Some Random movies - Actual Post, June 27th on a packing break!

Didn't have time to edit these; we're back in P.G. busy packing for the big move. We've been told work on the house is "in progress" YAY. First movie taken from a restaurant in Langley (our town) where we had lunch. Can't remember the name of the mountain range; quite spectacular view for lunch. One day soon Dave's little green "Grace the Boat" will be out there in the Puget Sound with all those big bully sailboats!

Second video is a more "down home" Farmer's Market, kind of like a Grateful Dead Parking Lot scene for all of my music buddies. Fun. I met a nice knitting/spinning woman there, had on one of my very bright sweaters, and she said, "I saw you coming all the way across the grass."

Third video is, as I say, "the drive to our house"...........stretch of road, houses on the left, meadow with cows on the right is the longest stretch on the 3/4 mile walk down into town. If all goes well our address will be 1080 Village Loop, Langeley, WA as of August 1.

Right now we're doing nothing but packing boxes! Thank heaven we have weeks to do it........More later.................

Let the big move BEGIN!

Wednesday, July 7th

Well, the big POD arrived this morning about 7:30 with much fanfare on my part (poor sleepy Dave!). The hydraulics (which unfortunately I didn't get because room ran out on the video chip..........grump) on the thing were amazing. The POD guy didn't have to do much but pull levers to maneuver everything.

Here's a movie of the process starring Rocco the Daschund/Chihuahua POD dog. As usual, forgive my amateur photography.........as we know, knitting's my thing!

So, our target dates: We've been packing since we got home late June. POD arrived today, Weds. July 7th where it now sits in front of our cottages and will for at least a week. If we need to, we can keep it an additional week but no more (City of Pacific Grove ordinance). Our goal is to leave Pacific Grove July 24th give or take a few days. It takes 6 working days for the POD folks to get the POD to storage somewhere near Seattle where it will stay until we call them to deliver it to our new home. We'll tow Dave's (beautiful) boat (will post photos of it here at a later date) behind the car on a kayak trailer he's modified for the boat. Law says we cannot drive over 55 mph (which, of course, is just fine with me!) so we'll take 5 days/4 nights to get to Langley which should put us there around July 29th, the day everything is supposed to be complete (final bank walkthrough, etc.) and the day they give us the keys. As soon as we're in the house, we'll call the POD folks and have them deliver our things. We'll then have until August 7th to unload. "The POD process" takes one month; how you use that month (packing/unpacking) is up to you. So far it's been terrific, and I think much cheaper than a regular moving van, AND, you load things yourself. Great idea.

Work on the house is supposed to be done this Friday, July 9th; realtor says it's going well. First thing they did was fix the drainage problem by essentially digging the drain ditch deeper in between the two houses.

Here are photos of it; theory is rain will drain where the rock path is (I believe it's called a French Drain"; the builder has guaranteed it for two years. No one else has had drainage problems there, so we figure things will be fine.

HUGE job at our age! (My back went out at the very beginning of packing; taking things VERY slowly now—no more ice skating ;+})..........Ok, time to get back to packing..............

D^2

The Boat Saga

Posted Thursday, July 15

As many of you know, Dave's been building a boat for the last two years. We have no off street parking (which is one HUGE reason we're buying the house we're buying!) so, Dave erected two large tents in our back yard in which he built this yet to be sailed little beauty.

Yes, we'll be towing his stunning little boat to our new home.

As some of you also know, maneuvering large things in and out of our yard is tricky.............narrow walk and steps. Dave and a friend somehow managed to get it to the street this afternoon. I'd have taken photos, but was busy putting pillows on the walk so they could set it down when it got too heavy.

So you might ask, if, in a week's time, we're moving a thousand miles away where do I find time to blog? Well, one other element to the story is I gave Dave a beautiful kayak trailer for Valentine's Day about 2 years ago, and, he's had to spend the last 3 days or so modifying it for the boat (that usual male-only gene assuring him he can get whatever needs doing, done in 1/2 the time it actually takes!) The wood part under the boat in this photo is his modification

..........I guess that can be considered packing? In fairness, he's done an incredible job with the beginning stages packing the POD having completely disassembled our IKEA furniture and fit it in so it occupies very little room compared to what it would have occupied had it not been disassembled.

I do have almost everything in boxes, have sold a lot on Craig's List, etc.,

HOWEVER, neither of us can do much more until the (I will refrain from saying *^%(*^(*&^&^) boat preparation is finished and the boat is on its way to a friend's house (friend shown here on left).

Dave has a specific, well-thought-out plan to load the POD so everything, from our large sofa down to tiny needles, will have a place of its own, but until he gets this boat thing finished, we can't do much more of anything to implement said plan. I won't go into problems with registering the boat trailer at the DMV; just too too grim!

