Housework!

It's been a busy week for us as we're still working on the house.  Al has been working so hard painting 2 bedrooms and so many other small things that add up.  He has a list of items to do and I have a list and often the two lists don't have overlaps.  We keep finding more things that need to be done.  I've been doing a lot of  touch up paint after removing pictures from the walls and other organizing items and those runs to Lowes/Home Depot for more parts.  We've had success with selling items on the OfferUp app so that's helped.

We also had two big dumpsters delivered to the house to throw out anything remaining that we can't find another home.  They need to be filled by Thursday when the truck comes to pick them up.   

A huge Thank you to Al's brother, Tino, for his help on Friday and Sunday!  Working with Al on the electric, sprinklers, grout, and etc. kept Al and I from fighting all weekend!  Also thank you to a handyman that we have in the family who did odd jobs for us and Kayden.

I've been separating our clothes into piles to be donated, take to Lake Powell, take to Mexico City, take with us to the RV in August, and clothes we'll need in the fall/winter.  I know we'll have too many clothes in the RV but we'll have to get in there and settled and see what we can do without.  It's hard letting go of clothes I've accumulated. 

I did manage a fun dinner with another visiting co-worker from Chile, Claudia, along with Jackie and Ly.  It was great to catch up with Claudia.  Our waiter that looked like Johnny Depp was funny. 

Al got a break when we went on a Duffy boat ride with friends in Newport Beach last Friday night for sunset.  It was a much needed break!  Thanks John & Sandy!

April, May, and June Birthday Girls

Who needs forks!

Now on to the final push to get the house emptied!  Wish us luck!

Medieval Times with Chile Co-workers

Last night I got to spend the evening with two previous co-workers from Chile.  They chose to go to Medieval Times and I hadn't been there in around 20'some years. 

Diego, Nancy, and Rafael

While eating dinner, there was a horse show which was amazing.  I don't speak horse but the different strides of the horses was impressive.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of that since I was eating dinner (chicken, corn on the cob, and potatoes) with my fingers. 

Here are some photos from the knight challenge.

 

Our knight was the green guy and he fought a good fight but eventually the red knight took him out and won the challenge. 

It was a fun time.  Great to see you again Rafael and catch up and hear about your wife and little girl.  Nice to meet you Diego!

Emotional Week

It's been an emotional week for us as we're cleaning out the house we've lived in for 19 years.  I look at each item and say to myself, "Does this item bring me joy?"  Then if it does, I keep it and if not then I find a way to get rid of it.  If I'm keeping it, then where will it be stored is my next decision.  We're storing some stuff with family, some in a storage shed at our house and the boat and camping gear in a storage garage in Boulder City near the lake where we water ski.   

Over the weekend we went to Lake Mead to do some water skiing and spent time thinking about our friend who committed suicide on Good Friday of this year.  He lived in Tucson and would meet us at the lake over the years.  It was sad to know he won't be joining us camping and on the boat anymore.  Him and I were designing some shade cover for when we eat lunch on the boat and I made a prototype over the winter to review this summer.  I just don't have the heart to finish it now.   

Yesterday I emptied one of our spare bedrooms so that we can paint it in the coming days.  That was the place where we've stored "stuff" and now it's all in the living room either in a pile for me to review or Al's pile for him to look over and decide what to keep or get rid of.  There are lots of boxes of photos before digital and all those negatives!  And photo albums of our trips!  Hopefully I'll have time before we leave to pare down those boxes before.   

 

Nancy's Review Pile

I came across a bunch of VHS and other tapes that need to be copied to DVD's.  Some I've had done over the years such as our wedding and honeymoon videos but there are others that need to be copied.  Another project to add to the task list for this month.  

Al has spent the last week doing minor repairs around the house and copying all his CD's and DVD's to our computer's hard drive to take on the road with us.  That was a project!

With all the moving of stuff yesterday, I made my 10K steps just inside the house!

