Looks like Maliheh accessed one of my old messages to her. I wonder why. To get a good laugh?

Even though there’s still TONS of work to do around here, I thought I’d do some writing now before I REALLY get backed up and start forgetting things. It wasn’t always convenient for me to take notes along the way.

Right now the dining area is a sea of boxes and we STILL have PLENTY of room! We can actually both pass by each other in the hallway, whereas the short “hallway” in the trailer could barely fit two people my size in it.

They picked up trash and recyclables today and it was perfect timing since I just filled both with some of the crap they left behind. Then again, they had the recycle bin nearly full. I meant it when I said I was both grateful and annoyed with the people that lived here. We did tell them they could leave whatever they wanted, yes, but we didn’t think they’d leave sooo much stuff, most of which is worthless. Their daughter left a note saying:

Dear New Owners,

Welcome! Hoping you will enjoy living in this lovely park as much as our parents have the last 15 years! We truly did leave a lot of “stuff” for you – hope at least some is useful. Hey, if you ever find a platinum wedding ring and engagement ring, my mom lost hers somewhere in this house some years ago… we certainly would appreciate you giving me a call. Maybe down in a sink trap? Wish we had more time to make this place spotless for you. Please let Brenda know if you have questions and I’ll try to get answers for you from my parents! Two big keys are to doors, small key is mailbox, towels/rags in dryer are for you.

Best! Sherida

Would love to find Audrey’s ring for her, but if it went down the drain it’s long gone by now.

We appreciate the stools so we could have a place to sit right away, as well as the long L-shaped counter. It’s where we initially put our computers. But I don’t at all appreciate how filthy they left the place. The bathrooms weren’t too bad, but the kitchen is caked with dirt, the carpet’s a mess, and there’s dust all over the walls. I took one of their long dust mops they left here and got all the dust and webs from the walls. The ceilings, however, are surprisingly clean and bright.

Gonna be dumping, recycling and Goodwilling a lot of their stuff over the coming weeks. They left a couch, a double bed, 3 adequate but worn barstools, a rocking chair, another chair that’s an old, uncomfortable piece of shit and tons of books. Most of the books aren’t novels but educational and self-help kind of stuff. The couch helps fill up some of the space and is better than nothing till we get our own, but is very uncomfortable. The wooly fabric is itchy and it’s too low and soft.

The double bed also isn’t very comfortable, but we wanted one for the second bedroom.

We’ll probably keep the stools cuz they’re not that bad. I’d like to find cloth covers for them since I don’t really care for vinyl or leather, but I don’t know if I could find any that would fit their shape.

They practically left the kitchen completely stocked. This included flour, sugar, spices and an open bottle of maple syrup put in a cabinet of all places. So I had to dump that, plus some dumpy things the Goodwill wouldn’t take and that weren’t necessarily recyclable like old wicker baskets. There’s tons of stuff, though – pots, pans, silverware, utensils, cups, mugs, glasses, plates, bowls… almost everything you’d find in any kitchen. Only problem is most of it’s so old. We’ve got our own stuff anyway. They left a lot of towels and linens, too. It got to the point that every time I’d open a closet, drawer or cabinet I hadn’t yet explored, I’d dread the mess I would find. The built-in desk in the laundry room, which will basically be a “community office” of sorts for the wireless laser printer, scanner and things like that, had tons of office supplies. Again, though, it was mostly useless, though I kept a few decent rolls of tape.

They also left a lot of cleaning stuff and hangers.

Rather than make a few super long entries about our new and wonderful house (just wish I could sleep better), I’ll do a bunch of smaller ones.

Moving day was one of the most emotional days of my life. The night before, as I lay my head down one last time in the dumpy little trailer we called “home” for half a decade, I was both excited and a bit nervous. The tears really started coming once we had most of our stuff cleared out as I stood in the tiny 10x10 bedroom that almost became our death chamber. A flood of mixed emotions came over me. I shuddered with the horrible memories that were both sad and scary, thought of how much I learned while we lived there, the wonderful people I got to know, and how angry I was that God put us through (or at least let us go through) so much shit while we lived there that was so damn stressful and even downright scary at times. It doesn’t matter whether or not it was God Himself or a devil He allowed to torment us. God’s just as guilty whether He’s the main player or the enabler.

