Rest in Pieces......

Today marked one week since I was able to start sleeping, and for the most part living, in the sweet little house I once never thought I would have. In the meantime, my husband mostly lived in the moldy, rundown singlewide with ugly avocado & gold linoleum rotted out in several spots, that we somehow managed to exist in for over 15 years. He needed to stay with our dogs, since their fencing still had the old mobile as its back border, and he needed to continue to weed through his STUFF in the so-called 2nd bedroom that was filled floor to ceiling, wall to wall with God knows what. I hope this whole experience has finally taught him that his possessions have had him instead of the other way around. On Sunday, he managed to move most of the rest of our furniture over here as well as repositioning the dogs' fencing so it would point towards our house. Then he was up literally all night continuing to weed through STUFF and still didn't get it all out. I wondered what he was going to do, since the demolition crew was scheduled to come yesterday. But thankfully, they phoned and couldn't come till today. He was still up most of last night trying to get the place emptied out, but managed to get a couple hours sleep.

I came home from work today, and lo and behold, where the moldy dump once stood (or barely stood), there is a bunch of debris in its place, which the crew will come tomorrow and clear out. Rex said they crunched it in four parts. I'm glad I didn't see it even though I hated that place. In a way, it's kind of sad. But Rex said they merely put it out of its misery. The place literally had wood rot from one end to the other. It does amaze me that I endured "living" in those conditions for over 15 years, even though we had no choice financially and you do what you gotta do. My best friend Dianne called it "third world conditions", and though I used to think she was exaggerating, in retrospect, I have to agree. I "lived" there longer than anywhere else, sadly, and the memory of it will always be with me. But now it is just a bad memory. Rest in pieces, ye poor olde moldy excuse for a home.....

Our dog Jesse, the little (if you can call 120 lbs. little) troublemaker who doesn't get along with our other two male dogs and is a fence jumper which prevents him from living indoors, had to stay in the empty bedroom of the dump till this morning. I'm sure he wondered where "his" bed and all the other stuff had gone. He will stay in the utility room when the other boy dogs are inside, and Rex will eventually install an electric wire on the outdoor fence to keep him from jumping. He has adjusted well to his nice new surroundings, as have the other dogs, and he and Heidi have not yet attempted to dig up my pretty new carpet (and they had better not even think about doing so). My new master bedroom and bath are off limits to all four of them!

I have my new kitchen, my new bathrooms (bathrooms - I finally have more than one!!), and my sitting room set up pretty much the way I want them, except for many pictures and a few shelf units to be hung. I am using my new Franciscan Apple dishes, my new Sheraton flatware, and my new red Farberware cookware, all of which I loooove. And my Internet is connected in my home tonight, albeit still the old dialup. The game plan is to lose the land line phone, which we don't use anyway except for the Net, and get cable. That will hopefully happen in a couple weeks. We plan to get satellite tv, and I'm not sure how soon that will happen. But I haven't really missed the tv the past few days. I kept it on constantly when I was in the dump, to distract myself from my surroundings, though I was always all too conscious of them anyway. But now that I am where I belong, the tv is not needed nearly as much. There are a few certain programs I would miss if we are without it too long, but for now I'm fine with the radio or CDs, the Net, my doggies, my crocheting (which I will get back to after I post this) and.....MY HOUSE!!!!!! My dream, once distant and seemingly unattainable, has been realized, thanks be to God.

At Loooooooong Last!!!!!!!!!!

The day I truly thought would NEVER come. The day I will no longer have to look at my darling little house from inside the moldy, rundown dump we've been stuck in for over 15 years but can move myself in. The first night I will be sleeping in my bed in MY HOUSE!!!!!!!! All of our stuff is not moved in yet (for instance, my computer that I'm typing this on, but that will be moving over shortly) but the vast majority is -- everything in the main bedroom, all our clothes, just about everything that was in the kitchen except the refrigerator (which will be kept in the utility room as a 2nd refrigerator) and some old dishes, pots, etc. that are going to the thrift store.

This day would have actually happened over Memorial Day weekend which has just passed, but hubby and I were fighting colds for several days. His was at its worst Friday and Saturday, so he didn't feel up to doing any moving on those days, and I told him to keep his strength up since he was scheduled to start his new job yesterday. He felt better by Sunday, while I got worse. He left for work yesterday, and I initially panicked when I saw him drive back here 1/2 hour later. But he said, don't worry, my start date was moved to Wednesday, since the owner is boarding more dogs than usual because of the holiday and won't have time to train me till then. Phew!! And it worked out better since it gave him two full days to move things. In the meantime, I was mostly resting, hoping to feel well enough to go to work this a.m. But I didn't feel up to it, and I also didn't feel my coworkers would appreciate hearing my hacking cough every few minutes. The extra rest did help, and I felt well enough to bring the rest of my clothes into OUR HOUSE this afternoon.

