Our big sparkling new house + first days of school

It has now been 2 weeks and we are finally settling into our new home.

We closed on a Friday and spent the night on the floor that night since the movers weren't able to get here until Saturday.  Even though they were on the floor, I think the kids were in a blissful state because they actually had a bedroom door that they could shut and have some alone time.

Before we were able to move in we had our first day of school while we were still living in Dublin.  This meant 3 hours in the car to take them to school and 3 hours in the car to pick them up from school.  Luckily I only had to do that for a couple of weeks before we moved closer to the school.

Our school is a year round school.  This means that the kids get a couple of weeks off every few months, every Weds. is an early release day and I think they get the entire month of June off.  I love this!  I'll take my insanity in small doses please.

They are in the same class this year, which I am SO grateful for.  The girl has already made a couple of new friends, the boy takes a little bit longer I think.   This past Monday as I dropped them off, the girl jumped out of the car because she saw her friend's Debbie and Maddie waiting for the gates to open.  The boy finally got out of the car and went to join them.  By the time I picked them up after school the boy was telling me that at recess 'our friends Debbie and Maddie' were all playing a game of store.  So that's how you do it folks, if you have problems making your own friends, just hijack some from your sibling.

Alright, back to moving in.  The movers showed up with our mountains and mountains of boxes early Saturday morning.  It turns out that they only had 1 truck to haul our belongs with, so this meant that they had to make a 2nd trip.  With the first load they were just loading things up in the garage to empty the truck in order to go back and get the balance of our things.

As any woman worth her weight will do, you start with the kitchen.  That is the heart and soul of your home right?  It's where you all come together as a family, and as the kids get older I'm finding that this is about the only time you come together as a family.  I unpacked box after box after box of kitchen wares and in the between time directed movers with boxes as to which room that box needed to go in.  Somewhere in the midst of all of this I happened to notice something sparkling on the floor, but since I knew that there were probably loose beads floating around in quite a few of those boxes, I just chalked it up to that.  As I started to see more and more sparkling I realized that wasn't beads after all and couldn't figure out what it was or where it came from.  Then I opened a box of art supplies that had been in the basement.  The box had 3 extra large containers of glitter in gold, copper and silver.  Guess what?  The silver one was open and leaking glitter everywhere the box went.  I do believe that box is currently put away in a cabinet and I have mentally marked it as 'deal with it later'.  On an up note though, if you want to come visit us in CA, just go to Windsor and follow the glittery trail.

Once I got the kitchen in a functioning state it was on to the bedrooms.  It was a good thing that we were all living out of suitcases to begin with.  All of our clothing was in boxes, that is other than what had traveled in our dresser drawers.  My first find was a box of shoes and my wedding dress.  So had it not been for that suitcase I would've been taking the trash out and picking up pizza's in my wedding dress or pajamas's.

By 4pm the movers were working on assembling beds, patio tables and anything else that had to be put back together.  I could tell they wanted to get out of there and honestly we were all beat and just wanted some quiet time in our new house.  When they left they were unable to get the desk part put together on the boy's bunk bed.  Then the mover that was working on our sleep number bed told me that he put it all together correctly but the remotes were out of battery so he couldn't test it.  Of course I have a ton of batteries, but which box they are in???  So I took him at his word and signed off on everything.  After getting new batteries I found out that no, it isn't working.

After they left I went into the garage to find that the original boxes that they were unloading so they could send the truck back for the second trip, well those boxes never moved from the garage.  Most of them are unbelievably heavy boxes of beads and shop hooks for those beads.  We packed the beads into gallon zip bags with probably about 12-15 or  more bags per box.  I don't know if you can imagine just how heavy those boxes are, but we have to find a way to get them upstairs to the new office.

At this point the downstairs is almost done, other than a mountain of broken down boxes in the 2 front rooms.  Since we are only allowed to fill up our recycling garbage can and not put anything extra out there, it will be months before we are able to clear all of those out.  But since we don't have any furniture to go into those 2 rooms just yet anyway, those boxes are fine where they are.

I've started on the office and just reopened the Etsy shop with just Luna cabochons, (since those are what I found...lol).  I even have a couple of sections in the shop sorted... boxes of beads, office supplies and my UFO pile (i.e. Un Finished Objects).

