Irrigation and Landscape Issues

First of all, I'm still experiencing some effects from my recent bout with nausea. I had another hard time last night and I'm not sure how much longer I should go before taking more drastic steps to get it over with once and for all. I'm on the right track and think it's more of a body fluids issue than anything else. We have been working like crazy in this heat and probably not taking in enough fluids.

I had a landscaper out this morning to install a new timer and control box for our irrigation. We noticed that the trees and plants had not been getting watered enough so we discovered that the box needed to be replaced. The same guy will return tomorrow to add a couple new lines and to trim the palm trees for the season. We could have lost some plants and trees if we didn't follow up with that move.

Our cookout that was rescheduled from the Memorial Weekend will now be a visit by George and Cheryl on Saturday afternoon when they will bring a pizza and visit for awhile. Brian and family will pass as a result of Amy's parents coming in for a visit. We'll catch up with them at some point over the summer. We are looking forward to seeing George and Cheryl and having a nice visit on Saturday. The real heat is on the way, but we expect to have some cool air while sitting in the shade of our patio...

Lingering Illness

I was still dealing with the nauseous feeling all day yesterday. I didn't feel like eating and didn't feel like performing any activities either. We did, however, make another trip to Goodwill to make another donation and we stopped at Fry's to pick up some odds and ends. The medication that was prescribed on Monday was not doing its job.

The dumpster is being picked up today so any large trash items will have to be discarded through other means. We may end up getting it back sometime soon to begin the job of emptying and organizing the garage. Ugh!

Josie will return to work on Wednesday the 6th of June. She doesn't have her full schedule yet but expects to be working similar hours as those before she left.

I felt 100% better this morning when I got up and Josie and I agree that what I experienced was something similar to what I had in Jackson, WY, when we took our first hike of the season several years ago. I had heat exhaustion and had the exact symptoms as I had the last few days. I have been working hard and sweating a lot over the last couple weeks and I believe it just caught up with me on Monday. It is just a theory, but a good one...

Down Day

I had a not-so-fun day yesterday for Memorial Day. I was going through the nauseous feeling most of the day and didn't eat much as a result. The doctor at the Urgent Care prescribed some medication to ease the feeling and it did work by the time the afternoon rolled around. Basically, the entire holiday was ruined by the experience and I apologize to the family for the last minute change in plans.

We anticipate the pickup today by St Vincent DePaul of the remaining large furniture pieces that were left behind by the previous owners. The window given for the pickup time was 8 AM to 4 PM. That does no good at all for planning a day. We are stuck here until they arrive. It would be a shame to wait all day and see them arrive at 4 PM. However, we are so anxious to get rid of these pieces that we will be happy to wait. I also want to contact Parks and Sons to have our dumpster picked up asap. It is about full and has served its purpose.

Josie will try to get a schedule from her manager today. The expected start date for her is around June 1. Slowly, we are getting back some normalcy to our schedules...

Small Scare

We have been pushing very hard the last several weeks and it may have caught up with us - caught up with me, anyway - as I ended up going to Urgent Care this morning. We haven't been eating properly and with the added stress had resulted in a slightly scary situation. I was up and down all night last night with the dry heaves and got very little sleep. Josie gave me a solution of anti-nausea liquid which I immediately barfed.

We had the Memorial Day cookout and visit scheduled today with the family that we felt had to be cancelled in case there was any kind of contagious illness. Fortunately, the doctor indicated that it was most likely a reaction to something I ate or a virus of some kind. I'm almost certain it was a result of the three ears of corn I ate last night for dinner. My digestive system is not as efficient as it was prior to losing my gall bladder two years ago. At any rate, we have rescheduled our gathering for next weekend.

I failed to mention yesterday that we took a break from our routine and went to a place on Saturday that use to be a favorite of ours - The Pottery Place - in Surprise. It still is a neat place to go for anything you might like to place in your yard. These photos show the kind if inventory they carry:

It was a fun visit and it was a miracle that we left without a purchase of any kind. Maybe some day down the road.

