The Big Move

First, let me wish all of you who continue to follow us (and THANK YOU!) Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa.  I hope you will be enjoying your weekend with friends and family.

We, on the other hand, will be unpacking and nesting in our new home.  Our first year without our families in 20 years.  We were supposed to be in Florida for 3 months, so it’s not so sad as we weren’t going to be with them anyway.  It is also the first year I’m missing my niece’s birthday which is the 24th. That makes me sad, but thank goodness for FaceTime. The only big difference is that we are so close (but yet so far).  We were able to go to a Hanukkah party though Friday evening at the temple in Prescott.  I’ll write more about that next week!

There is, and was, just too much going on this week for us to fly to CA.  What, you ask?  Well, let me fill you in.  On Monday, the 19th, Jerry drove to the Honda dealer who let us “borrow” Hunky (the Ram Truck we used to own) to move the RV into storage.  What great service this dealership provides!  When we traded the truck in for our two vehicles, we explained that we had to move our RV into storage with the Ram.  They were so kind to say, “no problem, come get it when you need it.”  

We then picked up a U-Haul, as we realized we were not going to be able to drive Madge (RV) to the house and park in front to move everything in.  When we drove up to the house last weekend we were parked in front and a 18 wheel semi truck came down the street. Lots of construction going on in the neighborhood. Jerry and I looked at each other and started laughing. There is NO WAY we were going to be able to park Madge and open the 5 slides to move everything out.  Plan B: Rent a U-Haul!  So, on Monday we packed EVERYTHING we own into the U-Haul, except our mattress and toothbrushes, since we still had to spend one more night in the RV

Tuesday morning Jerry and a neighbor, Eric, finished filling up the U-Haul and we drove it to the house and parked it there. We had our final walk through at 12:00 and were hoping we could move in after that.  We had to wait for all the documents to be recorded, along with the Certificate of Occupancy needed to be filed.  This is where the stress really started.  

The city had to inspect the house for that Certificate of Occupancy, the escrow papers had to be recorded, and we had to get the U-haul back that evening. I digress, and will continue explaining all this in a minute.

I followed him in the Ridgeline truck (although, Jerry does not call it a truck). It’s name is now Hunky Jr. We drove back to the RV Park. Jerry then winterized the RV (emptying the water from all the tanks, and adding antifreeze).  Next we drove to the RV storage and parked Madge there for the new owners to come get her next week.  They are driving from North Dakota if the weather holds out for them.

Yes, I cried when putting her in storage.  And, I will probably sob when I see her drive away with new owners.  I mean, being a full-time RVer was a 40 year dream for me.  I really didn’t think we would have ended this quickly.  18 months!!  But, Jerry and I agreed when we started this adventure, if one of us was no longer enjoying it, then we had to make a decision on where to end up.  A new adventure has begun.

Back to the house closing adventure.  We had just enough time to get to the 12 o’clock walk through after dropping Madge at the storage facility.  The walk-through was great!  We made our “punch list” of things we saw that needed attention (cracks in front bricks, missing areas of paint around the outside of the house, etc.) They encouraged us to keep a punch list for 90 days then submit things to be repaired at the end of the 90 days.  The house is under warranty for 2 years, so we’ll submit a list after each of those two years.  Really great service.

This is where the fun begins.  Moving in was put on hold until all papers were recorded.  In fact, the city inspector was waiting outside during the walk through.  Our customer service people said, go have lunch and the title company will be in touch when everything records.  Again, if things didn’t record on Tuesday we would have had to move everything from the U-Haul we rented to a different size one, because the one we had was reserved for another person. We weren’t told that when we rented it.  We would have also had to sleep in a hotel.  

Do I have you in suspense?  At 3:00 we were sitting in front of the Universal Home Sales Office going through all the scenarios of what we might have to do if escrow did not close.

Finally I received a call from the title company saying everything recorded and go get your keys.  The office was closed and no one was there.  Yep, we looked at each other and just said #$#%$^  Now what?  Jerry started walking around looking for anyone to help us and found the customer service person that was on our walk through.  He called the manager at home and told them we were there and asked if he could give us the keys.  If you know me, you know that I was sitting there completely losing it.

Needless to say, everything turned out just peachy.  We got the keys, and called our RV neighbor, Eric, who came over to help us unload the U-Haul.  We were unloaded in less than two hours. Remember, we sold EVERYTHING when we left CA and had only a desk chair and a mattress for furniture. We were in the house Tuesday evening with no appliances or furniture, but so excited to be there.  

We slept on the mattress on the floor of the guest room for 2 nights, and used 2 coolers to store the food we had.  We actually put the coolers outside as the evenings were in the 20’s and during the day only got up to low 40’s.  One of the coolers was the small refrigerator that plugged into the truck we used for the last 18 months for travel days.  It kept all of our frozen food frozen for 2 days.

Our furniture and appliances we ordered were delivered on Thursday.  We are now unpacking, decorating and making lists of all that we need.  My theory is just because we have lots of empty cabinets, we do not need to fill them up!!!  We lived a minimal life for 18 months.  No need to have a bunch of stuff just to have a bunch of stuff!  We will see how long that lasts. But, what I can say is, I AM SO HAPPY TO HAVE A GARBAGE DISPOSAL, DISHWASHER AND HUGE WASHER AND DRYER AGAIN!!!  You don’t realize what you miss until you don’t have it and get it back again!  Oh, and did I mention having my independence back again with having my own vehicle?  For 18 months Jerry had to drive me everywhere.  Nails, haircut, grocery store.  I drove Hunky a few times, but I know Jerry preferred being my chauffeur (not that he didn’t trust me or anything).

We have appointments with landscapers, window covering experts, doctors and dentist appointments, changing our domicile from South Dakota to Arizona (after the 1st of the year)… It’s a full time job relocating to a new state and city.  Now to get acclimated, explore and meet people.  First, I need my house in order!!!  

Just One More…..MOVE (not saying it’s the last one of our lives.  You just never know with me)