Slowly but surely it is coming together and I am so grateful that we are getting settled.  I'm even more grateful that I'm not writing this in my wedding dress.

We're Almost There

I think we did it, I think we are going to actually have a home this coming Friday.

Yesterday we signed all the paperwork, again.  The money was wired this morning and I'm told that by Thursday we might be in our new house, Friday at the latest.  Our movers can't get there until Saturday, but as long as we have a roof over our heads and a floor below our feet that we can call our own, we're golden.

I sincerely hope I'm not jinxing this, but I'm going to go ahead and give you all a virtual tour.

The front of the house, including our very own palm tree.

The front doors.  As you walk through there are small sitting rooms to either side

 

Next up is the kitchen, to the other side of the island there is a huge walk in pantry.

Dinning area and into the living room

 

Master bed, bath and closet

Down the hall from the master is the downstairs bathroom, laundry and 3 car garage.

Now we go upstairs.

The boy's room, the girl's room and the guest room

Next is the loft, a.k.a. Ed's gaming area.

Mommy's office/playroom

And finally, the backyard.  The trellis in the back is a huge grape vine with 

luscious green grapes all over it.  (God I hope I don't kill it)

The house in CO still hasn't closed and I didn't hear from Catherine today.  I don't know whether to be elated or scared?  Ed assures me that everything will be okay.

But that's it for now.  The Edwards are official Californians!

More House Drama

When I last wrote about our housing situation we were dealing with snowballs.  I'm torn to give this one an analogy of either a tea kettle or a roller coaster.  Maybe I should do a tea kettle on a roller coaster?

Currently we are tick tick ticking our way up to the top of the roller coaster, the tea kettle is cool enough that I can hold it in my lap.

We had scurried to get all the work done on the house for a closing of Friday the 2nd of August, this was supposed to be our move in date for our new house.  Gabe finished the deck work on Monday and got the office window prepped for the replacement.  He did however fail to get the trim on the house fixed.  The appraisers came in and gave the okay on everything except of course that trim,  Gabe said he thought we were going to take care of that part and wouldn't be able to get back there until after 5pm.  Once again I was frantically trying to get this fixed up and Catherine was attempting to get the appraiser back out there to confirm that the trim had been fixed.  I was able to sweet talk my dad and his neighbor David to go over there and fix that trim up.  So mid afternoon on Monday we were completely done with our end of everything.

On Tuesday the appraiser came back out and gave the all clear.  I scheduled the moving company for Saturday Aug. 3rd.  (And as I am writing this from our same apartment in Dublin you can guess that this didn't work out so well).

We are at the top of the roller coaster now looking down at what appears to be the craziest set up ever with dips, turns and drops.  My kettle is just a warming up, but it's still okay to hold it.

Catherine calls us to let us know that even though we are done with inspections and appraisals, the new buyers loan office still will not give us a closing date.  It seems that these buyers are using one of those Quicken Loans or 1-800 loans that you see on TV.  The customer service is atrocious and they will not commit to a closing date.  According to Catherine, this is unprecedented.

Next I get a phone call from our CA realtor Jim who informs me that he also has been on the phone with Catherine and the Friday closing date will be impossible to attain.  He also has been on the phone with this rinky dink lender and even though there is no privacy laws preventing them from giving us a closing date, this lender just will not commit to a date.

Our roller coaster is plummeting down the rails now, my cheeks are plastered back, hair is whipping behind me while I white knuckle the bar in front of me.  The frustration in my body is heating that kettle up to an uncomfortable bath temperature. 

In the meantime...... on a whim, another realtor did a showing of our house to a couple in Boulder.  These people are first time home owners and were really interested in it.  My feeling was this, I am so tired of dinking around with this house, why not!  Catherine tells me that the Boulder people are a conventional loan, they don't have to sell anything in order to buy.  The downfall, if we have to go through another inspection there maybe more things that they want fixed and after dropping over $10 grand into this property, we just are not spending another dime on it.  I gave Catherine some terms to run past the Boulder people, the house will be sold as is and we need a firm closing date.  They agreed, we're home free right?  Nope!