I still am feeling the effects from last night and this morning but I am definitely on the mend. See you tomorrow.

Schedule Adjustments

The routine has certainly changed for my mornings since we moved into the house. I have only missed one or two days of blog entries in around ten years and I have now missed two in just a week. I will get back on schedule once we get settled into the house and Josie starts her job again. We have been on a whirlwind kind of schedule trying to get everything done. We both start our mornings outside having coffee and watching the birds, rabbits and golf course workers. It is then time to begin our projects for the day which go non-stop the rest of the day. I have to squeeze in time for computer stuff.

There were two more trips to Goodwill yesterday to drop off donations. We will make at least one more today and I will also call to schedule a pickup of the dumpster. We will be glad when St Vincent DePaul comes on Tuesday to pick up the large pieces remaining to be donated. I also placed several ads on Craigslist to sell some items and we have had calls on those.

We are pushing hard to get things done before tomorrow when we celebrate Memorial Day with a family cookout. Of course, I can't forget the Indy 500 which is on today. That will be taped, but I plan to sneak some time to watch some of the race live which begins at 8:30 AM...

Prep for Holiday Weekend

We stopped at the recommended fabric store (H & R Fabric) in Phoenix and selected the fabric to be used on the refinishing and re-upholstering of our barrel chairs. The chairs were then delivered to the craftsman - The Village Woodsmith - for the project which will take approximately 4-6 weeks to complete. They should look like brand new chairs when completed and we will be anxious to see them.

The dumpster is filling up and we expect to have that taken away sometime early next week. The trash accumulation is beginning to dwindle, so that is a sure sign we are getting close to completing the main part of the move-in. Of course, that doesn't include the garage. Josie is still juggling items to find the right place for everything.

We invited George and Cheryl for a visit sometime over the holiday weekend and also suggested the option of everybody, including Brian and his family, coming over on Memorial Day. We haven't heard back from them yet, but the options are there.

There aren't a whole of other things planned for the holiday weekend which will probably be the final one before Josie returns to her job at the flower shop...

Controlling Three Moves

We really didn't anticipate the problems we would have while trying to handle three moves at once. The biggest problem, as it turns out, is moving out the previous owners' belongings before we can move-in our own things. They left items in just about every location in the house. We keep filling up boxes with their stuff to take to the donation centers and we keep finding more stuff. Josie is frustrated by having to pack up their things while emptying our own boxes and finding a place for everything. Throw in the stuff from our RV and we have three moves to control. It is getting easier to get around our house as we are slowly reducing the number of boxes and containers. The outside areas are about set, as are the spare bedroom, living room and family room. The main areas for us to concentrate on are the master bedroom, the kitchen and the den (laundry room). Forget the garage, as it may be years before we see bottom out there.

The pickup by St Vincent DePaul on Tuesday cannot arrive soon enough. We are also having two chairs re-upholstered that we have had for nearly 50 years and have been ignored for about 25 years. They are part of the furniture acquisition I made in King of Prussia, PA. many years ago. These are the chairs:

They will fit nicely in our living room and we look forward to, once again, gaining the use of them.

We absolutely love our house and look forward to getting totally moved-in and relaxing...

Disposal Plans

There are three parts to this move-in effort. The first, and most important one is the interior of the house. We have a manageable number of boxes remaining to empty and still have lots of items to find a place to store. We are getting closer to having the inside settled. The second part is the garage which only has a path between rows of boxes. Most of what is in the garage are items that we have been moving around for years and we haven't had the "push" to get rid of yet. Now is the time. The final part is emptying the RV and finding places to store those items that remain to be moved. Below is a first attempt at disposing of the boxes and other recyclables and a dumpster that we had brought in yesterday to take on the trash that is not recyclable:

The recyclables were just picked up and all that is left is the dumpster which we expect to fill over the next week or so.

