Road Trip

Everyone has been wondering when we were going to see Brandi and the girls - it was of course one of the main reasons we moved out here. But we did have to wait a bit, we could not leave the house until we were sure it would still be standing when we got back. The past 7 weeks have zipped by - living in the foreclosure while David is trying to renovate and I'm de-stinking it was a pretty tall order. The septic system, getting everything set up, no food, where are my pots, on and on. But in the past couple of weeks things became a bit more settled so we decided to go visit for 4 days. It seemed short but the reason the past visits were more than double that  was simply because every time we flew out here it cost us roughly two grand - at least. And this trip was also a bit of an experiment, we didn't know how long it would take, we needed a kennel, etc..  We'd had Kim and Steve over for dinner one night and thank goodness we'd discussed it - they've made the trip many times so Steve showed us the best way to go to avoid Seattle and that horrible traffic. They also told us to make sure to reserve the ferry, if there was a lot of traffic we could end up sitting in standby for hours. 

The trip went well and faster on the way there - we found a kennel that we could drop the dogs off at 6:30am and it was on the route, we hit some traffic but not much and then ended up at the ferry terminal way earlier than our reservation. That worked out - they had spaces on the one leaving now and we ended up to Brandi's at noon instead of two. The girls are no longer babies as you can see - they are super busy little girls! They're talking and are quite vocal, Chloe and Delilah are so much fun. We spent quite a lot of time taking them to the playground, they have a wagon to ride in so we could take them to the one at the end of the development which is pretty big. We went out to breakfast one morning - Papa blocked them in on the bench seat to keep them from free ranging it, but they're old enough sit and are very into breakfast so it was really quite pleasant. We went to a public garden so they could run around - and run they did! 

We babysat for a day so Brandi could go out by herself and we could spend the day with them, I really love being a Nana! Saying good bye is hard, they're both old enough now to understand and they get so upset, but the nice thing is even when I start working we can still do quick weekend visits. I was so glad I reserved the ferry going back the day before - the line of cars on a Saturday was unbelievable! We were there an hour before it left but stayed in line as not to lose our spot. The ferry ride is just as much fun as you think it is and no, it will never get old - thank you for asking! We do visit the snack bar every time, we go stand out on the deck and dork around the boat til they announcement comes on to get back to your car. On the way back we did it some more traffic but it was not too terrible. All in all it takes about 5 hours, but that includes the 45 minute wait for the ferry and the ferry ride so it's really a little under four hours which is not bad at all. We are close enough to visit but not  so close as to become an annoyance, so it's the perfect distance!

Our Egg-Cellent Adventure!

Somebody mentioned the Big duck to me when they saw my post on the World's Largest Egg and I did have to laugh. I grew up on LI about 20 miles from The Big Duck which is a road side attraction - it was originally a poultry shop and over the years  has become an icon. So here I am on the other side of the country now living near a giant egg, who would have thought. Kim and Steve have lived here for years and never even know about it! When we move I go hunting for places to go - the place itself is not that important but it's a way to explore the area and find things. My trip to St. Helen's yielded a Restore and a building liquidators, my trip to Vancouver gave an idea of the major highways a shopping mall. I go on Google and look for a variety of things and this time - I found the egg. While talking to Kim I invited her on my egg hunt but she couldn't go til this Thursday so I had to wait.

I was going to sneak over and look at it because we all know I have the patience of a mayfly but David tattled and I still had to wait. Then Steve wanted to see the egg and could rearrange his schedule to take off part of the afternoon and of course since Steve was going so was David. So on Thursday we headed out - it's about an hour from here and I did see some places for future reference but we pretty much just headed for the egg. The egg is there for the same reason The Big Duck exists - advertising. Winlock was the second largest egg producing town town until the 50's, the original egg was made of canvas in the 20's. Since then it's had  a  few reincarnations - plastic, fiberglass, and the last one was funded in 1993 by Vern. L. Zander. See - you now have some very interesting small talk for your next cocktail party, you're welcome! And yes they do have  yearly festival but we missed it. The egg was egg-zactly as advertised and they've built a small park around it. We took quite a few pictures including the Traditional Pretending To Hold The Egg Up but aside from the egg there is.......well, there isn't really anything else. A few big chickens and a flag, then you're done.

