Zentangle® – June 2022

30 Zentangle tiles for June; it was challenging find the time to make tiles in June with the crescendo of activity for our move to Missouri…but very worthwhile to help me decompress.

I found myself enjoying new Sharpie Ultra Fine pens and savoring some newly discovered gel pins; both provided the smooth glide of color onto the variety of tile materials during the month. The paper coasters (round and square) were in the box I carried with me on all my travels. I rediscovered an unopened box of the round ones as I was packing…will return to them in the months ahead.

My favorite tiles are probably the light brown ones made from recycled lightweight cardboard or old file folders. Both square

And rectangular.

There are still a few tiles made from old pocket folders saved my daughter’s K-12 days; I found more of those folders as I packed to move…will cut them into tiles as some point.

I had a few tiles that were a narrower rectangle…the back of pads of paper I used up….and then had the cardboard left to repurpose!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 25, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Ukrainian Students Are Taking Haunting Grad Photos in Rubble Created by the War – Life going on during war…graduation pictures that reflect a very different year in Ukraine.

The surprising benefits of fingers that wrinkle in water – A lot more questions and research than I expected!

Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease – Faster and earlier diagnosis…a component that could improve outcomes over the long term.

Photographer Captures Colorful “Moonbows” – In Yosemite National Park.

Walking toward healthier knees – “Those who reported walking for exercise had 40% decreased odds of new frequent knee pain compared to non-walkers” --- that’s a good stat to keep in mind as we get older and want to avoid increased knee problems.

Living with the prospect of assisted dying – A post about a man diagnosed with ALS…difficulty with the bureaucracy of assisted dying laws even with a clear-cut terminal diagnosis.

Alaska Ablaze – 5,000 lightning strikes…dozens of wildfires.

How to turn your garden into a carbon sink – Turning more yards into gardens…with more diverse plantings….a few more trees. Sometimes going a little wild is a good thing!

Pollen and Heat: a looming challenge for global agriculture – heat is a pollen killer for canola, corn, peanuts, and rice. It is becoming more important than ever for crops to bloom before the temperature rises…and it is getting more challenging as multi-day stretches of excess heat are becoming more common early in the growing season.

The life of a solitary bee – There are as many as 4,000 bee species in the US….and most of them are solitary. 98% of the native bee species in the US are solitary.

Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu

James Edward Quibbell’s book Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu was published in 1908 and is available on Internet Archive. Yuaa and Thuiu (Yuya and Thuya on Wikipedia) were ancient Egyptian courtiers…parents of Queen Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. The tomb was discovered in 1905 and was the best-preserved tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings before that of Tutankhamun, their great-grandson. Both probably died in their early to mid-50s. Their mummies were largely intact, and the pictures of the faces show the sophistication of the mummification process in preserving the facial features.

Quibbell’s book includes many photographs of the contents of the tomb. He documented the find with many photographs very quickly after the initial discovery just as Carter would later do for the Tut tomb. Certainly, these finds and the documentation of them initially and over the years since, has increased the interest in ancient Egypt.

The initial publications may not be a starting point for learning about these finds now that there are books with color photographs of the artifacts, but they do provide insight from the historical perspective of the men that made the discoveries…and how much they learned from the excavation and first look at the artifacts. They are well worth browsing!

Nixa, MO is Home

How soon does a new house become a home? There are indications that it has happened very quickly with our move to Nixa, MO.

I’ve found places we need:

A place to buy groceries and other household needs (a Walmart within a couple of miles of our house)

The post office (within 3 miles)

A recycling center for all the cardboard and paper left from unpacking that is unusable by others (less than 2 miles)

Gas stations (in about a mile)

The yard

While we haven’t gotten everything unpacked, we have all the items we need day to day. The gardening tools need to be unpacked since there are some weeds and tree seedlings in the flower beds that should be pulled sooner rather than later. I’ve spotted a poison ivy plant growing under one of the cedars; I’ll need my gauntlet gloves to handle that one!

We had to wait for the ladder to arrive with the truck to hang our large wind chimes (sounds like church bells). It was not something on the critical path of being able to live in the house but I wanted them up and making their beautiful sounds….another indicator that the house has become home.

I have discovered the joy of time outdoors on the patio in the early morning…creating a Zentangle tile or two…listening to the birds and the neighborhood waking up. Another discovery – fold the chair cushions down when not in use so that the part you sit on will stay free of bird poop!