Catherine then calls the first buyers, the Montana people to tell them that they are now moving into a back up position and the Boulder people are in first position.  The Montana people come back with an offer of $5000 more.  Well, money talks right?  Ok, let's sell it to the Montana people if they can get a closing date.  Catherine calls all the interested parties to deliver the news.  Our Boulder people were devastated.

Now behind the scenes of all this drama we also have the potential of losing our house in CA because our sellers also have a back up buyer all set and ready to go.

On top of this, we are now up against a dead line of Aug. 8th that we have to be out of this apartment.  I am not looking forward to trying to house the entire family and 4 pets in a hotel.  Not to mention the fact that we would have to pack all of this up and probably store it in our cars, just to move it again once the house closes.  These Montana people and their lender have put us into a horrible situation.  Not to mention, our sellers are also waiting for that money, they are staying in a B&B with their family.  So this domino effect is rippling it's way through at least 3 families, that I know of.

My roller coaster is on a rapid up and down track with my stomach dropping at every fall and anxiety building up every hill.  My kettle is boiling and ready to start whistling.

To make sure we don't lose our house in CA Ed and I decide to just liquidate everything.  We are flying without a safety net at the moment.  The thought being that after all is said and done we can just put that money back into 401k's, college funds, etc.

Because of the liquidation, we now no longer have to worry about a time deadline.  It's just a matter of how fast can they get the money to us, this goes to federal reserves being open on the East coast and brokerage firms getting the job done.

This is the straight part of the roller coaster track where you are up really high, but you're just sort of chugging along.  It's a little bit surreal and euphoric, you can't believe that you just made it through those ups and downs, but there are still plenty of twists and turns ahead.  The kettle is no longer screaming, but it's still too hot to hold.

Now back to the Colorado house.  The Boulder people are so devastated about losing the house they come back with another offer.  They match the extra $5000 and offer to get the closing done in 2 1/2 weeks, putting it at the 20th of Aug.  The Montana people gave us a 'range' of between Aug, 19-23rd, still not committing to anything.  The Boulder people also threw in an extra $3000 to go towards any repairs that need to be done after the inspection.  So we said that's it... let's sell it to those nice people from Boulder.

On Friday we received word that the paperwork for our money will be available either late Friday or Monday at the latest.  Once that is in we have to race to the title company to get notary work done and I'm not sure how much time will pass after that until we finally get the keys in our hot little hands.

And that is where we are right now.  My roller coaster is safely coasting into the station, my tea kettle is lukewarm.

Wednesday will be our last night in this apartment whether we have a place to go or not.  Keep fingers and toes crossed that we have the keys to our new place before then.

Side bar, I now completely understand the people pushing shopping carts around with all of their belongings in it mumbling to themselves.  They were previously trying to buy a house from a disreputable lender.  By next week, I might be joining them.

July Adventures

Here are a few things we did our first full month in California.

At the end of June we paid a visit to the Alameda County Fair, which was crazy expensive!  But it did get us out of the apartment for a little while.  All four of us took a ride on the swings.  I thought these swings were the kiddy kind that just sort of twirl you around nice and relaxing like.  Nope!  These swings were the kind that lift you way up in the air and twirl you around fast enough to make your cheeks look like you just had face lift surgery.  The kids had a great time on this, mommy a little dizzy and sickly after that one.  That's why I was so glad that my son is not a thrill seeker like his sister.  I was able to go on the Ferris wheel with him while Ed took the girl on a roller-coaster.  I guess my aging brain is ready for the Ferris wheel to be my maximum excitement level.

The weekend after that we took a little drive to Brentwood and Discovery Bay where we had passed by some fruit picking stands while looking at houses.  We found ourselves a nice Strawberry farm and set up to go pick some fresh strawberries.  Now because of the competitive streak in both of my children it immediately turned into a race to see who could get more strawberries in their box than the other team.  Calista teamed up with Daddy and Alex teamed up with me and in usual Alex fashion took over the operation and started barking out orders.  The final tally, Mommy and Alex won that one.  Then I made a strawberry syrup to go over our pancakes and we feasted on strawberries for the entire week.

