Finally HOME!

We're approaching the two week mark of our official move-in date of May 20th.  Last night was our 13th night in the house - a whirlwind of days full of tons of 'stuff'.

The move went very well - movers were excellent.  Hourly rate, they kept careful track of all breaks and we were only charged for actual time worked.  They emptied the condo in one day (4 hours) and then did both storage units the next day (4.5 hours).  Our three car garage is stuffed to the gills with all the storage stuff and the temptation to just 'let it all go' was very strong.  Stuff we've stored for a year or more seems like stuff we shouldn't even consider adding back to the new house - but we are thrifty and frugal and if we let stuff go, it will be to a charity.  We need the write-off.

The house is gorgeous!  Truly, we are madly in love with it.  It's spacious but still feels cozy.  We've had a steady stream of workmen here (and more still to come) for some minor things that need finishing up - a little tile work, cabinetry work, a cracked window and a punch list of cosmetic things that need attention.

OH - and we still await the delivery of our refrigerator - it was delivered last week but as they were sliding it into the space, I noticed a HUGE dent on the side of the door - if it had been something that would be hidden by the cabinets around the fridge, I would have asked for a dent credit and accepted it - but it was on the outer edge of the left door - very visible and very noticeable.  So I refused delivery (J. was golfing).  They'd already loaded the refrigerator that was here (wrong refrigerator - not what we ordered) and since we have a garage fridge here (the refrigerator we had to buy for the rental), we are fine.  Though the garage fridge is pretty small and we are looking forward to the new, huge unit to arrive any day.  We hope.

I've done my usual 'drafting posts' in the wee hours of the night/morning - but my computer is also majorly on the fritz so I haven't been posting at all because booting it up and praying it stays on is a constant thing.  A new computer has been ordered - and that's a good thing because in addition to the zillions of issues I'm having with it, it's now also has an inoperative 'p' key.  Takes a lot of force to type anything with a 'p' in it.

A couple nights ago as I was walking towards the kitchen heading to bed, I witnessed Muf launch a couple feet in the air and bolt far away from the window.  I was startled, too, when I heard noise against the window - no idea what it was.  There had been a party at a neighbor's (graduation) and there were 'kids' on the tee earlier that evening so I wasn't sure if they were up to something - turned out the maintenance folks had adjusted sprinklers earlier that day and they were now hitting our house and windows.  LOUD.

Thankfully, the greens-keeper arrived first thing the next morning (J. had left a message at the pro shop) and said he had turned them off for now.  The sprinkler system on this part of the course is 25 years old (or more) and he was pretty sure they would need to do replacement of heads and/or other updates to the system - since the arc and radius of the spray are not adjustable.

I've added 'clean (very) water spotted windows' to the ongoing, never ending list of things to do around here.

In other news, the casinos are reopening on June 4th - my 60th birthday!  I plan to be there most of the day and decided to also get a room so I have a place to hang out if the casino gets too crazy.  I've saved a huge amount of fun money over the past 10 weeks so I know I will have a lot of fun playing.

We have a landscaper coming tomorrow to get going on something resembling a yard - we have empty lots (in process) on either side of us and the level of dust is astounding - so anything to help cut down on the free-blowing dirt will be a good thing.

The shutters we selected for window coverings were installed yesterday - they are beautiful!  It was very nice of the installers to offer to work on Sunday - we were scheduled originally for Thursday but appreciated not having to wait - though (I'm so relieved) to say I've never felt uncomfortable with no window coverings.  Other than the first night (before we put brown paper over my bedroom window) when the lights from the freeway kept me awake a lot, we haven't noticed any issue with having the windows completely exposed.  Privacy and light filtering is a great addition - and the shutters are really pretty - add a nice finished look.

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks - but we are so happy to be 'at home' officially.  We're also out of the rental unit - and awaiting return of the various deposits.  I'm sure we will get charged for cleaning but we had to focus our energy on getting settled in the new house vs. cleaning the old.  Once I realized that we could clean for days and still end up being charged - seems likely we would miss something - we just said 'forget it - we'll pay to have it cleaned'.  I did wipe counters, bathrooms were cleaned, carpets were cleaned (and gave a copy of the receipt for that cleaning to the property management company so they had proof we had them done) - and we turned in the keys and happily walked away.  Very grateful for that temporary home that provided such a nice space for our first six months of residency in Carson City.

But also super happy to be officially in our brand new, custom, golf-course home.  We enjoy an (almost nightly) visit from "Jack" - a jackrabbit who comes by to watch us through the windows and eat the weeds on the golf course.  The cats enjoy constant bird watching, golfer watching and generally making themselves at home wherever they feel like.  Stand by for a pic of what they are doing to the linen closet daily.  They are nuts.  And fun.  And funny.  And we sort of adore them.  Most of the time.

Life is good.  In spite of all the issues we face in our world and our country, we're just reminding ourselves how blessed we are.  We really are so fortunate and we never take that for granted.  Ever.