BMW safely arrived and now for the finer points of moving

Just one day before Jeff was to leave to arrive in Denver to help me with this massive collection of stuff, his BMW arrived in Florida. Well, that was just so much fun. Notsomuch. Through out it all, I still have not smoked. I am happy to say that I can undergo a fairly stressful month and still keep my resolution. Some people would say a cross country move ranks up there on the stress list. I am fortunate that I don't have to work and I am grateful for that right from the get-go. Jeff didn't stop noting how nice the weather was & had "no idea why....you're complaining so much". I glared at him and he would just start laughing. He got mileage off our fabulous weather for almost two days then it dumped 21 inches. Then he shut up.

Jeff came to Denver and accomplished a LOT. I got sick. We had a great time in Central City Wednesday night and then it was down to business. Thursday I had a 7 year sobriety birthday and we got to celebrate together. I am still recovering from a very sore throat. This would not have prevented me from smoking back in the active smoking days,but as an ex-smoker, it kept me far far away from those nasty cancer sticks. Yuck. I am so glad I have kept to that resolution.

During this past weekend, I started doing some of the laundry and just started laughing. I almost pee'd in my pants. I found the ORIGINAL BMW keys in an old pair of Jeff's pants underneath a bunch of rugs that covered any hint of clothing. The fact that I can laugh about this was a very good sign that I can get over a resentment or at least a week long frustration.

At least the BMW move is resolved. I am trying to recover from this horrible throat ache and cough/sneezing while trying to move. It's quite exhausting. Thank God I have had Stacy's help! Thank you Stacy! I have employed this moving-experienced friend to help me pack, organize, donate and stay sane. She's coming back to help me one last time the morning of my move. She is brave!

Next up: how to accomplish a cross country moving plan during a week long continuous sneeze.

Packing it all up (and the BMW is still stuck in the garage)

I simply can not believe I have neglected TotheMax for the past week or so. I will NOT go into extreme detail on what a production it is to pack up a house and actually manage everything that goes into selling said house. I must not forget the BMW. We are trying to transport that through an auto transport service. We are also having the septic system and well system inspected in addition to the actual house inspection which is March 9, 2010.

The BMW was a little issue. "Please find the keys (they should be in the garage) and move it outside and I will arrange the service to have it taken away." That was the short version of what Jeff said. That is what Jeff said before he realized he did not put the keys in the garage or in the ignition of the BMW and neither one of us could find the keys. Of course, he is in Florida, hanging out by our pool, racking his brain. I am shoveling snow and alternately searching the house. For hours. AND.HOURS (shoveling and searching, respectively). It was grueling and frustrating and mentally exhausting. So after hours of NOT finding the keys, I hired a locksmith. The locksmith came (on the same day and almost the same time as my moving consultant from Johnson and my packing assistant) and fixed my basement key issue. After 4 more hours (for a total of 5), I had a car & trunk key for the BMW (as well as the basement key) for $213.

Fortunately, I wanted to take care of business and get the registration taken care of earlier in the day. I was thinking ahead. That way, I thought, once the locksmith comes and works his magic, I could arrange to call Jeff to get this car on the road and call the service that has been already calling me several times. I went to the Taj Mahal that is our Jefferson County courthouse with checkbook in hand. "You need emissions. I can't register this. Your insurance is fine. You need emissions." EXCUSE ME? So I left with no temporary tags (to everyone who asked me about temp tags, this would have been useful advice early Thursday at 0920). So after calling Jeff to report this bit of news, he feels worse ( and so do I, what with my growing migraine). He told me to call after the locksmith comes.

So, now the locksmith left at 5:30pm (spending 5.5 glorious hours at my house) and I have no registration, no ignition key, and ABSOLUTELY no patience left. I called Jeff. Guess what?! Phil, his friend and previous BMW owner may have the key!! WOW! Some information like this would have been so ultimately cool BEFORE the last 48-72 hours of my life happened. Could I get those two or three days back?No? Okay, just asking. So now, at 6:30pm (just a mere 12 hours after I picked up my packing assistant to start the day), Jeff recommended I go to pick up the keys and call Phil and bring cheesecake. Seriously, the cheesecake had to be a joke. But I am not laughing.