Anyway, it's late Thursday afternoon, the 15th; the boat is about to be towed to above friend's house in a rural area where we will pick it up on our way to Washington. It will stay at the friend's house for about a week. In the meantime, I'm hoping we'll finish packing...........wish us luck!

.............here are a few more photos of the sweet little boat itself. It really is a charmer and another reason (sailing on beautiful Puget Sound) we're moving to where we are. Just wish this part of things was over! Oh, and the bank appraisal reached our particular bank today and should be in the hands of the loan officer tomorrow. When approved, I think then we can actually say we're home owners, but maybe not until the keys are in hand................we hope by the 29th.

Di & Dave

OH MY GOD, we're overwhelmed!

Posted on July 13th (Happy Birthday, Ellen :+})

If you're new to this blog, see it from the beginning at:

http://offtowhidbey.blogspot.com/

No, not from the packing but from the final photos of the house. Things are even more beautiful than we expected.

We're madly packing, trying to get out of here by July 24th; no, we WILL get out of here by July 24th! What we'll have trouble with is the deadline on the POD which is the 21st, but we'll do it.

The bank appraised the house today, for our loan, but as I said to our realtor (http://www.tomwhiterealestate.com/blog/), "how could they possibly not accept it; it's just beautiful." Here are the photos in no particular order. Be sure to click on each photo to see it enlarged. I don't care how much it rains; in a home like this we could, and probably will, stay inside most of the time!

More blog when we're out of here, and on the road.

xoxo Di & Dave

Momentous Day!

(NOTE! If you are new to this blog please see it from the beginning at: http://offtowhidbey.blogspot.com. When you get to the bottom, click on "older posts" which are really newer posts.............don't ask why they're that way; just do it!)

Posted Friday, July 23, 2010

Dave's spent the last two weeks almost literally building a house inside this POD. It's amazing how much he packed in there—as though he built us a house we could live in right there, and the way he did it was sort of organic and magic. I think the POD guy was startled by the heft of the thing when he was maneuvering it with his hydraulic lift this morning. It left about 10 AM with almost everything we own in it (except the new house of course). The POD will stay in a warehouse in Salinas until Monday the 26th, then take a 6-day, I think it is, trip to Seattle where it will be stored until we call them to deliver it to our new home. We should have everything in our garage by August 6th. Watching the thing being lifted and heaved to and fro was a bit scary. Here's a video of it all; quite amazing...........

The other major event of the day was the singing of "final" documents on the house. I won't bore you with the hoops we went through to get to this point, but through them we went, and, I think they're finished. One more step—I believe it has something to do with the title—has to happen, then we get the keys on the 29th, but for all intents and purposes, we are now home owners. I will DEFINITELY update the blog on key acceptance day! Here are a few photos of us signing final papers on boxes in the empty cottage.

Dave contemplating everything............

Me just signing what I"m told to!

I fly to Seattle and on to Langley via public transit on Monday the 26th, where I'll have three glorious relaxing days to myself. Poor Dave leaves with the car and "Grace the boat" the same day, and will pick up friend Bill (in former photos) whose property the boat's on now, and they'll drive all the way up so that Dave will have some company and driving relief (Thanks, Bill!).

We've had an amazing amount of stuff to sell/recycle/get rid of in some way. Here are a few photos of some of it.

Inside Dave's tent.

.

Junk ..........

and more junk

Two young men bought both the huge tents (I posted them on Craig's list) in which Dave was boat-building, and then decided they wanted nearly everything else we had to rid ourselves of, so, in exchange for MUCH of our stuff, they'll be cleaning the yard and hauling things here and there for us tomorrow, Sat. the 24th. In my opinion they've been (strong, young) angels from heaven who have helped us out of some work I'm not sure how we'd have finished.

The guys' truck with all our junk in it.......they're coming back for more tomorrow!

Final clip here is of our neighbor cat Izuzu who we've been friends with for over a year now. He's had a snack at our house almost every day over that period of time. Here he's just plain confused because nothing seems familiar EXCEPT his little bowl where his snack is.

So, we're off to bed, sleeping on an old camping blow-up mattress for the next 3 nights. I hope the next entry will be from our new home the address of which is:

Diane Driver & Dave Albright

1080 Village Loop

Langley, WA, 98260

It's a long long way from there to here!

(Note: The application dates on these posts are not accurate; my dates are. Putting them in this order was the only way I could make them go from first to last. If you haven't seen the rest of this go to http://offtowhidbey.blogspot.com/; when you get to the bottom click on "older posts" which are actually newer posts......dd)

THERE

to HERE

Wednesday night, July 28th.

