Will We or Won't We

Getting the keys is dependent on a certificate of occupancy being issued and while all the loan stuff is done and our builder should have payment in full tomorrow for the house, we're not so sure we're going to get the keys tomorrow.  Maybe Saturday?  Fingers crossed.  We'll see.  We know everyone is doing what they can to make tomorrow 'the day'.

This move has been hard to 'pack' for given that we could literally just load stuff into open boxes, laundry baskets and bags and take loads to the house in our cars.  If we get the keys tomorrow, that gives us Saturday, Sunday & Monday to get a lot of stuff moved on our own.  If not, we'll have little to no 'pre-move' time and we'll just have to do what we can next week.

Oh...and the movers showed up at the front door this morning around 10AM - 'Ready?' he asked.  Um, no.  Remember, we phoned you to change the dates to be next Tuesday and Wednesday.  Today's date was 'penciled' in when we first met with them to get their pricing info and estimate.  Guess they didn't cancel the penciled in date when we reserved a new, 'firm' date.  But oh well.  They said 'we'll see you next week'...and headed out.  Turns out they don't really have a truck - it's a truck with a trailer.  This should be interesting.  It's only a little over 3 miles from this rental house to our new house so I know it will be fine.  Fingers crossed.

The Governor is making announcements related to "Phase 1" re-openings....a grim reminder of just how far away we are from any state of 'normalcy'.  Notwithstanding that I love to play slots and miss playing in a casino, it's pretty obvious that casinos won't be opening for a pretty long time.  I worry about how many will come out of this still solvent.  And yes, I'd be so sad to see closing - but again, not as much from being someone who loves to play but just from being someone who realizes how hard hit businesses are during this incredibly strange, difficult time.  It's frightening to realize how long term the economic effects can be.

For me, I'm saving up fun money as much as possible but even told J. 'if this keeps up, I'll start moving some fun $ into the 'landscape' budget - 'cuz it sure looks like we won't be playing much anytime soon and we need a backyard'.  We were also super excited to confirm at the signing yesterday that our first mortgage payment isn't due until July 1 - so we have a 'no housing expense' month in June which is AWESOME!!  Another deposit into savings for landscaping!  Or furniture.  Or whatever.

We got out the cat carriers today and enticed the cats to go inside them to eat a few bites of tuna.  (I put a small amount of tuna into a small dish and put the dish at the 'front' of the carrier, inside).  It took a bit of some specific 'guiding' to get them to realize the tuna they were smelling (and going crazy for) was actually inside the carrier - but they figured it out and went in for the nibble.  Then they both went out, traded places and licked each other's bowl clean.  We're leaving the carriers out and will do the tuna routine again over the next few days to get them ready to be taking a car ride to the kennel on Monday - we've decided it's the best approach for their safety and our sanity.

It's bright and sunny but still a bit coolish at times.  We haven't turned the heat on in over a week and while we had a couple days where the AC might have been nice at night, we just opened the windows and that's been keeping it cool enough to not need AC.  Hoping we can do that at the new house, too and it will be much cooler on the natural in that house because it's single story.  It's amazing how warm it can be upstairs even in coolish weather.

We finished watching "The Americans" and have started watching "Killing Eve".  The ending to "The Americans" was satisfying but also created so many questions.  "Killing Eve" is really great and we're enjoying it very much.  We also had to reactivate our Dish subscription - six month suspension ended recently - so now we can use our Dish subscriber code to watch a variety of other 'stuff' on TV.  Dish will be installed at the new house the end of next week, hopefully - we've missed it.  J. was so happy he was able to get MSNBC broadcast last night - but it was all COVID-19 all the time and I had to ask him to turn it off.

We just realized there was a major goof at the house - we made a change to have the 'hobby room' be plank vinyl instead of carpet - and they ended up carpeting it.  Also pretty sure we were upcharged $393 for that change - so we're due a credit of that amount.  I told J. if they will add that overcharged upcharge amount to our landscaping allowance, we'll leave it as is.  Otherwise, it's going to be a pretty big deal for them to fix it - they'll have to redo a part of the hallway to make the vinyl 'flow' correctly into that room.  Grrr.  J. - who goes to the house daily - didn't notice that there was no flooring in that room yet - even though the plank vinyl is done everywhere else - so now we're partly responsible for the goof - because he didn't say anything about it.  I rarely visit.  Probably wouldn't have noticed either even if I had been visiting.

The builder issued a check to us for the upcharge we paid for the 'change order' so the hobby room stays carpeted.