I get all the way to Phil's and vent a tad (just an eensy little bit) and head back to put this key in the ignition. It fits! The car still needs to be jumped. I go to bed. Which is very nice as Jeff said I could take a few days off after this fiasco.

The next day, I received a copy of an email from our realtor. It seems our well has e. coli and "coliform"(sic) in it. Huh? I want a day OFF!!
See you Monday!

Our new home in Englewood Florida

So we dodged our first real estate bullet and scored on our next find (previous post, Part II)! This is a picture of me with our closing papers in our lanai room next to our cloud shaped pool (Jeff has informed me that this is the official shape of our pool). I think I'm in love now! I think Jeff feels the same way, but I feel so at home here. I know the dogs like it and I will do my best to post a video of Sadie and Max near the pool. Fenway will absolutely go out of her way to completely avoid the pool situation at all. We got her in the pool once to see what her capabilities were when we were right there. The poor dog was so scared and did not even try to navigate the steps (as Sadie and Max learned fairly quickly). The video and/or any photos of the pool will likely NEVER include Fenway. I will see what I can do about posting a video or two on TotheMax!
See you soon.

Bringing back brunette: the end result with a photo!

So as promised to my mom and to the satisfaction of many as well as myself, I shut down the blonde project. That experience is finito. I went into a salon and wanted to get my hair back to brunette. The responsible stylist and colorist DawnMarie at New Wave Salon in Englewood, Florida (my new home town by the way) assessed my needs and wants and told me to come back at the end of the week and warned me it may take a while to recover the normalcy of my brunette self. As normal as that is. We discussed that she would get all the brunette out.

On Thursday, I walked back through the same door and selected a few pictures that would give me a super fresh start at being the brunette that I am. I realized that a cut would be in order. I wanted to chop off any last dead ends and just START OVER. So what you see is the end product! DawnMarie got me to a very fresh easy to style (well, relatively easy....it took me 45 minutes to do it myself, but the more I do it, that number should be shaved off by at least 12 minutes I hope!). I am really happy with it! I think that maybe, down the road, I may get highlights. DOWN.THE.ROAD!!! I am going to savor the dark dark brown. I am taking very good care of this healthy crop of hair this time around. I have a great shine agent (and yes, I got it at Walmart: Rusk works pretty well, though!).

If I can achieve my own blow out looking something like this, I will be quite satisfied. Until summer humidity in Florida.

Header for my blog description seems obsolete, I know!

I was reading my profile description and my blog's header/tag and I realize I need to update this and update some photos. I think I will need to get new photos to show we found our warm climate. I am off to grab some last minute things before I pack to head back to Golden to pack up the Colorow property. I will fix this all in the next several weeks!

A real esate saga in two parts: PART II: Finding the dream house

So, it worked, for a day. We looked at Craigslist rentals. I found one immediately and Jeff said, "go for it, that sounds great". So I responded to an ad for a rent to own near a quaint little village called Olde Englewood. This was an area that our first waitress hinted at on our first day EVER in the Venice/Northport area. She actually continued to hint and we took the hint. How long did this take? January 22 to about February 6 or so, to be exact!

We decided that February 9, we had to be out of our RV park, so we were going to have a nice lunch in Olde Englewood around February 6th or 7th, stalk this place that I found (the owner responded back, stating that dogs were fine as the owner liked dogs, but there was no fence), then off to Punta Gorda to reserve space at the RV park. We loved the neighborhood instantly. There was an arts alliance gallery, a playhouse, gift stores, some antique stores and even a corner market (on the corner closest to the mystery property. I told Jeff that I did not have an exact address, just an intersection, so we were hoping there would be a for rent/sale sign to give it away.

