October 24 to Dec 1
I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We were thankful for some time off from moving. We drove to Orlando for the buffet at Islands Restaurant Royal Pacific Resort which is part of Universal. We have been going for years. There is a waiter there that remembers us every time we go. Last time he wasn’t our waiter, but he stopped by to chat. He waited on us this year and he said you have been coming here for years and I didn’t recognize your names, but I knew your faces immediately. I said to him that he has worked there for a long time as well. He said he opened the restaurant 17 years ago. The food seemed exceptionally good this year. Though I didn’t eat much, I got so stuffed it was painful. We are used to Nutrisystem portions. We did a couple of laps around Universal CityWalk before driving home. It’s about a 2 hour drive from here.
Here’s a recap of “house stuff”.
Our walk-through went pretty well on Nov. 15. Overall, we are both pleased with the final results. Just a few minor things like paint spatters on the tile, which they can clean up easily. Honestly not that many. Greg found one window that had a scratch on it, the supervisor said he’ll have them change it out. The screened patio has a door to some pavers outside the back of it and it opens the wrong way. Probably the right way for a door to open, but we had it open the other way on our plans since now when it’s open it blocks the way to the pavers. The supervisor said he will ask them to change it and it shouldn’t be an issue, unless for some reason it’s a structural thing, but he couldn’t see why it would be.
We are pleased with floor tiles and the granites we (I) chose for countertops. The island had a very minor rough spot on an edge, and he said they would buff that out. We will walk through one more time before closing just to check the things that were fixed. So, still good to go for the 22nd.
The supervisor said that we will continue to find things after we move in. He said just report them on the “ap” since the house has a 1 year warranty and right before that time is up they will come out and fix everything all at once. If it’s an emergency thing like water/plumbing issues, then of course they come right out for that.
The construction supervisor showed us how to use everything and toilets were flushed, water run, all light switches were tested, and the washer and dryer were tested. Only took about an hour. Time will tell, but GL Homes seems to have their act together. They are making great progress on the amenities for the neighborhood. (pickleball, tennis courts, bocce courts, pro shop. They also have started the clubhouse where the pool and everything else will be. It’ll be quite a while for it all to be done. Right now, they have 2 temporary houses and one is being used for the gym and the other for social stuff.
He also went over all the people to contact to utilities transferred, but of course Greg had already set all of that up.
I ordered one item since it said it will deliver on the 25th if you order today. So, that seemed safe since we move in on the 22nd. Then, I get an email about an hour later saying your item has shipped and will deliver on the 18th. It’s a huge bed frame and not easy to move around and we won’t be in the house yet to accept delivery. I called the company and she said we could coordinate a “vacation hold” and they will then deliver after the 22nd. Hope that works out. So, now for some other stuff I’m waiting until next week to order them just in case. Most of the big stuff is being delivered Saturday.
Friends Carol & Dave were just getting back from extended travel and wanted to get together since they were coming into Ft Lauderdale. (they live on the other coast of FL) They drove up here to have lunch with us and talk about the world cruise. They are jumping in with both feet and taking their first World Cruise in 2021 when we are going. It was fun to see them again. So, right after lunch we had to drive to the house and pick up the bedframe. A couple of guys were replacing one of the pavers in the driveway and the older guy wouldn’t let me carry my end of the box and helped Greg to the car with it. The younger guy congratulated us on our “new crib”. (people still say that?)
Friday the 22nd we had our last walk-through to check out the items on the list that were fixed at 10:00. We had the car packed with things we needed for the first trip to the house. We then drove back over by the hotel since that is where the closing was at 11:00. We had the window covering people coming as soon as we could get the keys and get in. (they called at least twice wondering how it was going) The gas people called before we left at 10:00 asking if they could come early. NO, it's not our house yet.
The closing lady was running a tiny bit late. She was one of those people that requires your undivided attention, or she quits talking. (I hate tour guides that do that) She started talking and I got my granny glasses out to put them on. She stops talking and says we'll wait until you get your glasses on, we have lots of time. Geez, I'm capable of putting on a pair of glasses and listening at the same time. (we hadn't gotten to the signing part yet) I'm not always good at not saying what is on the tip of my tongue (I didn’t have to tell you that did I?) and I responded with well actually we do have appointments we are trying to get to. Greg also said yes, we do need to meet people at the house as soon as we can.