I still can't believe this is really happening; that I will actually be sleeping in OUR HOUSE tonight. It was well into the 80s and muggy today, but it felt naturally air-conditioned in OUR HOUSE even though we don't have air conditioning, because of the excellent insulation. It will be incredible to be in there this coming weekend and set up my kitchen and my sitting room, etc. Thank you, God, for FINALLY making my dream a reality!!

Since the purpose of this blog was a home planning chronicle, and we are finally near the end of this arduous journey, I will soon stop posting on this particular blog (except for adding some updated pictures as soon as I can), but I also plan to start a new general purpose blog where I will post messages on whatever is significant to me at the time, including the crochet project(s) I am working on or have completed, happenings at church and work (my "day job" as well as my Watkins business), etc. I'm undecided at the moment as to whether that will be another blogger.com blog or at the blogging space provided at hisholyspace.com, a Christian alternative to "MySpace", where I have a page. I was leaning toward the latter but am now leaning toward the former. Whichever I decide, when I start my new blog, the URL will be listed here. Thanks to all who rooted, prayed and sent good thoughts toward my being able, at looooooong last, to having an (almost) completed section on my site entitled "My Dream Realized"!!

Inching Forward...........

We are not in our home yet -- but it now looks like it should be a matter of days. Hubby has continued to work at gradually getting our stuff (everything except last-minute everyday stuff) moved over, and he was able to get a couple more pieces of furniture at great prices from the large local variety store where he has two book booths. It's amazing how much stuff can be accumulated in 15 years in only 672 sq. ft. (especially with a hubby who's a packrat....). We had, and seem to have overcome, a couple of setbacks since I posted last. We failed an inspection due to our pump giving up the ghost after all these years. The pump was replaced last week and Rex reinstalled it himself, and that is supposed to be reinspected in the coming days. He was also unexpectedly let go from the full-time job he had been at only 4 weeks, when the company decided to send overseas what they hired him to do, to save a few bucks. I've had a lot of people praying he would find something else quickly, since we definitely need his full-time income now, and he will be starting next Monday (Memorial Day; they're open 7 days a week) helping out at an area dog kennel. This also means he can concentrate this week on getting the old dump emptied out and out of our lives, so we can get our occupancy permit!! Continued prayers and good thoughts that it will (FINALLY) be smooth sailing the rest of the way are always welcome. And I hope to have more pics of my house to post here soon! Between working full-time and moving stuff in after work and on weekends, I haven't even had the time to take more pics!

(By the way, regarding the cute new dishes I bought several months ago and posted a pic of waaaaay down on this page, hubby hasn't been able to find them! But I had already decided I wanted something with more of a cream background anyway. I found an incredible buy on eBay on a 52-piece set of a classic pattern, Franciscan Apple. The set even includes a gravy boat! I don't have a pic of the entire set, but all you have to do is Google "Franciscan Apple" to find dozens of pics of the pattern. This pattern has been around since 1940 and probably always will be, so it will also make it easy to add on or replace pieces!)

It Really Is Happening..........!!!!!!!!!!

Last Thursday, with the gutters the only work to still be done, Dave brought our house keys over that evening and said we could start moving our stuff into our house!! So we began the process Friday after work and continued through most of the weekend. At this point most of our groceries, clothes, toiletries, my new bathroom towels and accessories, much of my new and existing kitchen stuff, my collection of sheep statues and the two tall curio cabinets they go in, a couple other pieces of furniture, most of my yarn and craft supplies, my exercise machines, one of my small bookshelves and its contents, and a few other miscellaneous things have been moved in. Yet, I look around and there is still SO much stuff left in here. That's what happens when you live in a place 15 years (and your husband is a packrat...). We will keep chipping away at it after work the next few nights, and then make a huge dent next weekend. Rex is going to call our pastor and see if he can suggest a man to come over and help move some of the bigger pieces of furniture (not that we have a ton of furniture in our current 672 sq. ft., but there are a few items like the secretary handed down from his folks that I would not be able to help him lift).