Well, we did it; actually Dave did most of the getting rid of above stuff with help from a really nice young man. Those of you on the Monterey Peninsula who need hauling/yard work, moving, odd jobs done, call Benjamin Usi, 831-2366-5691. He was in construction, until the economy took a dive; hard-working and reliable. Tell him the people with the incredible mess in their back yard recommended him.

I flew out Monday—left Pacific Grove on the airport shuttle at 6:30 am, flew from San Jose Airport to Seattle/Tacoma airport, took the airport shuttle to Clinton at the very South end of Whidbey, caught the Island Transit (which is free; well, paid for by a 1/2 cent sales tax charged to everyone buying anything on the island; it's a dream!) and arrived at the motel around 2 or so. Monday seems like ages ago. I've been too tired to write anything until today, Wednesday. Staying at the Langley Motel Monday and Tuesday nights. Dave and friend Bill—life saver for me because he drove all the way up with Dave—arrived about 1:00 PM today, Wednesday and we're all staying at the motel tonight. I said to Dave last night the motel feels like a transition station from the PG cottages to the new house. Our room is an old somewhat dilapidated cottage; walls are thin; Wi-Fi is HORRIBLE—they shouldn't even advertise they have it—and the whole place is cobbled together with extensions cords. Feels REAL familiar!

Grace the boat made it without a scratch or incident (I think because I wasn't there!). She's as beautiful as when they left, and, I think must be happy knowing there's so much water out there in the sound to sail around in.

We did our final "walk through" of the house today

with the fellow who does everything around our little community (someone told me not to call him a handyman). Tom our realtor greeted us with this basket full of cheese, crackers, wine and flowers.

Bill the non-handyman, Bill our friend, and Dave talked about twisted pair wires, plumbing, wall thickness, the garage of course, and I stood and stared at our beautiful tile work and new appliances.

All of this still feels like a dream. Our next door neighbor Diane (yes, Diane!) said to me, "bet you've never moved anywhere that people were so happy to see you." It's true, so far everyone has been more than welcoming despite our being California transplants. I walked from "our house" to downtown this afternoon on this, our country road

and everyone in passing cars waved, everyone.

Tuesday when I was in Freeland—our big city to the north—I bought some things at the large grocery store and left my little purse with my whole life in it, passport!, money, driver's license, cell phone, everything, but didn't realize it until I was on the shuttle riding back down to Langley about to call Dave. I looked in my big bag, and it was gone. I said to the driver "can I get off here; I left my small purse in the grocery store with my life in it." He turned left and drove BACK to the store! He didn't wait for me, of course, but that he actually turned the corner and circled back around again blew me away; that's how people are here—country living/hospitality I guess. I think they train the shuttle drivers to actually be helpful unlike most city bus drivers who, in my experience, resent everyone and hope you won't get on their bus. I rode the bus in Berkeley all the time, and remember few incidences of politeness or greeting. One thing that's got to make a difference of course is shuttle drivers here don't have to fool with money, with people who can't pay don't have the right change, etc. VERY different experience, and of course, appeals to my collective instincts ;+}.

Thursday, July 29th

We got our keys today, and now the house really IS ours; we own it or about half of it.

The POD should be in Seattle by now. Not sure when we'll have it delivered. Four VERY large boxes of "stuff" (primarily my clothes……large coats, heavy things, e.g.) will be delivered today. We will buy a blow up mattress and sleep on the floor until the POD comes (neighbor Diane ended up loaning us one of the nicest blow up mattresses I've ever slept on; we'll have one for you all when you get here!). Dave wants to see if he can get the garage/basement walls waterproofed before we do anything. We'll see.

Our friend Bill left this morning………taking Amtrak to Salinas; he doesn't like to fly. I got up early and drove him to the ferry, where he crossed the sound then caught a commuter train straight to Amtrak. Nice…….When (not if!) any of you fly up to visit. Don't rent a car. Take the Langley airport shuttle straight to the island. $54 ROUND TRIP, and you have priority all the way; otherwise you have the hassle of traffic, ferry lines, all of it. Transportation for the public really does exist here.

Sunday, August 1

We begin our first full month as Washington residents! We've been shopping shopping shopping since last Thursday. Brooms, and towels, and dish clothes, and garden equipment, and on and on. Wanted to get this little update out because tomorrow, Monday, is POD arrival day; then the work starts again in reverse order except now we don't have a deadline.........sigh. Our dear neighbors (she writes children's books; he's a retired zoology prof. from U Dub as the locals call it—University of Washington) invited us for a terrific veggie dinner Friday night. We went to the farmer's market yesterday, and did more shopping. Even more shopping in store today. We gave a LOT away so are buying a lot new. Grace sits on our mantel overlooking everything. I never understood keeping anyone's ashes at home, but it's comforting somehow to know she's there. One day we'll take her to San Diego and put her in the ocean with my dad which is what she wanted, but for now she gets to oversee everything. (I'm finding myself channeling— "be careful not to get fingerprints on the refrigerator".............geez.)

