08-03-2014 I see people moving in an out of the neighborhood a lot, and I wonder what it'd be like. This part is about determining whether to move or not, and what to do first.

Getting this home in shape will NOT be easy! NOT.
After years of kids out, kids in, kids out, kid in, kid out, it's left us with a bunch (still!) of STUFF that of COURSE the kids want us to act as their public storage site!

In my thinking, it would be to
DETERMINE IF WE WANT TO MOVE, AND TO WHERE?
These thoughts could be good if you determine you don't want to move after all, because hey, it's a great way to clean up all the hoarded stuff. See post # 3 8-3-2014 for more ideas.

IF WE WANT TO MOVE, DETERMINE WHAT TO DO TO MOVE OUT.
1. SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY-I mean, c'mon, after 36+ years of living in the same place, we have a TON of stuff. We even have stuff we never unpacked from the year we moved in!!!
    A. Have a garage sale and sell what we could. That way we'd have money for our awesome stuff that we want to keep or move to actually GO into a storage facility!
    B. Start being ruthless. RUTHLESS. Think about what could be destroyed in a fire/flood/earthquake/locusts and what I wouldn't even give two hoots if it happened. If so, GET RID OF IT! (Wait, maybe I should put this part into 1.A.)
    C.This should be 'A'; organize and de-clutter to determine what to sell, what to give away, what to keep.

A nice 'starting point' webpage:
Cutting clutter and de-cluttering

8-3-2014 DETERMINE WHAT TO DO TO GET ANOTHER HOME. WHERE DO WE GO?

Ok, we've decided to move, we've decided on what to keep, what not to keep, what to store, what-what-what.

Now, to determine where to move. (this does go hand in hand with the decision to move, but I decided to split them up for the sake of brevity. It makes the blog easier to read, when it's broken up into smaller, bite-sized pieces, yes??)

WHERE?
NO, a dartboard of the world won't help unless you just want a couple of vacation homes in different countries and are independently wealthy.

1. Do we want to move by family?
Suppose your family was living in Utah and New Mexico.

PROS:
Face it, you've already thought about this one and started looking at homes already.

• They know the area and so do you, if you'd stayed with them a couple of times.
• The climate for the whole year, all four seasons, agrees with you.
• You know the 'hidden' costs, i.e. A/C in Albuquerque NM would be a high cost.
• You know the 'hidden' issues, i.e. the scenery is beautiful in Utah, the people are pretty much great, but it's basically a DRY state meaning alcohol is sold grudgingly, and basically NO night life. Don't even think about having a wild 4th of July party! The scenery is beautiful in Albuquerque too, but at least you can get alcohol without being stared at as a pariah. (FOR THOSE WHO LIVE IN UTAH: sorry about my assumptions about Utah, but it's what I've seen and experienced in 10 or so years. Also, it's my opinion, yours may be different, it's all good! I like Utah a lot, but to live there...) 
• You know the housing, what the homes go for, what they usually look like, the costs, the taxes, and homes for sale in your price range that have what you want. E.g., for some reason in Albuquerque, hardly ANYONE has a pool in their backyard! Hot tubs yes, but hardly any pools! I know it's the driest city in the entire country, that may be the reason because the water would evaporate quickly (I guess), but DAMMIT, I'm USED to a pool, I want my grandson to learn to swim!!!
• You can find out more about the area and type of people living there i.e. high/low crime, low housing costs, type of vendors/shopping/activities, and compare these to your own current area. Hey, you just may decide the grass ISN'T greener on the other side and want to stay put! (see my previous post on deciding to move or not)
• There had to be SOME good reason for them to move there!
• When you die, at least some of the family will be able to go to your funeral.
• You could go halves on a lot of stuff, like tools. 
• There's a possibility that the family member needs you a lot, and it'd be easier to live by them vs. driving to them. 

CONS:
I betcha you've thought of THIS stuff too, and have either dismissed it, or gone on to the next question.

• Um, maybe family doesn't WANT you there?
• Maybe you don't want to move close to family, especially if they have young ones and you KNOW you're going to be stuck with babysitting.
• Might always be hit up for money or 'help', no matter what your circumstances or schedule. Hey, you're right there, you've pretty much always been there for them, what's to stop them now?
• They always thought of your home as 'their' home, so nothing will keep them from going to your house, eating your food, 'borrowing' your makeup/tools/kitchen stuff etc.
• HOWEVER, there's NO WAY they'd feel the same way about their home and you! You'd almost always have to call ahead and make sure it's 'ok'. Remember, YOU used to want that at the beginning, if family wanted to come over to your new place!