It's so totally night and day to walk into our darling house and then back into this dump. Our house has that new house smell (which hopefully will stay for awhile despite our dogs), is SO spacious, and the carpet is so clean and plush. I can't believe I will soon get to live there and what I've had to endure all these years will just be a bad memory. I want to take more pictures soon, having found the manual for another little film camera I'd set aside, but with the priority needed for moving our belongings in, I just haven't had the chance, but will soon!!

Our First Guests!!

We had our first house guests two nights ago (sort of) even though we won't be able to move in till, apparently, next week. We were pleasantly surprised to come home from work and see that our steps are now in place -- though we still won't be going inside a lot till we can actually start moving our stuff in. The carpeting was all installed too and looks great. So all the indoor work was done at that point, except for a thorough cleaning which is being done yesterday and today. After looking around for a few minutes, we went back into our dump to have dinner and unwind for the night, when about 10 minutes later, two cars I didn't recognize drove up. I said, is more work being done tonight? But Rex recognized one of the cars as being that of our builder's rep, Dave, who has been such a huge help and encouragement to us during all those months when nothing seemed to be happening and I wasn't sure if our house would ever really be ours. In the other car was a young woman with 2 young children. It turns out this young woman's home had burned to the ground just the night before. Apparently she will qualify to get a comparable 4-bedroom home but still, she seemed to be doing well considering the fact that I imagine she had to have lost many items of sentimental value that one can't put a price on. So once this happened, she went to see Dave and told him she needed a 4-bedroom home quickly and was there a completed one she could look at that was nearby? And he told her, well, I know of one that's almost finished. So he brought her over to look at our home. She loved it and said it "made her day" to see it and that she is interested in getting this same model, which in turn made my day. It was also the first chance I got to see Dave since we finally secured financing and got the ball rolling, so I got to thank him in person for all the help he provided in this very long process. It looks like all that is left to be done now are the gutters, and as soon as the final inspection is signed off on (supposed to be in the coming week), we can start moving into OUR HOUSE!!!

More Progress!!

Last week, all the indoor work got done with the exception of the carpeting. The drywall repairs were completed, doors were attached, etc. Today the man started laying the pretty beige plush carpeting and is supposed to be finishing that tomorrow. I went inside after work today for just the second time since our home has been moved to our land, since it's still hard to get in till the steps are there. Once the carpeting is laid, there will just be some final outdoor detailing and the inspection. Shouldn't be long now!! I'll try taking some more pics soon. I can really only get the one angle at the moment till this old dump is out of the way, the dogs' fence is moved and the workers' trucks are out of the way.

Well.....LOOKY Here!!!!

Since I posted last, the water has been turned on in our home, and a fellow was here for 3 days and 2 nights this week completing the considerable plaster/drywall work. The 2 nights were because the fellow apparently came from Oregon, so he asked to stay on our property in his truck rather than go to a hotel each night. This was fine with us, except that the dogs could sense someone was on "their" territory even though the fellow was very quiet. So it was bark, bark, bark, bark much of both nights; I just hope the guy got some sleep. I ended up parking in my recliner in the living room, since that was quieter than Jesse (who we keep indoors since he's a fence jumper) yelling in my ear in the bedroom! (Jesse, pal, I love you, but you will not set foot, I mean paw, in my nice new master bedroom! You and your pretty white shedding fur, dander, and loud bark will take up residence in the utility room or in your "dad's" room/office....)

Next, the carpeting will be installed. It looks like we will be able to move in within a couple of weeks! Today is our wedding anniversary, so this will be quite a belated anniversary present to say the least. Following are the very first pics I took of the site before our home was delivered, the site with the concrete blocks installed, our home before the three sections were put together, and our home put together. The pics are OK, but I'm never going to use one of those disposable cameras again. It cost over $14 to get the roll developed! If I have to use a film camera, I'd sooner use a standard camera and send the film to Snapfish which costs less than half as much. Oh well, live and learn. And (drumroll, please), here are the PICS!!

The two pics above are the excavated site before the concrete was laid.

The two pics above are the site with the blocks (or whatever you call the concrete thingies the house sits on) installed.

The two pics above are our home before the sections were put together (each piece had to be delivered separately and joined when it was all here).

And..........here it is!!!!!!!!! It doesn't look very big in these pics, but it is a roomy 2,100 square feet. I've only been inside the one time since it was delivered. since it's hard to get in without the steps (that and the skirting will be the last step). What do you think -- should we paint the exterior light sage, cream, or pale yellow? All I know is, I am waiting to finally get inside and get my house set up! More pics and updates coming soon!!