I had found a town about 12 miles back for us to go out to dinner - it was an easy choice since I'm a huge Stephen King fan - Castle Rock!!  That's a bigger town with a bunch of restaurants, I'd put in Mexican but got vetoed and we ended up at  Parkers Steakhouse and Pub. It was one of those very non-descript places on the outside, it was very plain jane to be honest. But inside! - it was a like a magic trick! Really beautiful and the food was great. I had a giant veggie burger, we had beer of course - and it was one of those restaurants that actually still serve one part of the meal at a time. Usually I don't order appetizers as they tend to dump everything on the table at once and run (have you noticed that? I have!). But we were served our drinks first, then followed by the appetizers and then a few minutes later dinner appears. It would not be a place to eat in a hurry, but we had a great and leisurely meal. After that we headed home, but it was a really fun afternoon. 

Going To The Dogs - And A Cat.

For the past couple of days the pet patrol has been out of control, I have no idea what's gotten into them. Yesterday was Barfing was the thing to do. Bob the cat hasn't been bad lately, she rarely vomits since we changed her diet. We had a lot of problems with her when she got wet food - first we changed the wet food multiple times with no results. Then we discovered the problem WAS the wet food - then we changed the dry food. During this period Bob the Barfer made multiple donations to the feral cat society since David only likes to shop for pet food at the big box store. But after all was said and done she now eats only one kind of food plus snacks and it resolved itself. But for the past two days she's been really wanting to barf but is having a great deal of trouble as  we have no carpeting for her to do it on. So she's been trying to do it on the dining room table since that has a cloth table cloth - such a jerk. I caught her at it twice and she seems to have given it up. Then Reuben unloaded an entire dinner in the living room - ARRGH.

 

But they seemed to have gotten past it, especially Bob who feels it's not worth the effort if she can't do it on something that would need washing. This morning David was trying to stay in bed, I'd woken up early and couldn't get back to sleep so I got up to let the dogs out. It was just before dawn, but enough to see by so I opened the door and they both shot out heading for the trees in the front of the property. Mayhem ensued - Reuben growling and snarling, Molly barking,growling......and a third party growling. Me yelling and then screaming when I almost bumped into a huge raccoon, then Reuben dove back in, David appeared and for a few minutes it was quite noisy. The dogs were blocking the raccoon's escape route and you could see he dearly wanted to exit stage right. We managed to get the raccoon gone and the participants headed for the house. Molly was fine, Reuben was crying so I pulled him into the kitchen and noticed a dark patch on his shoulder - wish I hadn't touched it because it was raccoon poop. It must've released it's bowels when Reuben grabbed it. 

So I scrubbed Boo off - it's hard to be a valiant warrior when you have Raccoon Doodles on you. Everyone finally calmed down and we got coffee, I told David he could go back to bed but he just laughed - a little hysterically- and took his coffee in the next room.  Bob decided to get in on the action by bouncing a mole across the front lawn and then leaving it to die in front of the door. David dispatched it as there was no chance it was walking away.  I'm hoping they're done with all this activity, I don't know about them but I'm tired!

Welcome To PooVille

The other day David announced he was just going to look at the pipe behind the shower - the spigot had been dripping no matter how much he tightened it and he was pretty sure it was leaking in the back. Now, the shower has been a big discussion at times because someone did a bang up job with the tile work - it's really well thought out. But as far as the actual understanding of how a shower should be - not so much. The drain is strange - a hole cut in the tile with no sealing, the tiles used for the floor are surprisingly big - 12 x 6 which of course means the slightest shift in the level of the floor and they crack - and over time they are all cracked. There's no shower pan underneath, no caulking, just grout - you get the idea. The constant leaking over the years, the carpenter ants it attracted - you can feel the dip in the floor- David has shored it up for now but it is on the short list. SO David removed the shelves from the cabinet and started to sawzall the wall - and of course hit the pipe. We had a mini cascade but the one super advantage of living in a foreclosure is you end up with a very high freak out level. I think if the clown from IT popped out that might have made us move a little faster - a little.