We found the house and a couple fixing something on the side. It turned out to be the owner and her platonic guy friend. I apologized for stalking her property, but she laughed and said she was glad I stopped by. Jeff & I walked in. Instant Love. I am telling you, this was it. This IS it. The only thing there was to fix were a few things that the owner brought up. We even got a flooring/dishwasher allowance. We had a pool. We had a ONE level layout. We had a wonderful home. Now, about the closet space (my compromise in the real estate bullet): Dolly (owner) took ME (not Jeff) to see my future closets. Yes. I said CLOSETS plural. I had TWO walk in closets. Jeff has one closet in the bedroom and another shelving area near HIS bathroom. I am partly speaking in jest. Of course, he can use the master bathroom (complete with dual sinks, garden tub, vanity table and stool for me, closed off toilet room, spacious shower stall, fully tiled), but he has his own. That way, he can put his stuff around the way he likes and I promised I won't nag him. I am getting ahead of myself. We have barely finished the tour of the house. The pool /lanai room is another story. Wow! There are drains in and around the pool, a hurricane shutter (as well as special window coverings), and a pool closet for all the pool supplies. She took us on a tour of her property (both lots) and Jeff was very impressed with some water plumbing stuff I did not know much about. I think he also liked the shed ("I could do all my stuff out here"). I am thinking he really loved it too. I did not have a list of anything, but the carpet, to fix. That was pretty impressive and I told Dolly so (as I am pretty picky). We immediately liked Dolly and her friend. Dolly worked in Denver for quite some time and we knew of some of her work in the music industry. We were not dealing with the same mentality of person as we were just days ago. We knew we had to make a deal. She had some what of a deal with other people. We made it happen. We both knew it was "the house" for us. We went home and smiled all night and talked much of the evening about our plans to take care of the Colorow property. I didn't get sick. I didn't feel nauseated. I felt right. We realized that we had dodged a big bullet because we were meant to be ready for this opportunity.

The next day, we had everything ready for our closing. We got our paperwork pretty much done on February 8 & 9th and we moved onto the property on that Tuesday. We felt like even though we are going to make some sacrifices in order to get into this property before selling the RV or the Colorow property, the sacrifices were completely worth it. We are so excited about the new property. I will see if I can figure out the photo in the blog deal and show you a few pictures.


So a new chapter of our lives begins. I went out and got us new iPhones, which we love, with our new area code. I have submitted our new address changes to the USPS. I have been known to hit Walmart 1-3 times a day almost daily since our move date. At what do you know, I am about to head there very soon. For a person who was committed to NEVER going to Walmart, it is a sure sign that times, they are a changin'. Thank God, the Walmart is at least 6 miles from my house. We have no chains in Olde Englewood Village. We have a coffee shop with free wi-fi and it's NOT a Starbucks. We have a corner market for extras and it's NOT a 7-11. We have several hair stylists and none of them are Great Clips. I am truly happy. I have one fear and that is making friends. That's another blog. Another time.

I'm done with blonde

I am done with blonde. DONE.WITH.BLONDE...you know, in case you didn't hear me the first time. The roots were too insane. Not emulating the whole Desperately Seeking Susan look at all. That's what I was shooting for, you know. It did NOT quite work out that way. So, in an effort to get honest with myself, I found a nice and blunt woman originally from New York (but settled in Florida) to help me find me self via my hair color. I told her that a new hair style to start over wouldn't hurt either.

So I made an appointment with Dawn Marie at New Wave Salon in Englewood, Florida (see other blog posting for information on my new neighborhood and the whole real estate deal). She brought my hair back to a very very dark brown (how easily I forgot where I came from) and chopped off a few inches when I showed her a dramatically short hair cut in a look book. She, in three short hours, transformed me into a brunette with a fairly easy hair cut. Right now,with the frizz, there is a bit to be desired, but with a blow dryer and de-frizz stuff, I think I will be a-ok. It feels softer and I am back to being a brunette.

So I was thinking, some highlights would be really cool. Just a few blonde streaks. Just kidding.