The new place

All the issues with buying this house…. and all the issues for selling the other houses are hopefully also complete and behind us forever and ever!!! Lets just talk about stress for a moment… It is bad enough when you have to coordinate the departure of the house you reside in to purchase a home in the same vicinity, but when you add in a terrible experience looking for a home… in a different state…  and have to make a second visit to find a home. A car that needs attention and a dog that needs to see the vet in between and a house that still needs to be packed. While doing all of the above, I also had to come up with a contingency plan of where and how to live if we did not find a house or a delay between closings. Fortunately everything worked out and pretty much on time, but not without lots of prayers and hard work by our Real Estate agents!!!

There was a slight delay between the two houses… so the dogs got to visit the kennel and plants had a short and dark stay at climate controlled storage locker (along with a trailer full of other stuff), while we made a short visit to South Bend, IN. I have not visited with my in-laws since November of 2011.  So it was nice to visit and catch up, (and a bonus laundry!!!!)

The new house is bigger and more functional, as we do not loose several hundred square feet to staircases. BIG BONUS! It has a Creative Shop for the DH too! There are only 2 staircases compared to the 4 of the townhouse, a more normal number of bathrooms (2.5 compared to the 4.5 of the townhouse), 1 wood fireplace compared to the 3 gas ones in the townhouse and a fenced yard that is about a 100 times bigger! The dogs enjoy running from side to side and chasing the ball again. Well, Linzi does, Axel is nearly 12 and showing some real signs of age. Sad part is, that dogs of his size have a relatively short life span, (12-14 years).

The furniture was delivered. A quick shout out to Campbell Moving!!! After my last experience with United, (I DO NOT recommend Untied as a mover), I was a bit apprehensive using a mover. But they treated our belongings with care and concern and so far I  have only found one item that was damaged and quite frankly glad to see it go! I did all of my own packing, because I am conservative and prefer to unpack boxes of stuff not just air filled with paper!!! This is a picture of the Creative Space on June 3.

We had our first visitor the following morning!

He was crossing the driveway, just before I snapped a picture. It was a big guy…. about 9 inches across and about 12 inches long. We have been so lucky that nature has been welcoming us daily. It is amazing the green of trees and grass. Lush is probably the best word. I cannot wait to start planting shrubs, flowers and more trees.

The robins are fat and happy, full of song, and are currently fledging their young. There are several other birds… that are familiar, house finches, cardinals, sparrows, and a mockingbird that copies all the other birds… it needs to work on the cardinal calls  though. There is a resident bunny that lives under the deck. We will have to remedy that …. so the dogs don’t have a rabbit meal, and so far the dogs are not aware of the squirrels… I have also viewed a raccoon, running though the yards, (it was well after sunup, so need to keep and eye on the dogs… Don’t need a rabies scare too.

The resident bunny and a fledged robin.

I am still unpacking and waiting for the dryer delivery… This will be the 3rd dryer for this washing machine. Every time we move, it seems the dryer connection… is opposite of what we have. I am also waiting for the delivery of a new kitchen range and having a gas line installed in the kitchen.

This is the living room now

and soon there will be blinds on the windows too!

More Later! Beth