It doesn't seem like much has happened in the last ten days, but .....

We have TV's in the kitchen and the bedroom - we watched "Best In Show" as our inaugural DVD, of course. You all know we had 'those people' as clients - you know who you are! There will be one more TV in the study - it's the big one we have here, and it will be up to the movers to get it in place.

Remember our POD? Remember how it took the delivery person about 15 minutes to install it? Not so with the removal. They sent a young man, on his first removal, alone, into the forest. So not fair to send him down a little dirt lane, expect him to turn the POD 180, and put it up a small, sandy embankment. He was doomed.  He arrived at 11:15. He departed at 1:15 with the POD turned the wrong way for its placement at the new house. I knew we were in trouble when it took him 5 tries to back his truck under the POD. It was with a huge leap of faith we let him leave with the POD and all of our "stuff". BTW, the new house is 8 miles away. Somewhere, somehow, painfully to watch,  shortly before 4 PM, he left, leaving the POD about 40' from where we hoped it would be. The photos do not show the 1/2 hour when the operator unloaded the POD so he could turn it in the opposite direction, but proceeded to put his truck back into the same position as he started. Also, we will not mention how he put his truck hubcap deep into the sand. Also, we will not explain how he explained to his boss - who showed up after many, many, many phone calls - that the truck was stuck in the sand, the POD was blocking the road, and he had absolutely no idea what to do. Sadly we do not have photos of the contents or our POD, aka our 'worldly goods', when they shifted forward and fell into the door, nor do we have photos of Jeff trying to get the POD door open. It finally did.

Thus endeth the sermon for today.

Jeff trying to explain how to drive the truck up the embankment- to no avail.

 Oops.

Big oops.

(the boss) 

Totally blocking the road. Another oops.

A different driver took it away - took him 20 minutes tops - including getting it out of the sand pit.

With the Pod unloaded, we began putting boxes somewhere in the general vicinity of where they will end up.

Never fear, the guys are here!

We took a break and flew to Southport/Oak Island for a fantastic dinner with our friends Nikki, Gus, Kyle, Noah and assorted friends. Gus's wings were The Best.

Jeffrey, Dear is doing his usual, fantastic job organizing the pictures, etc in the study. We're not done yet, and some things will be rearranged eventually, but, for now, it's beginning to really look like home.

 Note the Barbie collection on top!

The fence was installed yesterday. Carmen (on the left) and his helper (I don't know his name), were just fantastic. Carmen has chickens, pigs, dogs, goats, etc., so he knows how important a fence can be. It's sunny in the photo, but they started when it was cold, then in rained, and finally it was warm and sunny. The fence is terrific - we only wish our yard was twice as big!

  

Here's your panoramic view.

Today I took Edgar Alan to test the fence. He happily baptized all of the bushes, so they are now His.

While Ed was baptizing, I was working on the pantry. It's getting into shape, but I need ideas for shelf organization. I'm using the plastic bins, but it seems there should be a better idea.

Outside, everything is in bloom, including our Japanese Maple.

The new photo (?) over the mantel looks great.

Today they replaced the office fan that never worked. We thought they were going to install the 3rd set of bathroom wall sconces (third time's a charm? of three strikes you're out? We still don't know), but that didn't happen. We do have Bluetooth music all thru the house, but we're still waiting for cable, phone, internet, etc. We need to meet the fireplace people and the alarm people, plus some people we don't even know we need to meet. However, we are really getting closer. Our goal is to be totally in by May 1. We'll all see if that happens!

At last, another entry!

We have the keys!!! We are officially, totally, legally, completely, entirely, and financially in charge of the house. We had the "walk-through" with Jonathon, talked about all of the things yet to be done, he left "the box" with the garage door openers, gate openers, etc. A couple of days later Jeff met with Chris, the GC, wrote the LAST big check and we got "the keys". We now have 60 days to find anything that needs repairs, and we'll have another "walk-through" to go over that punch list. 

Our first 'order of business' was to put together our trailer full of shelving. The furniture from Ikea is amazing - the instructions are drawings only - no words - and NO extra parts at all. No extra screws, little wood dowels, bits, parts, etc. If one is left over, you know you messed up. Jeff is putting together all the big bookcases, the file cabinets, the glass cabinets, his office chair, and I am putting together the totally complex 12 drawer dresser and my unbelievably complex office chair. Well, not exactly complex.

The "Shop"

Check out the garage floor - it's really nice.

Pantry Cabinets and gridwall for pots and pans from ULine.

Jeff finished the gridwall yesterday - I'll take some pots down today to try it out! Photos to follow.

The shoe rack for the closet - not too complex!

Some of the garage shelves - 

Jeff measured and measured and measured for the shelves in the storage room. What the description didn't say is that the 8' shelf unit is really 8'1/2" and the 4' shelf is really 4'3/4". It worked, but barely. Check out the distance between the door and the wide shelf unit!

The drawers for the washer and dryer - they're front loaders and this will make them much more accessible. Jeff modified the top with a board.

I ordered the refrigerator for the pantry from us-appliance.com - free shipping and no sales tax. I ordered it on Monday, and it was here on Friday. The price was better than a more basic model at either Lowes or Best Buy. However, once again, the advertised measurements were slightly smaller than the real refrigerator. It was a very tight squeeze even with the other refrigerator handles removed.

The handle-less refrigerator

 Not much clearance!

Looks good!

On to the Ikea project - finished photos, hopefully! - in the next couple of days.

My chair sans rollers. I found some rollers with felt coverings but the insert was too wide for these chairs. Thankfully Jeff is very clever and drilled out the chair base so now they fit. 

The china cabinet from Ivy Cottage

 The dining room rug upside down.

Another Ivy Cottage purchase. 

Bedroom furniture

At least we have somewhere to sit!

The gas is now connected. The dials have a red light if the corresponding burner is lit.

The butcher block after I oiled and waxed it. 

The cart Jeff modified to fit in the pantry.

Bren and Marc gave us their old wine frig - thank you!

Our required Bradford Pear in bloom.

We took a break from the house and went to Charleston for Jeff's birthday, March 15th, with our friends, Anne & Joe. We started to fly there, but the weather was too iffy around Myrtle Beach. The flight program we use on our iPads, WingX, gives us weather updated every 5 minutes. We could tell the storm was moving west to east, so we turned around and drove to Charleston. A good time was had by all. 

More photos to follow in the next day or two. Our POD is going to be moved to the new house on Monday, so we're going to have a packing weekend. Our mail is being forwarded to the new house - 

6221 Motts Village Road, Wilmington, NC 28412

but so far it hasn't shown up. It turns out the transfer station is in Virginia so our mail gets delivered to our regular carrier, she forwards it to VA, and they send it back. No wonder the USPS is losing money!