Back last October I wrote in the Northside Sun that my wife and I were preparing to enter a retirement facility. We had two homes in mind and were awaiting response from them after we gave them both a small deposit to confirm our interest. The first to get back with us was the one with a hefty entrance fee, but later costs for assisted living, memory care etc. were covered. The other home had a lower entry fee, but later costs would be additional if needed. We chose the first.
After making a down payment for a two-bedroom apartment, we waited several months without moving up the waiting list. It was then that we discovered that existing residents had priority over newcomers for taking available units. Thus, we added a one BR apartment to our waiting list. In just a few weeks we were offered a single BR apartment that would be available after it had been repainted and renovated
Now the focus shifted to selling our existing house and downsizing. We had an offer almost immediately from a lady on the coast who would pay our asking price provided we included our excess furniture with the deal. This seemed perfect for us. But there was a contingency that her own house down south would have to be sold first. Weeks went by without that sale. Then the poor lady was diagnosed with serious cancer and that killed the deal.
Meanwhile we were moving many of our possessions into storage. I soon became convinced that we were stuffaholics. Twenty-eight years in the same house had caused us to accumulate hordes of stuff that we never used. Clothing was discovered that we seldom if ever wore. We had failed the biblical admonition that if we have two cloaks then we should donate one. We had five or was it six! Books were another failure. We ended up giving nine boxes to the local library, and as we further cleaned our house, we discovered many more. They popped up everywhere!
The temptation while downsizing is to spend too much time reminiscing about the found treasures. Betty had kept select copies of the local newspaper (remember those days when we had a real paper?) one with headlines "ATTACKED." It was a report the day after 9/11 and contained photos of the World Trade Center during its collapse. Who could not stop to read that report? Then we discovered pictures of babies. Such darlings! Now they are teenagers. What happened? Next, I found a book that I had won in a (British) countrywide church reading contest. I came in first in the London and southeast region. I can still breeze through the names of all the difficult countries mentioned in Acts chapter two. I had to stop to read about that.
The accumulated stuff had to be stored elsewhere as we thought we had sold our house at the outset. So, we rented a storage facility. A friend said this was a mistake because we would always need such a place--we would never get rid of it. He's probably right, but what's our choice? We don't have time to read all about the "darlings," nor to sift through what is important and what is not. The stuff will be with us for many weeks, and possibly years to come. We tell ourselves that we will sort through it sometime in the future. But I'm sure the future will bring needs for me to go fishing, play golf, or for us to go on a cruise. Always better things to do than for stuffaholics to tackle their disease!
After the first sale fell through, we put the house on the market again. We were fortunate to have a contract with a lady that had no contingency for sale of her house. She was moving from an apartment to a house, while we were moving from a house to an apartment. So, the deal once again included the sale of much of our furniture. Young people these days have little desire for dining rooms and China cabinets. They prefer open floor plans which really makes a lot of sense. How many times would they use the dining room? This older lady, however, liked that furniture.
Now we had a 30 day deadline to vacate our house. We had been able to work our finances in order to enter our retirement home before we closed on our house. Initially we have moved into a single BR unit prior to taking a 2BR apartment. So far, we have avoided putting pictures on the wall that would require fixing if we moved into a larger unit. ("Fixing" comes with a significant fee.) But as the days have gone by, we have acquired many pieces with shelves and storage containers. Thus, we are becoming more comfortable with our single unit. We have more than two dozen friends here, and there are plenty of interesting activities.
Peter Gilderson, Madison.
