Pre-Trip Trip

Today is the day I fly to DC, and tomorrow we begin our journey back across the US. I am excited and looking forward to whatever may come our way. 

On the home front, we are still only partially unpacked, some rooms look good, the big living room has no furniture, but there is a big area rug plus a couple of drums and guitars (a Fender electric and a baby Taylor, not a PRS) set up to make the room look friendly.  Boxes are scattered here and there, but enough is unpacked that it is very livable. I have to wonder how long it will be until all things are really put away.  Maybe if we each tackle one thing per night for a couple weeks, we will be in good shape!

OK, in about 10 minutes I catch the Max to the airport, then off to Chicago, and a connecting flight to DC.   I plan to blog and put up photos along the way, so stay tuned!

Loving Our New Home

I love our new home.  It is so hard to believe it was for sale for almost a year.  It seems it was just waiting for us to come along.  It is perfect for us - both the house and the property feel so good.  We are told that the main reason people gave for not wanting it was that the kitchen had not been updated since it was built in 1992.  OK, it may not have stainless steel appliances and  granite countertops houston / seattle / portland / wherever, but it is in very nice shape, and maybe someday we will add granite. We already added a stainless steel refrigerator, because the previous owners took their with them, so, we are already part-way there.

The kids got to pick out the paint colors for their rooms, and they turned out so good! They both love their rooms, and already seem so much more settled in and happy than at our last place, which was already an improvement over the tiny apartment we had before that.  More room means less being in each other's space, I guess.  We are all happy and grateful for our new home!

Three Days to Go!

What a busy couple of weeks! Just yesterday Vicki was finally able to pack all of her belongings that have been in two storage units in Virginia into one storage container that will soon be bound for our new home.  That is a huge relief for her, and nearly the last step into moving her life to the Pacific Northwest.  The truly final step will be the drive out that we will begin together this Saturday.  I fly out to DC on Friday. On Saturday we will visit with some friends, and then start driving her car out to its new home with us.  It should be an adventure!

Along the way we will stop at some major tourist attractions, probably some minor ones, pick up a few souvenirs for us and the kids, but hopefully nothing large enough that we will need a premier mount once we get it home!  We have been so busy we have not even planned the trip or the route yet. Yikes!

We will hope our luck with "winging it" holds!

View from Home

This was the sunset from our driveway last night.  Gorgeous, right?  Vicki and I are both feeling so fortunate to be able to live in such a beautiful setting.  We completed our move from city living in Portland to country living about 35 minutes away. It is a world of difference....quiet, peaceful, life-affirming.  We both loved city living - until we didn't anymore.  Two years was enough of the traffic, the noise, the people.  I will still go into the city every week day to work, and we are an easy drive away to go to Powell's Books, restaurants, funky shopping, Spidi
acccessories, whatever Portlandy thing we might crave. 

The kids love the house and the property! Last night they unpacked their boxes and arranged their rooms, which look great! Granted, they need furniture, but at least they each have their own room, with their own stuff surrounding them, and for now, that seems to make them happy.  Yes, life is good.