Side bar here, let me just say that the person that came up with this idea is/was a genius.  Grow the fruit, then let the customers come pick it.  You cut out several middlemen with the grocery stores, harvesters, etc.  The public gets the freshest fruit possible and all you have to do is water some trees or strawberry bushes.  Brilliant!

Our last adventure was a day trip to San Francisco.  We had to make a 20 minute stop once in San Fran to plug in the Tesla, we figured we'd just have lunch.  Ed had scouted out a charging station and that was our first destination.  Little did we know that this was the George Lucas Film Studio. Unfortunately it is only open Monday - Friday so we weren't able to go inside or find lunch.  But they did have a Starbucks around back and a bunch of grass and landscaping for the dogs to stretch their legs.  We are hoping to go back once the kids are on a break to tour the inside. 

  

After charging up we were off to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was a bit cloudy, but still wonderful.  Before we got there the kids weren't very excited and I was second guessing my planning this adventure.  But once we got on the bridge and they saw all the people and the bright red bridge you could feel the excitement exuding from the back seat.

After that it was a trip to Sausalito where we found a waterfront, open deck, seafood restaurant.  It was just heaven!  The smell of the sea air, the light bouncing off the water, the sounds of the seagulls, this is the stuff that feeds my soul.

These were my first attempts at the panoramic setting on my phone.  Be patient, I'll get it figured out.

Those were our adventures thus far.  Next blog will be more on the house sale.  Spoiler alert, "It's going to be a bumpy ride".

TTFN

The Squirrels Are Back... and yes it's personal this time

Just a quick update on the house.

Here is the start of the snowball, turns out there are snowballs in hell because that is right where this one came from.

We received a water bill for the house in CO on Grand.  Most of our water bills are $45.... $130 tops.  When we opened this one up it showed that the month of May the total was over $400!!  I remember that last month noticing that the sprinklers between the street and the sidewalk were going a lot and called Aaron our sprinkler guy out to take a look at it.  This was the cause of the $400 bill. 

Wanting to make sure that this still wasn't going on I asked Mom and Dad to swing by the house and make sure there wasn't a sprinkler head going and to see if they could just shut it off for us.  When they got to the house they found a FedEx letter from Tesla, the company that put in our Solar Panels. Dad scanned it in and emailed it to us.  It seems upon the routine Tesla inspection they found a bunch of damage, sing it with me, "The squirrels are back again and your father won't call an exterminator"  Yes those G.D. squirrels set up another nest under the panels and started chewing away at the wires.  Because of this being known before the closing of the house it is on us to fix it, to the tune of $2100.

A small gust of wind has given a gentle push to our snowball and it is now begun descending down the mountain.

If anyone has ever dealt with a VA loan you know the horror show.  It is great for the buyer, but for the seller it's a nightmare.  When you are dealing with the VA your house has to be in perfect working order or they will not approve the loan.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that there are these protections out there for our vets.  I'm unhappy with the order that this all went down in. 

The order that is supposed to happen is that the inspector comes out, you fix whatever the inspection says you have to.  Then the appraiser comes out, signs off and you get your loan.  This seems like such a simple 3 step process to me, and yet here we are.  When we had the inspection done they came back with nothing to fix.  We were pleasantly shocked, that includes our realtor, that nothing had to be fixed.  Next we are on to appraisal.  The appraiser visits the house and informs Catherine that we need to fix 3 things before they will sign off on the loan for the buyer.  The window in the office that is cracked, the trim on the house in the backyard (again squirrel damage) and the sagging deck.  Catherine has checked in with her handymen and no one can get out there to fix these things until after the 1st.  This was this past Weds. July 24th, 5 days before closing.  Had we known about these things 3 weeks ago when the inspection took place we could've had them fixed.

Our snowball is now cresting the summit and has grown to the size of a pumpkin.

On Thursday I started going through Google trying to find some kind of handyman to go fix these things on short notice.  I found a company in Ft. Collins and told the owner, Gabe, about our situation.  This was my big mistake, I'm sure that antenna went up tuning into my desperate need for a contractor. 