The rose bushes in the back of our house are still blooming and maybe they will continue a bit longer since I’ve started watering them. I cut a flower to bring into my office recently…a sign that I am feeling at home.

The neighborhood

I’ve intentionally gotten out and about the neighborhood even while I was unpacking…enjoyed the pool more than I thought I would (particularly after 5 PM when it isn’t crowded) and the walk around the ponds. Looking forward to walking the entire neighborhood over the next month or so.

The inside of the house

We’re still arranging lamps, but the rest of the furniture is in place. There are rooms that are already exactly the way we want them.

Our internet service is not consistent throughout the house and there are some minor repairs that need to be made. It’s frustrating when problems can’t be immediately fixed. We’re persistent and confident the issues all be resolved.

We are experimenting with laundry….the laundry chute is still novel and fun. One of our old oscillating fans has found a home in the laundry room while the clothes we hang up from the washer dry. But do we hang/fold clothes from the dryer in the laundry or upstairs? Not sure which way is going to work best for us. We did end up replacing the washer/dryer left by the previous owner.

We’re eating most of our meals at home again.

The security system has been reset to our codes rather than the previous owner’s (which were unknown to us).

Within a month of closing…the house will be fully our home. It started to feel like home as soon as the moving van arrived with our ‘stuff’ 6 days after we closed on the house…then a continuing trend toward the feeling of home until we get everything situated as we want it and are comfortable with the way we are living in the house.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2022

What a month! It is probably the busiest, most stressful in my post career decade….with so much that has gone right in the end…lots of little celebrations.

Hearing a phoebe in the morning….seeing a crane fly – The sights and sounds of nature often become little celebrations for me…they just happen and make the day brighter.

New low weight for the year – With all the work getting ready to move and then moving, I expended a lot more energy and lost a few pounds. I celebrated a new low weight for the year in June.

A new house – Settling into a new house/location is stressful…but there is also a lot of to celebrate. Noticing all the aspects of the house that I like…celebrating that it is becoming home.

A picture taking walk around the ponds in the early morning – The water features of my new neighborhood are more extensive than where I lived previously. There were plenty of sights to celebrate in my first walks around the ponds and I anticipate enjoying them all through the year.

Internet/cable at Missouri house (just in time to make hotel reservations for the follow night going back to Maryland) – Our internet/cable access was installed the morning after we closed on our new house; I celebrated that my husband had been proactive for making that arrangement.

Made it back to Missouri even with the blowout before lunch – The drama of a blown-out tire on the trek from Maryland to Missouri was not traumatic as it could have been….and I celebrated when we made it to the new house.

The movers arrived….delivering our stuff – The house was so empty…then was full of boxes. I celebrated that it all arrived intact even though the piles were daunting.

Finding the missing piece to husband’s desk – I had packed some pieces of my husband’s desk and we didn’t find the box for about 24 hours. Celebration by all when the piece was found!

Unpacking progress (slow but steady) – We are still unpacking but every day I celebrate the progress we are making. At this point, all the critical items are unpacked and put into their long-term location.

A contract on our Maryland house – My husband and I were pleasantly surprised that we sold our house in Maryland in just 4 days and for more than the asking price. At first, we were overwhelmed…and then we celebrated.

Zooming – June 2022

I didn’t have as many photographs as usual to choose from in June…too busy moving. There were still enough to choose twelve. The locations were wide ranging: our neighborhoods in Maryland and Missouri, the botanical garden in Springfield MO, our houses in Maryland and Missouri. It is occurring to me that my multi-day road trips between Maryland and Missouri/Texas are almost over. The trek between Missouri and Texas is an easy 6.5 hours!

Enjoy the slide show!

Unique Aspects of Days – June 2022

June was probably the most unique month of 2022; moving from Maryland to Missouri made for a lot of firsts…made more unique by the time that had passed since our last move (more than 25 years ago). It was hard to choose just 10.

Move out day in Maryland. Packing up was hard enough…seeing it all be loaded on the truck in one day (rainy toward the end) was overwhelmingly intense – certainly not a ‘normal’ situation. And I knew I would be getting up early in the next morning to head to Missouri.

A lot of armadillo road kill. In Maryland the most common road killed animals were deer. In Missouri, there were armadillos; perhaps it was the time of year they go walkabout.

