Learnin'...

 

We spent most of the day with the new owners.  I gave them a detailed tour around the house, pay special attention to the jacuzzi tub, hurricane shutters, and exterior features.  Joan and I made a detailed list for how to close the house down when they leave; I went over each item.

While I did that, Joan worked on getting apps loaded and accounts set up in their name for the smart stuff in the house.  The Select Comfort (Sleep Number) bed took the longest, as Joan spent over an hour with their customer service on the phone.  In the end, she got the app to control the bed settings via bluetooth.  Then on to other apps to control door locks, doorbell cameras, other cameras, lights, and Alexa.  It isn't 100% done, but she made a significant inroad in getting through this stuff.  All this is new to Scottie and Donita, so there is no way that we could have left it up to them to get it all set up.  We had to take down cameras on the exterior so Joan could get the device numbers to delete our accounts and set up their new accounts with each device.  It all takes time.

It was about 4:00 when we called it a day.  We still needed to get grocery shopping done and get something to eat.  Yes, it meant that the big furry boy had to spend most of the day alone.

We'll have more to do tomorrow, as well as our last bit of prep for hitting the road Sunday morning.

Bye-Bye...

 

No, we are not outta here.  Not yet, anyway.  The moving pods were picked up today...

 The new owners flew into Harlingen and are on their way here.  The bicycles have been put on the carrier and covered.  And now (as I write this), Mother Nature is starting to dump some rain on us.  Scottie and Donita (the new owners) told us it was raining heavy in Harlingen, so we knew it was coming.

As of right now, it is just sprinkling, with a 95% chance of thunderstorms through the afternoon and evening.

Scottie and Donita arrived and we got them into their house (keyless entry), and showed them how to use the door.  We tried to get their Select Comfort mattress set up for them so they could get a good night's sleep, but they didn't have the app on their phones or a password to get them into the app.  It is our plan to give them as much time as they can handle over the next two days to get comfortable with the smart stuff in the house.  It is going to be a hurdle for them to overcome - I hope we are able to help them.

The storm front came blowing in - gusts over 40 mph.  When we left the house to come back to the motorhome, I grabbed a golf cart cover that was trying to get itself blown into the canal; it belongs to the next door neighbor.  I called him to let him know what was going on, and let him know that it was blowing to hard for me to get that cover back on.  I stashed it on his back deck and let him know where I put it.  We do try to look out for each other around here.

I hope things will be like that in our new neighborhood in Arizona.

Back to the coach...

 

We've had bigger motorhomes in the past, and after a couple American Coach products, we came to refer to them all as "a coach."  Even when we had the Hitchhiker 5th wheel, to us it was still a coach.  Last night was our move back into the motorhome.  This is the shortest time that we have moved out of it and then back in again... 3 weeks.

It was a long day yesterday... a long, hot, sweaty day.  The moving pods are packed.  Before coming over to the motorhome, we each got one last soak in the bathtub in the house.  That jacuzzi tub is probably my favorite thing about that house.  But, we move on.

Today, Joan will be cleaning the house one last time, so when the new owners get here tomorrow, everything will be spic and span (do people still say that?).  I will be checking tires, engine fluid, etc, on all the conveyances.

The next couple days, we will be going through the house with the new owners to make sure they are comfortable with all the smart stuff, show them how to use the hurricane shutters, talk about shutting down the house when they go back north.

And then - we are off on this next chapter. 

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Done.  Really.  Every conveyance we own is packed.  We are both wiped.  The moving pods get picked up tomorrow; next time we see 'em will be in Arizona.  I hope.

I took Rufus for a walk this evening.  The RV lot we are on has a lower level patio - it's the way most of the RV waterfront lots were originally.  I opened the gate and Rufus walked down the steps to look around the patio and dock.

After inspecting the area thoroughly, he walked back up the stairs, across the lot and out onto the street.  When I asked him, "Are you ready to go home?" he turned and headed for... home.  As in: what used to be our house, across the street.  I let him walk down the sidewalk and to the dock... "Our dock is nicer, huh?"

I told him, "Well, it isn't our dock anymore, buddy."  Back up the sidewalk and he turned to go up the stairs to the front door of the house.  "Nope, we have to go back across the street to the motorhome."

"What about my big chair?  I don't have a big chair in the motorhome!"  The boy has a point.  I promised him there will be another big chair when we furnish the new house.  He's not so sure.

Some changes ahead for all of us.

You know how they say...

 

"Work expands to fill the time allowed."  There's a corollary that goes with that statement: Stuff expands to more than fill the amount of space allowed.  Add in the time it takes to move all that stuff, and you start to run out of time and space.

As far as I know, nobody says that.  They should, though.  Today is "crunch day"... a team from Select Comfort will be delivering the new owners' mattress.  Having been through this recently, they will come in and set it up... that's not a complimentary service - you pay $249 for that.  We had the app loaded on our phones when we got our mattress, so we were able to run through it while the delivery team was here.  Not sure how that is going to play out with the new owners not being here until Thursday.