The pickup for the unwanted furniture by St Vincent DePaul is scheduled for Tuesday, the 29th. That will make a huge difference in removing the clutter that remains. Also, the TV was wall mounted yesterday so we can now watch TV without having the TV on the floor.

Progress seems slow at times, but we really are gaining on the problems...

Facing Choices

One of the most difficult aspects of this whole move is finding a place for everything - especially items that we have had for years but have no use for or a place to store them anymore. There is no basement in this house, and there are no more external storage locations. One item that is of real concern for us is Nan's dining room table and chairs. We just don't have room for them, even though we have found a spot for her hutch. We are reaching out to our families to take the table and chairs, or we will be forced to donate them. Please let us know.

There are many more sentimental items that we will be forced to part with over the next couple weeks as we empty boxes, hang pictures and move furniture. We have a dumpster being delivered today to place all the trash and damaged goods that aren't worth saving. Most of the boxes will be broken down and placed outside for the recycling pickup that we have every 2nd and 4th Wednesday each month. The first one for us is scheduled for tomorrow AM. I have already been running trips to Goodwill and to the Salvation Army to drop off donations, and expect to schedule a pickup by St Vincent DePaul very soon to pick up the bulk of the furniture left by the previous owners that we cannot use ourselves.

We are making headway in the process but nobody ever said it would be quick or easy...

Getting Around

Even though we have been to many of the places that we will frequent regularly, we are finding the shortest and best ways to get there. There are many trips to Goodwill and the Salvation Army that we will take, probably on a regular basis for the entire summer. We made another one to Goodwill yesterday, and will load up for another one today. Also on the agenda yesterday was another trip to our RV to get the rest of the can goods and some other things that were left before the trip to the RV  storage unit.

We are starting to create a big stack of empty boxes which is a good sign. The biggest problem is going to be finding places to put things. The closets and the garage are filling up fast and it reminds us that we need to get rid of a lot more things than we thought. That is a good thing as we have been needing to downsize for a long time. If we can just get one of the charitable organizations to come soon and take away some the large items that we don't need, we should be OK.

There are bunches of pictures that the previous owners left behind that we will not use. Some of them are very nice, so we will probably try to find a place in the garage to keep some of them and the rest will go to charity. We are replacing them with our own pictures that we haven't seen for quite awhile.

We are not yet on the downside of this mountain, but we are getting closer to the summit and it shouldn't be too long before we can say the end is in sight...

More Progress

We made more, slow progress yesterday. The boxes are about cleared from the family room and living room, but the bedrooms and garage are another story. Also, clearing out the boxes doesn't mean the rooms are ready. Much of what was taken from the boxes sits on the tables, counters and on the hutch. I will go into the garage today and try to open a path to our storage cabinets so we can get rid of the "junk" that was left behind and begin using that valuable space for our own stuff (more junk?).

We made a couple trips to the Salvation Army drop location and got rid of some more unnecessary items. It is hard to part with some of the things we have had for 40 plus years, but we know some hard choices must be made. If we haven't used it for many years, we probably don't need to save it.

We went to the AT & T store in the morning and got cases for our new phones, made a few adjustments on the phones and picked up a "free" hotspot to use.

The Royal Wedding was a part time viewing experience for us but we taped the entire wedding and will watch all the events sometime. It was a terrific occasion and very emotional at times.

I missed the Preakness horse race yesterday and saw that Justify won the second leg of the Triple Crown and will go for it in the Belmont Stakes in several weeks. I'm sure I will somehow get to watch the final race.

It's more of the same today, but the stress level is diminishing and we are catching up on sleep...

Incredible Two Days

I'm sorry that I missed yesterday for the blog, but there have been so many things going on that it just got away from me.

The task of moving the RV from the RV park to Sun City storage did not go according to plan for starters. I met the tow service at the RV park as scheduled at 9 AM and we were at the Sun City Storage compound in time to get the fifth wheel measured and to register for a space. There were two problems. The first was that there were no spaces available to park the RV - no regular spaces and no temporary spaces and secondly there was no place to go. The people in the storage compound gave me list of storage facilities to try to find a space. I made calls and found one about 5 miles from our house. We then took the RV there and finally got settled into a space that will serve us, temporarily, until we get a call from the Sun City storage that we can move into that facility. That, of course will require another trip for the towing guy who is terrific and had no problem helping any way he could.