David patched the pipe but then started thinking maybe the claw foot tub should go in before he starts working on the shower since the tub will have a shower to it.  This meant of course he needed to cut a big ass hole in the floor and start putzing around under the house. The pipes are a mess - some have been replaced, they removed none of the old stuff so that's down there, leaks, cobwebs, ugh. And the other issue with the tub aside from having to do re plumbing is the floor needs to be leveled and redone which is yet another addition to The List. The floor is not level, they did some weird repair to the area around the toilet and then there's the pocket door that used to go out to the hot tub room.....and they did this super foundation to the old hot tub room. Armageddon could come and go and that thing will still be there. David took a sledge hammer to it and it just bounced - it's also wildly uneven so it needs to be jacked if he's going to put a deck back over it..... on The List. 

The shower is safe for now, well for us it's safe - I guess. I suppose if I end up under the house one morning I'll get over it eventually. So he's figuring it out and while he was doing that he decided to look for the Elusive Second Septic Tank. I had bought a tracer off of Amazon which is a nifty thing that finds electrical lines but it has a learning curve to it. It beeps when it finds the line but it's an area, not exact - so David has been beeping around the yard for the past two weeks with a bit of digging and poking about. The person who installed the septic system originally - Lenny - did not put it on the county map and he is currently in prison so that avenue was closed. Our other option was hiring a company out of Portland which was very pricey! but we were getting to that. But he found it this morning and has called the septic guy to come and replace the float system, then we should be good to go. It does work but you have to use the manual button and pump it every couple of days which is annoying. David turned off the Poo Alarm as it had a cheery habit of going off at 2am which meant Poo Maneuvers for us. But as of today, it's one thing OFF the list!

Sunday Dinner

Big perk here is living near Kim and Stephen - Kim and I have been best friends most of my life, Stephen and I have been friends almost as long. We attended high school together, parties, summer vacations. Kim and I spent most of our teenage weekends alternating houses on the weekends, we laugh because at one time in our lives we were able to fit in a twin bed together. Growing up I don't think I knew anyone that had a real designated guest room - if your friend slept over they slept in your bed, if relatives came to stay whoever didn't fit on the couch got shuffled off to whoever had a bed big enough to fit them. My kids grew up the same way, when they got too big to fit two to a bed, then the host and the guest were shuffled off to the living room couches, it was only as an adult that I acquired a guest room. 

We've decided to have Sunday dinners together on the weekends, if we can't do Sunday we do Saturday - it has been wonderful.  We have lived away from everyone we know for so long you forget how much fun it is seeing people you know - that you really know. We spent last weekend  exploring the area and eating out, this week I made a beef stew with all the bells and whistles. They brought thier 5 lb Chiachua Piggles who rides around in a stroller/protective custody unit because our two are a bit... enthusastic about visitors. Molly is still not super trusted, she has not done anything aggressive but you can see on her face she's having a hard time figuring him out. Reuben is good though and the two of them were sniffing each other and wagging thier tails. He's too small to play with them but this visit he was sitting on everyone's lap, he is so cute!

We've been exploring the area together, last weekend we toured the old cannery, the piers - on Thursday we're all going up to see the World's Biggest Egg. You read that right, I live only one hour away from a 1200 pound fiberglass sort of world famous egg. It's sort of like the Big Duck from LI, the area was one of the highest egg producers so as an advertising gimmick they made a giant egg out of burlap I believe in the 20's - there have been a few reincarnations but the latest is fiberglass I believe and sits on a giant platform that says The World's Biggest Egg - I guess so you won't mistake it for something else. So this week was fun because we have living room furniture, enough dishes for everyone without having to wash some midway through the meal or fill in with plasticware and paper plates. We visited in the livingroom first and then moved to the dining room as opposed to the last time they were here and everyone just sat in thier chair at the table - progress!