Thursday was also the kids new school open house event and the girl wanted to get her hair cut before the first day of school.  Of course momma treated herself to a manicure while I waited for her.  While getting my nails done Gabe calls me to let me know that he just finished summing up what needs to be done at the house.  He tells me that if this were his place he would rip the entire deck out and replace it.  I told him, look I just need the sagging part fixed.  He sends me pictures of rotted wood, because why in the world would those builders use treated wood that won't rot???  I swear they made all of those houses so aesthetically pleasing, but then didn't give a second thought to functionality or construction.  But I digress.

I'm fearing how much this is going to cost so I ask, under $10,000?  He chuckles and says yes, I say under $5,000 he says he thinks it will be around $3,100.  Alright, it sucks, but what choice do we have at this point?

Driving back from Discovery Bay I talk to Gabe once again and now the price is $5,100.  I can only assume that it jumped by 2 grand due to the sense of urgency in my voice as well as my asking the pricing question.  "If she thought it might be 10 grand I bet I can get more out of her."  We arrange to meet Ed for dinner at Applebee's where I completely throw my children under the bus by asking them to deliver the news of how much it will cost to Ed.  I highly recommend this tactic for all bad news delivery.  How can you get mad at that sweet little face?

While at dinner Catherine calls and I tell her what all has transpired, she is aghast at the price of that deck repair.  I told her that I thought it was really high too, but not dealing with this on a daily basis, how do I know if that is a correct price or not?  So we decided to do a 3 way conference call with Gabe.  Some things didn't add up after talking to him.  For instance, Catherine asked him how much of that was materials, he said $550.  She asked the rest of that is all labor then?  He says well yes because it's a weekend job.  She asks how much would it be if it wasn't a weekend job and he tells us it would cost the same.  ~red flag~  She tells him the same thing, look we are not looking to have the deck rebuilt, we just need it to pass the appraiser.  His argument is that he's been in business for 20 years and he doesn't want to put his name on something that is done half arsed.  We hang up with Gabe and Catherine calls me back.  She picked up on the weekend labor thing as well.  Then I told her that on top of this he wanted all this money up front, which I wasn't comfortable with at all.

Our snowball is blasting down toward the base of the mountain, it is the size of a Volkswagen and it is mowing down everything in it's path.

Catherine and I decide the best thing to do is to just use her guy and wait until the 1st when he can get out there.  I send a text message to Gabe thanking him for his time, but tell him that we can save about $2,500 if we just wait until the 1st to have Catherine's guy do the work.  I get an immediate text message back asking for me to call him.  All of a sudden Gabe can do the work for $2,500 less than he was asking.  He starts into the bit again about his name being on this work, pride, insurance, yada yada yada.  I tell him, "Look, it's not like your name is going to be on a plaque underneath our deck, no one is going to know who did that work.  I just need it done to pass an appraisal, she isn't going to be crawling through lattice to look under the deck."  I also told him that I would give him 1/2 upfront and the balance upon completion, which he agreed to and says that the work will be completed by Sat. evening.  I have Catherine schedule a new appraisal walk through for Monday and I think we are back on track.  There will be no way to close on the 29th now, it is looking more like this coming Friday.

Friday, (yesterday), I tried to reach Gabe all day and played phone tag with him.  I was trying to get the 1/2 down payment to him because I was afraid that without that he wouldn't start the work.  We went back and forth texting payment options, Venmo, Pay Pal, Apple Pay and never did get it resolved by that night.  One of our former neighbors, Danielle, was kind enough to walk by our house last night for me and told me that it didn't look like any work had been done at all on the deck.  This was my big fear.

This morning, (Saturday), first thing I did was call Gabe and got his voicemail box.  The recording was a guy with this Brooklyn accent asking you to leave a message for Chilly Willy's air conditioning.  This was a real WTF moment.  I called back and got the same thing.  Who is this guy???

Danielle's daughter has been cutting our grass for us and was over there this morning and informed me that still there are no materials at the house and there are no workers at the house.  My last text message from Gabe was that I was to call his wife Lauren to arrange payment.  Not being successful in reaching Gabe I call her.  Again telling her that I'm not giving any money when no one is at the house working.  She has Gabe call me and he informs me that he is on the way over to the house at that moment to take out the office window for replacement.  When he gets there he calls me to say that his workers wife was in an accident and had to leave the job site abruptly, but he would be staying there to work on it himself. 