Closing on a Missouri house. I hadn’t closed on a house in over 25 years and this is the only time in my life (so far) that there was no mortgage.

First sunrise at Bentwater house. Firsts are unique simply because they are the first!

Blowout of my driver’s side front tire. It was not a totally unique experience but the last one was years ago (2017) and only the third one in my 50 years of driving!

The neighborhood pool for the first time. I wasn’t sure I would use the pool but I discovered that there are times it is not very busy…a very pleasant respite from the heat.

Mend Piece. I’ll do a post about the experience in a few days….it was a unique hands-on experience at the Springfield Art Museum.

Making popcorn in the downstairs kitchen – first time. It felt a little odd to make popcorn in a place other than the main kitchen…but the mini-kitchen near my office in the basement has a microwave. I used my Nordic Ware bowl…melted butter in an old stoneware cup. It’s great to have a hefty snack without having to go up or down stairs!

Our Maryland house went on the market…under contract 4 days later. We hadn’t sold a house in a long time…and the previous experiences had not been quick. This one was lightning fast – just as the realtor had predicted. We were pleased and overwhelmed all at the same time.

New washer and dryer. I don’t remember the last time we had a new washer/dryer….so I am counting it as unique….and still enjoying the big improvement over the older models: quieter, more effiecent use of water/energy, quicker. Also – the laundry chute in our new house is a very nice feature.

Our (new) Yard – June 2022

A quick walk around our back yard…on my way to a walk before the heat of the day.

There are still a few roses. I’ll water them and hope that the blooms will linger. There are still buds but the heat could be problematic for them.

There are pines and hollies around the deck with steppingstone paths through the beds to the lawn. The lower patio is very private and will be in the winter as well. We see the neighborhood tennis courts and pool over our fence from the 1st floor but the basement level, where my office is located, is a green walled oasis. I love it already.

There are a few plants blooming – they probaby need water too – and there is grass growing into them. I need to find my gardening gloves and clear out the undesirable intrusions into the flower beds.

My sister bought us a glass bird bath that has a solar cell in the base that glows at night. Our first addition to our yard. I can see it from my office window.

There is a swallow nest over the patio – under the deck – and we are avoiding the area in an effort to not upset the parents as they are frantically feeding their hungry young.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 2, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

What if all roads went underground? – Thought provoking…wish there were ways to make it a more practical solution since the aesthetics of a world that has more natural surfaces (rather than roads) is very appealing.

Endangered Whopping Crane Hatches at Smithsonian National Zoo Site – The egg was found on an abandoned wild nest in Wisconsin and given to a pair of whooping cranes in the zoo that had produced 2 infertile eggs. The live egg was put into their nest on 5/18 and the baby crane hatched on 5/26!

BLM, Forest Service, Five Tribes of The Bears Ears Commission Commit to Historic Co-Management Of Bears Ears National Monument – Wishing the best for this endeavor.

Fifth of global food-related emissions due to transport – The takeaway message for us in the US: eat locally! This summer I am visiting the local Farmer’s Market weekly…maybe next year I’ll join a CSA.

Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ melting at fastest rate in 5,500 years – Thwaites Glacier (nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier…Florida-sized) and Pine Island Glacier were studied. The ice shelf holding the Thwaites Glacier could collapse withing 3-5 years.

Finding mini frogs: these aren’t babies, they’re just little – And they hatch as frogs…no tadpole stage. They live in leaf litter…humid and moist but not near water.

New safe-sleep guidelines aim to reduce infant deaths – New guidelines have been coming out from time to time at least since my daughter was born over 30 years ago. When she was a baby, the recommendation was for babies to sleep on their tummy…very different from these current guidelines.

2021 Share the Experience Photo Contest (National Park Foundation) Winners – Special places…full of great experiences.

Los Angeles becomes the latest city to hire ‘chief heat officer’ – Miami and Phoenix as well as cities in other countries (Athens, Greece; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Monterrey, Mexico; Santiago, Chile) have similar positions.

One in 500 men carry extra sex chromosome, putting them at higher risk of several common diseases – A surprising result…most of the men were unaware they carried an extra X or Y chromosome. Those that are XXY had higher chances of reproductive problems. Both XXY and XYY individuals has higher risks of type 2 diabetes, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Morris’ A History of British Birds

The 8 volumes of A History of British Birds by Francis Orpen Morris are available on Internet Archive. I enjoyed browsing the images this past spring. I’ve selected an image from each book to share in this post.