While I was handling the RV situation, Josie was home dealing with the new installation of our DirecTV satellite system. That went without any problems and we are set to go. While discussing the satellite setup prior to the actual installation, we discovered that by switching our phone service from Verizon to AT & T it would result in huge savings on both services - the phones and the satellite, as they are one company. So, yesterday, we had the AT & T guy come to the house with our new equipment and we made the changeover. We each got new phones, free, along with having our Verizon account cleared at no charge to us. There is nothing wrong with AT & T service and we will not be traveling as much so we feel the coverage will be sufficient.

We had a nice, surprise visit from Cheryl during the day who had just met a friend of hers and I tried to talk her into getting George and coming back to help unpack (HaHa - just kidding). If there is any change in our settling-in process, it is that the path through the house may be getting a little wider.

We are gathering items that we can take to the Salvation Army drop location while out doing some chores. We will be making lots of those stops in the near future. We also are waiting on a call back from St Vincent DePaul to have them come and pick up a load of items - mostly left by the previous owners.

Along with everything else that is happening, we got a message from LaMesa RV that they found a way to do our deal on the motorhome without any more money. Of course, it is too late for that to happen now as our plans have changed and are no longer interested in making the change at this time.

The beat goes on and I will try not to miss any more entries...

Dragging for Sure

It is for sure that we have had more exercise and, probably, more stress than we have had in ages. We are both dragging and look forward to going to bed at night. It is only the beginning as we look around and see a sea of full boxes and seemingly little room to put things. It will be awhile before we can put a vehicle in our garage.

We had the DirecTV techs come out yesterday to install our satellite service. That was another case of a communication breakdown. The techs thought it was a service call on an existing account instead of a new installation on an existing account. The net of the whole experience is that we signed up for a new account under Josie's name which allows us to get the installation, programming at half the price we have been paying (new account rate), benefit of new account promotions and all new boxes for each TV. The "installation" crew is expected this morning at 8 AM. Following that installation, I will call and cancel my account.

I also stopped at the RV storage compound to alert them that I will be bringing in my RV today. There may be a problem as the facility has no available space and it appears that the temporary spaces are also taken. They will have to help us with some kind of solution as the fifth wheel needs to be out of the campground by tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed for that situation.

Josie notified her flower shop of her change in plans. She will take the rest of May off and begin work again around the 1st of June. I hope we will get a chance before that to take a couple days and go somewhere - away from all the boxes - to enjoy a little vacation...

New Start

It is almost too overwhelming to see the job that is ahead of us. We will have to slowly peck away at unpacking and disposing of un-needed items. Along with doing necessary unpacking to find things we need immediately, we did some necessary chores. The main one was to renew Josie's license and to change our address on both our licenses. We then went to the Rec Center Administration office and picked up our Rec Center cards which get us into all the Sun City Recreation Centers, the golf courses (with resident discounts and preferred starting times for play), discounts on all the Sun City snack shops and the main one for us right now - access to the Sun City RV Storage compound. The Rec Center cards show you are a resident and is required just about everywhere you go.

We caught up a bit on our sleep and have a full schedule today. We started with having a landscaper (whom we met yesterday while working in a neighbor's yard) trim the dead fronds from the palm trees in our yard and inspect the irrigation system. We have to go to the RV this morning and take out the TV so that we can be ready for DirecTV to come today between 12-4 to connect our TV's in the house. Then, there is the necessary and ongoing unpacking and moving of items in the house to get a little closer to settling-in. I get tired just thinking about what we need to do.

Josie will also have to contact her flower shop and let them know she will now be available for the summer. Isn't life wonderful and exciting?...

