Moved in and almost settled

Salinas, CA

After all the stressing out and preparation

of moving two households in together...

we are finally moved in!

Our kitchen is all set up,

with some new appliances and fun things.

I finally  have a Kitchen Aid mixer again,

no more trying to cook in an RV!

From the kitchen we can see into the great room 

where we can watch TV if we want while we cook.

Since we moved in right before Thanksgiving,

we went ahead and set up all of Mom's

nativity sets and Christmas decorations..

Cooper has been helping George get the garage organized.

Of course there are a lot of duplicate appliances,

so we had to store some in the garage.

Mom has her recliners set up in the great room.

She's very comfortable there,

whether watching TV or her favorite pastime,

reading.

We did decorate a bit for Christmas here and there. 

The whole ordeal is exhausting Cooper!

Today George installed a Nest Doorbell..

it lets us see who is at the door.

Pretty cool!

We're very happy with our new bedroom set.

George still needs to install the barn door

that will go in the opening between bedroom and bath.

No more doing laundry all day!

Mom had a nice washer and dryer,

now I can do all our laundry in a few hours :-)

We have a nice full bath and extra bedroom..

the extra bedroom is being used as storage for furniture not used yet.

Everyone is welcome to stay here, however!

This is a picture of the stairwell,

love the big window letting so much light in.

I have my Christmas tree quilt wall hanging there now.

This is the upstairs hall looking into the laundry room..

George's 'man-cave' with nice theater seating,

looking across to a nice big TV..

We're really happy with everything.

It's still a work in process,

George is installing ceiling fans in 3 rooms.

Our backyard is still dirt (mud!) until

it stops raining.

We have a cement contractor coming to pour a patio

in the next week or two.

Landscaping will be next.

Oh, and we have great news!

At the last minute, the RV sold!

Someone had called the RV park our last weekend

of working,

and was looking for a monthly spot.
She didn't have an RV, so I let her know

we had one for sale.

She ended up buying it sight unseen!

George and I did do a facetime call with her

so she could see it that way.

The truck and the RV are both staying at Yanks :-)

George's truck sold to a nice couple at the park.

We can go and visit them both if we get lonely, haha.

I hope to keep blogging as time goes by.

We still are social in between settling in.

Merry Christmas to all!

1 week until closing!!

Greenfield, CA

It's been a whirlwind of craziness in these last few weeks.

I'm just a tad bit stressed out!

Yesterday we had our walk-through of our 'almost'

completed house.

There was a cool sign that a few people signed for us.

It has a list of all the contractors that worked on the house.

We absolutely love the color scheme and landscaping.

I have been questioning the color we had chosen, Modern Gray,

for the interior paint color.

For some reason after they painted a few weeks ago,

it didn't look very gray at all.

Our minds were saying 'it must be gray', but still..

The supervisor called us Tuesday and said

that the painter had actually used the basic paint color,

Pacer White, instead of our upgraded gray color!

So today guess what is happening!?

Oh yes, lots of hours spent prepping

so they can repaint the whole inside of the house!

I'm sure glad someone else caught that in time!

It will all be over soon anyway.

In a few short weeks we'll be moved in 

and this will all be behind us!

3 weeks until closing!

Greenfield, CA

Lots of changes in the progress of the house.

The outside is looking so nice!

The guys were putting the gutters in 

and finishing up the roof.

The brick accents are on as well,

and I see plants and trees waiting to be planted in the front!

The backyard is all cleaned up..

..and we're getting quotes on landscaping.

Inside is looking so pretty!

The counter tops and back splash are in..

..as well as the tile flooring.

It's covered up with paper to keep it protected

from scratches.

Mom is so excited and can't wait to move in!

The carpet for the downstairs bedroom

and the upstairs was installed on Wednesday.

There were people cleaning up everything,

they said that happens 3 different times before our walk through!

All of us met a lady who measured our windows

so that we can order from Lowe's.

We had tried to get another company,

but after two reschedules, she struck out :-)

The blinds are purchased and with luck

they'll be installed on schedule.

All this happened on our 8th anniversary!

George and I celebrated at our favorite restaurant, Luigi's.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel!

30 days and counting down!

Greenfield, CA

We can't believe how fast the time has flown,

in a short 30 days we'll be closing on our house!

Lots of things have happened since the last post.

Last week we went to check things out,

and were met with this..

Unfortunately the local kids got in and 'tagged'

our walls in a couple places.

The walls hadn't been painted yet,

so that was a good thing.

The roof and outside stucco and painting is finished.

They poured our driveway last week,

and thank goodness no little fingers put their initials in it.

They still need little touches, such as the stonework 

on the lower part of the posts and garage.

Today the guys were putting up fence posts along the sides

and back of the property..

Inside there is great progress.

The cabinets are in, with the chrome knobs as well.

They've started laying the tile on the floors downstairs.

The painters did paint everything (a nice shade of gray!)

and it covered the 'tagging' done by the little brats.

We've lined up furniture delivery, installation of cable/internet

and security system.

George called and is renting a U-haul trailer 

to get all the things in the RV moved,

so that's all set.

Cooper is wondering where we will hang his bell?!

He rings it when he needs to go outside :-)

Everything is falling into place..

well, almost.

The RV still hasn't sold :-(

We have plans to consign it at a local dealer.

Unfortunately we have a bit of a gap

in what we owe and what they'll allow.

Ouch.

It will all work out somehow :-)

44 days :)

Greenfield, CA

Oh boy! Lookie this!

Our house is now painted, the trim is up!

A nice gray with blue touches.

Inside walls are taped and sanded, 

and they were starting the texturing of the walls

yesterday when we were there.

Thursday they're installing the cabinets!!

We're also having someone come to measure 

the windows to have blinds installed.

Now we can say we're moving in,

"next month!"

Cooper has found a new commercial he likes.

I think it's for Facebook groups,

all about a dog group.

He sits at attention when he sees it come on!

50 days and counting!

Greenfield, CA

More progress!

The brown coat of stucco (1st coat) is on,

and today they were doing the texturing process.

Inside the tapers were doing their job

getting the drywall all taped..

Great room

Kitchen from great room

It's pretty cool to see so many differences from week to week.
Today Mom went with us to a Costco because
the Traeger company was demonstrating
their smoker grills.
George has been dreaming of getting one,
and they were on a great sale.
Mom picked it up for him :)

Hopefully after we move in we'll have time to smoke a

Thanksgiving turkey!!

Week 12 update

Greenfield, CA

We're starting to see a lot of progress now.

Only 2 months and 2 days until closing!!

They started laying the roof down

on the second story.

The sand has been delivered for the outside stucco..

..as well as the scaffolding for all that stucco work.

The electrical inspection was done on Tuesday,

and insulation and drywall should be started this week as well.

I've been working on a free app

to design our backyard landscaping.

I've come up with a rough workup of

a nice patio, some grass, flower beds,

and garden boxes.

We had some fun with Connie & Greg this week.

It was time to pick up our wine at Hahn,

and ran into the falconer.

She was there to talk to everyone about

the way the falcons chase off other predators.

It's almost harvest time!

We have our truck sold to a couple in the park.

The transaction will happen right before we leave the park.

Had some interest in the RV, but no sale yet.

Time will tell!