Jackie returned from Hawaii on July 3rd... limping and hurting badly.
At the Seattle-Tacoma Airport (the terminus of her week-long vacation), she tripped on a raised metal plate (designed to help luggage over a bump, which she didn't see) and came crashing down on both knees and her left elbow... HARD!!! Thank God she didn't break anything, but her knees and elbow looked (and felt, for days) devastated. Her elbow was "scalped"almost to the bone when she skidded forward on the rug.
The ow-ees have slowed her down, but haven't stopped her. She's been a whirling dervish for four days, getting her boxes unloaded or re-positioned. I've been helping, here and there, but for the most part it has been her responsibility because she needs to decide where to place everything, and beside, I'm pretty wiped out by all the moving and "placing" (in my half of the house) of all the stuff I had to get in here during the past week...
Our plumber/handyman Ray Fath is working his tail off on several projects, large and small. We found some unanticipated dry rot in a 4' x 8' area of my place, where the washer and dryer and my bathroom are/were, so we're looking into whatever recourse we have for getting money from the former owners to get those areas fixed, as they must be done...
Caveat emptor to those buying a home: Be absolutely certain that your home inspector is a skinny dude who can easily get into all crawl spaces (and follow him or her around to be sure s/he does, indeed, crawl into all crawl spaces and look). Our inspector didn't, and charged us $400 for a totally superficial, totally insufficient job.
IF he had done his job, there would be no questions we'd have negotiated a settlement with the former owners, to ensure they kicked some money for the dry rot issue. (My bathroom has to be totally torn out so the problems can be addressed from above, due to insufficient crawl space underneath the house.) Now we have to just hope the former owners are honorable people and will help us pay to correct the issue. There is no doubt they knew about the problem: in the crawl spaces, recent plumbing work (within the past five years) have been made, and they lived here for 22 years. It's just a matter or showing (via photos) that they didn't disclose to us what they knew to be issues about the place, as required by law. Our realtor is looking into what can be done... It'll cost close to $8K to fix the plumbing issues -- up from the $1,600 or so we originally thought it would cost (before Ray discovered the dry rot issues).
Nevertheless, we continue to love the place. It needs to be upgraded a little in some places -- Jackie wants an upgraded kitchen and bathroom at some point; I'll be happy with the many fewer things I want done. That can be done as time goes on; the plumbing and dry rot have to be addressed promptly.
Grand niece Lizzie and I went on our first bike ride from this location yesterday. We rode about four miles -- all the way down our road to where it dead ends, then back and down 104th Street over to Vickery, where we stopped by George and Sue Rebar's (Phil's in-laws) to say "howdy" and to let Sue try out my bike. (She wants to get one soon and I thought she should try mine, since I like it so well.) On our road there are rabbits, horses, a huge Guernsey bull, llamas, peacocks, goats... so it's a fascinating little trek on bikes!
Our new backyard has a gym set for the younger set, and the next door neighbors have two large brown/tawny Labrador/Chesapeake retrievers that love kids, so the girls have been over the fence to see them a lot already (at the invitation of the neighbor, a delightful and patient former schoolteacher), throwing sticks and playing tug-of-war with the dogs (Stanley and Bob).
I also have a hammock, purchased two or three years ago and rarely used. Well, it's being used now nearly non-stop! The girls and Ray's eleven year old son are in it a lot during the day with Jackie's wee dogs...
Archie and Ashley are settling in nicely. In another few days I'll be able to let them go out into the back yard and check it out. While Ray's here using saws and hammers, Ashley stays hidden, but as soon as it gets quiet again at day's end, he comes bounding out, wanting to inspect whatever changes have been made to our side of the home. He'll be fine soon.
Jackie returns to work tomorrow. I'm bidding on projects at Elance and World Vision is considering me again -- this time for a copywriting position, YAY! And I'm still in the running for the Orting Library position and for a City of Tacoma position, as far as I know...
That's about all for this time.
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