Plan B is Implemented

Cancel Jackson. We pressed hard yesterday AM to wrap up the deal for the motorhome. At the final  stage of the deal, they wanted more money down. That was not going to happen. All week we had been told that the deal was about done. That's OK and we are almost thankful that we are staying in Sun City this season with all that we have to get done to settle in the house. We are even more convinced following the rest of yesterday's activities with the movers.

During the original telephone conversation with the mover, he was told that we had a 10 x 30 storage space that was almost filled to the top. The estimate was for about a 6 hour move. He shows up, on time at 12:30 PM, with a 26 ft truck and one other individual. He ended up making two trips to the storage unit and he finished at nearly 1 AM. Josie and I then had to go to the fifth wheel to pick up items that would enable us to spend our first night in the new house. It was almost 2:30 AM by the time we finally got to bed.

The house has shrunk - dramatically. We totally underestimated the amount of household goods we had in our storage unit. We previously had a big house which could easily handle our stuff. The new house is smaller and, with the addition of all of the goods from the fifth wheel on top of our storage unit goods - plus, the furniture that was left by the previous owners - makes for a very tight situation. There is a major downsizing effort on the horizon.

It was very difficult informing our managers of our decision to forgo Jackson this year. They are very understanding folks and we hope that we will still be invited back next season.

Sorry for the late entry today - Josie had an early doctor appointment for a mammogram this am at 7:45. We are both really dragging at this point, but ready to move on...

Packing and Moving

Mother's Day was not a typical one for us this year. We spent the entire day packing up as much as we could in the fifth wheel to be moved to our house. We didn't finish the job, and still have to pick up more boxes today to finish the job. Our problem today is twofold. First of all, we had to return the truck we rented and will have to move the rest of the boxes with our two cars. The second situation is that, at 12:30 PM, I will meet the movers at our storage unit and our personal belongings will be moved to the house this afternoon.

As we were moving in our boxes from the fifth wheel, we commented on how much the house is already shrinking. It will shrink a lot more today. We did get a chance to move out some of the unwanted furniture to the Salvation Army drop location before returning the truck. It was a tough and tiring day.

We are getting a little nervous about getting everything done with the motorhome as the dealer had an RV show at Westworld over the weekend and had all of their finance staff there along with most of the sales people, including our salesman. We have to wrap up that deal today, no matter what else happens. There are only a couple days left, and it seems like we have insurmountable obstacles ahead. We have contingencies for every outcome we can imagine and just hope we can stay on track with the planned events...

Transferring RV Contents

I was so thankful that I switched out the cargo van at U-Haul for a 10' truck.

There is no way we could have gotten all of the goods transferred to the house with the van that we will not be needing in Jackson. Actually, I need to make another trip this morning. I worked all day reorganizing the RV basement into items to be transferred to the house vs items that will be transferred to the new RV. We still haven't started on packing the bedroom stuff or the kitchen stuff.

Fortunately, Josie's Mother's Day effort has ended for another season. She finished work at around 5:30 last night and she met me at the house to help unload the truck. It was our first real "visit" to our new house and we celebrated with a toast to the start of the new chapter in our lives:

Here are a couple shots of our view from the back patio:

We also had some wildlife in the yard:

We are so excited about our new house and can't wait to finally get settled in - probably in October when we return from Jackson.

We will take another load to the house this morning and then load some of the unwanted furniture that the previous owners left behind and take it to the Salvation Army drop-off down the street. Our Ozone Generator has been doing its job the last two days and we set it for one more 10 hour stretch overnight before leaving the house to come back to our fifth wheel.

We are running out of time and hope to schedule the final transfer of items to the new motorhome very soon...

Packing

I started the process of sorting through our stuff in the fifth wheel yesterday. The items that we will not be transferring the new rig are being boxed and will be transported, beginning today, to our garage. I switched out the cargo van for a 10' truck so that I may also be able to move the unwanted furniture that was left behind by the previous owners. That will be transported to the Salvation Army, probably on Sunday AM. I pick up the truck this morning at 7 AM. Josie will drop me off at the U-Haul in Anthem when she leaves for work. She didn't get home until almost 9 PM last night. The end of the Mother's Day crunch at the shop will be today.

