Look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid and you’ll find “security of property” in the second tier from the bottom, right above food and sleep. When you don’t have a place to live, it’s hard to move into loftier states of being where you worry about solving world hunger or even making lunch dates with friends.
Which must be why I’m having a hard time doing more than eating, sleeping and staring at house listings on Craig’s List. Out of the blue, a buyer came calling and we’re in contract to sell the family home. It’s something we’ve been talking about doing for several years now. In fact, in 2009 when our youngest graduated from high school we put our home on the market–right as the housing market crashed and no one was buying homes.
Even one as lovely as ours. ”It’s just a mystery why the Pritchetts’ house isn’t selling,” our realtor reported other realtors saying. “It’s such a great house.”
Ultimately, we took our great house off the market. And for the last three years we’ve made more happy memories here. But always there was the nagging sense that it was time to move on to smaller, more sustainable shelter.
And so, a few weeks ago when a serious buyer came along we entertained an offer. And now a deal has been struck and our time here is soon to end. If all goes as planned, in a month I am going to move away and “right size” from the place where I raised my children and grew up myself.
But where to go? My husband still has gainful employment here in San Francisco. Our friends and church community are here—specifically in the East Bay. Even if the physical abode changes, this area is still home to our children. Those elements help set some parameters. We want to move nearby. And given the quick close of escrow, we’ll need to rent so we can experiment a bit with location and type of housing, knowing that the move will be temporary.
“Makes me feel young again,” said my husband as we drove around Oakland last weekend driving by potential rental homes.
We felt less youthful as the day wore on and more ready for a nap. Hunting for a new home is hard work. But the day ended with a surprising (to me) possibility. I’ll share more after I’ve seen more, but for now it’s time to generate another list for this weekend’s hunt. Oh, and this round I’m packing snacks.
