We closed on the house Jan. 30 and began moving right away. Our original plan was to take our time and get the new house ready to move in - cleaning, repairing, painting and such. But, once it was ours, we had to get moved in. So, with the help of some friends and our little trailer, we got most of what we needed to live moved up from Cedarcreek. That was nearly a month ago and we're still moving. It reminds me of Johnny Cash's song "One Piece At A Time". It's amazing how much "stuff" one can collect in 50 years, much of which you wonder why you even have it.
The lousy winter weather has slowed the pace a lot. In a way, that's been a good thing. We get to rest quite a while between loads. But, we're slowly getting all that we want moved up. We still need the washer, dryer and freezer moved up, though. Joyce has been taking the laundry down with us when we go and doing a few loads of wash while we're packing up another load of stuff. The delay in moving these items was because the laundry room floor and walls needed some work. I've got the floor ready and it won't take long to finish the walls, but this weather makes it difficult to get any more moving done right now. The appliances will have to be loaded into the trailer. It is lower and makes it doable by Joyce and me. We could load them into the pickup with my chain hoist hanging in the center bay. But then, we wouldn't be able to safely unload them at the new house.
And now it's snowing again...
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Tick, tick, tick
Read those "ticks" in the subject line very slowly because that's how time is going for us right now. But, we are still expecting to close on the new house this Friday. In the meantime, a Grand Canyon trip is formulating for spring, probably May-June time frame.
I'm thinking Big Bend National Park, El Paso, lower Arizona, and maybe clear on over to San Diego. San Diego would mean Lil Pumpkin will have been to all four corners of the Continental U.S.
After San Diego, we'll head back to Arizona. I want to take Route 89a up through Jerome and then Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff. From there on up to the Grand Canyon. We want to camp on the North Rim a couple of days.
From the Canyon, it's on to Santa Fe and then work our way toward home. So far, it looks like a 3-4 week trip. I would say I can't wait, but first things first. We've got to get moved!
I'm thinking Big Bend National Park, El Paso, lower Arizona, and maybe clear on over to San Diego. San Diego would mean Lil Pumpkin will have been to all four corners of the Continental U.S.
After San Diego, we'll head back to Arizona. I want to take Route 89a up through Jerome and then Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff. From there on up to the Grand Canyon. We want to camp on the North Rim a couple of days.
From the Canyon, it's on to Santa Fe and then work our way toward home. So far, it looks like a 3-4 week trip. I would say I can't wait, but first things first. We've got to get moved!
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Short Strokes - Hopefully
We don't have an "official" closing date yet, but the seller's Realtor says this Friday afternoon. There was a silly little screw up either by my Realtor or the seller's Realtor. Our home inspector found a frozen and burst hose bib and we filed an addendum to the contract to have the hose bib repaired. That was three weeks ago. We followed up on it a few days ago and the seller's Realtor claimed they had never received the addendum. My Realtor said it was in her "sent" mailbox, indicating she had sent it. So, we had some finger pointing, but the seller still hadn't been informed of the need to repair. I think he was finally informed late Friday. I guess if I had to shoot someone for this, it would be my Realtor because she should have followed up and verified receipt of the addendum. She apparently made the mistake of trusting technology too much.
But, we're back on track now. The roof was patched last week as required by the VA Appraiser and she has been notified. We expect her to do a final inspection of the required repairs either Monday (tomorrow) or Tuesday. Then if all continues going well, we'll do a walk-through Thursday and owe the mortgage company for the rest of our lives beginning Friday.
We have the trailer nearly fully loaded and some stuff in the SUV. Assuming we take possession Friday afternoon, we'll be ready to roll first thing Saturday morning with the first load. The plan is to take enough stuff to spend a few nights there doing some spiffing up, like cleaning and painting, plus I've got to redo the flooring in the utility room before we can bring up the washer and dryer.
I'll call Dish and make an appointment to have the TVs connected up and AT&T to get the phone and Internet service set up.
All this going on and poor Lil Pumpkin has to just sit and wait. But, once we get the majority of the move completed, we'll start planning a vacation from moving.
I think the Grand Canyon may be on the horizon.
