Moving Our Stuff...

Welcome to the joys of moving! Didn't we just do this a year ago?

Those boxes contain the computers and about 10 hours of hook up once we get to Kuna.

Hello there my name is Dennis! My job is to make your move go just as smooth as possible. I however will not do any of that, but instead almost kill you with my stupidity and ignorance!

"We gotta pack it tight or it will move around and make the truck unstable." Famous Dennis quote, heard often... Way too often.

This might take some time to sort out!

All the room that's left in a three car garage after the unloading of the truck!

Saturday Night, The Last Night

There is nothing left! The truck is full, the house has been cleaned and we are set to head over tomorrow. Of course it will be hotter than hell the whole way over so I can really work up a good sweat in the Wrangler! Deb will stop from time to time and let me "visit" the air conditioned luxury that is her Jeep, so I'll survive.

The house will not be ready until Monday morning, so when we arrive we will move into the builders motor home for the night. The hardwood floors are getting their final layer of sealant and it will need Sunday night to cure. Even then, we will have to lay moving blankets all over the floors on Monday and allow only rubber inflated wheels on the movers dollies. This last little but of stress only makes us laugh! "Is that all you got left?"

It is supposed to only take one day to unload the contents of the moving truck into the new house. I feel the sweetest day of my life so far just might be Tuesday morning when I wake up and control my own destiny again! We will see. Each day brings us closer to the end of this adventure and then, the beginning of yet another.

Are We There Yet?

We are now in the home stretch of the move to Idaho! We used this weekend to prep the Battle Ground house for the coming invasion of movers, because once they get here it all goes.

Today, July 3rd Deb and I fly to Boise for a walk through of the new house and the signing of the house papers. We actually don't close until Friday July 7th, but since we need to be back in Washington with the movers, this is the only day we could pull it off. Don't think that this means the house will be done today! The builders will be working up until the very last minute. The carpet does not go in until Wednesday and they will still be doing final touches on Friday.

Tuesday, July 4th we will make a trip to the dump with any junk we don't need and then I start disassembling the racking in the garage. The movers will transport the racking with out complaints, but they won't un-screw it from the walls, same goes for the cabinets. Also, all things like mowers, edgers, roto-tillers, any thing with fuel have to be drained of gas for the movers to take them.

Wednesday, July 5th the fun really begins! The movers show up... And the first thing they will want is the refrigerator, washer and dryer. So, we have to put all of the perishables into a large cooler filled with dry ice for the next 6 days, and then we can reload it once we get to Boise.

Thursday & Friday, July 6th & 7th packing and more packing by the moving company.

Saturday, July 8th we do a final clean up of the house, hand over the keys, and hit the road. Deb will haul the ATV's with her Jeep and I will haul the Waverunner with the Wrangler. We will drive the rest of the day to arrive at the new house that night.

Sunday, July 9th we plan on hanging out in the new house and thinking about where the furniture will go once it arrives on Monday.

Well, that is it for now, we'll keep you posted.

5 Park-like Acres in Brush Prairie Part IV

Let's try $325,000, shall we?

5 Park-like Acres in Brush Prairie Part III

Now we are down to $350,000 dollars... how low will they go?

A Couple Of Inside Shots

This is a shot from the kitchen toward the family room. This is the main great room on the lower floor.


This is a shot from the family room toward the kitchen. The door goes out to the lower porch.

Idaho House Photo Flood...

Left Front: columns and arches will be done in stucco. Lower windows are to the living room. Upper from right to left are, master bath and main entry way.


Front Right: Three car garage with a drive through on the far right bay. Upper windows are all for the theatre room.


Left Side: Hmmm? What the hell is going on in the back of the house you ask. Lower windows from left to right, kitchen, two for the living room, and the far right one is to the garage. Upper windows are both to the master bath.


Right Side: Back side of drive through garage bay. Bottom window is to the office. Top window is to the laundry room.


