Moving Day

Today we move into the house and out of the hotel. We get some furniture today but most of our stuff will come tomorrow and next Tuesday. I am thrilled to get out of a suitcase...will be nice.

I had to shoo a large gecko out of the house this morning while I was over there waiting for the movers. I am at the hotel clearing out now (waiting for a couple of emails from our mortgage guy in Oregon). We won't have Internet at the house for a while and I want to make sure I get as many of the emails I need for our new house in Oregon as I can before we are cut off. I have the car loaded up and will get out of here as soon as that email hits my box.

Later today I plan to talk to the Internet people and see when we can get things hooked up. I have some stuff in the fridge that needs to be moved too and I am waiting as long as I can on that one since we don't have a fridge at the house until the movers get there today.

I'll get some pics of the house up as soon as I can....things are just busy and crazy now.

Thanks To Everyone

I said before I would update our time in WA and I haven't done it yet so I figure, what the hell?

We did manage to get a ton of stuff done in our short time at the house and that was only due to the awesome help we received from friends and family in the area. In the 6 days that we were there to work on the house, we did the following things:

• Painted the interior
• Carpeted two rooms
• Replaced all kitchen appliances (except for the refrigerator)
• Replaced a few boards on the roof
• Replaced a few boards on the porch
• Resealed half of porch
• Painted eaves and new boards on roof
• Powerwashed house and all cement patios and raised beds
• Fixed plumbing issues in bathroom
• Tore out and replaced 320 sq ft of insulation in the crawlspace
• 4 full size truck loads of yard waste to the dump
• 1 oversized truck load of trash to the dump
• Trimmed 3 fruit trees
• Removed blackberry bushes
• Trimmed back 4 sets of vines (wisteria, grape, and kiwi)
• Trimmed large tree hanging into our neighbor's yard
• Trimmed several rhodies
• Cleaned up all extraneous things left by the renter

This was all possible because J's brother and family, my sister, my dad, and all our friends and their families helped us out on various days. Originally our plan had been to visit with all of them but we ended up having to enlist their help and that is how we got the visits in as well. We really own them a debt of gratitude because we were really under a crunch and they helped us to get a lot accomplished. The house looks great and I am sure it will sell with no problem (if we can just get the market going again).

Our New Wheels

We are buying a white version of this little car as our one and only car for the time being. It is called a Nissan Cube. We test drove it and it is pretty nice....I am sure I will love it and it will be fun to drive. I'll put a picture of ours after we pay for it tomorrow and get it registered.

Oh, and we got our driver's licenses today as well, which wasn't difficult but they did try to be tricky on the test.

We paid all the opening costs for our new place that we will move into on Tuesday next week so things are moving along. We will try to get cell phones done tomorrow and I want to get a visit in with Chase.

Getting Back To It

Wow, what a whirlwind week this has been. We have managed to get food at several of our favorite places like Hokka hokka tei, Sushi-go-round and Coco's Curry Ichiban. We have found a house (a nice one too) that we can move into next week. We are going to get our driver's licenses today if we can, and hopefully a car this week too.

We went to visit Chase and she is doing well. I need to get her off to the vet for her initial check up on Friday. I also want to get her groomed again.

The house is right near the beach (we can see it from the roof) so we can walk there if we want, and it is really close to J's work. We are really thrilled because it looks like it will be big enough for our stuff. I'll have to take pictures and post them because it is a really cool modern style Japanese house. I can't wait for family to come visit so we can show them all how cool it is.

It will be nice to get settled into our lives.

Back On Island

Well, we made it here in one piece. Got here late enough on Friday that we haven't gotten much done yet but it has been nice to have a few down days and we'll get started on things tomorrow.

It is so strange to be back, kind of feels like a major case of deja vu...a few things have changed but mostly it is the same as it was when we left three years ago.

I know I keep writing that I will write more later and haven't but I promise that I will. Right now I have to go to bed....still not completely switched over on the time thing.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been pretty hectic since I last wrote. I don't have time to get into it all right now but will update as soon as I can.

Right now we are at the hotel near the airport and fly out to Japan tomorrow morning. Got to get to bed now and try to get some sleep....long day tomorrow.

Hitting Bumps But Living Through It

Well, our house in WA is back on the market. The buyers were not what we were looking for and it is for the best that it is actually on the market now and will get some real exposure. J and I are headed up there tomorrow to do some needed maintenance and spruce things up a bit.

We decided to just stay at the house so we can work on it first thing each day, which means getting a few food supplies too so we don't have to run out every morning for breakfast. We are hoping to get some friends and family over to visit us since we probably won't get to visit anyone now that our time is being devoted to the house.

We are still going forward, so far, on the house in the Rogue Valley that we found and like, but won't be heart broken if that doesn't happen either. If worse comes to worse, we can stick with renting out the WA house if we need to since still owning it means we are still in the market like we want to be....

Our visits in the Rogue Valley were great, saw lots of family and friends. We went to our friend's wedding reception in WA on the 28th and had fun catching up with everyone there as well. We are back in Portland for the second time and head out in the morning. At some point next week, we will have to come back down to Portland to pick up something we left in the Rogue Valley. My sis is going to pick it up since she will be going down for her friend's wedding.

The last few days have been a bit busy but we are through them and will see what is next in our path before we leave. You never know what can happen, that is for sure.