Some News...Part One

Well, hello there, everyone!  It's been a hot minute since we last blogged together, and a lot has been going on!

The two of us outside the house in North Encanto, in which we just passed the 5 year mark!

In addition to our normal roster of working, frequenting local restaurants, and spending time with friends and family, the past few months have been a flurry of activity - although we've been thinking about it for several years, we're finally taking the plunge and relocating further east, moving from Phoenix to the greater Lexington, Kentucky area.  While some folks have been apprised of every step we've taken in this journey, to others, this may come as surprising news.  To hopefully help explain, here's a brief timeline of events that led us to this major life change:

January - March 2019 - We decided that although life in SoCal is amazing, it isn't for us (Chris' 90 minute commute each way to work was a major factor), and we relocated back to Phoenix, buying a house in the North Encanto neighborhood in what's considered Midtown.  Upon our return to the Valley of the Sun, we noted that while prices were nowhere near the area we just left, they rose significantly in our absence, and the Valley was starting to look pretty crowded with people.  Traffic is officially crazy, and some friends are living as far as 40 miles away, to be able to find a place they love that isn't nutso expensive.

Heading back to AZ with a five month old terrier mix who hadn't yet learned how to go to the bathroom on a leash.

She didn't potty for the entire drive, despite stops at several rest areas and our increasingly frantic encouragement.

March - June 2020 - We all know what happened in March of 2020 - just a little thing known as the global pandemic.  While we were locked down at home, Amy battled a bout of pericarditis (four years later, and we still don't know how this happened, nor do her doctors); she thankfully made a full recovery, but the illness, plus three years of living in milder temperatures, means that summer weather in the desert started getting really hard to bear.  As we age, we've both found it harder to enjoy our summers in Phoenix; the temperatures keep getting higher, water resources are drying up in the outskirts of town, and power costs are starting to rise as well.  We both noted that we don't feel as well as we used to in the Valley when the temps start to soar.

My COVID work from home setup

July 2021 - Chris started researching possible retirement locations and decided to further investigate Tennessee (and you all thought Amy was the planner in the family, right?).  The cost of living there is relatively low, there are a decent number of major cities with airports and large employers, and we already have family and friends in the area.  We traveled to Knoxville for a week, worked remotely from an Airbnb, and toured potential land offerings, with the thought of building a retirement home there someday.  As our week there ended, we made an offer on a 1.5 acre spot outside of Knoxville, which was accepted, and we officially became landowners in the Volunteer State!

Some of the very important shots I took on this trip:

Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary Alice's cat, enjoying the easy chair

An adorable Aussie puppy in the Houston airport

The amazing biscuit sandwich from Matt Robb's in downtown Knox

September 2022 - After barely making it through a truly awful summer in Phoenix (we hit 100 degrees or more on 133 days in 2022!  Hooray!), we escaped to the cooler environs of Kentucky and Tennessee around Labor Day.  Flying in through Louisville this time, we logged some days in the Smoky Mountains, visited with family, and ate and drank all sorts of great things.  We also went to see our plot of land, which was once again verdant and green.

Wandering downtown Louisville, on our way to eat hot browns and taste bourbon (cool browns?)

Overlooking the Tennessee River and Neyland Stadium in downtown Knoxville

June - August 2023 - We embarked on an epic road trip to escape the summer heat, traveling all the way up into the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state and back.  While we were gone, Phoenix broke a ton of horrible records: for the most 115+ degree days in a year, for hitting 110+ for 31 consecutive days, and so on.  We attempted not to gloat too much to our friends stuck in the Grand Canyon State, as we were wearing sweatpants and hoodies for much of the voyage.  Making it home in mid-August, we eventually came to the realization that we likely needed to relocate pretty soon for a number of reasons, including our ability to continue to enjoy life in the summer.  

The 4th of July on the beach in Bodega Bay, California

We stropped through Vegas on the way home, and it was so hot outside,

our laptops sometimes needed an air vent break.

November 2023 - We decided that while we still want to settle in the greater Tennessee/Kentucky area (somewhere between Knoxville and Lexington) some day, custom building a house won't be our route.  Working with a local realtor, we put the Tennessee land on the market, and it sold near the end of the year.  

Good bye, lovely land!  We'll raise chickens somewhere else, someday!

January 2024 - We realized that while we've visited the greater Knox/Lex area a few times, it's always been in summer.  To ensure we can endure what the winters might throw at us, we scheduled a trip in the middle of January.  As it turned out, while we were there, a freak snowstorm blew into northern TN/southern KY, and we beat a trail from Knoxville up toward Lexington to escape the worst of it.  After frantically searching Airbnb options outside of the heaviest snow zone, we spent the night in Richmond, KY, a smaller city about 30 minutes south of Lexington proper, which is also home to Eastern Kentucky University.  It's a cute little place, and we whiled away part of the morning watching the snow plows and gritters come through, clearing the roads for residents (while parked in front of the Airbnb's fireplace).  In comparing notes later (with Martin, a fellow Gore employee we ran into in the Louisville airport who was in town for a gymnastics tournament and with Ashleigh, a good friend of mine who has family near Knoxville), it seems that when things like this happen, Kentucky is much better off than Tennessee; this is due to many factors, including the tax that helps the Bluegrass state fund services like this (no state tax in Tennessee is nice, but it can lead to lack of funding for road maintenance - the stretches of Interstate 75 that run through Kentucky are significantly better than those in Tennessee, we've found).  

Downtown Richmond, from the Airbnb window

What's all this white stuff?

After returning home to Phoenix, we determined that while Kentucky was cold and windy and strange things were falling from the sky, we were still ready to pick it for our next life adventure!

February 2024 - We met with our realtors in Phoenix, Melissa Croaker and Kelli Grant, of the Kelli Grant group, to see what they think our prospects would be on the NENA house.  We had the extremely good fortune to be placed with Melissa as part of Chris' relocation back to Arizona in 2019, and we were thrilled that she once again wanted to work with us (we're good clients, I promise)!  A month of cleaning up, painting, packing, garage sale-ing, and whatnot commenced, and in...

March 2024 - ...the house went on the market!  We moved out to our friend Courtney's spot in Buckeye to live in the travel trailer while the house was showing, and we sincerely appreciate her willingness to allow us to essentially take over her back yard with our nutty doggos (she had to ensure her own dogs plus an inquisitive four year old didn't wander out while ours were doing their business - she deserves a medal!).

A few snaps from living on the west side:

The girls, keeping an eye out for Chris to return from his run

Bea soaking up the sun!

"Dad, let me help!  I know Excel!"

The Goodyear blimp on its way to, well, Goodyear, for the NASCAR race

After showing it for two weeks, we received a full-priced offer on the house, which we happily accepted.  Bidding adieu to Courtney and her household, we headed back to finish out the next 30 days in the house in Midtown. 

We initially planned to take a four-five week long "work across the country" trip in the travel trailer, figuring we'd look for houses once we arrived in the Lexington area, but Chris came up with the idea of fast-tracking things a bit.  He flew to Lex for a long weekend in March, during which he met with our KY realtor Scott (a second cousin!) and saw several houses.  Going back to his favorite on the second day, he and Scott Facetime'd me, and we all strolled the land and house together.  We made an offer on Sunday, 3/24, and it was accepted the same day!

At the time of this typing, we plan to leave Phoenix for points eastward on April 6th, with the North Encanto house closing scheduled for April 10th, and the closing in Kentucky currently on the calendar for April 19th.  Stay tuned to the blog for more updates, including info on the new digs and adventures on our trip with the girls in the trailer!

Later!

Amy