THE NEVER-ENDING GOODBYE

The never ending goodbye, this is how a down-sizing, retiring, cross country move feels like to me. I am thankful that we have had a lot of time to purge and pack rather than a lot of people who have had to just throw stuff into boxes and move in two weeks. We've been allowed time to really go through our stuff with a critical eye and have true evaluation but I still find myself reluctant to part with some things playing the "what if I need these?" scenario in my brain. Dave and I have both agreed we will undergo a second purge once we begin opening boxes at the house. Myself personally, I know I will undergo yet another purge once my creative studio is remodeled next Spring.

The purging began right after Christmas when I was evaluating and then organizing and packing up the Christmas decor. On a side note, I'm actually considering decorating the house for Christmas in September. Dave will be coming back to Texas after two weeks but I will be up there an extra week. Once he retires and we make the final drive, we will arrive just a couple of days before Thanksgiving and it would be nice to have everything done except for getting our tree. I don't anticipate that everything will be unboxed and set up in September but I can see myself needing a break from the tediousness of it all. Christmas is such fun for me and I would love to surprise Dave!

I FINALLY finished purging and packing the kitchen. It was overwhelming for many reasons; guessing what you can live without for the next four months, what you can donate when you make the final drive and what you use regularly but has to fit into the car so you don't look like the Clampett's truck in "The Beverly Hillbillies" with belongings attached all over it! It took me a while but I finally finished it yesterday. I purged pantry items and canned goods as well, then scrubbed down the shelving.

The pantry before, a hot mess! Knowing that I was having to purge through it, I had just crammed stuff inside there after the last couple of trips to the grocery store.

I plan to write down all the information on the pantry door from measuring kids and grandkids over the years and transfer it to butcher paper, then hang it on the inside of the closet door up at the house.

I have dwindled down our serving ware to some inexpensive plastic stuff along with paper plates and bowls.

Purging the canned goods was easier because I've not been restocking them the way I usually do, knowing that I was needing to dwindle my supply.

I have to admit, I am glad to have finally put the kitchen project behind me. Today I will start on my stuff in the bathroom and then my closet...I'm glad I am off of work this week!

GARAGE WORK

A garage is something that a lot of people probably take for granted but for us, we are excited to finally have one! We have lived in a mobile home our whole marriage, in a mobile home park and have never had a garage. When I looked at the very first house back in February 2012, it didn't have one and the second one we looked at in July 2012, had a detached garage. When we bought our Mountainview Hideaway in August 2012, I was excited to finally have a garage! It's detached and it also has a 12 foot x 28 foot workshop above which we will convert into a studio for me next year. It will be nice to park our cars inside especially since we will be seeing snow on a regular basis! Once we get up there in September, we can store the Subaru inside, no more rental cars for us! Last Fall we had a garage door opener installed and we are beginning to think of storage solutions inside the garage. I'd like to throw up some insulation and nail in some drywall before we start attaching anything to the studs.

We just heard from our contractor last night and he finished work on the exterior of the garage. He used 12 gallons of stain, countless nails and 3 cases of caulk to get it sealed up nice and tight. He also replaced boards that were compromised as well as finished off the one side that was on the property line facing the neighbor's property. It had exposed cinder blocks and he added insulation and siding to give it a nice finished look. Onc we get up there in September, we will take some pictures for comparison. For now, I will leave you with these before photos.

I might paint the garage door the same green shade that I've done on the front door of the house. I will also put in new light bulbs to make sure the carriage lights are working. Hopefully they are and we won't have to replace them down the road.

The stairs lead up to the workshop area. Dave and I stained the steps and supports last year. We had Randy bring the landing up to code. The railing was way too low and we had some rotted wood that needed to be replaced. I will probably be painting these doors as well.

In September we will have to post new "NO TRESPASSING" signs and get our satellite dish and internet hook up done as well. It's getting very real!

FIRST U HAUL MOVE PART THREE: WRAPPING UP

We spent a good portion of our week unpacking boxes and putting stuff away. We took a break near the end of the week to go into Glacier for several hours. We enjoyed our drive over to Two Medicine and Dave stopped a bit near Marias Pass and took some pictures.

We stopped at Running Eagle Falls and we were able to see it running at full strength because of the Spring snow melt.

The foot bridge wasn't up yet so Dave had to wade across in order to get the shot.

Time out for our traditional dinner party with friends Randy and Chris and Bill and Paula, it's nice to have made some friends already and we are looking forward to making more!

Dave had coordinated for two cords of firewood to be delivered to the house, which came our last full day. We had wisely purchased a wheel barrow since Dave was stacking it behind the house, out of sight. We have one storage rack inside the garage and Dave liked it so much that he got a second which he assembled while we were there. He's going to get another one since we still have a lot of firewood! At first, we didn't think this would take too long to move and stack...wrong-o!

My Dad had gotten us a log splitter which I will probably be using more than Dave for doing smaller pieces of firewood. On this wood, it was so dry that he could actually split some of the larger pieces for stacking, quicker than if we were running the splitter.

Dave ended up spending eight hours working on the woodpile whereas I, spent about twenty minutes raking and bagging the bark and debris that was left behind in the driveway.

The first U Haul load is in the books... gearing up for the second in less than eight weeks!