Back Side: The top right is a covered deck off of the master bedroom. Below that is a covered patio off of the kitchen nook area. The four windows on the left ground floor are to the main family room. Continuing to the right are the kitchen nook and then the kitchen on the far right. Top floor left to right are, guest bedroom, exercise room, master bedroom sitting room (2 windows and a door) and then the last row of windows is for the master bedroom.

More tomorrow, right now it is time for bed!

5 Park-like Acres in Brush Prairie Continued...

Well, we must have made a slight impact on the people selling the land down the hill! Suddenly the lot is cleared of all the old buildings, and the price drops to $375,000.00. We are quite happy that the old trailer and associated out buildings are gone, as they were quite an eye sore, and I am sure they did not help our prospects of selling the house much.

It's Official... The House Is For Sale.

Railing Repair Project

Well, I spent last night fixing the deck railing from the Chrismas Day Tree Fall Event. I still need to pick up one ballaster and match the deck stain, all in all it worked out well.

As you can see, by the inset photo, the railing took quite a blow!

It Has Begun...

Monday afternoon our house will go on the market for $565,000. We spent the day cleaning and meeting with the realtor to determine a reasonable sale price.

I was fine until all of the paper work signing started, and then it became real to me. We now have a lock box on the front door and (as you can see) a sign in the front yard. I will post a link to the MLS listing as soon as it becomes available.

We are happy with the determined value of the house, since just 13 short months ago we purchased it for $400,000. Not a bad way to make $165,000! We of course still have to actually sell the house, but the realtor is confident that we are priced right and positioned to turn the house in a reasonable amount of time. I hope so, because we won't be able to sleep again until all of this is over!

We have begun to get listings for homes in Idaho with a target price of $600,000. Homes in this price range are very nice but come with the caveat of (at the most) being 2 acres or less. If we wanted to get our five acres back (flat treeless scrub of 5 acres I might add) we would need to spend over a million dollars. So, we have adjusted our search accordingly. I figure that as long as I regularly wash and wax the quads, that we will be able to run up and down the road in front of our house without any complaints!

... Now we have to make the bed every morning and pick up after ourselves. This is going to be tough!

5 Park-like Acres in Brush Prairie

For those of you who have been to the house, you'll know right where this is. Just as the blacktop starts before you head up the hill is a run down abandoned trailer house on the right. A few weeks ago the land around it was cleared of brush and is now for sale...

5 acres - $399,900 for the land only!

If this thing sells for that... Talk about pushing up the value of the neighborhood.

Country Living Adventure #256

"Honey, the Jeep alarm is going off." So started yet another Country Living Adventure. As I made my way across the house to disable the jeep alarm, I noticed that none of the light switches were producing any light. After shutting off the alarm I ventured out with a flashlight and immediately saw the powerline draped over the rig.

I called the proper authorities and made my way down the drive to the expected and almost routine now... Downed tree. Only 5 days earlier Deb and I had walked to this very tree and speculated that it would be the next to fall. The tree took out all of the electrical lines during it's decent and knocked out power to 4 houses.

Unhappy Jeep!

As you can see the cable landed just perfectly on top of the Jeep!

I Assume...

This is bad?

Yup, Another Downed Tree!

The first guys showed up pretty quickly and started clearing off the fallen tree. I was warned many times to not touch the wires, which made it hard because I really wanted to touch them so badly!

Large Response

After the clean up crew was done, many trucks arrived for the electrical work. (Three more trucks are not in the photo.) Note: Real men huddled together planning their attack and discussing the strange man with a camera in the distance! I heard one of them say, "Did anyone tell that guy not to touch the wires?"

Hooking Up The Lines

It took quite awhile for all of the pieces to come together so the actual hook-up could begin. Power was restored around 9:30am. Yea!

Weekend Deer Sighting

Now we have 4 deer that hang out around the house! They are not spooked by the ATV and I can get quite close.

Deer Like The Sun