June 2022 - Move Update
Hello from Queen Anne! This has been an eventful month, and with 10 weeks to go until we fly away, it is an excellent thing that stuff is starting to move!
First, we got our tickets to Panama - we are set to depart on September 15. We have six months in Panama on a tourist visa, during which we will apply for permanent residency, and we have a movable ticket at the end of that period (March 2, right now) to return should the need arise. You cannot enter the country to apply for permanent residency (or any kind of residency) without proving you have a return ticket, so we are compliant. When I worked in Honolulu, the state was having a problem with folks who got a one-way ticket to Hawai’i planning to live on the beach and eat from the banana and mango trees - homeless in Hawai’i didn’t sound awful, except to the State of Hawai’i! So, we have a return ticket proving we have a way back home to Seattle should we be rejected in our quest for a new home in Panama. We plan to fly to Panama City on September 15, and we have reservations at the Panama Zen hotel we stayed in during January to visit our favorite Panama City places for a week before flying to David (Dah-veed) and driving the 30 minutes to Boquete (Bo-keh-teh). Maury, the woman who was our guide to the different neighborhoods of Boquete, is sending us a list of recommendations for AirBnBs and resident hotels so that we can choose a place to stay until we have a chance to see longer-term rentals and find a place to live for our first neighborhood trial. Meanwhile, we have arranged with an immigration attorney in David to start the permanent residency application soon after arriving, and we have been gathering the paperwork needed to submit for that process.
Second, stuff started to move out of our lives, and the apartment shows the differences enough that we both feel encouraged.
Books: Miguel is a lifelong scholar who has been collecting leather-bound classic books for over 40 years, supporting that long-developed persona. They really make the shelves look librarial! But, the highlands of Panama get around 120 inches of rain a year (Seattle receives 35 - 40), and the humidity is always looking for a place to take up residence - like a book! Miguel researched how to de-humidify a library and found it a difficult undertaking, and most Panamanian ex-pats who responded had not been successful, even with heavy machinery. As a result, the book winnowing was a significant undertaking during June. I think a beautiful version of Dante’s Inferno will make the cut, but the field has narrowed by about half, and no book can rest on its reputation alone. So far, we have hauled 16 banker’s boxes to Half Price Books, and we haven’t gotten through half of the stockpile! The good news is that our Kindles seem to be functional in high humidity and don’t weigh much, and Boquete has a community library that serves the community in both English and Spanish books. Note the photo with four of the main bookcases, compared with the “after” photo with book-naked shelves. We have two tall shelves yet to empty and other stashes around the house. Happy August: The decisions are only going to get tougher!
I cleared out the bedroom decor in the Spring, and we now sleep in the Cloud Room, named for its lack of color. During June, we cleared out a chunk of the living room. You may not be able to see in the Before photo that the living room carpet(s) were stacked - one I had for years, over which we laid a lovelier carpet of Mom’s. Now THAT is Pacific Northwest space management - layers of living! During June, the bottom carpet departed, as did a rug from the “office” I had won in auction soon after moving into this apartment (1996-ish). The beige and the black chairs in the living room went away, as well as two lamps and the pink picture over the TV - that one I bought in London in 1986. Note in photo #4, big and little stuff moving out! We are aiming for Cloud Living Room, but we still have far to go, especially since we have lots of color, a big black sofa we still need to sit in, a big black crane painting, and a big black TV! Perhaps it will be the Thunder Cloud Room for a while.
But any evident progress is to be celebrated, so I often celebrate, usually with a watermelon popsicle!
Beethoven and his pedestal departed Thursday to live at Yuli’s piano teacher’s house. She is very excited to have him, and during Yuli’s piano lesson this week, Beethoven wore a dark, hooded cape and played the role of Darth Vader while Yuli played the Star Wars theme song. Beethoven is already more playful at Teacher Carol’s house than at our place! He had built a debonaire reputation as our Panama Hat stand, though he still tended to brood at our house.
Our second bedroom, lately known as That Room, moved from crammed-full-storage to an office again (for a couple of days) to the staging room for items leaving the house. A snapshot in time photo was during that fleeting moment when it was an office again. The Staging Room has labeled sections for Goodwill, Vincent House donations, ReCreative for craft treasures, Re-PC for electronics recycling, items awaiting delivery to friends and family, jewelry-makings, and other categories. And, sorted by destination, things are moving out. Whoo-hoo!
Storage: Speaking of crammed-full storage, our storage space in the basement is 10 x 10 x 10, and quite a valuable amount of storage space in Seattle! While I traveled, up until 2015, that storage space had languished from its early high organization and became a space that stuff was tossed into, aiming for perceived bald spots that might contain new items. My friend Diane and I cleaned it out and organized it again in 2017, but it sank into a cram-and-toss space again. When I needed to locate the bedroom decor to send to someone, and it had been tossed by a powerful gentleman into a corner area of the storage space I couldn’t wade to easily, I tackled the Yarn Collection.