We expect to hear more about our new RV today as the house is recorded and they can complete the paperwork now. They couldn't pull credit until the house recorded so that no sign of a major purchase would be seen prior to closing. There isn't a whole lot of time to take delivery and load up the new motorhome before we leave for Wyoming which is planned for Wednesday or Thursday. We see more and more things in the fifth wheel that need attention so it is good that it will soon be gone. We will miss it though, as it has been a super home for us for over 10 years.

The Ozone Generator was turned on yesterday AM and when I returned to the house a couple hours later, it appeared that it was doing its job. I will return again this morning to start another day of running the unit. The timer was set for 10 hours yesterday, and I will probably set it again for another 10 hours today. I went through the house and opened all the closets and made sure the doors were all open to the bedrooms and to the utility room. I also took out the filter from the A/C unit as recommended in the instructions so that all the ducts would be treated effectively. I sure hope we have another good report tomorrow on the effectiveness of this unit...

It's Our House Now

Josie and I were at the title company a few minutes early for our 8:30 AM signing of the documents. We were done and out of there by 9 AM. The indication was that the funds would be wired to the title company early in the afternoon and we would be recorded by around 4 PM. The funds were wired on time and we recorded at around 4:15 PM to officially become the new owners.

I met the locksmith a the house at 5 PM and all the locks were rekeyed. I also dropped off the Ozone Generator which will be fired up this morning after Josie goes to work.

Our next goal is to wrap up the deal for the RV and get all of the items transferred from the fifth wheel to the new motorhome asap. There are lots of things to get done over the weekend and Josie is working many, many hours at the shop. She got home at 8 PM last night and will probably have a similar day today. The timing is awful for all this to be happening, but I think I can get most of it done myself. I pick up the cargo van tonight at 6 PM to move all the stuff we are not transferring to the RV into our garage. The rest will be transferred to the new RV (hopefully) sometime early next week. I also need to stop at the Sun City office sometime to pick up our Recreation center card which must be shown, among other places, to the RV storage facility to get registered for a space.

Yes, the fun has really started now...

Dawn of a New Chapter

It is finally here. At 8:30 AM we will execute the documents making us the new owners of 11013 W Crestbrook Dr in Sun City. We received copies of the documents we will sign so that we could review them at home and not waste time at the signing. The goal is to get the papers signed and the loan recorded and funded by mid afternoon today. Once we get past that stage, we get the keys and we are on our way.

The first order of business is to get the locks rekeyed which is scheduled for 4:30 PM today. Another related step today is to get our RV purchase rolling. We hope to wrap up that deal sometime before the end of the weekend. We received our Ozone Generator yesterday and that will be set up and turned on tomorrow AM. We plan to run that for two days in the house before performing any major activities inside. While that is running inside, we (I, as Josie is working) plan to pack up all items in the fifth wheel that will not be transferred to the new RV and move them to our garage.

Between Friday and Monday, we need to move out all furniture and items that are not staying in the house. Right now, it seems like the best solution is to take these items to the Salvation Army which is the plan. We don't have time to sell anything and we plan to keep most of the better items. Our possessions from the storage unit will be moved into the house on Monday. The transfer of the remaining items in the fifth wheel will take place - probably - on Tuesday when the dealer picks up our fifth wheel and parks it next to the new RV at their dealership. We expect to be on the road to Jackson no later than the 17th.

Can we accomplish all of this on schedule? We sure hope so...

Getting Close

It was another productive day leading up to the close on our house. The main event was the final walk thru which neither Josie nor I attended. We left it up to our agent as Josie couldn't afford to waste another couple hours on the potential of the owners still being there. They were, but they were leaving when our agent arrived. Everything checked out and we have signed off on the condition of the home.

I also went to the bank and obtained the cashier's check for the closing tomorrow AM. Now we are almost broke again. We have just enough to finalize the RV trade if we can get that done by the end of the weekend.