Dave, as usual, is finding flaws and fixing them all. I, on the other hand, am still overwhelmed by the fact that we have, what I consider a HUGE house (1,500 sq. ft). Lord knows how in the world I'm going to find things I lose all the time in such a big space. I HAVE to get organized. More after POD contents settle in (no more POD photos, I promise!)..........hope all is well in your world.

xoxo from Di & Dave

Below are photos of sculptures here and there around the town in peoples' yards. Evidently there's a retired artist who spends 1/2 his year in Santa Fe, and half in Langley sculpting, then asks folks if they'd like one. They're beautiful and coming upon them on a walk is a sweet surprise.

Already! a homeowner disaster.

Thursday, August 5th

(NOTE! If you are new to this blog please see it from the beginning at: http://offtowhidbey.blogspot.com. When you get to the bottom, click on "older posts" which are really newer posts.............don't ask why they're that way; just do it!)

Well, we've been here a week today. POD arrived yesterday, and Dave's almost emptied everything into the garage. It was supposed to be here Monday, but we (and I guess the POD people!) learned they pick up and deliver to Whidbey Island only on Wednesdays despite the fact they told us otherwise.

Our first homeowner disaster began, unbeknownst to us, about two days after we moved in I guess it was. The POD hadn't arrived so we had a paucity of dishes, one cup, one fork, one spoon, and so on, but we wanted to try out our SUPER QUIET dish washer, so put what we had in it, and let it run (and run and run and run and run.......the "short" wash is over an hour despite the fact it's an "energy saver".)

The dishwasher was sooooooo quiet; made NO noise at all; we were amazed. It was late, so we went to bed and let it finish itself. I got up in the morning expecting to see sparkling dishes; instead they were still dirty but VERY hot! After much pondering, we finally figured out the water to the washer hadn't been turned on; that's why it was so quiet! duh. Right, duh! So, Dave crawled under the sink, turned it on, and we ran another load which turned into a few clean, shiny dishes.

Later I noticed a puddle of water by the dishwasher; I thought I must have spilled water doing something at the sink. The next day (Tuesday I think) I noticed ANOTHER puddle of water, and told Dave about it. Yes, the dishwasher was leaking. We called the (not to be called handyman) handyman who discovered the dishwasher hadn't been correctly connected so while it was running water leaked under our hardwood kitchen/dining room floor which, as a result, began to buckle. The plumber came out yesterday (Weds. or was it this morning; days run into each other) and fixed the dishwasher/water connection, but in the meantime the floor buckled more which meant water was spreading; today it was alarming. We had the not-handyman call the guy who put in the floor to come look at it; he said, probably it wasn't so damaged that everything would have to be pulled up, rather we have to keep this noisy fan on (this is a movie!)

all day every day until the wood dries, most likely for 3 weeks. Not only is the water buckling the floor, the pressure from the wood is also splitting the cabinets at the floor level as you can see here).

When the floor is dry, it will be sanded and refinished which should take about 3 days. What a _)(&)(*$_)(*ing hassle. While they do the sanding/refinishing, we'll take a trip to "the city", go to Ikea and get lots of things we "need", make a trip to Trader Joe's, and get away from the toxins and all the mess.

So, the upshot of all this is we won't truly be moved in for another month! What a bother.

Everything is just about out of the POD and into the garage, but we really don't want to move anything else in....maybe some things upstairs...until the floor is finished.

To compensate, the builder said he'd build steps for us in the garden. As things stand, I have to shlep everything from the back to the front or vice versa by going around 2 houses on 1 side, 1 house on the other side. Steps between our house and our neighbor's house would make gardening MUCH easier.

This is where we'd like the steps......between the two houses.....this view is from the back yard to the front.

So that's it for week one as homeowners. Oh, we did take a nice walk Tuesday evening down to the tiny tiny independent Clyde Theater in town where Micmacs (director Jean-Pierre Jeunet—most noted for Amélie—) was running. What fun; everyone there was as old as we are ;+}..........seniors $4; popcorn from $1 to $3 a bag!

Hope you're all well. Stay tuned for the ongoing saga of the new house and new home owners on the island...........disasters notwithstanding, we remain smitten.

Di & Dave too