We DID it.. We moved to Washington state
Last edited Sun Apr 17, 2016, 02:43 PM - Edit history (1)
Our house closed March 24th, and we have been frantically packing since Feb (.when we first offered).
This move was the most epic one for us, after years of moving..
1970..Kansas to Indiana ) newlyweds with a small uhaul)
1977..Indiana back to Kansas ( 2 cars, a 4 yr old, a dog a cat and a company paid moving van, w/packers)
1979..Kansas to Colorado (2 cars, a 5 yr old, a 1 yr old, a 3 month old, same dog same cat..another company paid moving van w/packers)
1980 Colorado to New Mexico..(2 cars, same kids, same pets, same circumstances)
1981 New Mexico to Corona Ca (same ole same ole)
1982 Corona to Moreno Valley CA (packed & borrowed trucks..did it ourselves with some kid power help)
and now the big one:
We downsized as old folks/empty-nesters.. from a house with 1824 sq feet to one with 3224 up and 3224 basement.. My hobbyist hubby is now King of the underworld with 3224 sq ft to play with his lifetime of collected treasures.. and after 46 years of marriage I can finally have a "normal" house upstairs without boxes of his stuff stashed everywhere..
Hallelujah !!!!!
Our move this time included :
EVERYTHING packed by the two of us, a 53 ft moving van packed to the top ($17560 flat rate for the van ..in case anyone wants to make a mega move, this is the easiest instead of calculating the per pound))
We also rented a camper , team driven in 22 hours by one of our sons & his friend, and then we flew them home. I was the passenger who got to listen to sports radio ad infinitum..,The camper was necessary because we had to move our 5 kitties ( see my posts circa 2003 & the two bottle fed (by me) litters). They are now "teenager kitties" and needed 3 different crate sizes..5 altogether.. We "Dexterized" the entire camper interior and everyone arrived intact & alive..My son thinks we are insane for spending nearly $3K to move them, but they are our babies..
One son flew from Seattle to team drive my husband's truck. It was a 21 hour Dad/son reunion, but son did 19 hrs of the drive because Dad had thrown out his back the day before the movers came..
Our other car was driven by my best friend's son who has 3 kids in Sequim, so it was a free way to get a trip to WA.. He drove the car straight there, and will return it to us (in Centralia) this Tuesday when he picks up the camper to drive it back to SoCal, We were unable to get a one way camper.. He's unemployed and can use the $700 we gave him , and he sure helped us get the extra car up here.
We LOVE our new house, even with no furniture until the truck shows up
The extra blessing is that our "bad-boy" son is the one up here and as an adult he is guilt ridden for all the shit he put us through as a teenager, and is eager to "repay the karmic debt"
Wish us luck with the sale of our SoCal house
= new reply since forum marked as read
There are still some charming touches from when it was new, and I am liking them..
and I heard frogs and saw butterflies for the first time in a long time..
and canadian geese honking their way through the sky
now find big foot. 
We priced all the movers and 57cents a pound was the most common estimate..
The problem we had was that my husband's workshop/hobby stuff weighs so much, after the truck was filling fast, we decided to go with the whole truck method and still had to leave behind many large furniture items and some of my husband's larger tools l, large garage-y stuff (table saw etc)
The man has more tools than Sears
I am so thankful our son was able to convince him to leave things behind
I love living here! Awesome people, beautiful coasts, mountains, rivers, etc! 
Guess I'll have to forego the usual bashing of immigrants from California. 
I moved back home in '05, so it's expired for me. Well, plus I grew up here.
Most oldsters do downsize,, we did not.
We got such a deal, we could not refuse
and upsize the land.
I want to replace ~1400 sq feet to clean and heat with ~700 sq feet, really well laid out. I've started going through the closets -- put some stuff out by the roadside for free right before Christmas last year. Just took a carload of mostly office-work clothes to Goodwill a couple weeks ago. Next to go will be some surplus furniture, tv, vcr, surplus bird cages, etc.
And my 2.67 acres is only half what I thought I was buying, and not enough land for my 2 horses to get good grazing when the weather isn't compliant. Last years' drought badly damaged the pastures, and we're in repeat mode for this year. 
The good news is it's giving me a chance to clear out overgrown areas that took over when I didn't have time to keep up, so I'll be able to enjoy the daylilies, extend the gardens and add 2 small rotation paddocks
You're only an hour down I-5 from me.
Welcome to the Northwest!
We have one cat who has had treatment for anxiety, one who is chubby & crippled and one who's "borderline psycho".. and they all made it..and since this is apparently hunting country, I'm pretty sure we can sell the 5 crates we bought. These cats have always been pampered darlings, and since 4/13, they have been sequestered, with no full run of the house. They will be seriously pissed at us when the stuff is unloaded (today ,,,,yay) and they emerge from their "secure location" downstairs,..into a world they have never known before
The hardest part is that I threw out my back the day before the moving truck arrived, and my husband's back is bothering him too, due to kidney stone..
Afflictions always come at the most horrible times.. The time you need to be on top of your game, you are injured or sick.
I have not been on the sacred 'aina in six and a half years, save for an all-too-brief visit a couple of years ago.
