Ramblings

I called the HOA and followed up on the boat parking letter. She asked if I got the second letter rescinding the first?! I said no… She said after going back and  reviewing things that I was in compliance with the 85% coverage rule. All is well. They informed Board and the boat can stay as is. I can’t tell you how happy that made me. Wow!

I also got the candy out at work as “Holiday” instead of “Christmas” candy. Now I can focus on family and normal work instead of that for two weeks plus during mid December,  the busiest time year for me. I will enjoy the holidays if I have anything to say about it.

Now if I didn’t have to drive to Fresno/Clovis for a volleyball tournament and could go surfing instead I would have had the trifecta. Oh well two outta three ain’t bad. Maybe next time.

Friday I got the cease and desist from the HOA about parking my boat on the side yard. I tried to call the HOA service company, who sent the letter on behalf of the board, but it was late and I didn’t get a call back. I guess next week things will get rolling. I hope this resolves itself in a reasonable manner and does not turn into one of those things that read about on the internet that gets ridiculous.

Well it has been a little over five months in the new house and I finally got the boat to our home. For now at least. I put it on the side yard behind the fence. Now I have to see if anyone complains and contacts the HOA. I think I am OK (compliant) but you never know with an HOA how they might interpret things. After that I need to get some quotes to enlarge the parking pad. We have a preliminary landscape plan that Dawn has ok’d, at least for the boat parking pad part.

The move went well with only minimum chaos and no injuries. That is saying something as I wore my flip flops for the whole week of the move. With my Mom’s help the kitchen was packed and then unpacked as soon as the boxes hit the house. Thanks Mom! The most of the rest got unpacked shortly thereafter and other than the stuff that will never get unpacked we are done. We even have art on the walls in some places.

We thoroughly enjoyed having our own pool during the heat of the summer. Erin became a much better swimmer and I can worry a little less about her around water now. I was even able to SUP paddle train from the edge of the pool deck so when I went SUP surfing I was not totally out of shape. It made a big difference catching waves to have a strong, familiar sprint stroke. The pool area gets the delta breeze nicely when it kicks in and it makes the back yard amazing. Dawn commented that we used our backyard more in one month than the whole ten years we lived in the old place. Nice!

We turned the formal dinning and living room into Dawn’s art studio and she seems to be settled in and enjoying her space. Cranking out art just like always.

This morning we get the keys to our new place from the tenant. I am not going over empty handed though. I am bringing the first load of yard stuff. Tonight we do our walk through with their “relocation specialist”. The rest of this weekend is moving the garage, yard and shed.

Monday and Tuesday we have painters, deep cleaners and carpet cleaners coming. So by Wednesday the place will be a clean slate. This includes turning the formal living/dining room into Dawn’s art studio. My folks are also coming up Monday afternoon and helping out through Thursday morning most likely. They are the veterans of many moves from when my Dad was in the military. I am sure having them will be super helpful by just having another set of packing hands and a car to move small loads will help. The goal is to have everything that the heavy movers are not responsible for gone.

Then Thursday afternoon the movers come for the heavy stuff and we will spend our first night there. Hopefully we are done at the old place except a little cleaning. Then do a walk though to get our deposit back Saturday.

As a bonus we can start using the pool, which is now running smoothly, and the hot tub. The hot tub just have a major service Friday which included a purge, filter change and water change. I am so going to need that for my expected sore body.

I already got one thing wrapped up on Friday which was getting Kyle transportation that won’t leak oil on the driveway. That is an HOA no-no apparently.  Sold his car with 190M miles on it and leased a nice subcompact for a nominal monthly amount. It is good to have friends who are GSM’s at local dealerships. The first year of payments were covered with just the things that various mechanics recommended I do anyway. That and I pick up reliability so I won’t be picking him up on the side of the road at some ungodly hour. Add in better mileage and regular vs premium and I about offset insurance bump.

So let the chaos begin!