Today's post will let you all know where I've been for the last two weeks. Yes, we've been moving but the story is unfortunately so much bigger.
As I sit in my new office gazing at the setting sun through windows without curtains, I am finally able to outline our travails. The last few days before moving we were lucky to be invited out to eat or to just go to a restaurant as more and more dishes and necessities found their way into boxes whose stacks began to threaten us as we did our countdown to M-Day. Three more sleeps, two more sleeps, last night, and inevitably the big day came.
Sunny it was in the morning as the four moving guys trekked in and out of our home, stripping it of our possessions and rendering it an unrecognizable space, a whole lot easier to say goodbye to! Finally they were gone, my husband was off to an important business meeting and I was left alone with my vacuum, my cleaning supplies, and my memories. One last time to shine up the space and I would be gone. A bit sad, but I controlled my urge to weep, left all the extra keys on the counter for the new folks, did a final walkthrough and slipped out the side door of the garage locking everything behind me as I went.
Where to go? I still hadn't gotten THE CALL from our lawyer saying all the deals had gone through and I could pick up the keys to our condo. I headed over to her office, talked her into giving me the keys with a solemn promise I wouldn't go in until I heard from them, and drove under darkening skies the 25 minutes to Woodstock and our office where I had things to pick up to take to our condo. Once I had the car loaded up I headed for our condo, confident THE CALL was imminent. I sat in the driveway a couple of minutes but didn't dare go in. Along came someone from the development who insisted I could come inside and wait--he knew me and thought the thing would be closed in a matter of minutes. By this time it was 3:45 p.m. and the clock was ticking down to 5:00 when the registry office would close.
I hadn't been inside long wandering around my new place when my brother-in-law called and I told him what I was doing and that the movers were sitting in their yard waiting to get the call from me that they could come and unload. Through my many calls to the lawyer, my husband, whom I picked up, our son, and my two brothers-in-law, the clock moved in its dogged fashion towards 5 pm and still no closing. We learned there had been 6 properties to flip that day and our sale and purchase were the last of the six. My husband was in contact with the lawyer and finally at 5:30 came into the front office-to-be room and told us the deal didn't close in time. What to do?
The lawyer was trying to contact the builder to get us in anyhow but of course everyone had gone home. By 6:30 we realized we had no choice but to leave, lock up the condo, sadly back out of the place and go to my sister's place for some wonderful chili. Of course we had several offers of places to sleep and thankfully accepted that of our son and daughter-in-law; back to Norwich we went and bunked up with them.
So already this is a bad story but it gets worse. We had both contracted a nasty cold, Ron about a week before me, and mine had moved to the coughing up my lungs part, especially at night, necessitating us sleeping separately. He ended up on the couch and I slept nun-like in the double bed, coughing ya da ya da ya da. Thank goodness for family, though, as we were warm and toasty when the storm of the year hit over Saturday night, although Ron had cause to bemoan the loss of his garage as several times the next day he shovelled snow off the three vehicles in son's driveway! (I stayed in the house, coughing .......)
Finally Monday morning was upon us and early in the morning Ron and I tiptoed out of son's house, loaded up our two grocery bags of possessions--Oh! I forgot to tell you we had nothing to wear, rub or change on our bodies, so Saturday had hit Wal-Mart for some trendy Eastern fashion items. (Read cheap, made in China stuff.) Anyhow we headed for Woodstock, ate breakfast of trucker-type early morning bacon and eggs, clog your arteries fare--we waited outside for the door to open--and then put in some time at the office till 9:30. By then we had heard nothing so gave the lawyer a call.
Her assistant was busy trying to get the bonus money for us that the other side had promised in order that we would let them into our former house even though the deal hadn't closed. I regret to say I did a little freak and suggested she would be wise to get us into our property immediately as I had already rescheduled phone, water softener, blinds, dishwasher people and I was not in a mood to reschedule again. She took the hint, I loaded up the car, did a couple of errands and drove up to our condo. By 10:59 a.m. I was once again parked in the driveway hoping to get the call, and the irony of being in the exact place where I had been three days before, and the outcome, made me a little nervous.
At 11:00 on the dot the cell phone rang and it was Judy. The deal was finally closed. I could relax. I turned off the cell phone just as the superintendent of the complex drove up in his truck. I told him the news before I even had a chance to call Ron. Finally the wait was over. I let myself into the front door and breathed in the air of our new home. Then I called Ron.
Of course the waiting was not over as the mover could not offload our stuff till Tuesday morning so we stayed with our son once more, ever so thankful to have a roof over our heads. In the morning the movers met us at the new condo and the claim staking began. Oh, not before I had a bit of a scare, though. Before the movers came I was in the basement, heard a noise and turned to stare at a strange man in my house. "Did someone let you in?" I asked. "The door was open so I just came in," he answered. And I lost no time telling him how unacceptable that was. He quickly did his little worker thing and apologized his way out the door again.
For four hours I stood at my new front door directing movers where to take things, freezing and hacking up my guts all the while. Then, in the afternoon, two of my best friends came and helped me attack the huge kitchen unpacking job. The place looked disastrous for a couple of days until we finally got the first floor looking like home. Today Ron has even hung some pictures, we have a Christmas tree (undecorated as yet) in the corner, and we've had a couple of lovely quiet meals in our new space. It is wonderful.
And so, our saga continues in a new space, a new place, a new home. Yes, it is home, now. And we have nowhere to go but onward. Yay!
While the storm raged outside we spent Saturday morning building a closet in our new basement bedroom. We are almost ready for drywalling--saints be praised!--and are very excited about our progress so far. (We are not all that handy.) Here is the door we hung a few nights ago and it's straight! 
Here is the wall we built complete with anchoring screws into the cement floor.
Here is the wall that was already there before we started and the door out of the bedroom which we used to know how to hang the new one.
And, yet again, I turned to the glorious trees standing strong and still watching over the graves below.
And, finally, just to remember the sky a few days ago, here are the same trees just down the street from us. They are bare and frisky in the winter sun, waving at the passing clouds. Under that brilliant blue I felt the same way!
Sunday I had quite a time trying to get my pictures uploaded and after the third try gave up, so I have some more to display another day. See you then!
Here is our end condo unit the highest elevation on the block allowing us to overlook the small park opposite our front window.
Below I've tried to get a sweeping view opposite the front gate to our condos but I really only managed a glorious winter blue sky and glistening white snow. If you look closely you can see a green flag or two at the gates, flags which have been sorely buffeted about in the wild winds we've had a few times this winter. 
I finished my walk approaching our condo from another angle. This end unit is ours with its back deck and trees suffering through winter. 
Our back deck looks up the most beautiful street of very lovely homes. I tell everyone we live in the 'row housing'--poor cousins of these single family palaces.
On one wall I have my keyboard watched over by one of my framed photos of Hilton Head.
Here is the piece de resistance where all my work (and play) takes place. Here I write, I upload photos, I reconcile my bank accounts, I compose music on my software, and--oh, I hate to admit it!--I play computer games to while away empty moments. You can see I still have some photos to hang and a box to finish emptying but really most everything is in its rightful place in the whole condo. I do like order. 
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