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Archive for May, 2006

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Adventures in Real Estate

Sunday, May 28th, 2006

One of the most stressful parts of the planning process was deciding what to do with our house and furniture. First came the decision to sell vs rent.

Reasons to Rent:

  • Our house would stay our house and we would have something to come home to;
  • A tenant could pay our mortgage for us while we travel;
  • Real estate prices might go up while we’re away;
  • We would still have the option to stay in Belleville;

Reasons to Sell:

  • We would be free and completely liberated from our worldly possessions;
  • We could use the proceeds from the sale of the house to fund the trip (instead of drawing on our savings);
  • A tenant might trash our house and lower its value;
  • One less thing to worry about while we travel;
  • The real estate bubble could burst while we’re away. [read on]

Posted in Planning, Travel | 1 Comment »

The Devil is in the Details

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Back in January, when we decided to do this trip, it felt like we had a lifetime to plan it.  The prospect was overwhelming, but we had seven months to prepare, right?  So I’d just like to know who decided to play a really cruel joke on us and put the last four months on fast-forward.  Now, with three months to go, Claude and I are already starting to panic.  It’s one thing to close your eyes, spin the globe and choose your itinerary.  (By the way, I spent two hours trying to create a map of our route last week, only to have it disappear when I posted the #$%$&% thing.  I ended up having to do it in two portions to keep the template from crashing).  It’s a very different thing to plan the nitty gritty details.  For those of you who may be interested in planning a trip of your own, are actually interested in the logistics involved in the planning of our trip, or are trying to cure insomnia, read on.  If not, feel free to skip this post and wait for the excitement of the actual trip.  Unfortunately, unless I start making things up, I won’t be able to thrill you with our adventurous exploits until then.  So, in the meantime, I’ll have to bore you to tears with the details… [read on]

Posted in Travel | No Comments »