Above all, I was excited as hell. I basically laughed and cried tears of joy all day. Sometimes I stop, I look around me, and I think Omigod, we’re here. We’re really here! For a while, I didn’t think we’d get out of that damn trailer alive and then I didn’t think we’d get out at all. So many times I stared out those windows, crying, thinking we’d never get out and that that was a forced forever home.

When the loan people kept screwing up and causing delays (along with the God above that never wanted us to have such posh digs) I started to lose interest in this house and thought we’d probably be better off selling it if we did get it, figuring they’d screw us over some more, but they didn’t. They promptly refunded the money they owed us, so that was nice. A part of me wishes we’d done the walls and re-carpeted before moving, but we waited long enough to get in here and didn’t want to add any more delays. I definitely don’t want to move for a long time to come, if ever again. Maybe Florida or some other country won’t be worth it. No one’s pestered us like I thought they might, so that’s nice. It’s also been really hot, so hopefully the peace won’t come to an end with the cooler weather, not that we’ll have much of that till late November, early December. Hot or not, we definitely couldn’t be surrounded by so many houses in the mainstream and have so much peace and quiet. Haven’t heard a single bark yet, though I’ve seen a few little mutts being walked by. I can hear kids playing beyond the park’s perimeters in the carport, but you can’t hear them at all indoors. The only thing I hear are vehicles passing by. There hasn’t been a ton of car door slamming like I thought there might be either from next door, across Radiance Circle, or across Cayes Cove, the side street. Astronaut, the street in back, gets way more traffic than in front.

I just hope this house never holds the kind of terror that trailer held; thinking we would die no matter what we did or didn’t do. Hell, we survived the evil above! The question is, is God going to take this place from us too, after taking two others from us? I wonder about that and worry, but try not to think about it. As long as we’re smart about our money and Tom isn’t laid off and then stuck with either unemployment or minimum wage jobs indefinitely, we should be able to keep the savings built up nicely.

We drove by the storage place we used when we first came to Cali. Had someone tapped me on the shoulder the day I took a nap under the big old oak tree nearby when we were homeless and told me this was where I’d live in 6 years, I’d never have believed it. OMG, I’m getting so emotional again, LOL.

I woke up at 10:00 on moving day. Tom had just returned from bombing the house and picking up the moving truck. The moving truck that could have so easily been a coroner’s van. It took us till around 3:00 to load the thing up. Just before 5:00 we dropped the truck back off in Auburn, picked up the car, went to KFC, grabbed some more stuff from the trailer, and returned for our first night in our new home.

Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep well. We hadn’t yet picked up the blackout shades and I woke up to bright morning sunlight in my eyes. We got them the next day and they’re great cuz they’re so easy to open and close. Also, in the mornings, the street in back gets more traffic than in front and some of the louder vehicles are hard to mask with the sound machine. I’ll need to create white noise with an off-dialed station on the stereo, as that seems to do a better job with louder sounds. Never saw or heard that motorcycle diagonally from us so maybe they were just visiting. It sucks that I’m such a light sleeper! I don’t understand why I can’t just tune things out like some others who can sleep through anything.

The rats took the move well. They were anxious to hop out of their cage and explore their new territory. When I was lying on the living room floor playing with them, I looked up and the cathedral ceiling seemed miles away. I should be able to upload some pics on Facebook over the weekend.

Standing against the back wall of the second bedroom and looking straight down the hall to the front wall of the living room makes it seem sooo far away. We’ve definitely got way more space than we’ll ever need. If the giant hutch wasn’t built-in we could sell it since we’ll never have much to put in its 5 long glass-encased shelves, 5 drawers and 5 cabinets. I suppose some of the dolls and knickknacks could go on the shelves, though.

I remembered some things wrong, so I found when I came here for the second time. I thought the bedroom doors were across from each other and that the laundry room door was further down the hall. I also thought the wall between the sunken tub and toilet went all the way to the ceiling but nope. It calls for a vase of flowers or something, but right now my female supplies are on it, LOL. I like the basket of purple flowers she left on a corner of the tub.

Although I usually prefer showers, I hadn’t taken a bath in years due to the trailer’s tub not having a slanted back to lean against. So last night’s jasmine-scented bubble bath in a tub so big it would make a great kiddy pool was a fun and refreshing change.