In getting ready to move - we had some wonderful weather! Dad and Al came and took the Salem deck apart to put back together out at Evies' house in Gaylord... (not quite to Powers). This happened just before they took off for BHC so it didn't get put together (lol) YET - but it will be 'as soon as they get back'... hahaa!!! The fruit trees gave abundantly this year and I have given away soooo much!! I am thankful that Keith talked me out of putting in a garden... I would have been totally overwhelmed with all that ripening produce on top of everything else :)
We weren't able to sell the property (rather bittersweet). In reality - we couldn't have sold it for what we have invested - and we knew that from the start. SO WE RENTED IT OUT!! Via Oregon Bay Properties and Herb we were able to rent it immediately! So immediately that we ended up in a bind when we found out that our David Dr. house was STILL NOT READY for us to move in to. We had movers booked, renters in place, and no place to put ourselves! Thankful that we had the Salem still in the driveway at Rod and S'te's since that is where we will be. S'te got around and quickly found us a storage unit big enough for our stuff - This whole project would never have gotten done without S'te doing a LOT of hard work and coordinating things!
I finally got around to doing some of the packing and almost immediately pulled a muscle in my back... outta commission for over a week. So between my not.healing.very.well arm and a bad low back... we ended up calling the movers back and contracting for them to do a 'pack and move' - which turned out TOTALLY AWESOME!!! I wish I hadn't lost his contact info because this was the easiest way to move that I've ever had. He showed up with his crew - right on time - and they all went to work! They knew what needed to be done - right down to sweeping up after all so much was loaded. We had the truck, the van, the pickup, AND his pick-up all loaded to the gills...
While we were gone... I spied a couple photos on S'te's facebook page that I really, really liked. I THINK this is Homecoming Dance for Destini. She sure looks beautiful. I hope she had as much fun as possible :)
And next of course, is Ladaria's birthday... She has blossomed into a fantastic young lady. She has grown into some of her potential - and is working hard on getting back to school and realizing some more of it. She is one awesome girl!!!
ok... back to the move... With renters expecting to move into a CLEAN house on November 10 - we finally got our behinds out on NOVEMBER 8th... We had to buy another fridge for the house - but - we did get gone! We had nice weather for the drive up to Bremerton - but towards dusk - it started raining... We should have arrived by about 3 pm but the trailer rented from Uhaul got a flat... and that became a 3 hour delay... but the movers did finally arrive and we did our 3 part unload... Even Ellie made it in 1 piece :)
Now ensconced back in the 36' Salem Travel Trailer in S'te's driveway - we waited, and waited, and waited, for workers to show up. Our house should have been complete Oct 15 ~ Oct 30 at the latest! S'te and I went to Lowes and got everything that we thought they could possibly need that I would want to pick out - we had the cabinetry ordered before we even went back down to CB - and they were DELIVERED on Nov 1 - Patrick assured us all would be ready to just 'slap them in' as soon as they got there - Appliances were delivered Nov 3 - and ended up in Rod and S'te's garage because THERE WAS NO MORE ROOM IN OUR GARAGE BECAUSE NO ONE WAS SHOWING UP TO WORK ON THE HOUSE!
When I talked to Patrick on 11/10 he said "be cooking your turkey in your own oven"... bwahahahaha!! As you can tell by the dates on the photos... we aren't making a lot of "move-in" progress :( Then to add injury to insult - Peggy from Lowes mis-measured both the kitchen and the bathroom, leaving us with no configuration that seemed workable. I had to call Peggy and have her come look to see what she had figured... Here below, some of the cabinets had FINALLY been unpacked to measure for flooring. S'te and Jeanne got all that painting done (whew) and I tried to help... I was told to go wash brushes... LOL ... I love my daughter but sometimes she just gets downright bossy! heheheee Every time I picked up a paintbrush, she ended up with detail to trim back up... :(
I love the hickory cabinets and the wood floor in the great room complements it wonderfully! It is just getting so far behind! This shows when the trim was finally getting painted (the 1st batch). Due to it being so late in the fall - wet and cold meant that all the painting had to be done inside :( Good news was that the drywallers finally got finished and out of there on the 15th - of NOVEMBER (remember here - occupancy was supposed to be 15th of OCTOBER)... feel my frustration mounting? The NEW heat pump that meant a total rewire of the whole house and a whole new panel - kept blowing a breaker - due to the unusual configuration that Quality Heating chose, the air handler just wouldn't stay on. That set the drywallers back because the mud and tape wouldn't dry :( Keith finally called Quality instead of leaving a message for Patrick, and they came out and made some temporary adjustments. Patrick is now not answering calls and wife Katy is snippy and snide when answering questions - if she chooses to answer them at all. Messages go unanswered as to emails. Work continues on an intermittent basis... days still go by with no one at all there. Colder weather is coming and the Salem just isn't the warm and coziest place to try to stay :( 
It was a real unusual sight to see 3 trucks with workers there... all at the same time... YIPPEEE!!!!
Thanksgiving week rolled around and Patrick was still saying we could move in before 12/1... What a crock! These photos were taken the day after Thanksgiving - not a worker in sight and SOOO much work still to do! The counter-tops ended up costing us about $1,000 more than budgeted because of the lack of planning and scheduling... The empty spaces on both sides are where missing cabinets will go - when they finally arrive. This is the point we were at when our VA Inspector showed up to inspect for our transition-from-construction loan. It was not a good inspection.
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And so ended our November... Still in the Salem but getting to spend each day with the kids and helping out as best as I can! :)
"Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it."
—Jaques Prevert