Other events that were scheduled include: an appointment with my Audiologist to get my hearing aids serviced before we leave for Jackson, the locksmith for Thursday afternoon to rekey the locks, Salvation Army drop on Saturday AM (if we can get everything together by then) and confirmation of our move from storage to the house on Monday at 12:30 PM.

Everything is still on target for our departure to Jackson on or around May 16 - that is one week from today...

Misstep

We were scheduled to have our final walk thru at the house late yesterday afternoon. I picked up Josie at work and we were there at the expected time, 4:30 PM. The final walk thru is scheduled after the sellers have vacated the house and three days before the actual closing. There was a breakdown in communication that really upset us. First of all, the sellers were still in the house, smoking away like a chimney. They had not moved out from the house and many of the items they are taking were still there. It was a total waste of time for us and Josie lost some valuable time at the shop where the Mother's Day workload is growing.

I sent a scathing email to all the parties involved requesting better communications and asking that everybody please get on the same page. There are only three days to go and we can't have these breakdowns that could, potentially, delay everything. Further, there is a problem with the actual signing of documents. We were told that we would sign on Wednesday, but last night we were informed that it will be Thursday AM at 8:30. These people must think that our time is completely open and nothing needs to be firm on the schedule.

The walk thru is now scheduled again for today but if we have it at all, I will attend myself and not have Josie miss any more time. We will be very happy when this is all over and we can move forward.

We also received our copy of the final numbers showing details of the closing. It is all good news and everything should move smoothly on Thursday...

Close the Oven

With all of the activities we have scheduled this week, it figures that the oven door would be open. We set a record yesterday and we will be close to records on several days this week. In fact, 8 of the next 10 days are forecast to be over 100 with the other two days in the high 90's. I hope we can get most of the physical activities accomplished in the cooler mornings. It's just the roll of the dice that we are having all of this activity at a bad time. It could always be worse though. We could be living in the Midwest where the tornados are already taking a toll.

Our final walk-thru at the house is at 4:30 this afternoon. I will pick up Josie at 4 PM from work and head to the house. This will probably be our final visit to the house before closing on Thursday. Between now and Thursday, we will make sure we have all the reservations and activities finalized to make for a smooth transition. The projected departure date for Jackson is May 16 or 17, depending on how things go.

That's about all there is to say right now as we gear up for the stretch run...

Calm Before the Storm

Yesterday and today will be the last easy days for the next couple weeks. I did get some things done yesterday - Scheduling the move out of storage into the house on May 14, cancelling the RV transport since we are not taking the fifth wheel to Jackson, cancelling the painting since we don't have time and ordering the Ozone Generator to handle the odor problem. We do the walk thru tomorrow afternoon and that kicks off a busy week.

Josie continues her daily work schedule at the shop and they seem to have everything under control for Mother's Day - so far. She has been working decent hours up to now and has been home by mid afternoon each day. We hope for the same today.

It is time to gather boxes for the packing effort which will begin when we can get final approval for our new RV. Most of what we have in the fifth wheel will go to the house, but we also need to separate things that go in the new RV. I will have to schedule a U-Haul van to move the boxes to the house and store them in the garage for now...

Close to New RV

Much of the day yesterday was spent trying to finalize the details for our new RV. Even though nothing can be done - officially - until after we close on the house, we are just about ready to close the deal on a new, 2019 Jayco Entegra Esteem Class C motorhome. I have some photos below:

Needless to say, we are excited about taking delivery on this beauty - probably a couple days following the close on our house, but in time to take to Jackson. That is, if everything goes according to plan. It's the old saying - It ain't over till it's over.

By the way, we close on Thursday the 10th and not Wednesday as I mentioned. We sign documents on Wednesday. Our final walk thru is scheduled for Monday the 7th. Aren't we having fun now?...