(vol 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Volume 6 included two birds seen frequently in North America: the coot and the Canada goose.

Volume 7 included the Great Auk which was probably extinct – or near extinct – by the time the books were published in 1862. There were some birds – such as the swallow (volume 2) and the cormorant (volume 8)– that had generic entries.

Morris was an Irish clergyman – a ‘parson-naturalist’ of the 1800s; his professional role accommodated his natural history interests. According to the Wikipedia entry about him, he was a pioneer of the movement to protect birds from the plume trade…refused to accept the theory of evolution.

Our New Neighborhood – June 2022

There are two ponds with a ~0.5 trail around them in our Missouri neighborhood…three bridges (one at both ends and between them). One of the tangential paths from the loop passes by our back gate. I took an early morning walk – taking photos in the great morning light. A squirrel posed for me on one of the bridges.

I was glad the mowed areas are not ‘golf course’ like…lots of clover mixed in with the grasses.

There is a mallard with a broken wing that I’ve seen several times. The first time was the day the movers arrived. It was wondering around our backyard and my husband opened the gate so that it could return to the ponds. It was swimming in the water or on a muddy island in one of ponds the other times I’ve seen it. It probably cannot fly well enough to move to another location.

The edges of the ponds are not mowed….so there are plenty of taller grasses, seedlings, wild onions and other plants that make it interesting.

I stopped just before I made the last turn to my house to photograph one of the larger trees….and its reflection.

We are experiencing lots of high temperatures this week so all my walks will be on mornings when the temperature is still pleasant. I am anticipating that the short walks are going to be ‘favorites’ for my post-move life.

Unpacking

The morning after the movers got everything into the house, I was up with the dawn (before 6 AM) and ready to start with the unpacking. My sister helped and we made good progress for the next 4 days of her visit (with a few breaks for exploring the area around Springfield).

I kept my laptop set up on the kitchen counter to mark off the boxes on my inventory as we unpacked them.

The living room was one of the prime areas that boxes were piled. I had thought ahead to have the book boxes in the area near the window and the other (lighter boxes) destined primarily for the kitchen/China cabinet) in the center of the room. The kitchen counters became cluttered with items to put away – slowing down to allow time to refresh shelf paper…and occasionally rearranging once we better understood the way we would use the kitchen.

The basement also had a big pile of boxes…mostly in the John Deere room. My husband helped me put my office furniture together and I started carrying a few items down to the kitchenette that I would use there.

We had piles of bubble wrap which we stuffed in plastic bags to return to a store for recycling, Styrofoam went in the trash. There were piles of boxes and packing paper. I posted to the community Facebook page and the boxes that were still in good shape were given to people in the neighborhood that were preparing to moving. My sister and I took the damaged boxes/paper to the recycle center since the first curbside recycling day in our new house was cancelled (they didn’t have a crew!)…and the size/amount of cardboard would have overwhelmed our bin anyway.

Every day the house became more ‘normal’ but it will probably be weeks before I unpack everything…and there are items (pictures/breakables) to get from my daughter’s basement (and a lot of beanie baby bins that she is going to take back).

As I write this – I am one week into the unpacking process and the house is livable…but still looking messy with boxes in odd places!

Moving In

Our driver confirmed via text that he would arrive as scheduled the next day shortly after we returned to our Missouri house. The truck and a car with three helpers arrived just after 8 AM – making an early start since the day was forecast to be very hot.

The steps to the front of the Missouri house are shallower than the ones in Maryland; the ramp they used looked better but was squishy when weight was on it.

I had my blue paper signs held up with painters’ tape to name rooms and designate where major furniture would go. More red and blue runners were needed to protect the floors because none of the flooring was going to be replaced in the Missouri house (like the carpeting was in Maryland).

The piano crate was moved into the dining room…and would stay there for 4 days until the specialist crew came to uncrate it and put the parts back together.

It was an exhausting day for me – on my feet directing movers to the main floor or the basement (separate entrances) for the loads of furniture and boxes. It took the 4 men 6 hours to unload…shorter duration than the loading of the truck but the temperature/humidity made it very hard work.

Not much got unpacked on the same day as the unloading occurred; my husband and I were too tired. Fortunately - we had enough linens to make beds for ourselves and my sister that arrived shortly after the movers left!

