Slowing Down

We are now into our 5th month here, David continues to work on the house - he has added a sun room (well, that's what he calls it, he's fooling no one - it is an addition). But for the most part he's gotten most of the outside done except for the roof, the septic works well and we are still figuring out the heat. We had a heat pump put in and we are using the cadets (they look like space heaters in the walls) but we need to actually go through winter before we tweak anything. When we first arrived it was stinking hot and we were all we need central air right now, but everyone told us to wait and glad we did. We ended up with a dinky window AC unit for the bedroom and turned it on for a grand total of 3 days for about 8 hours, most days all we really used was a couple of fans on low. We might buy a generator as everything is electric here but once again  we have no idea if it will be necessary or not. We got a line of credit done the other day - we're nowhere near ready to find another house but we want  to have things in place if we decide to buy another property.

Property here is MUCH more expensive than in PA/WV but we are past the freak out level. And of course we've slowed down spending, when you move that is very rough, you feel like you're just shoveling money out the door. Every day is another never ending list - but what we end up spending is a fraction of what others spend so not so bad. And we have leisure time! That is one of the best things. I'm no longer putting in 10 to 12 hours a day 5 to 6 days a week. Work is only 30 minutes away and my clients are never any further than 45 minutes from the office. I can either work a regular 8 hour day or  4-10's and have Fridays off and weekends are REALLY off. No more catching up on work or trying to do a week's worth of food shopping, wash, etc... in one day. We lay in bed every night reading, David with his Spencer detective novels, me with the elves and dragons. We go out adventuring with Kim and Stephen, I knit all the time. Life is getting fun.

And seeing Jackson, Brandi and the girls - that is the best. We've been there four times since we moved here, we will be going before Thanksgiving so we can see Jackson before he goes, then we'll be spending Thanksgiving with Kim and Stephen - Christmas Brandi and the girls are coming HERE! Here, to my house to spend the holidays, I'm so excited I can't stand it! Of course we have to kennel the dogs, gas,etc... so it's not free but we can see them so much more often. People used to ask me why I didn't see them more than twice a year, the reason was every trip we took out here easily cost between $2500 to $3000 between the airfare, shuttle, kennel, etc... life is not perfect just because we moved, but it certainly is more enjoyable.