Full Speed Ahead

Yesterday was a busy day setting up the closing activities. We have the final walk thru scheduled for Monday, May 7 which is also the last day for the owners to occupy the house. Josie and I will sign the papers on Wednesday, May 9 ( at the title company) and the loan funds on Thursday the 10th. We signed an amendment to the original agreement which modifies the closing date to May 10. There were also some last minute papers that we sent to the mortgage company and we are set to go.

Last night, following Josie's work day, we went to La Mesa RV to narrow down selections of our replacement RV. We narrowed the choices to two and we will return this evening to try to come to an agreement on one that we think will work best for us. Of course, nothing official can be done with any choice until after May 10. We want to be ready to roll though on May 11 and have all the paperwork ready for the purchase. I hope to have photos of our new RV very soon. We hope it all works out and we can trade our beloved DRV fifth wheel which has served us well for over 10 years.

It's now full steam ahead to get everything done...

Closing Date Set

We are finally through the process. We received word late yesterday that our mortgage has been approved and we have set May 10 as our closing date. That is one week from today. It puts us very close to Mother's Day which means that Josie will be up to her neck in work at the shop. That also means that I will be performing almost all of the duties that will be required to get things ready for Jackson while scheduling movers, carpet cleaners, locksmiths, etc. We have pretty much decided that we will not have enough time to paint the entire house, so that will have to wait until we return in late  September or early October. This is not the optimum schedule, but we will work with what we have.

We talked to the owners about vacating the house during summers while we visited with them last weekend. They were snowbirds for 17 years and told us they just locked up the house and left. They turned off the water (except for the irrigation) and turned off the A/C. With the house situated in a north/south setting, the sun never hits the front or the back directly which keeps the inside cool when all the window coverings are closed. If they did that for 17 years with no problems, we will give it a shot. I will most likely still have someone check on the house occasionally to make sure everything is OK.

It's time to line up all the services and appointments we will need to make over the next two weeks. I hope it all goes smoothly as we only get one shot at this...

In Underwriting

We are in the final phase of our mortgage process - underwriting. Basically, everything is approved and we are moving forward to the final steps where all the t's are crossed and i's are dotted. We still have no firm date for closing yet, but expect it any time now. The days are getting more and more precious as we need every one we can get to complete everything we must do.

Yesterday, I extended our stay here at the Pioneer Resort by two weeks. We were scheduled to depart on Saturday, May 5, and we now have until May 19 to leave this space. The pressure is on to get a plan for the RV as we have no place to put it as of now. Once we get into the house we will be fine as we can always find a place to (temporarily) store the fifth wheel until a long term decision can be made, if necessary. It becomes a problem only if we are not able to empty it prior to storing the unit.

Once again, we are at the mercy of other people performing their jobs quickly and efficiently. It is difficult to understand why it takes so long in these times of modern technology to finalize a transaction where there are no negative issues to address...

Missed Call

It appears that my new phone has struck again. I am still trying to learn the ins and outs of this device and it cost me an important call yesterday. Someone from the mortgage company had a question on one of our accounts and I was not able to get the message in a timely manner. It was after 5 PM when we realized the call was somehow deleted on my phone. It must have been late posting to my received calls and I just erased the number thinking it was just another robo-call. That little problem cost us a day on our schedule, I'm sure. I will close that loop this morning and hope we can get back on track.

Also on the schedule for today is a stop at the RV office to make sure we extend our stay here at least until May 15. Without having a firm closing date, it is hard to predict just how much more time we will need. There is an outside chance that we may have to inform the folks in Jackson that we will be arriving late. There is also an outside chance that we will still bag the whole Jackson trip and stay here for the summer. We have no place, at this time, to park the fifth wheel after we close on the house. I'm counting on either getting a space at the Sun City facility or being able to sneak into a space, at least on a temporary arrangement, until a permanent site becomes available. Physically moving the fifth wheel will not be problem if we can work out a deal on a Class C motorhome before that time comes. Of course, if we go to Jackson we will need no storage space until at least October.

Our fingers are crossed that we will hear something today about a firm close date...