OK, then it got cartoonish. She then kicked it into high gear and started talking at light speed and made a big deal of how she could make this as fast as we could handle. Making me sign first and kept telling me to hurry. Good grief! Greg had already read all the documents as they were emailed to us, so we really did just need to sign.
Then, we find out she doesn't give us the keys etc. and we have to stop at the sales office for those. Once we picked those up, we called the window people and they came right over and got them all installed. The gas guy came just as they were leaving and showed us how to use the gas stove, dryer and the water heater. Phew!
Greg started to get the family room ceiling fan up and we took a break to have dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. (worst steak we have ever gotten there) Happy Anniversary to us! Not a romantic anniversary this year. LOL We went back and finished the ceiling fan and then back to the hotel by 9:00. We normally love Longhorn, it was the first time we had a bad meal there. The Outlaw Ribeye was tough and dense like a sirloin. The fries were cold. If we hadn’t been so beat from moving, we would have sent the whole thing back.
Saturday, we got some of the family room furniture and the dining set. The cable guy also came and got us set up.
About Wednesday or Thursday before our closing on Friday we had some bed drama when the mattress guy stopped responding and wasn't able to give us a tracking number. Worried we wouldn’t get a mattress until who knows when, we panicked and went to a mattress store and after barely sitting on it, bought a queen sized mattress for the guest bedroom. It had to have been the fastest sale the guy ever made. We're like yeah, looks good, let just buy it. (we normally research everything to death) We joked we'll probably like it better than ours. Now, it looks like our mattress will get here on Monday. We'll see. Of course, then we had to run out and buys sheets, pillows etc. since the ones I had bought are for a king size bed in the master. Such fun!
Our plan was to mainly spend our time at the house and have meals there and just pretty much just sleeping at the hotel until we check out on Tuesday. (if at least one of the mattresses shows up)
Monday the 25th, we got our mattress delivered and right after that the guest room mattress showed up.
We spent our first night here on Tuesday. Greg got the bed frame all set up and the mattress plumped up enough to sleep on by Tuesday.
We haven’t gotten as much from storage as we had hoped since we have had nearly non-stop deliveries since Friday. We got 20 boxes one day. (19 were from the closet company) Tons of kitchen stuff and on and on…..
We have 2 of the 3 TVs and hopefully we will get the one for the family room tomorrow.
I have the kitchen pretty much put together and Greg had been busy getting our closet drawers/hutches installed.
The den furniture should be here next week. We are still waiting on the dresser for our bedroom. It showed it was on the truck and then we got an email saying something happened and now it won’t be delivered until the end of December. Someone dropped it or what?
I think the accent chairs go well with the couch and the rug really pops the room. One of the marble tables (the coffee table) has a couple of spots that it looks like they used filler on it. I pointed it out to the delivery guy and he took a photo and said they would send out a new table. Otherwise, most everything is OK.
The bedframe I wanted was out of stock when it came time to order it and then my 2nd choice went out of stock. I finally found one that I didn’t think I’d like, but it goes well with the nightstands. (maybe better than the other choices) Not that you see much of it anyway.
Once the major stuff is done, I can do the fun part of wall art, putting out my travel trinkets etc. That might be a while. We probably will skip putting up a tree this year as well. We haven’t had one since we were in Panama anyway. Next year I should have the energy to do that.
Reflecting on moving into a small home, I guess it’s all in one’s perspective. If we had moved from the house at over twice this size, it would probably seem tiny. However, after spending over a year on cruise ships (not all at once), our condo in Panama was way smaller than this, then the Motor Coach was a small space despite it’s honking size and in between all that; pretty much living in various hotels so this seems quite spacious.
Not having yardwork to do or maintain our own pool will be great for traveling once we get back to that. (that will be a while)
We are maintaining the storage unit until we have the den furniture and our dresser. We have been bringing things over as we have time and room to deal with it. I have a few kitchen items we haven’t come across yet. There are a few boxes that haven’t been opened since we moved from Panama and others had things that are for cruising and others that were things we had with us in the RV. I should be ready to start cooking next week.
We are enjoying watching the turtles from the pond sunning on the grass, the lone Grebe and an Anhinga that dabble in the water. We have occasional herons come and go as well as Sandhill Cranes. No gators yet, but it’s a young pond. The herons are fun to watch skirting the shoreline for food.
Still a few things to order or shop for, but it’s getting there! No photos yet. Maybe next post.
Have a wonderful Holiday Season!
