It’s been quite a year since Mom died and we decided to sell the house. Two storage units and several calls to 1-800-Got-Junk later, I am temporarily housed in a condo in downtown Honolulu and the old home is listed for sale. Once we have a buyer firmly in hand we’ll know how much we’ll have to spend on finding a new smaller home for me, somewhere near the old place. The former house had four bedrooms, two full baths and one half-bath, a huge kitchen, a family room, a playroom, dining room, living room, and breakfast room. Electricity alone was $300 a month at minimum, water was $140 a month, and the everlasting pain in the backside that is a swimming pool was $200 a month. My income is not high enough to cover all that plus car payments and still eat.

We have regrets, but the costs are just too high. Hopefully we’ll be able to sell at a good price; the market top has fallen as the mortgage rates have begun to rise (thanks, Fed!), which is a two-edged sword. We won’t get as much in a sale but we presumably won’t have to pay as much to buy.

We’ll see.