42 Days To Go: Our Home is UNDER CONTRACT!

BIG news to share today! Our existing home in Phoenix is now UNDER CONTRACT....!  We were on the market for 33 days, when the average in our area is closer to 50. Very pleased with the offer, and now we can really kick things into gear! We'd move August 5th regardless of whether the home was sold or not; but now that it is, that triggers other tasks, like:-Scheduling pickup of the stuff ...
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44 Days To Go: ICF Building Class

Yesterday, I took a free class on ICF Construction, sponsored by Fox Blocks. ICF stands for, "Insulated Concrete Forms" - essentially, making your home a giant Yeti cooler.  The above photo is an ICF panel - it is 16" tall (it's on its side in the photo), 48" wide, and this particular one has an 8" hollow center, where strapping, rebar, and concrete will go. It replaces 6(!) cinder blocks ...

47 Days Out: Found a Home for Our Eldest!

No doubt, any parents' concerns about moving abroad will have, "Are the kids alright?" at the top of their list. Our eldest, Ethan, is 23, graduated from ASU in 2023, and has been with his girlfriend, Lilly, for over 6 years now. They currently reside in a home his mother bought as an investment property near ASU; their lease is up July 31, as Ethan's younger brother, Zachary, will be movin ...
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48 Days: A Last Trip Up North

We are now at 48 days until the move. Circling back on a previous blog about Guilt Trips Escalating, a few months ago my mom and her boyfriend asked us to do a trip "Up North" with them before we move. In the summer, they will take a three-day weekend once a month to go to Pinetop-Lakeside Arizona, about 3.5 hours northeast of us in Phoenix. If you haven't been to Arizona, you probably pres ...
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60 Days Until We Move; Container Conundrum

We are now 60 days until liftoff! Eeek! The majority of information we have about an international move has been gleaned from Facebook Groups, so sometimes, the information we anticipated turns out to be...inaccurate. All along, our plan has been:-Buy a One-Trip, 20' container;-Fill it with the things we have to take with us. Essentially no furniture, but tools, bikes, garden equipment, fis ...
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55 Days To Go! Overdue Tasks: Creating a U.S.-Based Trust

Before we leave the U.S., we have a laundry list of affairs to handle, many of which are: A. Not exciting; B. Have been put off for years. One that we certainly should have completed a long time ago was to create a Revocable Trust for our assets. We did start the process maybe 18 months ago; we had a referral to an estate planner who, for the low-low price of $4,500, would send us a packe ...
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63 Days Until Our Move - Guilt Trips Have Escalated

Today, we have 63 days until we move from Phoenix, Arizona to San Pedro, Belize. Our home is for sale, and I am conversations with a few different container shippers, trying to get a better feel on the steps, process, timelines...most want to hop on a call, which I loathe - I would much rather communicate via e-mail, so I have a "paper trail" and it makes it easier to relay information to Na ...
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Our Phoenix Home is For Sale!

Our home has officially been listed for sale! We're Pack Rats to the bone - it took me a solid ten days of decluttering, cleaning, hosting a Moving Sale, and more to be ready for photos. On top of that, we also cleared out the boys' (now men, technically) rooms, since they had a bit of hodge-podge furniture from our previous home. We moved here December of 2021, knowing we didn't plan to be ...
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I Quit My Job, and in 100 Days, We Will Fly One-Way to Belize!

It has been ten years in the making, which felt like it took forever. And now, our departure date is coming in HOT! At my last work event in Las Vegas, I opened the above fortune, and it was all I had in me to not burst into laughter! I have resigned from my position as the Director of Sales & Marketing for a General Contractor in Phoenix, Arizona, with 100 days until we move. It quickl ...
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Bound for Belize - How We Chose This Central American Country for Retirement

This will be our view every morning. If that is not enough to at least entice you to visit Belize, allow me to expand on how we chose this Central American country for our retirement. In 2001, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed. Single, 24, and with unlimited vacation days, I started to venture out on my own. Mind you, I had only received my passport three years earlier, when friends ...
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