Updates On Our Home Without Wheels

It has now been six weeks since we gained access to our new to us home in Radford, Virginia. We finally moved in about two weeks ago after the movers brought some furniture from the storage unit. In between and most everyday, we spend our time cleaning, painting, and making upgrades. And all this work is after we have spent the last three plus years on the vacation of a lifetime. We have been blessed. But, we decided it was time for a change, so buying a home base and travel part time seemed right. Today’s blog will provide a quick summary of our new home updates at the Virginia Command Center.

Overview

We continue to stay safe with some limited outings. Meeting occasionally with our family, but that’s about it. Except for the hardware store, of course. But when working around the house on projects, there are many quick trips to Lowes to find whatever part is needed.

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Our fulltime journey may have come to an early end due to the China Virus, but we will fully enjoy all the benefits of having a large home. Once all the updates have been done anyway. We do still plan to travel south over the winter and then another month or two summer excursion.

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Going from living in the large 5th wheel coach to living in a large 4,000+ sq ft house has required a little adjustment. For example, in the coach we could always be able to talk to each other no matter where we were located. Not so in the big house. At the RV park there is always some activity outside. Whether rigs coming or going or people walking. Our home is next to a deep woods and on a dead end street. It’s eerily quiet. But, that is a good thing, just different.

Basement Progress

I think that we are about 90% complete with updates in the lower level. Most all painting and flooring has been completed. Pat and I did all the painting that included priming first, then a final coat, plus two rooms had wall paper to remove. Unfortunately, the old flooring removal created so much black dust that we had quite a clean up and touch up project after they finished.

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The pool table crew moved the many parts from storage to our home. The 8 foot table has a one piece bed that cannot be disassembled. To move this bed around the corner to the basement stairs and then make the turn at the bottom was quite a feat for the two man crew. For some time I did not think it would make it, but after some gyrations, they did it. Thankfully, the three pieces of heavy 500 pound slate were not attached to the bed at this point! The cost to move and set up was $400, about 10% of a brand new table.

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Movers & Mattress

Trish and I moved all the boxes and smaller stuff and I hired the professionals for the heavy stuff. The four man crew finished in an hour and a half. Very quick and efficient! We now have our spare bedroom set to use while waiting on the new Amish furniture being made up in Ohio.

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Our new WinkBed mattress arrived although a couple of weeks late. This will be used on the new bed when it arrives, but for now is “floor installed.” It arrived in a highly compressed state in a tall box. At 145 pounds, I used my 2 wheel cart to move it to the bedroom. Then we carefully opened the box and begin unrolling the outer stretch wrap. It was about like the scene from Christmas vacation when they cut the rope on the new Christmas tree!

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Living Room Furniture

Our old stuff was falling apart. We sold or gave it away just prior to selling our old house and going fulltime in the RV. Our new items have now been delivered and set up in the LR. Although we are not exactly satisfied with the layout. May need to shuffle things around to another layout.

I did splurge on a new 4k LED television for the living room. We enjoy watching a show most evenings and an occasional sporting event. Best Buy offered to install the heavy 65 inch model for another hefty charge. I accepted this fee since the installation is to be wall mounted above the fireplace. It would have been tough for us to do it ourselves.

Kitchen Update

We narrowed it down to our preferred vendor after working with two and getting two quotes. The cost was about the same, but the winner makes their own cabinetry in our local town and they are a smaller family owned operation. We liked that. I’ll share a sketch of the proposal in the future if they agree.

The kitchen work would take 2-3 weeks to complete and may be done while we are enjoying some sunny Florida weather this winter.

Wrap Up

The nights are turning much cooler and the leaves are now a brilliant fall color. It has been great to watch the season change from one location. The downside is having to rake up the fallen leaves in our yard. But, you know what, I found it enjoyable in this new shot at being a homeowner. The same with lawn mowing. In the years past, it was more of a chore. Different perspective from retirement I guess.

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In the next couple of weeks, I will be working on the outside of the house before it gets too cold. Then a trip to the RV to winterize, wash, and move it to the storage lot.

That’s all for now. Thanks for following along. Take care and God Bless.