MIIIIIIIINE!!!

Today after work, I got to go inside OUR HOUSE for the first time since it was moved onto our acreage. The sections have been attached together and the electricity was turned on today, since the workmen will need it on in order to do the remaining work they need to do. (This meant the electricity had to be turned off on the stove here in our old dump. I can microwave most of the stuff I eat, but I'll need to crawl -- see below -- into my new home if I crave eggs or spaghetti the next couple of weeks.) The steps and skirting have not been attached yet, since the bottom needs to be left open to allow access for the remaining hookups such as water and cable. So to get in, I had to step on a large stone and then get my one leg in, sit down and then stand up. I probably could have navigated the large step if I was younger and in much better shape. It was a painful reminder of how desperately I need to get restarted losing this weight (as if I'm not reminded every moment anyway). The place will look SO sweet once the plaster work is done and the carpeting is laid. I will try to take a few pictures of the current stage to finish up the roll so I can get them developed and posted here!!!

It's HEEEEEERRRRRRE!!!!!!!!!!!

Following is the message that for many years, I honestly never thought I would get to write. I'm really tired and will log off for the night once I write this, but wanted to get it recorded here while it's still Friday, March 23. To back up a few days, our concrete was poured this past Monday and we were told it was likely our home would be delivered today (not meaning we could move into it for a few more weeks, but at least it would finally be here). I had arranged at my job several weeks ago to take this day off work as a vacation day, since I usually try to go to the Northwest Women's Show in Seattle (a fun, huge trade show with hundreds of exhibits of interest to women and lots of free food, product samples to take home, and drawings to enter for prizes) every year and prefer to go on a Friday rather than the weekend since it's a lot less crowded. Today also happens to be payday, and the small company where I work doesn't have direct deposit. So I arranged with my coworker who works at home in the afternoons to meet her on the ferry so she could give me my check, enabling me to deposit it before I went to the show.

Being the nightowl that I am, I like to stay up (too) late when I don't have to get up for work the next morning, so I was up last night till after 3. I awoke before 9 to loud trucks outside and a couple of my dogs barking at the trucks. Still over half asleep, I thought, "Oh, it's the garbage truck" and rolled over. Then it dawned on me -- our garbage is picked up on Thursdays and this is Friday. Could it be.........??????? Though I wanted to stay in bed another hour, I got up to see what was happening, and it was a truck spreading gravel between the now-dry sections of concrete. The 3 sections of OUR HOUSE, one at a time, would shortly follow!!!!

Some timing -- of all days, here I was off work and could have watched OUR HOUSE being delivered, but I would need to leave in a couple of hours to meet my coworker so I could pick up my check. I asked Rex if my check reaaallllly needed to be in the bank today instead of Monday, and he said, as I suspected, that it did. So I asked him to take a few pics with my disposable camera of OUR HOUSE being delivered, since I wouldn't be here. At the moment I needed to leave to catch the ferry, the first section was being delivered!!!! SO......I went into town, to the bank and then to the show, which was fun as usual. When I got back, all three sections were HERE, though the workers will be coming back this Monday to actually attach them together. In the meantime, there's plastic between the sections to protect them from the showers that are remaining in the forecast for the next few days. But I can't believe it's here and I can look out the window at it and know that NOW, at loooong last, it will be just a few more weeks and then I can actually LIVE in it, not just look at it. Pics will be posted here soon, when the roll is finished. My Dream, just a dream till now, is becoming a reality and apparently will BE a reality next month, April of 2007. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc., please work very fast!!!!!!!!!!

Timeline Taking Shape!!

It's amazing to FINALLY have enough happening in this whole process that I can post updates on consecutive days! The concrete wasn't poured yet today as I hoped -- however, the crew was here and -- sorry, I don't know the technical terms for any of this -- measured and installed the wooden "forms" into the site where the concrete will go. I'll post a couple of pics of this stage when my roll is developed. It's hard to explain but anyone who's had a manufactured home installed will understand. It's like four large wooden oblongs in the ground that the concrete will be poured into, and then gravel gets put in around them. Then the concrete has to dry for at least three days. So the current timeline looks like: Monday the 19th or Tuesday the 20th - concrete to be poured, with OUR HOUSE due to be delivered hopefully A WEEK FROM TODAY. We still won't be able to live in it for at least a couple of weeks thereafter till various things are done -- the plumbing, wiring, carpeting, just to name a few. But it will soon be HERE and I will be able to look out my window at it instead of thinking about it sitting there waiting all these months, six miles away. At long, LONG last, the fact is that I can start counting down days to remain in this toxic, forlorn tin can instead of unknown numbers of years, months, weeks. Thank you, God!!! More soon.......