But, we're back on track now. The roof was patched last week as required by the VA Appraiser and she has been notified. We expect her to do a final inspection of the required repairs either Monday (tomorrow) or Tuesday. Then if all continues going well, we'll do a walk-through Thursday and owe the mortgage company for the rest of our lives beginning Friday.
We have the trailer nearly fully loaded and some stuff in the SUV. Assuming we take possession Friday afternoon, we'll be ready to roll first thing Saturday morning with the first load. The plan is to take enough stuff to spend a few nights there doing some spiffing up, like cleaning and painting, plus I've got to redo the flooring in the utility room before we can bring up the washer and dryer.
I'll call Dish and make an appointment to have the TVs connected up and AT&T to get the phone and Internet service set up.
All this going on and poor Lil Pumpkin has to just sit and wait. But, once we get the majority of the move completed, we'll start planning a vacation from moving.
I think the Grand Canyon may be on the horizon.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Hot! Not!
It got down to 4 degrees here last night. Lil Pumpkin is in hibernation. I almost wish I was, too.
We're just treading water now on our new house, waiting on the seller to fix a few things. This weather has put a kink in that as one of the repairs to be done is patching the garage roof. Brrr! Maybe next week (fingers crossed).
But, we're warm enough and have plenty of wood pellets for the fire. I'm sure there are many not so lucky.
We're just treading water now on our new house, waiting on the seller to fix a few things. This weather has put a kink in that as one of the repairs to be done is patching the garage roof. Brrr! Maybe next week (fingers crossed).
But, we're warm enough and have plenty of wood pellets for the fire. I'm sure there are many not so lucky.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Moving On
A rather unexpected twist has occurred in our life...we're moving! Well, if we can close on the new place. Actually, we don't see anything stopping us now. The process is moving along quite easily, but we've been slapped down before. In the meantime, I'm going to act as if nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...
We decided last year we needed to move closer to "civilization"...shopping, doctors, etc. with less maintenance (read, less mowing, leaf raking, etc.). In actuality, Joyce has been haunting the real estate listings for 2-3 years. We've even looked at a few. Our requirements were that we must improve (not necessarily in order of importance) better Internet service, less driving distance to "stuff", less maintenance, no more wood or pellet toting and within our budget. All those we looked at in the past had at least one deficit.
Last year, Stephen bought a big house in Ft. Smith, Ar. where he had taken a new job. He invited us to move down and live with him. So, we did. His house was nice and roomy and met all our requirements. I bought a cargo trailer and we began moving, load after load. The highways between here and Ft. Smith became very familiar. We got most of our stuff moved down from the house plus some of my workshop tools. But, before long, Stephen began having some difficulties at work and began looking for a new job. It started to look like he might move to Dallas. We weren't going to do that...no sir! So, we moved back to the lake (trailer load after trailer load) and Joyce resumed perusing the home listings.
A couple of weeks ago Joyce, for some reason, expanded her upper dollar limit in her daily searches and, bang! There is was. It was priced at our upper limit but looked very promising. We made an appointment to view it. Upon seeing the neighborhood and the house from the street, we were quite impressed. It was like when we first visited the house here on the lake where we are now. It looked perfect and we both went, "Oh!"
Paula, the real estate agent arrived and let us in. From the inside, it seemed perfect for us. Three bedrooms (but small), a nice size living room with a gas log fireplace, two baths (one a walk-in or roll-in shower made for handicapped), a nicely updated kitchen with custom cabinets and, of all things, two sun rooms! Plus, the house was set up for the handicapped with nice ramps at the front and back (at our age, this could be a necessity for one of us any day). It even had a two-car attached garage AND a finished two-car detached garage for a workshop. There's a fenced yard for Ditto and it's on a corner lot, located on a relatively isolated street with only neighborhood traffic.
After stewing over the price and trying to figure out just how best to approach an offer, we opted on trying a low-ball offer, knowing we'd have to come up. We offered and, of all things, he accepted. So, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the last resident was a one-legged man. Maybe there is no other shoe.
We decided last year we needed to move closer to "civilization"...shopping, doctors, etc. with less maintenance (read, less mowing, leaf raking, etc.). In actuality, Joyce has been haunting the real estate listings for 2-3 years. We've even looked at a few. Our requirements were that we must improve (not necessarily in order of importance) better Internet service, less driving distance to "stuff", less maintenance, no more wood or pellet toting and within our budget. All those we looked at in the past had at least one deficit.