U-Haul changed the time on us for the pickup of our moving pods on Thursday... it was supposed to be in the morning - they moved it to afternoon.  It is a glitch, as we had something on tap with Spectrum, with the timing worked around when the new owners' flight would arrive.  We'll punt.  And we don't even have a football.  But, I digress.

Most of the ducks have lined up just the way we anticipated.  Today is "move back into the motorhome" day.

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"So, Jim, how is it your house there in Texas has so much storage space?"  I was looking today while we were moving the Select Comfort out of the bedroom... there is so much built-in storage.  Including the 6 drawers in the free-standing dresser, there are 33 drawers in that room.  A full-length closet.  Two walls of cabinets in the master bathroom.  A large pantry in the kitchen, the usual tall kitchen cabinets, plus drawers and cabinets with pull-outs in the kitchen island.  A built-in entertainment center in the living room with four large cabinets and 14 shelves.

There is storage under the house that could not be used as living space according to the covenants when we built.  It had to be built with enough "flow through" to allow water to flow in case of an extreme storm surge (never happened in the 20 years since we built this house); but that allows a bunch of storage under there, for things like bicycles, electric scooter, kayaks, stand-up paddleboard, a generator, a work-bench, large dock-box, etc, etc.  We sold off the water-toys in the past year, planning for some kind of a move.  Many things that people would store in a garage or shed, we had in that area.

All that stuff had to go somewhere.  That was part of the sell-off earlier this year.

The new house will be a bit bigger than what our house and Steph and Dan's previous house were (combined), but it won't have the same kind of built-in storage.  The yard is big enough to support two patio areas and a shed; we'll see how the budget holds out.

Strapped down...

 

The loading continues.  I'm thinking there is an end in sight.  One big thing done: the bikes are strapped down in the cargo trailer and there is a bunch of stuff packed around them...

 It may be hard to find them (the bikes), but they are there.

While Joan packed up more stuff in the house, I worked on flushing and sanitizing the holding tanks in the motorhome.  It's only been about 3 weeks since we were traveling back to the Tropical Tip in the motorhome, but better safe than sorry.

Tomorrow, we will move that last of our personal stuff into the motorhome.  Tonight will be our last night in the house.  Yes, I am a little sad about that - this has been a good house.  We designed it to be a vacation home, but when we retired (first time around) and sold everything in South Dakota, we decided this is where we want to be.

Yes, things change.  Even though we are looking forward to being close to Steph and Dan, we will take a lot of great memories with us; memories of island life, boating adventures near and far, the dolphins, the sub-tropical climate.  We're looking forward to making new memories out west.

I walked Rufus by the motorhome again this evening; yes, he knows that is his other home.  He looked a bit sad today (the boy has a very expressive face) when Joan took his tower apart so it would fit in the cargo trailer.  He has a shorter version in the motorhome.  All his toys will travel in the coach with us.

I didn't sleep great last night.  Too many thoughts running through my mind.  I still have concerns about making what we have left fit in the moving pods and our conveyances, but our closets in the house are empty.  Dresser drawers are empty.  The storage area under the house is empty.  I have faith in Joan's ability to pack, but there is a finite amount of available space.  

Another last time...

 

We went out to the inland storage unit to bring the motorhome in.  This has been a great place for the Aspect to live when it wasn't on the road...

 Joan swept out the unit while I went around and picked up bug traps and mice bait (we never had a problem here, but that is probably because we did what we could to prevent the critters from getting in)...

Out the locked gate and brought the motorhome to our island one last time.  Mother Nature celebrated the trip with about 15 minutes of pounding rain...

And then sunshine and humidity...

We made arrangements months ago to rent the lot across the street from the house - the lady that owns it has been very gracious.  Her late husband was a nice guy - he would always come out to the street to visit and give me encouragement as I walked to recuperate from the surgeries.  The folks who owned that lot before were friends of ours and always invited us to use the lot when coming or going from a trip.  It is very handy, since we can hook up to power, water, and sewer to get the coach ready for this next trip to Arizona...

The latest and probably last...

 

Photo update on the new house, that is.  Steph and Dan sent us photos - I was guessing that the big thing this week would be appliances installed.  Yep.  And, a bunch of blue tape all around for things that need to be addressed or touched up.  It is truly looking like a real house now.

The appliances in our kitchen...

 A washer/dryer in our bedroom closet...

Steph and Dan have "the big side," as you can tell from this view of their kitchen...

The obligatory front of the house shots...

There are some trim pieces at the roof-line that have been put in place, but need to be painted.

This will probably be the last photo update.  From here on, the house will be locked while all the last of the detail work gets done.  Our walk-through (and sign off) and closing have been scheduled.

One week from today, we plan to be rolling.