When we bought Lincoln Ave. back in 2012, our preferred choice was a condo adjacent to Lowertown – a double unit on the corner with ample light and bookcases. The thinking was that that would be an age-in-place friendly home given Jonathan was 76 at the time. However, that unit was already under contract, so we ended up purchasing the Lincoln Ave. property which was our second choice.
I reminded Jonathan every now and then that we would have to move from Lincoln Ave. as the house, lovely and delightful to live in as it was, was not a place we could age-in-place. I think the frequency of those reminders was increasing as the years passed. I also pointed out that Mom and Dad kept ahead of their aging process moving from the house I grew up in to a cluster home with single level living, and then when their eyesight was failing, they moved to assisted living. So after a solo trip back to Rhode Island in October 2022, which included a day trip to New York City, Jonathan told me that he though it might be time to look for that age-in-place residence.
So after about two to three weeks of looking at condos, we made an offer on the Dakota-on-the-Park condo, and closed 16 December.
Part of the relocation was some downsizing. I consolidated all the family slides from the carousels to archival boxes. During “sorting” carousel #1 was found with the slides of Mom's and Dad's wedding which I thought were irretrievably lost (11 December 2022).
During the final walk-through of the condo on closing day, we got a note from a neighbor (16 December 2022).
We checked into the unit during January and Februrary on our way home from church, and Jonathan would come to oversee various work. Our move dates were 01-03 March (06 February).
We filled the bathtub with the clothes that we decided to discard (26 February).
We didn’t move right away. Instead we engaged the folks at Gentle Transitions to handle our move to incorporate some conscientious downsizing (even though the condo is listed as having 150 sq. ft. more living space than 1177). So on three afternoons in January and February, we worked our way from the basement to the top floor deciding what we were keeping and what was to be donated/disposed.
Then on March 1st, a crew of eight ladies arrived to pack up the house, on the 2nd the moving van arrived and van crew loaded the truck in the morning, unloaded the truck in the afternoon. On the 3rd, the crew of ladies was back to unpack all the boxes, put things away, and remove all the boxes and packing materials. We were fairly impressed and quite pleased with the entire experience. I described it as “outsourcing worry.”
In addition, they put all the pictures and art up on the wall. They asked if I had any specific plans for what would go where. Feeling like a deer in the headlights, I said “No. Just make it pretty.” Jonathan, and later our designer Bonnie, complained that everything was hung too low, I was glad that it was up on the walls contributing to the sense that this was indeed home now.
Leading up to the move, our new computer desks arrived. So we set up our systems which gave us a place to get out of the way when the movers delivered all our stuff (01 March).
Refrigerator is ready (03 March).
Placement of the sideboard and Granddaddy Taylor's clock (03 March).
One of the downsides of the unit - no bookcases (05 March).
We put 1177 Lincoln on the market in the middle of April after a couple weeks of prep and staging. We decided early in the process that we weren’t going to second guess Jessica our real estate agent – “outsourcing worry” again. Although I thought the list price was a bit low, it seems to have been strategic in driving a humongous amount of traffic through the house from the Wednesday when it listed through the open house on Sunday. We got four offers on the house - all over the asking price. We accepted the offer from a neighbor who was renting a house on the block and was seeking a permanent abode in our delightful neighborhood, closing on June 1st.
Above — a couple of panoramas to show the layout prior to the redesign.
I bought a new stove with my annual bonus. We missed the griddle that we had on our stove in Pasadena. And yes, the wall paper was removed as part of the redecoration (26 April).
Solving the spice rack question - they were on the back of the pantry door (07 May).