The Big Move

The awesome back yard that was.

After years of talking about it, my parents finally sold their house and moved into a condo/townhouse in 'town'.

My grandparents bought the little house in Granger in the 1950's which was built in the 1940's and after the addition of a bathroom totaled 788 square feet.  What made this place a great place to live was the acreage and the barn in the back.  In the late 70's the State of Washington and the Department of Transportation  informed my grandparents that they were purchasing the majority of their land to run Interstate 82 through the Yakima Valley.  This was a dark moment as my grandparents owned that land free and clear and the purchase price in no way was fair market value.  While having the freeway in your backyard is handy for a quick getaway it also brings a LOT of road noise to what had been a rural oasis.

My grandfather died (at his own hand) in the back bedroom in 1980 and in the mid 80's my parents quietly purchased the house and land from my grandmother who continued to live there until her death in the early 1990's.   Because my grandmother never mentioned that she sold the house, there was some angst between the siblings when my grandmother died and the house/land wasn't included in the 'estate' distribution.

I graduated from high school in 1986 and that same year my parents started talking about selling their home in Ilwaco, Wa when dad retired and traveling in a massive truck and trailer monstrosity.   In early 1992 they made that dream a reality.   The reality was that gas is expensive and they only lasted about 2 years on the road and much of that was parked in various campgrounds as on-site work campers.

They moved back to the Yakima valley and purchased a home in Moxie.  After my grandmother died the little house in Granger was rented to a family who wasn't doing a stellar job of maintenance.   Eventually, my parents moved back to the Granger house and we spent a summer tearing out walls and opening up the space.   They traded goods to a 'kid' for assistance with the rebuild.   Thankfully, they discovered that he was a terrible electrician before the house burned down.

exterior

This little house holds many memories for my family including lots of laughter, picnics, work parties, arguments, hot summer days, cold winters, funerals and everything in between.  With all those experiences I'm surprised that the sale of the house is actually a relief.  My parents are at the point where managing 2 the two acres and the upkeep on a house is too much.

The new place is nice enough, it's 1100 square feet which is practically a mansion.  They have a dining room and a spare loo!  The kitchen is separate from the living room and the main bathroom is massive.  The garage will hold both cars and has storage.  Additionally, the community has a pool and a nicely cared for green space where the Lucy can work out some energy.

remodeled (seriously) interior

Moving was, as you can imagine, a task and a half. My mom gets a rather large gold star for packing everything up, coordinating everything, obtaining a muscular person and getting it all done.   She's forgiven for the state of the barn on the two days that we could come over to help.   I'm sure that in time, she'll weed through even more of the "necessary" things and lighten their load again.

As of Sunday afternoon, everything was removed from the Granger house, except for some important rocks.  Yes, ROCKS.  To quote my mom "you would understand if you were a rock person."  I'm not, so I don't.   We did as much as we could during the weekend to help restore order in the new house.  We are going over again on Sunday to complete the IT connectivity portion of the move.   We are hopeful to pawn Lucy off on someone for the day so as to not inflict a drive over, play quietly on the floor, and then drive back kind of day on her.    I know the grandparents will be sad not to see her, but it's not fair to Lucy.

I have good feelings about the new place and think it can be kind of cute.  They'll have enough space to stay out of each others hair (sorry dad, bad pun) and being in Yakima makes our visiting that much easier.  We'll still end up in a hotel, which I don't mind, but having it be 10 minutes away vs 45 is great.  Of course, they moved solely to make my life easier.  After all, I am the center of the universe. Arent' I?   *crickets