Busy weekend

[amberica]

OK, to recap: We closed on the new house on Friday morning. I headed to work, while Jon took the rest of the day off and moved 2 trailerloads of stuff out of the old house and into the new. After work, I helped move a third trailerload. Bear in mind - we have not "packed" much of anything into boxes yet! This was all big stuff like furniture! This activity continued throughout the weekend. We now have one big house with a lot of large furniture in the garage (and some that has been brought into the house), one smaller house that has a lot of non-packed things in it, and a lot of boxes that need to be filled and moved.

I did pack a single box with some bedding, towels, and stuff for showering and such, so that we could sleep in the new house on Saturday night. We had only moved the guest bed by that point, so we slept on it in one of the downstairs bedrooms. It was really nice, but Jon complained about the bed being too firm. (Personally, I like a nice firm mattress. I always sleep better with good support for my back. And I hate the Select Comfort Sleep Number Bed that we have right now. First off, when I inflate it to my preferred firmness on my side, it is higher in the middle, like a bubble. Secondly, Jon keeps his side really low, so his side of the bed becomes a valley about a foot lower than my side, and when I roll into it, I get trapped and can't roll back up onto my own side! Makes snuggling nearly impossible. Ack!)

Any-old-way, we got a lot of stuff done this weekend and even met a few of the neighbors! The property is part of a little cluster of 7 houses at the cul-de-sac ends of a Y-shaped road, so all the neighbors know and watch out for each other. The first neighbor who came over was Henry - he told us that the last people to live in our place took turns with him to mow the meadow (he owns half of it and we own the other half.) Jon had tested out Murray the Tractor on our lawn at the rental place this weekend and he LOVES it, so he seems to be looking forward to mowing the meadow with it every couple of weeks. Henry (an older, retired fellow) also told us that this is a NICE, QUIET neighborhood, and THE POLICE never have had to come by. We had to chuckle after meeting him, because he was making a pretty clear warning to us that he didn't take kindly to riff-raff. I suppose my nose piercing, Jon's tattoos, and our youth in general made him assume the worst. I think he will be happy when he realizes that we are really pretty quiet and respectful neighbors! Then again, he seemed a bit tough, so he might never like us too much. Dee, the nice neighbor-lady whose house is closest to ours, told us that Henry is a "hard-worker," and she kind of gave us the impression that he doesn't take a lot of crap from anyone! LOL - that's ok, we don't plan on getting in his way at all... and as long as we keep the meadow mowed on our turns, I don't think he'll have any reason to dislike us! (BTW, Dee told us that Henry's son mushed in the Iditarod - cool! And Henry told us that Dee's son builds lightweight airplanes - apparently he used to take off and land in the meadow, but one time he crashed into the trees, and then he started using part of the neighboring golf course to extend his "runway" - and they didn't like that one bit, so he had to stop doing it. I guess we won't be seeing any little airplanes taking off or landing in our meadow. Oh well - it's still a fun story! These neighbors seem fun!)

The neighborhood in general is really nice. Click here to see a satellite view of it - our house is on the top of a hill right at the intersection of the 2 legs of the Y, and then we own a large chunk of the land across the road to the south-east of the house. It's really quite beautiful now that the trees and grass are all coming in, and the neighbors told us about all the deer and turkeys and other wildlife that they always see. Apparently the deer and their babies especially love OUR yard because of all the acorns they can get on the east slope of the hill coming down from our house! I can't wait to see that! Plus, the people who lived there before left a letter saying that last year they counted 12 baby turkeys with 2 adults, and watched them grow all summer! I also can't wait to see turkeys! Yesterday, I caught glimpse of what I believe was a pheasant or a brightly-colored duck at the edge of our little pond across our meadow just inside the treeline, but I couldn't tell for sure what kind of bird it was. By the time I had found the binoculars, it was gone, but we will definitely be storing those near the back door to be used on the deck overlooking the meadow!

I watched the sun rise over the trees from my kitchen window this morning as I ate my Wheaties from a styrofoam bowl with a plastic spoon (yeah, we haven't moved any "real" dishes yet :P). It was really beautiful. And last night we dragged a couple rocking chairs out to the front of the house to watch the sun set. I definitely like this place a LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT more than I did when I first saw it. Of course, late winter yuckiness makes everything look kind of ugly, and that's when I first saw it.

I saw a little plastic picnic table in the woods just off the road, with a bit of a path leading back to it. I need to remember to walk down there and see if there are any treasures to be found (after the moving is done, of course.)

Comments

[frino.livejournal.com]

Sounds beautiful, Amber. I am glad you're warming up to the new house. I can't wait to come out and visit once you have real dishes and silverware!!

[amberica.livejournal.com]

Aww, you mean my paper, styrofoam, and plastic-ware aren't good enough? OK, I'll invite you over when I get all the real dishes and stuff in place, but then we'll do a backyard BBQ and make you eat off a paper plate anyway! Mua-hah-hah-haaaah! ;)

I can't WAIT to have you down here! We'll have to start arranging for the next visit soon!