The Excavation!!! Can You DIG It???!!!!

Like everything else in this whole process, this update is a little overdue. We were originally told the excavator would come to start digging out our home site a week ago Monday (March 5). Then Monday became Tuesday, then the end of the week, then "for sure next Monday" (the 12th). This was according to my husband, who has gradually gotten the area cleared out (the two storage trailers moved out of the way, the four - count 'em, four - non-operating cars hauled away for parts, various piles of hubby's mostly unusable-looking STUFF -- some covered with tarps, some not) but had not yet really finished doing so till the beginning of this week. I have not gotten (and don't expect to get) a straight answer out of him as to whether the STUFF not being cleared out on schedule was the true reason for the delay.

I got home from work on Monday the 12th, thinking that "for sure" meant I would see a prepared site just waiting for the concrete to be poured. Any guesses? Right. I asked what was going on and my other half said the crew had a roof to install somewhere and they would be here on Wed. I started to panic, having run out of fingers on my left hand to count the delays in the past week. Another reason for my concern was the 10-day forecast (which, granted, does change every day) that gave only a 10 to 40 percent chance of rain this week and up to 90 percent next Monday, and therefore desperately wanting our concrete to be dry by then. I expressed this in the most tactful manner I could (as in, look, you make darned sure they get here Wednesday - THIS is the week!). I got home from work on Tuesday the 13th, to a surprrise of a different kind. The site had been excavated!!! I asked when they would be back to pour the concrete - "Thursday or Friday", which has now become Friday (tomorrow). I pray that will actually be the case. In the meantime, I took a few pictures of the now-bare patch of dirt which will soon be covered by my beautiful home. I will post them here when they are developed (this is a time it would be nice to have a digital camera I could get along with, but that's not the case).

It still won't all seem real till my house is on our land and I am IN it. But in my head, I have to acknowledge it actually, at looooooooooong last, is happening. I realized today (Wednesday) when I arrived home and looked at the site again, what a pretty site it is, surrounded by trees. It's where we originally planned to build the log cabin we envisioned when we bought our acreage waaaaay back in '92. Little did we imagine back then that the log cabin would never be, and that we would be stuck in our old, dilapidated singlewide for almost the next 15 years. But it looks like, FINALLY, that is all behind us now as we await our pretty, spacious (!!!!!), new 2,100 sq. ft. triplewide. Back soon with more!!!

Soooooo Close........

Two days ago was a big day. It was so big that I'm finally coming down to earth enough to record it on this blog. No, we are not in our house yet (though we did get to go inside for the first time in many months), but we signed on the (many) dotted lines. I learned a couple weeks earlier that we apparently were finally approved, and that it would also be a one-part loan instead of two which will help with the closing costs. But I still didn't let myself entirely believe it till we were there on Feb. 20, in the title office with the lender, signing a myriad of papers. Afterwards, we went to the sales office and visited OUR HOUSE. So........the last big hurdle seems to have been crossed in my dream at long last becoming real. I trust the time can now be counted in weeks, and then, days. Now, what we are mainly waiting for is the schedule of the man who will be coming to excavate the area (on the other side of the front of our acreage from where our current dump is) and generally prepare the land for OUR HOUSE, and then there is the weather. The 2-1/2 solid months of wind, snow, ice, rain, and more wind are thankfully behind us, but it is still winter and still unpredictable and prone to storms. This could also further back up our construction man's schedule if he has other anxious homeowners-to-be waiting. I've waited this long and can wait a few more weeks. I just pray that's all it is. This whole process has dragged out soooooo much longer than we could have imagined. But glory to God, it appears to be finally almost over. Our new payments begin April 1 and will be a challenge, but hubby did have his best sales week last week that he's had at this job (or any job for quite some time). If he can keep that up or close to it, we will be OK. I hope whoever reads this will be praying that will be the case. This lovely triplewide home with the open space I have longed for, for what feels like forever, is where we belong, and I trust God will provide the means that it will remain our home for life. I expect to be posting updates more often now that the finance hurdle has finally been crossed, so come back soon. MY HOUSE WILL TRULY BE MINE SOON; I finally can say that now..........