Overall – I was pleased with the way the movers handled the move itself…but the task of unpacking everything I had packed, now in piles in key places of the new house, seemed daunting in the quiet of that first evening after the unloading.

Utilities

My husband made the arrangement to transition of utilities from the previous owner to us in our Missouri house. The water, sewer, electric, gas and trash/recycle were all with the city…easier than in locales where each one is separate.  

We thought that maybe the internet/cable connection would take longer, but we got an appointment for the day after closing! What a relief to have that taken care of before I made the whirlwind trip back to Maryland!

It seems like the process was easier than when we moved to our Maryland house 25+ years ago…a positive experience.

Now to wait a month and see how we do on electric usage with the air conditioner keeping the house comfortable during the summer heat. The gas usage during the summer is only for hot water so should be at the lowest for the year.

Whirlwind trip to Maryland and Back

I left early after only one day in the Missouri house that was now ours…to go back to the Maryland house. It would be a 4-day trip with lots of driving each day. The weather was good for the whole trip although it had been very wet the days before. The early rest stops were soggy. I drove from Springfield MO to Huntington WV the first day…a bit long but I knew I would need time at my Maryland house to load the car on the second day. It rained heavily after I was at the hotel!

The Red Roof Inn in Huntington was a surprise. Perhaps it had been recently renovated because the lighting over the bed and the size/arrangement of the desk area were more functional than most hotel rooms.

I was up early the next morning and heading to my Maryland house. At one of the West Virginia stops, I noticed a dead tree…took a closer look at the fungus growing on the trunk.

The drive was uneventful…arriving early enough to have lunch with my husband on our Maryland house deck…and then start the daunting task of loading the cars. Our plan was to caravan back to Missouri with everything from the Maryland house….but we couldn’t quite fit everything so we’ll return to Maryland for the closing on that house; everything left will easily fit in one car. I took pictures of the house without furniture…with the new carpet…before we headed to a nearby hotel for the night.

We headed out early….saw morning sun on the Sidling Hill road cut.

After another night in a hotel, we got another early start…destination our house in Missouri. The drive took a dramatic turn at mid-morning: the front driver’s side tire blew out on my car just east of the Skeeter Mountain rest stop in Indiana. I was glad my husband was following me. It occurred on a bridge….part of the tire flying off…I managed to control the car well enough to pull onto the shoulder past the bridge. I sat in the car after I got it stopped. My husband came up and asked if I was OK…’not really’ was my response. Fortunately, the trauma was emotional rather than physical. We both stood further off on the shoulder, and he called for a tow (my car does not have a spare). I took pictures of the car…and the vegetation nearby. The tow truck came in about 20 minutes…about 10 AM; the tow to a tire place took about 30 minutes and a new tire was on the car by about noon. We continued toward our Missouri home.

Fortunately, the rest of the drive was uneventful…the blow out episode causing a 3-hour delay…not bad overall. Both of us went to bed early - emotionally exhausted once the drive was over.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 18, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Archaeologists Uncover Hundreds of Colorful Sarcophagi at Saqqara—and They’re Not Done Yet – The seeming endless interest in Egypt…sustained by continuing new finds.

8 cool wild cats you probably don’t know – So many wild cat variations!

Fjords emit as much methane as all the deep oceans globally – When storms churn up water in fjords….oxygenating the fjord floor…methane emissions spike. If the water mixed more frequently the methane emissions would drop because anoxic environments at the bottom of fjords would disappear.

Tree rings are evidence of megadrought – and our doom – Tree ring data indicates that the 22-year period from 2000 through 2021 was the driest and hottest in the last 1,2000 years for the North American Southwest. There was another 22-year drought from 1571-1592 that was nearly as dry but not as hot as the current drought. And the water distribution allocations were made based on a 22-year period between 1900 and 1921 that we now know was an anomalously wet period for area! Not good signs for the future.

A 3400-year-old city emerges from the Tigris River – Drought lowered the Mosul reservoir. There was a quick survey…discovery ceramic vessels with 100 cuneiform tablets…and the conservation measures to project the site as the water rose again. The site is now completely submerged.

Fifty years later, Kim Phuc Phan Thi is more than ‘Napalm Girl’ – One of the most iconic photos of the Vietnam war…still makes be as emotional now as the first time I saw it. She says – To confront violence head-on…’the first step is to look at it.’

