Dragging stuff around…again

The story of my life. We’re packing. Again. Again!

No, we didn’t buy a new house, lol. We’re just getting stuff packed up and out the way for the big remodel. And while we’re at it, we’re dragging a bunch of stuff back to Albuquerque, in anticipation of me spending more time there for awhile.

They say, “Home is where the heart is.” For me it’s more like, “Home is where my clothes are.”

When we first bought our house in Tucson, in 2020, I split my clothes in half, with half in Albuquerque and half in Tucson. I also tried that same tactic a few years ago when I was splitting my time between Santa Fe and Placitas, but it didn’t work back then either. In the end, I brought everything to Santa Fe.

Same thing this time around – over the last couple of years I kept bringing more and more stuff out until I had brought all my clothes to Tucson. Apparently I like having all my clothes in one place. Now I am moving all my clothes back to Albuquerque. I’m not sure for not sure how long. Eventually we plan to end up in Tucson full time, but John’s pesky job keeps getting in the way. So it’s Albuquerque for now.

I can’t really say that we are moving back to Albuquerque, because our permanent residence, and drivers licenses, and car registrations and taxes have been in Albuquerque all this time.

I’m sad to be shifting away from Tucson for now. But we’ll be back. We do like Tucson better than Albuquerque, even though Albuquerque has a special place in our hearts.

As we’ve anticipated all along, it’s becoming harder for John to work remotely. We always figured that once the pandemic was over, he would have to show back up in Albuquerque for work. Of course the pandemic isn’t over, but everyone is acting like it is. Maybe because it’s less deadly now? Covid numbers are very high and presumably significantly underreported since so many of us are just testing at home and riding it out. But let me not get distracted. My point is, John’s numerous meetings are now being held in-person, in Albuquerque.

Simultaneously, we have finally gotten our remodel in Tucson underway. I think we’ve found a guy who is trustworthy and can implement the remodel without us being there. That’s definitely my preference. I dislike chaos, and I need a quiet environment for my coaching sessions. The remodel we have planned is a very disruptive one. We’re going to strip the kitchen down to the studs, remove a center wall, and completely redo the layout with all new everything. We’re also going to tile the entire house. New flooring is hugely disruptive because everything has to be moved out of the way.

I don’t want to try to be living there while that’s happening. Ideally, I would be living a block away, like when we remodeled the house in Placitas. I could literally stand in our backyard at our rented house on La Paz and look up at our house on the top of the hill and see that the contractor wasn’t up there (even though he was claiming to be there all the time). We had a terrible contractor in Placitas.

Being a 7-hour drive away will not be convenient. I really hope we don’t regret this. We could rent a nearby house in Tucson, but that would be expensive. And it doesn’t get around the fact that John needs to be in Albuquerque – and I would like to be there with him!

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