Probably should be helping Gwen with the big tidy up rather than blogging.
Open house from 1pm to 3pm today so hopefully we get more interested buyers than nosy neighbours checking the place out!
Sunday 28 February 2010
Thursday 25 February 2010
So far so good....
We had our first open house yesterday and we have another on Sunday from 1-3pm. Feedback so far is great and confidence is high that our beautiful home will sell quickly.
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Tuesday 23 February 2010
Saturday 20 February 2010
Our Dallas house is now for sale
101 days until we arrive in Ireland
$1.00 = €0.73
Kinsale weather : 1°C (34°F) Mostly Cloudy humidity: 93%
House is done and now on the market. We spent the last three weeks undoing the destruction of three little girls over the last six years and the place looks great thanks to Conor (Forest), Alec (Kettle) and Willeford Floors. We are now looking forward to handing the keys over to someone else who will have as much fun and fond memories in this lovely home as we did.
State side we are still interviewing and getting quotes from movers to ship all our possessions to Ireland. I am also busy at work making sure my transition and succession is going to be as seamless as possible. Gwen has also been busy shopping picking up as much so stuff as possible to squeeze into that 40’ shipping container so is any of you in Ireland wanting us to bring back anything let us know as we will have lots of space.
At the Irish side of things we are still looking for a house and it does not seem to be going so well. The country is in a housing crises and upwards of 300,000 properties remaining vacant but we cannot find one. We are resorting to posting Housed Wanted ads all over the place and also putting an ad into the Independent next week. If anyone reading this knows of a nice updated rural country home for rent in close proximity to Kinsale please let us know.
That’s about it for this week.
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Cooper
Poor Cooper will not be making the trip back to Ireland with us. We had to put him asleep last night as his quality of life had deteriorated too much due to cancer in his liver.
He was a great dog who went rapidly down hill when Fluff passed away on New Year's day.
Cooper we will miss you and I am sure you would have thoroughly enjoyed the wide open spaces, fresh air and sandy beaches of West Cork.
He was a great dog who went rapidly down hill when Fluff passed away on New Year's day.
Cooper we will miss you and I am sure you would have thoroughly enjoyed the wide open spaces, fresh air and sandy beaches of West Cork.
Sunday 14 February 2010
Snow in Dallas
107 days until we depart USA for West Cork
$1.00 = €0.73459
Our Dallas house is looking great. Just the hardwoods left to redo but we have already had one showing that appeared to go very well. A newly married US couple relocating from Switzerland to Dallas and appear to fall in love with our place but we think it might be a bit over their budget. A good start however getting such great feedback on the place.
As everyone in Dallas knows we experienced the city’s largest snowfall in history on Thursday and Friday. About a foot fell which is unheard of in these parts and we were glad to be here to experience it as it was so much fun and the place looked fantastic.
That’s all for now!
Tuesday 9 February 2010
Questions and answers
The response that we are getting to this move is amazing. Everyone seems genuinely excited for us and our big life style change but there are usually a ton of follow-up questions about when we are going, what we plan on doing once we get there, where the girls will go to school, do we have jobs, what are we doing with Cooper, do we have a house and most importantly when is the going away party?!
Much of these things we know and many we will be making up as we go along.
The plan is to depart on May31st, arriving in Cork on the 1st June. We do not have a home yet in Cork but we will hopefully have one rented by then. We also hope to have our USA house sold by then too but that is a different matter. Buying a house in Ireland will be something we complicate once we get settled in.
Girls are all signed up for "Gaelscoil Cionn Tsaile" and start in senior infants and 1st class on 1st September 2010. Poor girls will not know what has hit them as this is a Irish school, i.e. all subjects are taught our native tongue.
For jobs well the plan is to figure that out once we get there. Probably sounds a bit crazy in this economy but I have been working for 20 years and probably will work for 20 more so this is a good a time as ever to take some time off and catch up, spend quality time with my wife and girls, exercise, read (love my Kindle!) and perfect some of my dishes. If however any of you have any ideas on how to make a living in West Cork we are all ears.