2. Do we want to move away from family?

PROS:

• It's be like a vacation to go to them, and the same if they came to you. You wouldn't fight as much (if you do). I hope.
• You would move to a place that suits you better than where they are, i.e. Albuquerque would suit hubs more than Utah. 
• You'd be away from them, so they COULDN'T go into your house, eat your food, borrow your stuff, unless they were coming for a visit. The borrowing would STILL be at a minimum.

CONS: 

• (See 'PROS' in the 'Do we want to move close to family' paragraph)

3. Do we want to move in the same general area/county/state/region/country/hemisphere, or totally out? Sorry about that last, I guess the Space Station isn't condo-ized yet.

8-3-2014 I got this from HOUZZ.COM..."How Do You Want Your Home To Feel?"

I mention this now because in my first post, deciding what to get rid of is key if you're even THINKING of moving.
How you want your home to feel if (and when) you move will determine what you want to take with you.
How Do I Want My Home To FEEL?

11-23-14
You know what? How I want my FUTURE home to feel isn't the point at this particular nanosecond; I need to make my current home feel good to me before I go gallivanting off to decide what I want! I need a reference point.

Backyard slope, Phase 5 of the backyard cleanup

Instead of leaving it, I decided that they guys (and girl) do the slope, so I can consider planting ground cover.
I have before and after pics.
Note: see below, just to the right of that smaller retaining wall? That's the City of Brea's 'easement' that they have the rights to use. Water flows down via this area and comes out into the street. It's like a parkway in that they have it but we have to take care of it. Hey, I just want the water to flow downward where it's supposed to go. (Not that it's going to rain like 1983 or 1994...but you never ever know...)

Looking at slope from SE corner

Looking at SE corner with Terry Parise

Again, looking at SE corner

Looking NE behind jacuzzi area

Again, NE area behind jacuzzi patio

Long view looking NE area and middle slope area

Behind yucca area slope

NE slope area

Long-ish view of middle area slope plus trees

A MESS of leaves!

These pics are 'before' pics of the trees on the slope.

Trees on slope that will be cut back more 1

Trees on slope that will be cut back 2

Wide yard showing trees that will be cut back WILDLY

Remember how the tree was above this pic? This is the slope still in process.

Slope still in process.

"It's lookin' better all the time..."

Long view slope still in process

Terry Parise, his brother Devon and Devon's friend Destiny are fantastic workers.

Terry Parise and his brother Devon do all our landscaping.

Getting the front and back yards done, Phase 4. We're looking good! Need to look at ideas for xeriscaping and planting.

Big yard looking at NE corner.

Big yard looking at SE corner.

Terry Parise and his brother Devon do all our landscaping.

I have NO CLUE what to do with this big back yard. Before dogs, it used to be all grass. Maybe that fake grass? I tell Bub that plants and stuff cost less than rock. 

Just about ready to level and plant the side yard. I think I want a 'zen' type of garden, with mostly rock and pavers with some xeriscape plants. 

IDEAS for this bigger side yard:

Railroad ties and a slightly raised xeriscape garden plants, with pavers and rocks, not so sure about Buddha, there.

Again, rocks, maybe red lava rocks, big landscaping rocks, and some of the calico whiter rocks forming a faux dry river bed, then putting a small bridge over it. Another reason for a dry river rock bed is if it EVER does rain like it did in 1983 & 1994, I want someplace for that water to go.

I like this idea of larger landscaping rocks, small calico whitish rocks, and a solar fountain. Just a little 'zen' place I can put a small bench in and contemplate the universe, or my belly button, whichever comes first.

I like this, except for the grass.

THIS is almost EXACTLY like the side yard layout! This would be good.

Forgot to mention that we had another side yard, smaller than the other side yard, this one's at the master bedroom window. This is after they cleaned it all out of all the stuff. Again, gotta think of plants.

Hmm, probably another dry-river rock xeriscaping thing sloping slightly away from the house, to make sure water doesn't pool next to the house. 

Have to think of the back slope for tall plants. Notice how the homes in the back can look down into our jacuzzi area??? NOT good!!!

That huge stump has GOT to go. Dynamite? (jk)

I could see a rock garden on the side with a few plants here and there.

Getting the front and back yards ready: Phase 3, almost done...ALMOST!

Jacuzzi area all cleaned out.

Pic of long yard.

NE corner

Starting in on those damned yuccas.

Patio looking better.

Shot from Jacuzzi patio towards patio cover.

Side yard cleaned out, yuccas thinned out.

Terry Parise and his brother Devon do all our landscaping.

Getting the front and back yards ready-Phase 2, cleaning up the backyard.

Look at all the cleanup!

But it's getting there.

It took Terry Parise's Ranger, our Ranger plus we had to rent a 6x12 trailer to haul away stuff from 11-9-14.

We had a staging area for all the big things that had to be dumped. The staging area was the side yard.

MAN, lookit all that YARD TRASH.

Terry Parise and his brother Devon do all our landscaping.