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Published: June 17th 2010
The vanity is done
One of the last projects to complete on the house was finishing the vanity - it is now done & it turned out greatJust re-read our last blog entry and realized that we didn’t live up to our promise to do better with blog entries. We are always amazed at how the days fly by. Our time has been filled with some big items that we needed to check off the list. First and foremost we (Bob) had to finish up some house projects in order to get the house on the market. We did a major transformation of our “front room” into a family room/guest room by painting, putting on closet doors and putting up trim. Luckily we were able to hire our nephew and he helped us with the painting of that room as well as the dining room. Between all 3 of us working on it, we got it done. We then had to find a realtor to work with and we found an excellent one in Jill Burlington. She definitely fit our style and she read us well in what our needs were. It was also helpful that she really liked the house, but better yet was that she gave us great advise and always kept us informed of progress at all times. We put the house officially on the
Lunch at the winery with friends
Denise & JP visiting from Montreal - having a great lunch at Knapp Winery on Cayuga Lake. market the Thursday before Easter and we had an open house a week later. That was a big success with about 25 people coming into the house with about 4 people seriously interested in the house. Well, the bottom line is that we have signed an agreement, the structural inspection was done, the survey has been updated and the bank appraisal has been completed. We are now just waiting for a closing date to be set. Due to the tax break that is currently being given to home-buyers we need to close by June 30th (yikes) but we made an arrangement to stay in the house until July 23rd so that gives us a few more weeks to get everything done and move us onto the boat.
When the house went on the market there were a few projects that still needed to be so Bob has been working them in as well between showing the house and having company. The biggest project that he had left to do was to finish building the upstairs bathroom vanity - that is now done and looks great (if I do say so myself!)
Other things that have kept us busy
Bob helping with making a sailboat
Denise asked for a piece of wood but Bob couldn't stop with that - he helped make the basics of a sailboat that Denise wanted to make for her grandson (a minuature of their own boat) is having some company over. Our great friends, Denise & Jean-Pierre from Montreal, are currently living on a 42’ sailboat in the Caribbean, but were back in Canada for the birth of a 2nd grandchild. While they were up north, it was great that they were able to fit in a visit to Trumansburg. Had a great time visiting with them (and of course picking their brain on things we should take, etc as they have been out cruising themselves for 18 months). We also took a day with them and visited some of the great wineries in the Finger Lakes on Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. What a great way to spend a day!
The beauty of having the house done is that we have been able to invite friends over for dinner. It has been great having time to visit with many of the great friends we have made since living in TBurg. We finally had to put an end to the entertaining unfortunately as the calendar was telling us that we needed to put all of our efforts into getting rid of the stuff in the house as well as working on the boat projects. We have
The finished sailboat
Denise and her grandson sailing their newly made sailboat been selling numerous items through Craig’s list and the house is starting to look empty. Now that the couch and the kitchen chairs are sold the house is taking on a different look for sure. It will be interesting when we get down to the point where we only have a couple of plates, cups and a bed left in the house!
Bob has been going up to the boat quite a few times to work on various projects while Janice has been home packing. Bob finally took the saw to the anchor locker and cut into the holding tank and is in the process of building the new wall between the anchor locker & the holding tank. The old refrigerator is out and he is working on installing the new one. The new life raft arrived and he has installed the bracket on the boat. Unfortunately he used the same bolts and one of them was too long and put a deep scratch on the Plexiglas cover for the companionway. No problem, just added another task to the list of things to do -buff out scratch. The new 3 burner propane stove was installed, unfortunately we didn’t realize
The furniture is going
Just sold our kitchen chairs - it looked so strange we had to bring in 1 of our dining room chairs - it will start to thin out more soon that we had to purchase a new switch for the solenoid so we bought & installed the switch with a built in alarm and sensor for propane leaks. Nothing is easy as the stove was not the exact same size so of course Bob had to do some renovations to the cabinet to get the stove to gimbal correctly. Our nephew, Ken, has been working on removing the bottom paint - what a job that is with multiple layers of paint. Got quite a bit done, but more to go.
We are both scratching our heads and wondering why it is so difficult to simply ones life. Even just trying to insure items that we will be storing at home has been difficult as we have found out that is usually tied in with home owners insurance which of course we will not have without a house.