As for Cooper, well poor Cooper I am afraid to say will unlikely make the trip as his vet thinks he only a matter of weeks to live. We also lost Fluff (our gentle giant) on New Years day and we just do not think Cooper was ready to take the long trip without her. Both were all set to go too as we were all setup for the doggie passports and both were chipped, vaccinated and officially in quarantine ready for the move.
Lastly will there be a send off? Well we will certainly do something in May that I am sure will involve the Dubliner as that's where it all started and probably where it should all end too. More details on this later on.
So that's all for today. Slowly making progress and all still very exciting.
Talk to you all later
Much of these things we know and many we will be making up as we go along.
The plan is to depart on May31st, arriving in Cork on the 1st June. We do not have a home yet in Cork but we will hopefully have one rented by then. We also hope to have our USA house sold by then too but that is a different matter. Buying a house in Ireland will be something we complicate once we get settled in.
Girls are all signed up for "Gaelscoil Cionn Tsaile" and start in senior infants and 1st class on 1st September 2010. Poor girls will not know what has hit them as this is a Irish school, i.e. all subjects are taught our native tongue.
For jobs well the plan is to figure that out once we get there. Probably sounds a bit crazy in this economy but I have been working for 20 years and probably will work for 20 more so this is a good a time as ever to take some time off and catch up, spend quality time with my wife and girls, exercise, read (love my Kindle!) and perfect some of my dishes. If however any of you have any ideas on how to make a living in West Cork we are all ears.
As for Cooper, well poor Cooper I am afraid to say will unlikely make the trip as his vet thinks he only a matter of weeks to live. We also lost Fluff (our gentle giant) on New Years day and we just do not think Cooper was ready to take the long trip without her. Both were all set to go too as we were all setup for the doggie passports and both were chipped, vaccinated and officially in quarantine ready for the move.
Lastly will there be a send off? Well we will certainly do something in May that I am sure will involve the Dubliner as that's where it all started and probably where it should all end too. More details on this later on.
So that's all for today. Slowly making progress and all still very exciting.
Talk to you all later
Friday 5 February 2010
Starting to get busy...
97 days until we depart USA.
Best news today is that the US dollar has been gaining on the Euro. At todays rate $1 = €0.73. Two weeks ago is was €0.65 so the move is getting cheaper every day.
There is however just so much to do. Our house in Dallas needs to be sold so contractors in undoing all the damage done by the girls over the last six years. We have doors and walls with holes that were created by 3 year olds! How is that possible? Carpets getting replaced next week, hardwood will be redone after that and with some tidying up of the landscaping we should be all set to put the house on the market. So if anyone is interested in a very nice M-Street new construction home let us know! We also have two cars and a ton of electrical goods that we will also be selling before we move. Euros accepted!
Best news today is that the US dollar has been gaining on the Euro. At todays rate $1 = €0.73. Two weeks ago is was €0.65 so the move is getting cheaper every day.
There is however just so much to do. Our house in Dallas needs to be sold so contractors in undoing all the damage done by the girls over the last six years. We have doors and walls with holes that were created by 3 year olds! How is that possible? Carpets getting replaced next week, hardwood will be redone after that and with some tidying up of the landscaping we should be all set to put the house on the market. So if anyone is interested in a very nice M-Street new construction home let us know! We also have two cars and a ton of electrical goods that we will also be selling before we move. Euros accepted!
Wednesday 3 February 2010
It's official
No turning back now. My job and the kids school have been notified about us moving. We have contractors in the house getting it ready to go on the market in about 2 weeks and we have already started packing.
Working on quotes from shipping companies now to get all our stuff to Ireland and starting to post a lot of items on Craigs lists and ebay to sell before we depart.
Getting very real now. ETA in Ireland is early June 2010.
Working on quotes from shipping companies now to get all our stuff to Ireland and starting to post a lot of items on Craigs lists and ebay to sell before we depart.
Getting very real now. ETA in Ireland is early June 2010.
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