Fall 2020 Updates

We have had another busy three weeks. Some great fall weather with temps in the 70’s and mostly sunny. With a few cold snaps thrown in. I suspect the cold will be making more appearances very soon. We both work on projects during the day and then spend some time relaxing at night watching a program or two. So, here is a quick recap of our last three weeks of transition and our fall 2020 updates…

Winterizing, Cleaning, and Waxing the Rig

A couple of weeks ago we retrieved the RV from the Ft. Chiswell RV park and moved it to a nice and cozy spot on the street in front of our house. Probably can’t leave it there too long though. We planned to place it into a storage lot until we are ready to leave for Florida.

I winterized it by first draining and flushing out the water heater. Also replaced the magnesium anode. It was toast. Should have replaced it long before. It is on my 6 month maintenance list now. Then drained the fresh water tank.

Winterizing is done to prevent any of the water holding devices from freezing and bursting. This includes both the water lines and sewer drains. The new rigs have made this quite simple. Just buy a few gallons of special RV antifreeze, change the Anderson valve to winterize, place a short water hose from the fresh water inlet valve to the antifreeze jug. Then using the internal water pump, run the antifreeze through every cold and hot faucet. Finish by pouring some down each trap and the toilet. Then dumped all three holding tanks. Took about two hours.

This is the first year that I have had to winterize, because we are staying Up North a couple of months longer than our normal of the last few years. Another “not-normal” feature of 2020! It is best to have the winterizing completed by the time that temps fall much below freezing.

Pat finished cleaning the inside including the refrigerator. Removed nearly everything. We will have to reload before leaving for Florida, but certainly much less than when we were in the fulltimer mode.

Then I washed and waxed the entire 40 foot long and 13+ foot tall rig. Not all at once. Savoring it over a three day process. 🙂 Actually one enjoyable aspect was being able to chat with many neighbors as they walked or drove by. We live on a dead end street with very little traffic. Hopefully, I’ll get to know everyone eventually.

Kitchen Designed Awarded

We decided on using a local cabinet shop called Norman’s Cabinetry. It is a small family owned business that custom makes the cabinets in their Radford shop. We are quite excited to see their design come to existence.

This will be the first time that we have had a new kitchen in our own home. And where we selected all the appliances as well. They say that a kitchen will add to the home’s value and increase the selling potential. But, we plan to live here for maybe 20 years. By then it may need refreshed again!

More details on the kitchen in a later post.

New TV

Another splurge was the 65 inch Sony 4k television. Installed above the fireplace by the Best Buy team. This was our first “smart” TV meaning no more having to cable the set up to our phones to stream a show. Isn’t new technology great?

Garage/Shop

Then it was to the outside before it got too cold. Cleaning the gutters and caulking around the house. The garage was next since I plan to make a few things for the house in my soon to be woodshop. The garage walls are concrete block and had not been painted in the 40 years or more since it was built. Lots of spider webs, dirt, and mildew. Plus it was very dark.

It took over a week of cleaning, painting, and adding more lights before I felt like I could begin using it as a small shop. It is a two and a half car garage, so one half is shop and the other is for Pat’s small Honda. My F-350 will just not fit through the door opening.

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Goodbye Storage Unit

We finally made our last trip to the Blacksburg storage unit. Many smaller items that were on shelves were loaded into the truck. Then we broke down all the shelving to repurpose at our home. I’ll be happy to have that monthly expense gone.

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Family Visit

We were also very happy to have all our kids over for a dinner last week. It is great to have a large home to do this and looking forward to Thanksgiving when we will all be together again. Our son Bryan and wife Jennifer, from DC, took a quick five day vacation and we babysat their cat pictured below. She finally started to become friendly by the time they picked her back up.

Sometime after Thanksgiving we plan to drive to Indiana to see the Moms. Pat’s is in Greencastle, while mine is in Indianapolis near my brother. Hopefully, we can see all of our family in the Hoosier state on this visit.

Wintering in Florida

We have made all our reservations for the winter! I delayed making any concrete plans (with deposits) until we were fairly certain that it would happen. There are still many variables up in the air such as the kitchen remodeling work to be performed in January and a pandemic seems to be ramping up again.

We will leave in mid-December to travel to Myrtle Beach for a few days, then south to Savannah for a few then to Brunswick, Ga for a couple then a long day down to Clermont Florida for the month of January. For February, we are trying Williston Crossing RV Resort, a very active RV park that we looked over for a few days last year.

No real plans on the return yet, but I imagine a slow route north through some new areas for us. Maybe the month of March to explore before returning to Virginia.

Wrap Up

The leaves just keep falling from these huge trees. We have raked and used the blowers four times to move them all to the street for city pickup. The mulching mower will get to consume the rest of them. One of the joys of home ownership!

The fall colors have been wonderful this year. I had missed seeing the brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. But not so much the raking. I always remember the winters past having dull gray days and leafless trees.

It has been one heck of a crazy and long year. From the Covid lockdowns early this year to the presidential election. 2020 will be a year to remember or maybe better off to forget.

Take care, God Bless, and leave a comment if you wish.