I think Al's Mom is having a hard time with the thought of us leaving even though we've been talking about doing this for a long time.  We're not the type of people who just talk.  If we says we're going to do something, we do it.  And, this lifestyle is not for her but it's one that we think we'll like.  We're giving ourselves a year to evaluate it and if we don't like it, we'll figure something else out.  We'll still have our house to come back to if needed.

I don't think anyone on my side of the family is surprised by our plan.  Heck, I moved all the way from Pennsylvania to California years ago and they know how much we like to travel.  This is just another crazy thing that Nancy's doing. 

We have had some fun too so it hasn't been all work.  Last night our financial adviser, Marc Gallo, took us and some family and friends out to dinner to celebrate our retirements.  We've been working with Marc for about 7 years in preparation for this time.  It was a real nice time but we forgot to take a photo.  Thanks Marc for the fun time and our family and friends for celebrating with us!

This weekend we'll be attending a funeral for a 92 year old father of friends of ours.  He was a great guy and we're so happy we got to celebrate his 90th birthday with him a couple of years ago.  He kept in great shape and placed on a men's softball team into his 80's.  We've enjoyed so many good times with him over the years and will miss him. 

Well, that's what's on my mind today.  Today's project is to tackle cleaning out the office and adding to those piles in the living room.

Boat Moves to it's New Home

It was time to move the boat to it's new home in Boulder City, NV and make some room in our garage.  Here she is leaving our house.

 

Temple Bar Campground, Lake Mead.  We still love tent camping even though we now have a trailer too.  

Making lunch to take on the boat.

Our friend that we met when she was the owner of the Capriotti's sub shop in Boulder City came to ski with us for the day on Sunday.  Unfortunately the boat wasn't so cooperative but we had a nice time out on the lake anyway.  Later that day, Debra cooked us a delicious boneless pork chop dinner with corn and broccoli.  Thank you again, Debra!  We very much enjoyed having you cook for us (especially Al)!

And then the boat went in to her new home.

Sold Some Furniture

Yesterday was a busy day!  We almost bought a Honda generator off a local marketplace app but it wasn't exactly the one we wanted.  Oh well!

At noon we met with our Property Manager so he could check out our house and make recommendations for items to fix before it's rented.  Luckily we don't have much to do.  Just some painting and trimming of plants.

Then we had a young couple from Anaheim stop over to check out our sofas that Al posted on a marketplace app.  The couple would speak to each other in Spanish and Al understands but doesn't let on that he's eavesdropping so he knew she really wanted them.  That helped with our negotiations for a price.  While they were at the house we showed them some other items we want to sell and they ended up taking our kitchen table and chairs and a lamp!

 Pretty impressive truck loading!  

Now there is more room in the house to start organizing items going to various locations and donations.

Things are moving along but we have a long way to go!

Ahhhhh......Retirement!

So far retirement is going fabulous!  Our new motto is "Every day is Saturday except Sunday!"

I feel liberated from having the restriction of just the weekend to get all my chores done.  I worked on some sewing projects that I started years ago and never finished and now I have two new bedspreads!  One we'll take with us in the RV and the other I'll give to my mother-in-law. 

I'm hoping to post at least weekly here on the blog but until I get my own laptop it's hard getting time on our home PC!  Al's been copying all his CD's and DVD's so we can take them on the road with us in digital form.  He had a LOT of CD's and a good number of DVD's!  It will be good for those times when we don't have internet for streaming TV. 

An Amazon package arrived over the weekend and we thought it was some TV bracket for the RV so we didn't open it right away.  Al opened it today and asked if I ordered it.  I didn't order anything but it looks like a cool book.   

Eventually Al found the gift receipt in the box.  Thanks Sushant and Rashmi!  We love it!  And we know it's got quality recommendations because Pat's Steaks in Philadelphia is listed.  Oh, now I'm hungry for a cheesesteak!