Last year, Stephen bought a big house in Ft. Smith, Ar. where he had taken a new job. He invited us to move down and live with him. So, we did. His house was nice and roomy and met all our requirements. I bought a cargo trailer and we began moving, load after load. The highways between here and Ft. Smith became very familiar. We got most of our stuff moved down from the house plus some of my workshop tools. But, before long, Stephen began having some difficulties at work and began looking for a new job. It started to look like he might move to Dallas. We weren't going to do that...no sir! So, we moved back to the lake (trailer load after trailer load) and Joyce resumed perusing the home listings.
A couple of weeks ago Joyce, for some reason, expanded her upper dollar limit in her daily searches and, bang! There is was. It was priced at our upper limit but looked very promising. We made an appointment to view it. Upon seeing the neighborhood and the house from the street, we were quite impressed. It was like when we first visited the house here on the lake where we are now. It looked perfect and we both went, "Oh!"
Paula, the real estate agent arrived and let us in. From the inside, it seemed perfect for us. Three bedrooms (but small), a nice size living room with a gas log fireplace, two baths (one a walk-in or roll-in shower made for handicapped), a nicely updated kitchen with custom cabinets and, of all things, two sun rooms! Plus, the house was set up for the handicapped with nice ramps at the front and back (at our age, this could be a necessity for one of us any day). It even had a two-car attached garage AND a finished two-car detached garage for a workshop. There's a fenced yard for Ditto and it's on a corner lot, located on a relatively isolated street with only neighborhood traffic.
After stewing over the price and trying to figure out just how best to approach an offer, we opted on trying a low-ball offer, knowing we'd have to come up. We offered and, of all things, he accepted. So, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the last resident was a one-legged man. Maybe there is no other shoe.
Rear views of sun rooms
Living Room
Big sun room (we call it the gymnasium)
Little sun room (just off the kitchen)
Kitchen
I'm not sure we could find a better suited home without building one ourselves. About the only negative is limited parking for Lil Pumpkin.
Location? West side of Springfield, near a big grocery and a Walmart Neighborhood Market and even near a big Ace Hardware and a Walmart Superstore. Even though we are in Springfield, we are closer in time to Michael in Kimberling City and closer to other family in the area. In fact, we are closer to about everything except the lake. But, we haven't had the boat on the lake for over two years now. Maybe we used up the lake.
All that said, with all the positive attributes of this new home, it is hard to leave Cedarcreek. I don't know if anyone noticed or not, but we have lived at the Cedarcreek lake home longer than we've lived anywhere...ever!
Thursday, October 30, 2014
To Winterize or Not To Winterize
It's that time of the year when freezing weather might sneak up on you. "So what?", you might say. Well, for those who may have never thought about it, a RV is full of water and water filled plumbing. Sitting above the ground and insulated about as well as an outhouse, it doesn't take extremely low temps to make liquid turn into a solid, an expanding pipe bustin' solid. Ice.
Winterizing is a process of draining all the tanks and pipes and pumping special RV anti-freeze into locations where there might be some residual water. Also, pouring anti-freeze into the sink traps.
So, we play the game. We plan on heading out in Lil Pumpkin next week. We haven't decided yet in which direction we'll travel. We might go to St. Louis, in which case, we probably should go ahead and winterize. But, we're also considering heading south, maybe clear down to the Gulf, in which case we'll need water on board.
What to do, what to do?
Well, I guess winterizng and de-winterizing is easier than repairing busted plumbing.
Winterizing is a process of draining all the tanks and pipes and pumping special RV anti-freeze into locations where there might be some residual water. Also, pouring anti-freeze into the sink traps.
So, we play the game. We plan on heading out in Lil Pumpkin next week. We haven't decided yet in which direction we'll travel. We might go to St. Louis, in which case, we probably should go ahead and winterize. But, we're also considering heading south, maybe clear down to the Gulf, in which case we'll need water on board.
What to do, what to do?
Well, I guess winterizng and de-winterizing is easier than repairing busted plumbing.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Arkansas trip
We made a trip around a bit of Arkansas. I've consolidated the entire trip into a single page on the "Special Pages" list. See Arkansas Travelers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)