I start to question his voice mail message, he tells me that he's an actor on the side and he did it as a joke/audition for a commercial for some lady.  ~red flag~  At this time he tells me that he's been doing this for 15 years.  (Hmmm didn't he say 20 before?  But I don't call him out on it).  He says that the work will be completed by tomorrow.  He also tells me that him and Catherine are actually in some of the same social real estate circles.  Later Catherine texts me that she does know some of the people in Gabe's circles and he seems ok to go ahead and pay.  So I sent the payment to him.

This is where our snowball lay at the moment.  It is at the base of the mountain, it is the size of a Suburban.  In it there is rotten wood, house trim, a window, some solar panels, wires sticking out and in the very center of it is a squirrel.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that little bastard was the one that pushed it off the top of the mountain to begin with.

The House

Oi Vey!  Where to even begin?

We dropped the price on the Colorado house by 10 grand and that resulted in an immediate offer.  This was a huge relief since we now knew what we had to work with money wise.  So the hunt was on!

When we drove out here in April our sites were set on a new housing development,  Richmond Homes.  The model we had picked out was called 'The Benton' and fit all of our needs with a 5th bedroom in the front ground floor for the office, 4 bedrooms upstairs and a beautiful kitchen.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  It turns out none of these would be available until November.

Looking to a 'not new' house, we were able to narrow it down to 2 homes.  The first one was built in 2016 and had basically the same layout as The Benton and was also in our price range.  It was just about 2 blocks from the school with not too much of a yard, but then again none of the houses out here have much of a yard.  The second one was a little further away from a school, was older but had a hot tub in the backyard.  The floor plan was not a favorite of mine, the house was really long and narrow with a 3 car garage, a double car at the end of the driveway and then a single car garage that was separate and would've been the office.

We were all on board with the 2016 house, that is until our realtor Jim told us that this was a landlord/tenant situation.  The landlord had not even given the tenants notice to vacate yet because he didn't want to lose a months rent.  However, Jim warned us that if the tenants wanted to be a pain about things we would be looking at up to 6 months to evict them with oodles of legal complications.  So we looked at the hot tub house again, which was the boys favorite.  It was a nice house, but it just wasn't 'The One', so I asked Jim to expand our search area to Discovery Bay and Brentwood. 

Jim sent us a list of homes and the kids and I set out to see about 5 that I picked out.  We scouted while Ed was at work.  About the 3rd house in we found 'The One'.  It was a beautiful 5 bedroom, 3 car garage, 2 sitting rooms when you walk through the front door, large living room, loft area for Ed to play his games and then a huge den area that will be my office, (which is pretty close to the space I had in Windsor).  The backyard has a built in patio covering/trellis with fruit producing grape vines.  When we looked at the house there was a big bunch of juicy grapes almost ready to pick and we all got excited at the thought of picking our own fresh grapes.  This house also has paid for solar panels, just like our house in Windsor.  It is also in a very secure gated community where you have to show ID before they will let you in.  So pretty much, this house was a perfect fit in every way.  We came back at 4pm to show it to Ed and made an offer that night which was accepted.

Now I'm hesitant to put up any pictures of the house just yet in fear of jinxing it.  So I will probably post some pictures on Monday when we are at the 100% sure mark.

Back to Colorado, the day after we put in the offer on the California house, our realtor calls while the kids and I are in Target.  She informs me that the buyers for our house were planning on getting a VA loan.  However their realtor or financier dropped the ball and didn't see that they already had a VA loan and it's frowned upon to have 2 of those going at the same time.  So our Colorado realtor, Catherine, managed to get a re-fi done for them and is really working hard to keep this deal held together.

Our sellers are in the same situation, they are relocating due to work so they are also on a very strict time frame.  Jim also told us that the sellers have a backup buyer in case we fall through.

We have been living in limbo for about 3 weeks now and let me tell you it sucks!  Our notice has been given here at the apartment, but we're not completely sure where were going to go if the Colorado deal falls through.  I've decided that real estate is like domino's, if one falls the rest are not far behind.

