Blog: Moving

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Moving - Sunday, December 30, 2018
Lots of changes this year, but for others in the family.

My mom had taken a job in Orange County and rented an apartment there to be closer to Aaron and Lauren in order to help with the baby. But just recently, Aaron and Lauren moved to the Valley in order for Lauren to be closer to her new job. Because of that and because long-distance marriages are hard, my mom moved back home to be with my dad. My parents had originally planned to sell their house and move to Orange County, and my dad was working hard to get the place fixed up, but now they intend to stay put. At least they have a house that looks nicer now!

On Priscilla's side, her parents sold their house so that they could move once and for all to the condo. They had 40 years worth of accumulated stuff that they had to pare down. This was hardest mostly for Priscilla's dad, who liked living in a house and having lots of things. But he finally acquiesced, likely due to much pressure from the family.

They initially explored the option of having some things (cracks in the walls, paint and carpet) fixed up before listing the house. The two realtors they consulted both thought that the place would sell for around $600,000 after $30,000 in repairs. But ultimately, her parents felt that it would be too much hassle to have the repairs done and get all their old stuff hauled away, so they opted for selling the place as-is (including junk left behind) to a cash buyer. The agent they decided to work with arranged to have one of his contacts buy the house, and Priscilla was able to get the price up to $520,000 after a few rounds of negotiation. After fees and the realtor's commission, Priscilla's parents walked away with $490,000. If I was in their shoes, I would've spent the money to fix the cosmetic issues so that the place could sell for a lot more, but it would've been a lot harder for them. It was worth it to them to get less money and avoid the many headaches. They should have enough to live a comfortable downsized life. They closed escrow on Christmas Eve, but they asked for the final moveout date to be three days later so that Priscilla and I could stay there one final time when we went down to LA for Christmas.

As for me and Priscilla, not much has changed this year. Lately I've been thinking about what I'm doing and what I want to do with my life, and I think I'm in a bit of an existential rut. I've been feeling like the writer of Ecclesiastes who wrote that everything is meaningless. But I think that rather than trying to find the meaning of life, we should be trying to find meaning in life. Like being grateful for what we have and the relationships we have. And of course as Christians, Christ should be the center of our lives and the root of our meaning. I guess I'm still trying to figure out what that looks like.