Week 729 - House is Sold - 08-02-2020

Tanks a Lot!

One year ago we parked the MotherShip on our property and began the process of preparing to sell. We spent August, September and October enhancing our home to maximize the value. We built the house in April 1977 and it has been a blessing to us, our children and our friends. On June 3rd 2020, a wonderful family committed to purchasing our home. We wanted to make sure that this new family would not have any surprises when they moved in. So we did several things that were not required, but we felt they were things we would want done.

First, we tented the house for termites, even though the inspector said we only needed to treat two small areas. The cost was $2,000 and it just made us feel good that the new owners would have a 5-year guarantee of being bug free. Second, when we offered the property for sale, we specified that we would spend $7,000 to replace our septic tank. Tanks dissentigrate over time and our tank is over 20 years old. It might have passed home inspection but we did not want it to fail for the new family.

So last Tuesday with every other contingency met, the tank was the last item to complete the sale. The old tank is about 50 feet behind the house. The new tank will be put right next to the old.

Here comes Bill with his tractor to dig a new hole. He has to carve out the location to the exact level of the old tank. And it has be be perfectly level. Let's see how well he does!

The new tank is brought in by Doug whose company builds the concrete tanks.

This 1,500 gallon tank is huge, but his truck moves it with ease.

Wow! Look how perfectly Bill did his work. We were impressed.

On day two, Wednesday the pipes were connected to the new tank. The old tank was evacuated and filled with gravel.

The county inspector came out on Thursday and gave final approval to Bill's work. Bill covered the tanks and smoothed out the 12 yards of dirt that he had removed. Yipee, the escrow terms have been met.

More tank work the next day. This time it is Lee who came to clean out the MotherShip's black and gray water tanks. We try to have our tanks cleaned every two years. However, it has been difficult to find companies to do this. We look all the time. Amazingly, Lee just moved to San Luis County and was available to get the job done.

On Friday, escrow closed and we no longer own this house. On Saturday, as a last blessing we spent five hours blowing a few hundred thousand leaves off the acre surrounding the house.

It still looked pretty good on Sunday morning. The new owners will arrive later that day.

So, tanks a lot, we're out of here! But, where to go?

Why not Avila Beach, one of the 604 locations we have stayed at over the last 15 years. And, the one we love so much that we chose it as our cover photo for BigRigBible.com.

A lot of others seemed to think it is nice too. We arrived at 8:30am and got one of the final spots!

Ellen approves. We had our first date here on August 3rd, 1973. How fitting to spend our 46th anniversary here.

As the sun sets on our 43 years of building and owning our home, the sun also sets on Avila.

(This Avila Beach photo was from a previous visit.)

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the Lord is to be praised. Psalm 113:3

Photos from Aug 2020