Almost Home.

We continue to work on the house of course, it's starting to LOOK like a house! David got his reconditioning stuff for the furniture - it's all leather and no holes or rips but you can tell the person that owned it had dogs. We know this because this is what our dogs did to our last set of furniture. I had ordered ReLuv leather re conditioner off of Amazon - anyone that knows me knows I war with them on a regular basis about delivery times.  They offer two day shipping on most of their products but from my estimation only about half of our stuff comes in under the wire. The rest of it can takes up to two weeks and they don't email you about it - they just sneaky change the arrival date on their website. I ordered the ReLuv as it said between the 16th and 17th, when I got the confirmation it said the 24rth - yeah, I don't think so. I fired off a complaint and it showed up yesterday. And just and FYI - if they change the date on you email customer service and they'll give a 5 to 10 dollar gift certificate. They used to give a full month of Prime - I ended up with a full free year at one point. And no I don't feel like I'm cheating anyone - if you can't do it, don't offer it. 

But I digress, David got his reconditioning stuff and could not wait to try it out.  The first thing he did was not  read the directions since they just do that to give someone a job apparently. Had he read the directions he would have stirred it and we would not have had a full set of lovely restored but sticky furniture. He turned the couch and chair around to keep the pets off which you know, works well (NOT). He then started putting trim up in the bedroom and fired off the nail gun which freaks Molly out - you know where she headed, right? So he's yelling at Molly to Get Off The Couch and she's bouncing all over it at this point sprinkling dog hair all over the sticky couch. Bob the cat hopped on too for good measure, Reuben stayed on the dog bench peering out the window wishing they'd all go to hell. We finally got Molly to bounce off - it looked lovely is all I'll say about THAT. David had to wipe it all down again, etc... but this morning it's all dry and looks pretty decent. 

The other thing we did was get the claw foot tub that we found on Facebook market place. The couple selling the tub were very nice, they are from Oregon, moved to Virginia for 38 years and now came back. They'd bought the tub and restored it for their son but he can't use it. She was telling me she'd originally sold it to a woman, the next day she was Fed-Exed a check for $3000! from this woman - since the tub was sold for $600 she was smelling a rat. She took the check to the bank and explained the situation - they called the manager who asked her to sit while she investigated - the manager came back to let her know she'd contacted the police and the FBI was now involved. So what was the scam? When the woman got home she got a ton of emails from this person saying sorry for the larger amount, giving a sketchy reason for it - but if she could deposit it right away and send her back the difference........ the woman informed her the FBI had the check and they'd be contact with her -apparently this person could not get away fast enough. The tub came with all the hardware so its one more thing off the list - David still has to fix the shower before we can even start looking at installing it for now.

Off The Floor

Finally! We found a great living room set for a decent price. Yes it's used, yes it's a bit scuffed up - but it's also real leather couch, chaise, ottoman and chair for $300. We can buy restoration stuff off of Amazon for about thirty bucks and call it a day. Molly&Reuben were in shock after a month of only the Dog Bench to sit on in the living room. The Dog Bench belongs to them and we dragged it all the way across the country because to replace it would have been A) annoying and B) expensive. I got it on clearance a bazillion years ago, it's got wicker basket drawers and is on it's 3rd cushion since they destroyed the first two. David has screwed it back together more than once, it's dusty and scratched up BUT still looks OK despite them. The reason we've kept it is it's big enough for the two Nosy Rosies to sit on and it's exactly window height so they can sit there all day and spy on the neighbors to their hearts content. We just wipe it down with polish once in awhile, replace the cushion and it's good to go for another round of Defending The Castle