This past Weds. we heard from Catherine with a new closing date of July 29th for the Colorado house.  We are supposed to be closing on the California house on July 29th.  Guess what date is the first day of school for this kids?  Yup, July 29th.  Later I will be starting a go fund me page to cover the cost of my straight jacket and meds, contribute what you can.

I do believe that this coming Monday we will get the final word on the buyers re-fi and we will be 100% locked in.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

Next up I'll write a little about some of our adventures exploring California and them getting ready for their new school.

It's a new car for everyone

One of the things we were trying to coordinate before our journey out here was how to get Ed's Volt here.  He had driven his corvette here when he came out in January.  So we had to get my Volt and his to California some way.  The original plan was for Ed to fly to Colorado then drive his car to California, but since we were planning on making this a mini vacation this turned out to be impossible.  Ed has just started with this new company in January and had no vacation time built up to lolligag across the country like we had planned to do.

The next plan was to park the car at Mom and Dad's house and ask them to drive it out later in the summer, then we would fly them home.  That was a great plan until my parents decided to make us an offer on Ed's Volt.  Problem solved!  Mom and Dad get a new car and we don't have to worry about getting another vehicle to California.  My only draw back to this was that with just my Volt, which is a 4 door and Ed's corvette, if my car breaks down then we don't have a family car.  Ed was thinking ahead I guess because when we arrived out here we were greeted with a brand new Tesla.

Our new Tesla is named Jasmine and is a pretty blue color.  The Tesla is an all electric vehicle that we can drive for around 310 miles on one charge.  It only takes about 40 minutes on a super charger to fill it all the way up.  This car is also one of those 'self driving' cars, which takes some getting used to.  The first time I drove it the car steered me back to the left when I started to go over the line.  Then when you get too close to the car in front of you it brakes for you.  Too scary?  Too safe?  The jury in my head is still out on that one.  However you can turn this feature off, which is what I prefer.

So I'm going to include some things I've had to re-learn in California.  The first is how to pump gas.  California gas pumps have a locking nozzle that firmly attaches to your gas tank, this prevents the fumes from getting out.

The second thing I discovered is that I need a lot of apps in this state just to survive.  (This could also be due to the fact that I'm new around here and have no clue where anything is).  I've downloaded apps to find dog parks, EVgo charging stations, plus a bunch of businesses that are only available through an app to schedule appointments, pay for amusements, etc. etc.

Lastly I have had to relearn how to do everything with less.  When Ed moved out here in January we sent him in the corvette with limited supplies, this was due to space constrictions in his car.  Of course he did somehow manage to get his golf clubs out here ~smirk~

In his apartment Ed had 2 bath towels, 4 forks, 3 spoons, 8 butter knives, 2 steak knives, 3 coffee cups, 2 glasses, 3 small plates, 2 big plates, 3 salad bowls and a spatula.... that was it in the kitchen.  When we came out in April these were some issues:

Sleeping on a pillow with no pillow case

Sheets coming off the bed because there was no mattress pad cover

The kids having to fight over who gets the bath towel and who has to use the hand towel when they go to the pool.

Ed and I having to share a fork for dinner that first night

Making a green salad in a cooking kettle (I had wanted a new set of cookware, so I went ahead and purchased it and had just sent it to him directly)

Using a steak knife to cut veggies

I informed Ed that this was like living in a frat house and then made a sizable purchase at Target.  This was enough items to make him comfortable as he lived that Bachelor life.  When we arrived with the entire crew that was a different story.  So another trip to Target was in store for us a few days after arrival.  There was silly little things like a salad bowl, more towels, more glasses, and a whisk that I am proud to say I have also twice now used as a potato masher.  We are all about the multi purposing tools that are MacGyver'd out of necessity in this residence.  

Lastly I'm going to throw out a useful tip.  If you find yourself trying to sustain yourself in between places as we find ourselves (I'm talking to you Kari G).  Whole Foods is about the most expensive grocery store you'll find, at least out here.  However, they do have very small herb and spices in small boxes for $1.99.  I'm also going to start using them for those oddball spices.  You know the ones that you bought for that special recipe that you wanted to try, and that is the only time you've ever used it?

That's it for tonight.... the next time I write I'll fill everyone in on the house sale and purchasing a new home.

TTFN