.
In case something happens to us, our son’s signature is on the bank safety deposit box and the extra key is in the Ohio storage unit and he has the key to the padlock. So, he’s to jump on a plane and go on a scavenger hunt to find everything – if he can locate all the keys!
We plan to return to Ohio a couple of times a year for Joan to still do some projects for the high school, so we can go to the storeroom and pick up various extra items we will need, like files and CD’s.
We also have a storage unit in Seattle, storing furniture from Joan's grandmother and other items we use when we visit there. We will put an external hardrive there for our laptop backups while also carrying a smaller portable one.
We rented a small environmentally controlled storeroom to put our many boxes of photos and photo albums. The baby grand piano, from Joan’s grandmother, is at a friend’s house. The antique pump organ, from her other grandmother, is at another friend’s house.
In case something happens to us, our son’s signature is on the bank safety deposit box and the extra key is in the Ohio storage unit and he has the key to the padlock. So, he’s to jump on a plane and go on a scavenger hunt to find everything – if he can locate all the keys!
We plan to return to Ohio a couple of times a year for Joan to still do some projects for the high school, so we can go to the storeroom and pick up various extra items we will need, like files and CD’s.
We also have a storage unit in Seattle, storing furniture from Joan's grandmother and other items we use when we visit there. We will put an external hardrive there for our laptop backups while also carrying a smaller portable one.
We begin our journey
Inspired by stories on TUG and staying in timeshare condos for four winters, getting away from the snow in Ohio, plus other trips throughout the year to visit our elderly parents, we were simply not at home enough to warrant the upkeep and tax expenses on an empty house as well as wanting a warmer climate. So we planned to sell our house and timeshare full-time while deciding where to finally settle down for final retirement years.
Here is a picture of our beautiful Victorian house in Ohio which we lived in for almost 22 years. We worked very hard for almost two years repairing, upgrading, decluttering and staging for real estate showing. Then the house sold within a week of listing, so we had to get out quickly, and went through boxes and boxes and boxes, deciding on which to put in storage and what we would need to carry with us. We sold most of the furniture, keeping only the family antiques, and put the rest in a storage unit in Springfield, Ohio.
Here are additional pictures of the house:
https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?w=snapfish_us&c=snapfish&l=en_US#S3Zo17LKS6ydISsV7RsDXQ/AUS/12305895009/SNAPFISH
In July, we started our journey, going to Seattle first to visit Joan’s mother, who has total dementia, and our son who lives there with three his children, and then returning to Wyndham Nashville where we are staying 2 ½ weeks.
Here are additional pictures of the house:
https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?w=snapfish_us&c=snapfish&l=en_US#S3Zo17LKS6ydISsV7RsDXQ/AUS/12305895009/SNAPFISH
In July, we started our journey, going to Seattle first to visit Joan’s mother, who has total dementia, and our son who lives there with three his children, and then returning to Wyndham Nashville where we are staying 2 ½ weeks.
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