But the humans needed somewhere to sit so we've been haunting the Facebook Market Place which is good and bad. It's good because there's new stuff daily but it's bad because a lot of people are looking and not everything goes well. The first set we attempted to buy David drove to Portland to a high end neighborhood about an hour and a half away. It was the right price, but not as nice as it had looked online - and then they couldn't get it out the door!! After a couple of tries he gave it up and came home, we resumed looking. He found this set and when he called it was still available - Now. Guy was moving very shortly so in the van we went and that set came home with us. In the rain of course.  We managed to wrest it into the house, the couch was a bit tricky and wet leather is very hard to keep a hold of, but we did it!  The dogs joined David on the couch and looked like they were in shock for most of the evening. But for the first time since we got here we sat in the living room and watched TV - I'm currently watching the 3rd season of Stranger Things and honestly, I give it a 7 - it's kind of getting Body-Snatcherish, isn't it?

We still need to get lamps, end tables, coffee table, etc - we need night stands, cabinets, cabinet doors, the list continues to grow. Each time we cross an item off, two more sneak on to the bottom. And there is all sorts of other things on the list - we got our local bank account but we need to shift our money into it. We need new drivers licenses, car registrations, I'm currently working on getting my Washington RN license which is a whole other headache - PAPER application, snail mail and INK FINGERPRINTS  for my back ground check - who does that??? I had to drive out to the state corrections facility where I was the only one not visiting an inmate which was too bad. David found out that the guy who put in our septic system and the only person who knows where the second tank is located is doing a stint in prison. But David said I could probably not just ask for Larry.  So got that done and sent off, hopefully they'll figure out I'm not the next Charles Manson before August 5th as that's when I start my new job as Community Nurse for Longview Washington - yep, no more EBT and couch lounging for me soon!

Can You Smell That Smell

The other night I was standing in front of the kitchen sink, sniffing around as usual. Was it coming from under? From the space between the window and the wall? David was called in for a second opinion, discussing what it smelled like. Not exactly rotten, sort of wet and moldering.....we looked at the pipes, where the pipes exit the house, under,over, around. Then finally - the old garbage disposal - we'd gotten the schumtz out from the top but there's likely more stuck further down where we can't reach it. Given how much has to be done we can't  deal with it now....so I took the low road and stuffed a rag in it after dumping some straight Pine Sol, fixed for now.  We still have some Pee Oasises - the particle board they used to repair around the toilet is troublesome. It's much better but like I've said before it's not constant, it's good, it's good, it's whiffy. But a couple more applications of either one of my favorites - PB Gone or OdorBan  - and it should be gone. Part of the problem is as we continue to dismantle things you're never sure where it's coming from - is it really the house or is from under the house?

David got up to the garage attic - when I peeked up there last week we were pleasantly surprised to find there was some stuff, but not much. Mostly boxes and we were surprised to find it was from the people who lived here prior to the hoarder. There were boxes upon boxes of old receipts, pay stubs, they'd run a quail farm (not here). Layers and layers, they'd had this nationally known farm that raised quail,grouse and rabbit, there was a fire, it was all destroyed. They rebuilt, got sued, he died, 3rd(?) wife kept the farm and screwed up it horribly, fraud, animal abuse, she ran from the law - neighbor told David this guy had a finger in every pie, his son just borrowed against what was left and walked. David burned most of it, it was just old paperwork. There were a lot of old paperbacks but the mice had made homes out of most of them. I did manage to save a copy of Portnoy's Complaint -

the 70's version of 50 Shades Of Grey

I have not been back in the crawlspaces upstairs, we do need to buy some rat poison just in case. I don't think there's any activity as you hear it but just to be safe. Eventually I'd like to remove the old insulation since I'm sure it's the source of Stinkiness and then make it usable storage. We can use the attic over the garage but all the boxes have to be closed because....Surprise, surprise.....it smells of cat pee.  But I'm not planning on bunking up there so for now it's ok, David rinsed it down and swept it so we can move some stuff up there. We don't have garage doors yet and I think we're both tired of looking at the stacks of boxes and so forth we can't put away yet. The cabinets in the kitchen are usable but have no doors so today I took it all out and rearranged it so we can finally find things. We're getting there. 

