Dealing With Home Inspection Upgrade Requests

We are busy each day working on the list of upgrades requested due to the Home Inspection report.  Nothing major but lots of little petty things, and rather than fight (negotiate) about it we just decided to take care of them; most we can do ourselves and a few will take a contractor, plumber, or an electrician. 

There have been code upgrades since we bought our home many years ago, like sheet rock lining the closet under the stairs in the basement.  We chip away at the list while packing boxes for our move. Our advise is to start early on the selling, inpsection, and moving process.  Give yourself at least 6 months or even a full year to get ready. 

It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate when you stay in one home for so many years.  We held 3 garage sales and sold some large items on Craigslist and/or Facebook.  Most of our moving costs will be covered by the income from those efforts. 

Moving boxes are making their way into the garage to facilitate the truck loading day.  Even with all the things we have sold, we will still look like a wagon train going slowly down the Alaska Highway 3000 miles to Idaho.  When we pull out of Eagle River we will have a 17 foot U-Haul truck towing a car and our Itasca RV towing a car.  If you have an automatic transmission front wheel drive vehicles, you will need a tow dolly or trailer to get the wheels off the ground. 

We will drive 10-12 hours per day and stop at plug-in camping sites along the way.   Our planned stops are at Destruction Bay, Teslin, Laird Hot Springs (ahhhhhh!), Edmonton Mall at the indoor water park, Northern Idaho, and our new home.  If all goes well we are thinking 6 total days of travel…but we have left a few extra days for flat tires and tired bodies.  Somewhere between 6 – 8 days max.  This is our 7th and probably last trip on the Alaska Highway (sad face). 

If we return to Alaska for a visit it will be on the Alaska State Ferry.  Flying has become too much of an ordeal because I have flown for over 200,000 miles during my career and Jeannie’s  compromised immune system can’t take being confined on an airplane any more. 

We are making progress toward the “wagons hoe” departure date while we try to soak in as much of Alaska and our friends as possible.  I know 20 years just barely qualifies us to be considered true Alaskans and we will forever think of Alaska as our home, with grand memories.