Well fellow weirdos, its August. The summer is nearly done, Labor Day weekend is just around the corner.
Our travels have not been as epic, extensive or even blog worthy this year.

After Alexandria, we spent a weekend in Fargo for an early Father’s Day. I spent a week in Hutchinson, Kansas to start my new job (I’m still remote, but went to HQ for orientation). Then we spent a few days in Wisconsin Dells so Jamey could coach a basketball tournament. We spent a weekend at the casino near my sisters cabin. We saw Eve 6 for free in Rochester.

I’ll write up a couple of blog posts about our trips to Duluth for All Pints North and for our trek to nearly Canada for a wedding at the Gun Flint Lodge.

But for now, the big news is we pulled the trigger and bought a house.

Wisconsin Weirdos

The big news you’ve all been waiting for is that we moved! To Wisconsin! YIKES.

After looking at a ton of houses in the east metro area that were 70+ years old and more than $450,000 we looked at a new build in River Falls, WI on a whim. I wasn’t sure I could convince Jamey to even consider living on the dark side of the river.

But we saw enough disappointing, bad, and downright awful houses to convince him to give it a shot.

We both had a feeling we were going to like it, after all it’s brand new! But we loved it. It has a deck and a walk out! It’s SO quiet. No sound wall anywhere nearby. Room for so many activities!

We spent a weekend camping in River Falls last year. I told Jamey “this area is so cute, we should move here, or to Hudson,” and he would always say “I’m not living in Wisconsin!” well joke’s on him! Never in a million years would I have believed I would end up living in River Falls and NOT working for 3M. 2023 has been a wild year.

Moving sucks

So we made an offer on the beautiful new home across the river and we had 30 days to close. Oh, and they wouldn’t accept the offer contingent on sale of our Brooklyn Center house, so you know, I just had to get financing with a tiny down payment from every penny I could find in savings, stocks, and between the couch cushions. How fun!

Of course, we also still needed to sell the house ASAP. So we had 30 days to pack, declutter, paint, stage and get the house listed. And 30 days to jump through the trillions of financial hoops to buy a house. In summary, the last 30 days were sheer hell.

I am physically and mentally exhausted.

Mice, slumlord, crime

You know we went back and forth on even moving in the first place. We adored our Brooklyn Center house. But it all came down to the oft repeated mantra: mice, slumlord, crime.

Last fall we discovered mice in the house. FRICKING MICE! I spent thousands of dollars with Terminx to clean out and reinsulate the attic, do an exclusion, and maintain monthly service. And despite that, those suckers still kept getting into the house. It was frigging nightmare. In fact – I can tell you this now – I broke my foot in three places jumping out of the way of one of those MFers. I was so embarrassed to have mice that I lied and told everyone I tripped over a dog ball. Barley took the blame, and it wasn’t her fault.

Well, I’m less embarrassed now that we know the source of those suckers. The attached neighbors had accumulated so much garbage in their garage (attached to my garage) that there literally hundreds of mice over there who decided to chew their way on over into my house and see what tasty morsels waited for them. The renters were evicted and the house was cleaned out.

I don’t know the circumstance that lead our neighbors to this level of filth in their garage and house (the people working for the clean out crew said it was the worst they had ever seen), but I know it was how we wound up with mice. The landlord hired another exterminator to do another exclusion on both properties. With the mess cleaned out and another exclusion, we didn’t have any more mice issues.

But I know he put a figurative band-aid on a gaping wound. There was a lot of other things going on in that house that he did not fully address and he had that house rented out within a week. I am tired of my lovely home being affected by bad tenants who block my driveway and a slumlord who won’t maintain the property.

Additionally, the shootings in the area continue. Walmart closed. Do you know how much crime it takes to close a Walmart? There were parts of town I would avoid if possible. It’s a damn shame, because for 12 of the past 13 years, we’ve loved how close we were to everything in Minneapolis, with the bonus of being in a suburb. But the problems of North Minneapolis continued to travel near me, and while my heart goes out to those suffering the crime and violence, I don’t want to continue living there, and I have the resources to leave.

Home for sale

I don’t know how we managed it, but within 25 days we got the house decluttered, painted and (mostly) packed up. The home stager gave me great ideas for the photos and we got the house listed on the MLS.

The house looked so beautiful. I always loved that house, but with the staging, it was amazing. I confess, I cried a few times thinking about leaving behind our beautiful home. So many memories, so much history, so much work. I miss the fireplaces and the crown molding.

The listing went up Monday afternoon as “coming soon” to drive interest in the open house scheduled for the weekend. We were ready for photos, we were not ready for an open house. With photos, you can cram things into closets. With an open house, people are going to open those closets. STRESS.

In what can only be described as a sign from the universe, after working our butts off all day Monday, we were relaxing on the couch in the family room that evening when I heard a knock at the door. Some guy saw the coming soon listing and decided to just stop by. He was very interested the 2+ car detached garage and had some questions about the house and area. I gave him our agent’s number and the next day we had an offer for over asking with closing at the end of the month!

I’m so relieved and a little annoyed that I spent so much time and energy on making the house perfect, when all he cares about is the garage. I hope they love the house as much as we did.

Home sweet Wisconsin

So now I guess we’re the Wisconsin Wandering Weirdos. Jamey is adjusting to this change better than expected. We’ve lived in the new house for a week now and it’s starting to feel like home. Of course, before we even closed on the new house I had a fence install scheduled for the dogs. They like to think they’re outdoor dogs, and they wouldn’t be happy until they could tear around outside all day.

So to recap: I got a new job, Jamey got a new job, and we bought a new house in a new state. It’s a new start. Change is hard, moving is exhausting.

Hi neighbors

If you’re reading this because you saw the web address on the back of the truck parked in my driveway, hi! At some point, we’ll get around to introducing ourselves. For now we’ve been a little overwhelmed with all the logistics of the move and getting settled in. Feel free to knock on the door anytime and say hello.