micheleandtom.com

Well I guess I reverse jinxed us and got the car sold with my last post! (Tom finds all of my jinxing theories to be exhausting.)

Yes, that’s right, the couple who came to look at the car bought it last night. We are now car free (well, we are borrowing my parents’ jeep, but that’s almost car free).

A wonderful retired couple (who already own an automatic red 2002 PT Cruiser Limited) bought our red 2002 PT Cruiser Limited because it has a manual transmission and can then be towed by their RV. (The buyer said the automatic wasn’t rated to be towed–who knew?)

Whew! I bet Mom and Dad are glad we aren’t asking if we can park our car at their place while we are gallivanting around South America!

Interesting Notes: We only had one person come test drive the minivan, and they bought it on the spot. And, we had only one interested party come look at the PT Cruiser, and they bought it on the spot. They were both older buyers (the only people with cash to buy a car).

Not a ton of interest in my sweet little car that everyone says I was demographically too young to be driving. (Okay, maybe I’m the right demographic now, but I was in my thirties when I bought it. *laugh*)

Does it bear repeating that this is a crappy economy in which to be selling a car?

We did have one gentleman propose exchanging the car for a one-week time share in a property in Eastern Oregon. Mmmm hmmmm, that’s what I want, a week of sweltering desert every year in lieu of my car.

Someone also called about it today, so we shall see if they show up to look at it, since this is Craig’s List after all. (It probably means that we will sell it since we had started entertaining the notion of keeping it for our return.)

I remember during my first job working for an American aerospace company, I was given the task of trying to get my hands on an unusual alloy of aluminum for some stress tests.

What did I do?

I got on the telephone with Reynolds and Alcoa. Just randomly started calling people until I found some scrap pieces of what I needed, and paid for them to be shipped to my company.

After I moved to Taiwan, this model for problem solving didn’t work. Everything had to be done face-to-face. It was not possible to call someone up out of the blue and get something done. Heck, you would even be lucky to have your call taken if you rang someone without an introduction.

This has been our experience in trying to prepare for Argentina. It is very difficult to get anything meaningful done via long distance–even with the Web (which didn’t exist when I worked in Taiwan).

So, while I’m looking forward to getting to Argentina, I anticipate that first month there with feelings of trepidation because we’re going to really be putting in some serious hours of face-to-face time vetting schools and looking at apartments.

Perhaps we should locate a massage therapist first!

We appear to have secured a short-term apartment in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires!!! Yahhhh.

The good news? There’s room for Ian (my brother) to stay if he’s over on a late night babysitting gig (I’m not sure that’s good news to him…). The bad news? It’s a bit caro, as they say.

We will be living there for one month (hopefully). The timing of our housing/school strategy is this: live in a nice, fully furnished place for one month, during which time we must find a school for the girls and figure out a more affordable long-term housing solution.

Forking over the dough for the swankier short-term flat seemed like it might pay off in terms of stress relief. This way we don’t have to worry about a) trying to locate a long-term apartment from overseas; or b) trying to find housing right away while staying in a hotel. And, it means that we will have a nice place to come home to after pounding the pavement looking at schools and long-term apartments for a month.

Yes, this is a massive rationalization to spend way too much on a short-term rental, but we’re good with that!

Tom was putting the girls to bed the other night and he said to them, “Can you believe that you’re going back to school in a few days and then we’re moving to Argentina a month after that?”

“No Dad, we can’t believe it.” They then admitted to some trepidations about our trip!

At dinner the next night, we talked about what was making them nervous:

• “I’m afraid we aren’t going to find a place to live,” said Zoe.

• “Speaking Spanish,” confirmed Zelda.

• “Going to a new school,” added Zoe.

• “Everything Mommy, I’m pretty nervous about everything. This is a big move for me you know…I’ve only done a little move and now we’re going to a new city and a new country…and a new continent,” opined Zelda in her usual adult fashion.

I had no idea that finding a place to live was such a concern! We also talked about the fact that many of the things that make them nervous, make Tom and I nervous as well. (I don’t know if that reassured them though!)

It’s all becoming real. They’re being good sports, but it’s definitely starting to freak them out a bit–and us too!

(Please remember, we haven’t sold much, or bought much, for that matter, on Craigslist, so it’s all new to us!)

• Favorite Response to our Craigslist Ads: “am really in need of a futon. My in-laws are visiting next weekend. Is yours still available?” Nothing is too good for the in-laws, I say!!!
• Least Thought-Out Payment Strategy: We were all amped up to avoid cashier’s check fraud with car buyers after reading the craigslist scam literature online. Cash only for us! Then it turns out our minivan buyers were elderly and when we started demanding cash and waxing about craigslist scams and cashier’s check fraud…well you get the picture. They were kind of insulted. At the end of the day, Tom felt like a predator as he accompanied our charming elderly buyer into his credit union to get the cash under the suspicious gaze of the teller. *sigh*
• Best Pitch for a Price Reduction: “PS I also live in Forest Grove and would need to use a lot of gas to get to you.”
• Best Item to Sell: Futons and their frames sell like hotcakes. Ours practically walked out the door in 3 hours.
• Favorite Car-Buying Tactic: “Hello I am interested in your 2001 dodge caravan I would like to know what the lowest price is…” Big ticket items seem to get a lot of these inquiries asking for “your lowest price.”

I feel as if I’m starring in my own little catch-22 reality show.

1.  I email a short-term furnished apartment agency in Baires and tell them our trip dates and the specific short-term rental units that we’re interested in letting.
2. Said agency emails me back and tells me the units that I want to rent are not available, and they helpfully suggest alternatives.
3. Tom and I review said alternatives and quickly pick one or two, which we usually email back to the agency within an hour, certainly by the same day.
4. The agency then emails us the next day and tells us that the units we are interested in have been rented on a long-term contract by another agency and then they attach some alternatives for us to consider.
5. Please go to step 3 and repeat step 3 and step 4 a few times and that brings you to the present.

Methinks I should have started the short-term rental search earlier!

Whew, that was a whirlwind.

We sold the minivan to a lovely elderly couple who are ditching their truck with trailer to buy something that rides like a sedan, can still haul or pull as needed, and is easy to enter and exit!

Presto, our minivan.

The end of an era. We bought it just after Zelda was born. She noted it was the only car she’s known during her many years in Portland.

It has always been our intention to sell the cars before we left!

Unfortunately, for the same reason it is good to be getting out of the real estate market at the moment, it is bad to be selling a lower mileage vehicle (read: minivan). *Sigh*

Where oh where have the home equity lines of credit gone so people can buy a new car?

On the bright side, we have the PT cruiser all detailed out and it looks great. Hard to believe this car is over six years old. Of course, it goes to show you how nice a car can look if you never drive it and deem it the “No Kid, No Snack” car!

It is difficult to time the sale of furniture.

We sold the girls bunkbeds, yah! The girls have nowhere to sleep for a month-and-a-half, boo. At least, that’s what Tom and I thought.

The reality is that the girls are delighted to have two little nests (piles of blankets, sleeping bags, stuffed animals, and pillows) upon which they sleep on the floor. “It’s better than the bed, Mom!” “You can really stretch out…”

It just goes to show that you never know.