As I wrote earlier, we’ve moved! We’re still in Anaheim, closer to Kori’s side of the family, closer to Disneyland, and a couple of freeway exits closer to the office. We moved from our condo to a house - doubling our square footage - and are still settling in and working out the kinks. This has kept us very busy (and we got sick, too… nothing too serious).
Here’s Keelie a couple of months ago, packing herself for the move.
Our house has an attached garage, and plenty of parking space, too, so I won’t have to bother with finding a parking spot or moving the pickup to avoid getting a ticket.
There is a large room with a fireplace that was added on to the house, taking up some of the backyard.
When that happened, what had been the living room area, directly to the left once inside the front door, was walled off and given a door and became a smaller room with a fireplace.
Also when that happened one of the bedrooms lost its windows/outdoor access, so it is now like a giant closet with its own closet. That is my cave. Kori will retain control of the rest of the place, of course, like any wife. But I will have my cave in which to retreat and concoct my elaborate plans for world domination.
Look at that! Shelves already built in. Which is good, because we have more books than some bookstores. That was painfully obvious during the move.
Our bedroom has a bathroom with a shower. Hopefully someday, we can push the front of the house out a little (there is plenty of front yard) and give our bathroom a nice big bath. On the other side of our bathroom is another bathroom that does have a bath. However, it currently does not receive hot water (long story). Oh well.
Then there’s Keelie’s room and the baby’s room. Since there is no baby right now, it is storage space.
Before we actually moved ourselves in, we had the old heater removed, which gave us an additional closet, and we had a new HVAC system installed, extending it to the addition. Otherwise, the place was just going to be too hot on the warmer days.
We also had a lot of other work we needed to do, including getting a washer and dryer, and a gas range/oven. Kori’s father did a lot of work around the place (bless him!) but what he couldn’t do, the good folks at Rescue Rooter did, including taking care of several plumbing problems and installing the appliances. They were great.
The neighborhood is mostly single-family homes, and the way our street is situated, the only traffic is for the homes on the street.
Keelie has been enjoying the extra room. She’s fifteen months old now, after all. Both she and Shelby like having a bigger backyard. Also with the move, Keelie finally started to sleep in her own room. And to think some people with a fifteen-month-old already have another baby.
Based on the condition of the house and the finance history, it looks like someone tried to flip the place not too long ago. It also looks like someone wasn’t able to handle all of the costs of the place and stripped it (like taking shower heads) before they left. There are mostly new windows and carpeting, which is good. It is interesting to see what the house value was at the height of the market and compare that to what the bank ended up accepting.
In addition to Bill (Granddaddy) and Pam (Puma) helping out of a lot around the place, Kori’s siblings have all been of great assistance in doing such things as watching Keelie, helping with the actual moving, and getting the condo ready to rent out. Our friends Dave & Jenn were a great help with the actual move as well, and James and Chrissy babysat Keelie during a key day of the move, and Keelie had a great time playing with their son Isaac.
My mother (Nanny) has also taken Keelie to the Disneyland Resort at least three times now, making it easier for Kori and me to both work on the move. Before the madness really began, we’d all visited the Resort together and had a good time, though Keelie has a problem with experiences (like rides) that get dark and noisy – which is just about everything.
Whitewater Snacks is great. Now that I've said that here online, Disney will probably get rid of the place.
And here are the ladies at a very special place.
Speaking of madness, towards the end of July, our water heater in the condo decided to leak, and so we had to replace it. It happened at the end of a weekend that started with rushing Shelby to an emergency vet because we thought she’d broken some bones. She’s okay, but it sure took a lot of money to find that out. That was an expensive weekend.
Things got better though as August got into gear. We had a picnic with some of our friends that we hadn’t seen in a while. One of the families had been in Africa and was passing through town on their way to settle in another state, so we all got together. Jon and Jeni have two small children now, one older than Keelie (Gracie) and one younger (Isaiah). James, Chrissy, and Isaac were there, too, as was Dave, and Aaron & Cherise. Keelie had a lot of fun playing with the other kids and running around in general, and it was nice to see most of the gang again.
Here's Keelie leaning on Gracie.
And here's Keelie playing with Isaac.
And here's the group (Kori took the picture).
It had been too long since we’d seen Bob and Julie, and we needed to meet Katie, so all six of us had dinner together at the Disneyland Resort. Keelie had fun dropping crayons on the floor.
There isn’t much else to say. Life has been about moving and settling in to the new place and getting the old place ready to rent out. Hopefully, we’ll be settled in and squared away soon.
Thanks for stopping by and reading. Keep us up to date on that you’ve been doing. As always, you can reach us at KEPellman [at] yahoo [dot] com, and you can submit a comment to the blog as well. You can find us on MySpace and Facebook - the links are in the column here on the right.
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