The great sell-off!

Well, the time has come to really start downsizing. I can't take much with me, so it (almost) all needs to go. I posted a few things on Craigslist (I haven't had much luck with Craigslist lately) and I also posted on Facebook and tagged a bunch of my local friends. I have to tell you, the whole Facebook idea (thanks Erin) was the best yet. I had sold several things within 10 minutes of posting. I just found out that the town I live in has a Facebook page for buying, selling and trading goods, so I just sent in a request to join that group. My Neighbours (thanks Kevin and Jess) highly recommended the group, so hopefully I'll have some good luck with that.

Under Contract

It's official, my house is under contract! I received a due diligence check yesterday from my realtor and closing is scheduled for 27 June. In other news, I received an email from a recruiter I've been working with in Ireland. He emailed me to let me know of an opportunity in Omagh which is in Northern Ireland. Omagh is in County Tyrone, which is where my Grandfather emigrated from. In fact, when I looked at the map of where this hotel is, I saw Castlederg, which is the town he lived in. Now, I'm not against living in N.I. at all, it's just that all of the research I've done thus far has been for living in Ireland. I just need to do some investigating on living there. I actually think it would be really nice to live so close to where my family originated from; coming full circle, in a way. I've emailed the recruitment agency asking for more details on the position, and I will post more information once I have it myself.

Still waiting

I am still waiting for a contract for the sale of the house. The buyers agent is not being easy to work with. There is a clause in the contract that states if the buyers house does not close they can walk away from buying my house. My realtor feels this is not needed. However, the buyers were supposed to close on the sale of their house this past Friday and it got pushed back to this Friday. Something just seems odd about the whole situation. So basically I'm just waiting for the wording to be changed by the buyers realtor and I'll be all set to go. I just want some reassurance that this is actually going to happen; Dublin's been on my mind quite a bit the last few days.

Possible (hopefully) good news

Well, I finally have an offer on the house! There was a showing when I was visiting my Mom in Connecticut, and this is the couple who has put an offer in. There was also a showing on Sunday, and according to their realtor, the couple was very interested, but we have not heard anything back. I was hoping for a bidding war. Anyways, the first and only offer came in 12k below asking, so I obviously counter offered. They have since counter offered again, and so I did as well. I'm now just waiting to hear a response from my latest counter offer. Keeping fingers crossed they accept it, although I have a feeling they will counter offer yet again. If they accept my offer as is, I'm in a good financial position. I'll keep everyone posted.

Nothing to do with Ireland

Today was a good day. I shouldn't say it has nothing to do with Ireland as I did confirm my interview for tomorrow with the hotel in Cork. That's good news. But what I really enjoyed about today was taking a hike in Peters Memorial Woods in Clinton, CT.  PM Woods, as I call it, is owned by the Clinton land Trust and is set aside for recreation and can never be developed. I think it's about 54 acres, all wooded. When I was in Boy Scouts in the 80's, a friend and I built several hiking trails through the woods. I went for a hike today and was able to hike each trail, including one I made completely on my own. I was happy to see the trails are being used quite regularly and maintained well. I was also happy to see that Canadian Hemlocks are making a return after being almost completey wiped out by the Woolly Adelgid back in the late 80's to early 90's. I love coming to this place. I spent so much time there when I was a teen, and know every bit of it, even off the trails. 

Below are some pictures I took while there. The first one is a sign that I made and is almost 30 years old, and still standing. 

In CT

I'm spending a few days in CT. My brother is home from Norway and I'm helping my mom get some stuff done at her new house. I brought up 5 large Rubbermaid bins of stuff that I couldn't part with to be stored for an undetermined amount of time at my mom's house. We went to Lenny and Joes Fish Tale tonight and I had my usual clam dinner. Love fresh clams, and Lenny and Joes are some of the best I've ever had. 

More jobs applied for

Every day I get automated job searches mailed to me via a variety of sources, with indeed.com and jobs.ie being the two biggest. Yesterday in my jobs.ie email there were 2 positions listed for Conference and Banqueting Managers, which is what I'm looking for. Good news; I applied to both. Also in this email was several listings for managers of new Aldi stores in Cork. I think most everyone is familiar with Aldi; we even have them here in the states...in fact, there is one about a mile from my house. I thought it odd that they would have shown up in my email. The keyword I use for my searches is 'hotel'. Well, the job description stated that some of their most successful managers have come from hospitality backgrounds and they encouraged me people with that type of experience to apply. so, apply I did. The pay is fantastic, and they provide 6 months of training, all expenses paid. I'm kind of excited about this opportunity. Let's hope that I'm at least short-listed.

An Interview

I have an interview on Wednesday for the hotel in Cork that I applied to yesterday. Woot!

Keeping fingers crossed...three more jobs applied to

Well, I just applied to three more jobs. The position I'm interested doesn't seem to be coming up as often lately as it had been. One of the jobs was in Glasgow, Scotland, one was in Cork and the last one was in Kilkenny. Keeping my fingers crossed.