How's The Weather?

The weather here was a bit of a surprise to us. Not that we didn't know that it would be different, our daughter in law has told us that it tends to remain cooler and that shorts are not a big thing here.  Not to mention the numerous trips out to visit, but it's one thing to be here a week, another to simply be here.  The first two days we arrived it was HOT, Pennsylvania Hot and we were very disconcerted. We'd been told by everyone that lives here there was no need for airconditioning and here we were sweltering to pieces. David went out that day and bought an air conditioner for the bedroom so we would at least have one room we could be comfortable in. And that was the last time it has been turned on. My summer clothes are liberally mixed with my fall clothes at this point, I cannot imagine walking around in shorts. Sometimes in the afternoon it approaches Sort Of Warmish-Hottish but for the most part it's very enjoyable.

It's almost like spring-like weather for most of the year, we've been told there's some snow but not a lot of it. At night the temperature drops down to the 50's so a blanket is required and we need to remember to shut the windows! We've gotten up a few morning and it's really cold in here. The rain they talk about is not as bad as I thought it was going to be, it does rain but it's less than it does in Pennsylvania.  David is going to have a furnace put in, right now this house has what's called Cadet heaters - they are weird little things! They don't use propane out here so each room as this - this thing that looks like a little electric heater stuck in the wall. Most of the ones here work which we were pretty surprised by and as David grumbles there isn't one in the bathroom so that's on the list. As far as swimming goes I've been told that people do go swimming but I have yet to see anyone doing it. August is supposed to be warmer so maybe that's where they go. I was thinking maybe I'd go later in the summer to Jones Beach which is on the Columbia river but I need to ask around, I'm worried about the current in the river and again, I didn't see anyone swimming in it. 

I'm still exploring the area, next week I plan on finding some parks to take Molly to - we could walk up and down our road I suppose but that's not a whole lot of fun. I'm not planning on going back to work for a few more weeks, usually I'm back to work within a couple of weeks but this move has been a bit different. I'm totally out of my element, the west coast is much more different than I had expected. We're ok financially, I'm going to doodling around to what's out there. I did discover I live only ONE HOUR from the World's Largest Egg so that might be a drive next week, there's a japanese garden to see, a few mountains, little parks all over but I'm not sure if there will be trails or us or not. David and I stopped at one yesterday - you could see forever. And the eagles - they're all over the place. I try not to get too excited but end up yelling There's An Eagle like I'm the only one that can identify one. I'll get over it.

War of The Birds

When we moved in here we noticed a family of birds darting around the side door that is covered by the breezeway. Some of the shingles had come loose just above the roof and left an opening. A family of starlings had made the hole bigger and made a nest in there . The were right against the wall by the door and it quickly became apparent they'd had babies. Squawky babies. Every morning since we arrived we were serenaded by a cacophony of noise and rustling in the wall as they jostled around.  Sometimes I'd get tired of it and pound on my side like  I was living with bad renters - SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP. They would for a minute, then realizing I was all bark and no bite would go back to carrying on about nothing. Since they had babies there was not much we could do but wait them out - thankfully birds grow up very fast.  About a week ago a small crew of gawky teenage starlings appeared on the roof looking a bit surprised about the whole business. They spent several days doing little sprints and darting back in the nest when we came by but after a few days they took off and all was quiet. David quickly removed the nest and covered up the hole.

The other night there was a big To Do as the newly Empty Nesters swooped around trying to get back in. Nope, you've been evicted. David was working in the bedroom when I looked out the window and started laughing. There were a bunch of starlings angrily marching around, I was pretty sure I could hear them muttering DAVID, DAVID DAVID as they cast their beady eyes in his direction.  They spent the earlier portion of the evening swooping about and stumping along the garage roof line, trying to figure out how to get back in. Two hit the bedroom window - I told David I hoped his will was in order as they were really, really, really mad. They seemed to have given it up for the time being, David has to close in the vent above the balcony next to make sure they stay out.  David remains safe, walking about with his eyes unpecked and not being flapped to death.