Yarn: I was going to retire to many crochet projects for which I had been collecting yarn for some years; baby blankets for new mothers, sweaters, capes (my favorite), lap robes for elders in wheelchairs at Mt. St. Vincent, scarves and on and on and on. When Yuli’s grandmother, Grammie Linda, offered to help me while she was staying, we extracted a hallway full of yarn from just a fraction of the storage unit. It was intimidating! We sorted by color, then by type; we loaded them into 30-gallon Hefty bags, and then had to load them back into the storage unit until I could get them accepted to their new home at Re-Creative, an artist’s collective in Phinney Ridge. Delivery was on Thursday, and Re-Creative and I are new best friends! Next, I need to tackle the fabric, a collection I was going to use in my re-taking-up of designing my own clothes. Re-Creative has already offered to take the fabric, so I have a taker, anyway! Once I have both of those collections out, I should be able to see the stuff in storage - and believe me, it will still be a full storage unit to clear!
Paper is another big area needing departures - Miguel and I have been sorting through 27 years of paper. Tossing, de-personalizing, shredding (until we broke the shredder last week), and making piles. BORING, but oh-so-necessary. Amongst the recyclable 20-year-old computer instruction manuals, expense reports from traveling for a living, and almost-ancient financial statements are important papers that we still need to have, like mortgage, car stuff, and artwork receipts; I think “paperwork” technology is in a much better place than 25 years ago, but mine is a bear to bring up to date (and out of the house). I can tell you that I am SOOOOOO grateful for paperless statements that I can access online IF I want them, and I will never have to go through 17 pages of financial planning paperwork for each month’s reporting again! Recycled paper pellet kitty litter should be set for many cat lives after this is done!
Jewelry: My 55-year collection of jewelry beads and gems is starting to move out the door slower. I started making my own earrings when I was eleven, and having received a pair of opal earrings from my godparents, I had paid $27 to have my ears pierced (that was 54 hours of babysitting - not a decision I took lightly!). Once pierced, I soon realized that I only had that one pair of earrings, and they were a little too high quality for me to risk losing daily. So, I started out with 20-gauge wire and tiny seed beads, making earrings suitable for 1967; I expanded to bigger beads and beyond earrings into necklaces and gifts as the years went by. My jeweling goal with retirement was to develop aspects of a jewelry metalworking workshop again and get playful with all the lovely things I have collected - my estimate is about 10,000 fabulous jeweling beads, stones, and pearl strands that now need new homes. Like Miguel’s leather-bound books were for him, this is tough for me. In June, I started the process. With only ten weeks to go, this is a significant hurdle. Next week, I have two more meetings with people, and I am starting to receive suggestions about auction companies and small-business jeweler resources that might be able to help.
Planning for what’s next with the apartment: I met with a property manager who knows our building to talk about renting for two years so that we have a Plan B should something desperate happen. Interestingly, if you don’t want pets in your rental, you eliminate about 75% of the rental pool! I wouldn’t have guessed that, especially since I am allergic to dogs and cats, and pet-free is like smoke-free for me. The apartment should rent for around $3000 after the preparation is done, and that is another shock for me; I couldn’t afford to rent my own apartment - or at least not rent AND eat. I also talked to my favorite realtor for our co-op building about what he recommends doing before a sale, and what to do now for a rental versus waiting two years to do for a sale. Some of my fears - like the fact that the bathroom sinks and tub are the original pinkish terra cotta color from 1962. A bear to decorate around, plus showing the wear and tear of 60 years. The golden maple original woodwork on all the doors, closets, kitchen cabinets, and second bedroom wall has been oiled by me twice a year for 27 years now, so it won’t be easily painted over, and there’s more... I feel better now with a plan for what we can do, like re-porcelain the bathtub and sinks, and recommendations on replacement flooring for the stupid white carpets that I chose in 1995, and the list is now less intimidating.
What’s up for July? More clearing, paperwork to be apostilled (an international notary-type process required by Panama), our birdies need new homes, and we need to get down to 2 suitcases each to take to Panama on September 15. Anything that we think we want to ship later, we need to store and then pay to ship - and that shipping is approximately $5 per pound today, so the decisions are weighty! (We have two years to take advantage of Panama’s offer to import $10,000 worth of household goods tax-free.) I think we are on a roll with the outbound household stuff - it is now a relief to see bald spots and have a staging area in That Room that actually serves an outbound purpose. The bald spots in our space make Panama seem more in reach - like it might happen! I hope to report to you at the end of July that facing August and the two weeks of September before we depart will be a less intimidating prospect.
Weary Angelic Oversight: This is a weary angel that Miguel loves. She represents June. This angel might appear to be grieving at someone else’s house, but at our house, Weary A. has become tired of overseeing our constant ins and outs, backs and forths, and the constantly changing decor. If you would like this angel to join your household, she would love to have a more peaceful home - just let us know!
Panana is real - we have plans, and stuff is actually moving!
Watch this space for July’s progress in the next month, and thank you for supporting us in this adventure!
Mary Bea y Miguel