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| Boxes piled high in the old library |
Many of our friends from out of town are wishing they
could help with the move and one friend, Alice O, even said to thank the
‘locals’ for helping out and helping to keep me healthy. So here is a great big personal thank you to Jeanne Moo, Cindy W,
Dale and JoAnn P, Tamara, Emily H (she cleaned up all the blood from Bill’s
head), for all the packing help and even meals. We are packed and ready to move on. This has been very emotional at times but we
are ready to settle in to the new place.
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| Other Side of Library, before move |
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| One box for each sink in the new house |
We didn’t have any luck with Habitat for Humanity or two
other recycling companies, this was too small a job to bother with, and so we
went to the apps on our phone; Offer Up, and Nextdoor. We are giving everything away for free to
anyone who will take it out. Almost all
my outside plants have gone to new homes.
We have even driven by their new homes and admired them all nicely
planted in new places. We have family
lined up to take the play set in the backyard of the new house, but there are people coming to take out the
kitchen counters and cabinets, bathroom cabinets windows, lighting fixtures and
whatever else they can use. We have put
a great deal of effort into this because it was so sad to watch the developer
crunch the houses near us that had clothes, dishes, food, books, furniture,
cabinets and counters. Bill calls this
type of developer the ‘scorch and burn’ verses a green developer like the ones
who built the cottages behind us. We
made the decision to leave but we still have respect and value for the house
that has kept us safe and warm for so many years.
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| After - Kitchen in old house |
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| Before - kitchen in old house |
Bill had a drill fall on his head while he was taking
something down outside and he has 5 new staples in his head. We are past the 400 number in boxes packed
and close to 30 rolls of tape. I like
the 10 pound packages of paper better at public Storage but Home Depot
definitely has the best prices on boxes and it is worth it to stop at Costco
for packing tape (even when they move it from school supplies to Christmas
department and you have to look all over and then ask someone because I bought
some yesterday.) One night in the middle of everything we took
a break to have dinner and listen to some music with friends, thanks to
Priscilla and Jeff who got us together even though they were in New York. Tamara came over Saturday morning with
groceries and worked all day, feeding and helping us. Sunday I didn’t pack anything while the
Seahawks were playing, they lost anyway.
Barb and Steve came over for sandwiches and we walked all over the
development site. From a distance, it is
easy to see that we are ‘in the way’ and looking a bit misplaced but I still
think we had a cute little house.
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| Cute Little house in Cute Little Forest Soon to be Demolished :- ( |
A lot has happened:
we are in the new house. All 400
boxes are unpacked and have gone to the families that are moving next, see we are even recycling the boxes and
paper. We had our open
house/housewarming this past Sunday afternoon.
Bill says a house isn’t a home until you start making memories and that
having the open house was an important thing to do to start making memories. We had about 75 people make it now they know
where we are and can start to think of us in this new place. We have met a lot of the neighbors in the
cul-de-sac and are looking forward to spring and summer and getting to know
everyone better. Our next door neighbor
“Kat and Carmichael” says that we have tipped the scale towards more owners
than renters in the neighborhood and that is a good thing according to them,
owners care more.
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| Bingo card by Alice O |
The highlight of the party was the “Self-guided tour” that
each guest got to make as they played BINGO with cards that had photos from
around the house, and a few trick photos included to fool people. The game had people talking to others they
didn’t know. Many of the neighbors had
never even been in the house and since the neighborhood was built in the early
70’s, people were really interested in what others had done with practically the
same house.
Of course, I cooked. I
had chocolate brownies with fudge icing, lemon cheesecake bars and mini pecan
pies. I had fresh baked rolls, smoked
brisket, BBQ chicken and cole slaw also and fruit and veggie plates in
different spaces. I totally forgot to
get out the Seahawks cookies I bought at the bakery, now I have to eat they all
myself, Bill helps but he scrapes off the icing first…..
We choose this house for many reasons but one was the
potential for projects which will keep Bill happy. Today I am listening to noises as we are
having air conditioning installed. I
know it is November but it is on the list and we are definitely beating the
rush before summer. The installers told
us we are in the perfect lull as the first frost has not come yet and when it
does they are always swamped with calls about all the furnaces that don’t start
up the first time. We still need to
hang more stuff on the walls but I am thinking about where they feel like they
need to be. I have not really been
knitting…….. Shocking I know. I have made a couple of hats and added a few
squares to my “cozy memory blanket” but other than that not so much. I have actually put away most of my projects
as my current projects have more to do with settling in to a new place.
The party was good for breaking in the kitchen and seeing
how things work. I didn’t notice any
big bottle necks in traffic like in the old house, people could spread out and visit too, so far no big flaws.
Just a note: the old
house is still standing but they dropped the power and internet lines the day
after we moved out, I think that was
costing the developer extra money every day.
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| Kitchen in New House |
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| What you see as you come in the front door. |
