On the Other Side!
Wow, I'm really overdue for an update, sorry I neglected it!
Long story short, we've been in the new house for a month and so far we all love it! But I should fill in some of the gaps from the last month and a half or so. :)
So last I wrote, we'd gotten to the hotel in Virginia Beach, and were settling in. That place.. not great, but good enough, and we ended up spending a good bit of time at the Heather's parents or exploring around that area, so really we were only at the hotel to unwind and sleep each day, and sometimes for lunch. And I was there alone to work a lot, of course. Glad to be out of there, though!
The hotel stay was pretty uneventful, except after a week or so a trucker who stays at that hotel regularly (or so I assume) apparently got mad that the truck was there for so long, so he called the city to report it. Apparently it did technically violate the standard for vehicle length parked for that long in that type of zone, so okay, my bad. Our only other option was to take our realtor up on his offer to park it at his office--we didn't like the idea of having it that far away, but there didn't seem to be much choice. But when I reached out to him, he had a better idea--get us permission to park it at his company's office there in VaBeach instead! That was still a few miles from the hotel, but it seemed like a safe spot and got us out of trouble with the city, so we went with it and that worked out fine.
We did our final walkthrough with our realtor--first time meeting him and seeing the house, luckily both were good! No surprises at the house, the virtual tour thing was really great and we all spent a lot of time playing with that. It was nice to finally see the place in person, though. From there we went right to closing, which took all of 20 minutes--quick and easy! Then it was back to VaBeach to while away the next couple weeks. We went to lots of parks in the area, the beach a few times, etc. Then we finally got word that the seller would be out on June 4, so we could take possession first thing on the 5th. Nice!
So that morning we gathered up all our stuff from the hotel and the grandparents' house, loaded it back into the truck, and hit the road for the new house. Heather had to also gather up the pets and kids and load our bikes back onto the van, so I got to the house first. I managed to get the truck backed into the driveway (only damaged the mailbox a little, I swear), and then did a quick walkthrough of the place. The next few days were a blur of unloading and unpacking--we got the truck unloaded Fri/Sat, and returned the truck. The moving container came on Monday, and we got that unloaded pretty quickly too. In the meantime, our new couch and Hallie's new bed arrived, and I got cable connected for Internet so I'd be able to work. And we took some time to explore the neighborhood, of course.
And we love it here! The location could be a little more convenient--it's about 5 miles to most stores, which is a little farther than we were used to. But there are several options for most, so we can usually group them together and hit the ones in close proximity. But the neighborhood is just great. It's so woodsy, there are always birds singing, and lots of wildlife--we look out the back window and often see bunnies out in the field, and on our walks we've seen deer and chipmunks. I put out a few bird feeders in the back yard, and they stay busy with cardinals and chickadees and wrens and titmice. We even have a resident box turtle in the back yard, and every night lately--fireflies galore! Pretty cool indeed. The walking trail that runs right along our yard provides good options--one way leads to a wooden bridge over a creek, and then into the woods; another way takes us through a different part of the neighborhood to a neat little park on the reservoir. We're very happy with all of that.
Of course, we got here just in time for the summer heat to kick in, so that combined with the COVID stuff and other shenanigans mean we haven't gotten out to explore too much yet. We've been downtown a few times--Hermione and I went to check out the Confederate memorials which have been the focus of the civil unrest lately. But during the day, there's a really neat feel down there--people of all stripes come to check out the statues in their new light, perhaps with a different sort of appreciation. It's a sense of unity and community that's kind of amazing. She and I also checked out the James River Pipeline Trail, which was high on my list--it's a metal catwalk built atop a sewage pipeline underneath a railroad bridge, running alongside the James River near downtown. Really neat down there!
Working from home has been great, especially given the state of the world. Between that and Heather homeschooling the girls, we feel pretty lucky to have a pandemic-resistant lifestyle. Of course, I was a little stressed about my job there for a while! We went down to 80% pay for a while (though I could and did use vacation time to supplement back up to 100%)--this is actually our first week back to full hours and pay. It's nice to not have to burn vacation to get my full paycheck, definitely--but I was also really enjoying those shorter workweeks! Ah well. I think I'm safe job-wise as long as the parks stay open and business gradually picks back up, but the way things are going in Florida these days, I do wonder if those things will remain true. We shall see.
Even a month in, we're still in the midst of setting up and settling in. I don't think I mentioned it, but originally the plan was for Heather to take the formal living room downstairs for her sewing room, and I'd get the spare bedroom upstairs for my office--but she decided she'd rather have the bedroom, since it has a closet and direct access to the attic, where she can stash stuff she's not using. That left me with the living room, which is actually a much larger room anyway. And good thing, because I've filled it up pretty well! I kinda love it--I need to build a desk for music production so I can get back into that, and I'd like to add French doors sometime for a little more quiet while I work. But it's got my desk (for both my personal and work computers), our old TV wall-mounted for games and movies (I got a bigger one for the family room, which is lovely), a nice big rug for a VR playspace, my arcade cabinet, guitars stretching across one wall, a cabinet for tchotchkes and camera gear.. yeah, I dig it. I also spent the weekend before last building my workbench in the garage, so I have a proper workshop out there now. All very cool. We just need more room for books--we've got nothing like the library at our old place!
OH, and we got a new (to us) minivan! Our old one was getting long in the tooth, so instead of bothering to get it inspected and registered here, we decided to just trade it in. We got a newer model of the same thing--we had a grey 2012 Kia Sedona, now we have a grey 2016 Kia Sedona. But it's a really nice upgrade, low miles, feels (and smells!) new, lots more bells and whistles. And I only let myself get ripped off a little, which I frankly consider a win when car shopping.
I could probably go on, but that's plenty for now. I'll try to throw together a photo post, since that's been a while too! I hope you're all staying well out there, and keeping your chin up. This too shall pass, right?