He's working on the master bedroom today - he said he's tired of feeling like he's sleeping in a welfare motel, I'm going to be starting on the upstairs bedroom pretty soon. I had my first job interview the other day which I hope went well - I really didn't want it, then interviewed and now can't wait for them to hopefully call me back with good news. We're not really doing much today, there was a little local parade but it's a bit weird when you don't know anyone in it.  We have plans with Kim and Steve on Saturday for lunch and then touring an island that was sort of like Ellis Island on the East coast which should be fun. Sunday I'm helping Kim with some of her cleaning jobs and then Monday it's back to job hunting and exploring my new home.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This week has been much better, we are at the point where we're starting to see real progress. I'm almost done cleaning up the huge trash pile and I think we'll be looking for some flowering bushes to cover up the spot. Even after cleaning and raking up the remainder  there will always be little bits of garbage coming up. It was frustrating as there was trash UNDER the trash, ugh! Molly  and Reuben are enjoying the bananas out of all of this, while I muck out the trash or David fights with the garage they happily snake hunt and investigate. They came across the nosy-rosy Siamese cat yesterday and gave it a chase for fun, I doubt we'll be seeing it again soon. They have thier own nosy-parker bench which David installed in front of the windows so they can spy thier hearts out. We are not getting furniture til we get a bit further along - we have our bedroom and a dining room table, not much else. They're not used to living in view of a road so every time a car comes down the road they bark - and in a fairly empty house is it loud!! 

Bob the cat continues to come in and out, she enjoys the second story balcony and the upstairs, getting annoyed when I'm up there working. The other day I pulled down all the purple wallpaper, Molly has a blanket she lays on while I work around so she can supervise in comfort. It took longer than I thought it would and I was very surprised to see underneath it was a weird light orangy - pink color with red and green stripes! Under that is pressed board with flowers.  Today I re-scrubbed the floor down and the molding which looks original to the house. It's painted purple but I can paint over that, I'm planning on sage green with a white ceiling. I also scrubbed the floor - the sliding door must've been left open at some point - the purple hard blobs on the floor are bird poo!! We will be stripping the floor too. The slider was in great shape though and just needed a scrub.

David got a tracer from Amazon to hopefully find the second tank for our septic system. The system works well, but it's just a mechanical problem. It works with floats like a toilet tank - same principle - when the float gets to a certain level it kicks on the pump and goes from tank #1, tank #2, sand field - but the floats need replaced every few years which is where are problem is. Guy came and replaced the ones in tank #1 but  the ones in tank #2  need to be done too and we have no idea where it is. Now, these systems also come with a manual pump button and an alarm  for when the tank needs pumped. Which works well except for when the Poo Alarm went off at 2am. And it does not just peep. First it's a little friendly reminder. Then about 5 minutes later it peeps again. Louder. After about 15 minutes you would swear the Commies are invading - so we were up at 2 am rummaging for a flashlight so David could go drain the swamp to the Poo Master's approval. 

We're also planning on finally going out to see Brandi and the girls near the end of the month - by that time everyone should be pretty settled down. I have reservations for the dogs - that's the other thing about being in unfamiliar  territory is just finding reliable stuff.  But this kennel had about a dozen great reviews and the guy that took my information sounded very nice. We will be driving by it before we drop them off of course - we learned the hard way with Pearl years ago. We had a wonderful  kennel she used to go to when we traveled and then we moved away. When we came back we booked with this woman again despite  one of my friends having  a bad experience with her recently - but we really liked her and she'd always been good to our dogs. So we used her and  poor Pearl came back filthy with fleas and sick! Turned out she had lost interest and although she was still running the kennel the standards had slipped alarmingly, we felt terrible and since then we are very careful. But all in all things are getting a bit more shipshape.