The move to the house.

We have been staying in the hotel for the last couple days. We were earlier than we'd planned and a couple things still needed to be done to the house. We did start putting things in the house. We emptied the trailer so we could empty the truck (still no word on the truck).

We ran around and replaced things we needed that the rain ruined. My tarp-fu isn't that good, I guess. We learned what things we should and should not do for the next trip. You must understand, this is the furthest we've moved in nearly two decades. Just moving a day up and down the eastern seaboard is cake, moving nearly across the country is.... well, cow pie.

We left a trio of nomadic bunny-men at the Super 8. (Some of you may wonder why we keep staying at the Super 8. For the record, they usually allow pets, with no additional fee. They put you in the smoking room, but it costs the same as any other room.) I hope the housekeeping staff gives them a good home.

The house has some problems. The kind of problems that you have to scratch your head and wonder what people were thinking. Evidently, the space under the basement takes on water, which means the basement has a tendency to take on water. We found part of the problem was this sump pump discharge line being right next to the house. Every 5-10 minutes, it would spit out what seemed like an awful lot of water. We picked up a flexible hose to get the water further from the house. The basement seems to be drying out, now. The next project is to get the gutter discharge lines away from the base of the house. The lot just isn't graded that well. I think the water just follows the foundation down until it can sneak into the house.

I think the back deck is smaller than my last one, Honey says it's the same size. I don't really care, as long as there is room for the grill and a table and chairs.

The back yard definitely is smaller. The lot size is similar, just most of it is in front or on the side of the house instead of in the back yard. The puppies are happy back there; they have enough room to run and play.

The kitchen is definitely bigger than our last one. The breakfast bar is great. I don't know if we will even put in our dining set.

The living room is huge. The biggest problem is that we had to figure out where to put the furniture without the furniture here. The cable guy came yesterday. Where the television goes is the most important thing, you know.

The biggest travel tip that the wrecker driver gave us the first day was that 1st St was completely torn up for almost the entire length of town. What isn't gravel is dirt, what isn't dirt is mud. Mostly mud. From what we've heard, it has been like that for over a year. Here is a little idea of what it looks like. My little plastic car hates it.

Last night we had our first, new-home cooked meal. Steak and potatoes. We're simple, sometimes.