In between all of these projects we have also taken the time for some family events which we were happy to be able to do. Janice’s mother turned 82 on May 1st and as a gift she thought it would be nice if we could get a team together to walk
The signs of progress
What happened to our nice clean house? Packing seems to make a mess of all of the rooms -this is a sign of progress we hope in a fund raiser for a 10 year old boy that was diagnosed with cancer back home. The idea was to get a team together so members of the team would be walking between the hours of 7PM - 7AM. My sister pulled a team together made up of members of the family as well as friends of the family to walk. Bob and I took the midnight to 2AM shift. Figured it would be good practice for us for our night sails! It was lots of fun and a great cause. A real nice idea of Mom’s to give to others on her birthday. It was nice to get home to see everyone as well. Our nephew, Ken, graduated from SUNY Cortland in May so attended the commencement ceremony. In June Bob’s aunt passed away so drove to South Carolina to attend the service. We were very glad that we had the time to be able to do so. It is so unfortunate that so many times families don’t see each other except for family events such as this. Bob got to see some cousins that he hadn’t seen since Jr. High School. It was so good that so
New stove with 3 burners
We replaced our 2 burner with a 3 burner stove - still more to complete the project but it is looking good much of the family were able to make it to SC.
We figured that we didn’t have enough tasks lined up so decided to re-cover all of the boat cushions on the boat. Ordered the material which came in a few weeks ago so have started this project, but haven’t gotten too far with all of the other things that have been filling our time. Bob also made an anchor sail with our new sewing machine that we bought for the boat. It works with electricity, but can also be hand-cranked.
We also have one other thing that is on the list of “have to do before we leave” but haven’t been doing too well on it. We have the first level of license (technician) for radio operator but we need the 2nd level (general) for our SSB radio. We are trying to find time to study for the exam that we will have to take on July 7th. We have to pass that as there aren’t any more exams being given in our area before our proposed departure time. Guess we need to start cramming for that - just like being a student again!
Bob was
Taking off the bottom paint
Our nephew Ken working on getting all of the coats of bottom paint off so we can apply new paint before launching asked to come to the South Seneca School yearbook ceremony this year. It was really nice as they did a tribute complete with a page in the book. That afternoon 2 of the Seniors came up to Bob and asked if he would walk in the commencement processional. He was really honored and pleased to be asked.
We are also realizing that we will probably never be back to the Ithaca area again, therefore trying to take in some things for the last time. One of the things we couldn’t miss was the Ithaca Festival Parade. This is no ordinary parade - first, it last 1 ½ hours and it has some of the most unusual entries. One thing that really stands out is the number of bikes, unicycles, electric bikes, roller bladers and just general “people powered” groups around. It was hard to capture it all, but some of the typical groups that are in the parade are the dancing Volvos with their pink tu-tus and the chainsaw marching band. This year the Ithaca Water Treatment Plant also had a great entry which showed “what goes in - comes out clean!” Where else than in Ithaca would you
Mom's 82nd birthday
It was great to be home for Mom's 82nd birthday - had a great celebration with family see something like this? It was great fun and definitely worth an evening away from the long list of projects that we are working on. Have to have some fun while we are doing this!
The other thing that is happening is that we are still ordering more things for the boat, so the UPS and Fed Ex delivery people know our house well. It has become Christmas almost every day with packages on the front porch. Hopefully that will be ending soon as well. How is it that we still need more things when we are trying to get rid of so much??
It has been hard balancing our time between the house, boat, family commitments and school, but as we get closer to setting a departure date; our priorities are clearly 1) getting out of the house 2) getting the boat ready to go. Bob is focusing on the boat and Janice is focusing on the house which means during the next month Bob will be staying on the boat & Janice will be staying home. We are getting an auction house to take most of our things early in July so that will free Janice
Mom's birthday gift - a walk for cancer research & support
Mom's idea for a present was having the family & friends walk to raise money to help support a 10 yr old with cancer - some of the team at the team tent before the walk started up more so we can both concentrate on the boat. Still lots of lists of things to do - we seem to be making more lists rather than finishing the ones we have - guess that is how it will be for a few more weeks.
We want to have an “open house” at our new home at the boat but still haven’t been able to pick a definite date yet. We hope to narrow it down soon so you can get it on your calendar. We know that some of you may not be able to make it as it will be at the north end of the lake, but hopefully quite a few of you will be able to come. Our next posting should have the date, time and location so stay tuned for that.
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Chris
non-member comment
Going to miss you!
Janice, your comment about never getting back to Ithaca made me very sad, but also very envious in that you will be traveling the world and living out a dream! I hope I'm able to make the "open house" but if not, I just know I'll run into you somewhere and I travel the world following my daughter! I only wish I was a brave as you to follow a dream. I wish you and Bob safe travels and can't wait to see the world through your eyes!