Two articles about the flooding in Yellowstone: Repairing and reopening Yellowstone National Park won’t be easy and Extreme flooding devastates Yellowstone, forcing the closure of all park entrances – Very sad….also scary.

Wildlife bedtime: weird nesting habits of North American wildlife – Black bears, black-footed ferrets, jumping spiders, bald-faced hornets, and red-sided garter snakes.

How Vivian Maier, the Enigmatic Nanny Who Took 150,000 Photographs, Found Her Place in History – Street photographer…that only became known after a storage locker of her photographs/negatives was auctioned off when she couldn’t make the payments on it.

Zapping orange peel oil into new, pleasant aroma compounds – I’ve always liked the smell and taste of orange peel (I buy organic oranges and use the whole orange!) but evidently the compound that is in orange peel, limonene, can be the starting platform for other scents as well.

Clarence Brookfield Moore and Burial Mounds

Clarence Brookfield Moore’s I. Mounds and cemeteries of the lower Arkansas River. Part II. Mounds of the lower Yazoo and lower Sunflower Rivers, Mississippi was published in 1908; it is available on Internet Archive. I enjoyed the illustrations of pottery from the book.

According to Wikipedia, Moore ran the company he inherited from his father for about a decade then turned its management over to others so he could pursue his archeological interests primarily in the southeastern United States. Many of his excavations were of burial mounds; his methods were to the standards of the time…and he did publish…but today the way he handled the mounds/graves would be problematic.

When will the movers arrive?

The timing of the arrival of truck truck at our new house in Missouri was a range of more than a week at the beginning; on the day they loaded the truck, we were told it would arrive the last day of the range. On the day after closing, the driver called in the morning. If he could get a crew to help, he could deliver  later in the day and finish unloading the day after. I went into panic mode to get the house ready: putting everything I had brought in the car out of the way and making signs for the floor or walls to indicate where major furniture would go.

Later in the day, the driver called to indicate that he had not been able to arrange for a crew so the truck would arrive a day before the original delivery date…in 5 days. I was almost overwhelmed by the whiplash of changes but I quickly recovered and made plans to make a return trip to Maryland to get the last items our of our Maryland house and then drive back with my husband --- both of us with fully loaded cars.

What a flurry of activity the day after closing on our Missouri house!

Closing Day – our house in Missouri

After the walk-through and a quick lunch, my daughter drove me to the title company. I had a large cashier’s check in my purse…was looking forward to the closing to hand it over. The seller completed their portion shortly after I arrived. My segment did not take as long as I remember from previous houses; it turns out that buying a house without a mortgage requires a lot less paperwork (and signatures)!

It occurred to me that this is the first time my husband and I own two houses (i.e., no mortgage on either one)!

After the closing, my daughter and I returned to her house then both drove to the new house (me in my heavily loaded car) to unload everything…in preparation for my first night in the house. It was going to be a lot like camping with an air up mattress on the floor for a few days. After my daughter left, I settled in – listening to the sounds of the neighborhood getting quieter as the light faded, the clouds dark. I was up early the next morning – heading out to buy groceries and a few other essentials to have before the movers arrived.

Little did I know that morning – it was the calm before an increasing a flurry of activity as the day progressed.

House Walk-through before Closing

I stayed overnight with my daughter the night before we closed on our new home. It was calming to be in a familiar place, enjoy her yard between rain showers (roses, decorative water faucet, and magnolia with early blooms) and then have her drive me (rather than taking my very full car) to the walk-through of the house prior to closing.  

The form with space for notes about each room that I used when we had first looked at the house back in April worked well for this walkthrough. I wrote down anything I noticed: a ding in a wall that the movers probably made when they moved the previous owner (fortunately the paint was left in the basement so won’t be a hard repair), the blooms that I had just missed (a Japanese dogwood and a rhododendron), the two bathrooms that needed shower rods (the master has a glass enclosed shower), and loose weather stripping on the door to the garage. I also noticed that what I thought was just a microwave was a convection oven as well! Everything important about the house was as I expected.

I had purchased some furniture from the previous owner, and it was all in the house…plus a chimenea (a pleasant surprise sitting to one side of the patio.

It was too wet from the morning rains to walk around the yard, but I did go out on the patio. There were swallows nesting in the eves…with hungry young. Another pleasant surprise.

Overall – I felt good about the house…ready to go for quick lunch…and then close.