Hello, Friends.
If life IS change, then I'm looking forward to my afterlife!
Lots of changes lately, and they have been overwhelming, or nearly so. I have heard it said that moving is one of the most stressful things we go through in life, but that never had much reasonance for me, the guy who lived in a motorhome for four years and traipsed about with barely an address for years afterwards. I know the verity of that statement now. It was not so apparent to a younger man with few possessions and no wife, children or house. It is now. Even though I no longer have a wife, I have a lot of possessions gathered with her, and NOT having a wife is a type of burden now.
Let me set the stage. 6 am Sunday morning and dark, but warm. I don't think it got below 80 until midnight last night, and not a breeze to buy. Jack and I are in our new house, which does not have air conditioning so I have a fan blowing fiercely across the room. Our white brick house is on the side of a smallish mountain in La Crescenta in a nice neighborhood with great schools. It has a nice view, a pool, four small bedrooms and was built in a Modern style in 1952. The exterior and some interior walls are solid brick-not wood walls faced with brick. It also needs a lot of work. The pool needs resurfacing, the kitchen and two baths a total remodel. The steel casement windows need work and some other things, too. That's what I wanted, though, and now it's time to get to work. So much work needs to be done, and that's the overwhelming part. Where do I start, and what exactly do I do? I did not move everything in for a a couple reasons. First, there isn't enough room and second,the stuff would just be in the way if I re-do floors, which is in the cards (I plan to replace the carpet with wood floors). Decisions, decisions are coming at me fast.
Backing up a little, buying this house was a flat-out pain in the ass. I expect lenders to ask for all documents relating to financial status, but they asked for so much more. Every day. The fact that Jack and I have Social Security income because of Andrea's death led to a ridiculous train of requests for birth certificates, adoption paperwork, Social security award letters, requests for copies of documents from Social Security, requests for confidential Social Security codes, conversations with Social Security personnel in the loan officer's office, requests for letters from my CPA pertaining to this, visits to the local SS office and more. I was asked to find someone to lie about the roof and termite work done (virtually no termite damage was found, but water from a leaking shower pan "could" lead to something, so I had to rescind my waiver on this, originally granted because I planned to tear apart and re-do everything in the bathroom(s)anyway. Brokerage statements disappeared after faxing, then became out of date, necessitating re-sending. Insurance issues came up at the 11th hour, mistakes were made on paperwork that almost cost me $11k...and probably other things I can't remember right now, too. Issues I expected, like documenting income and a contentious bargaining process with the estate of the seller never appeared. So I guess it could have been worse, lol.
Anyway, we're in. The pool needs resurfacing, but Jack swam in it anyway. A neighbor with a boy his age appeared at our doorstep yesterday morning with muffins, and Jack swam at their house an hour later, which was nice. Met three other pleasant neighbors, all of whom who are thrilled that the previous owner's son and his "White Trash" crazy friends are gone. There are boxes of things to be put away, old carpet waiting for the trash collectors, empty boxes from ten new ceiling lights, empty boxes from moving...stuff. And if the normal process of starting mail forwarding, gas, water, electric, phone, cable, gardener, pool guy, paper, internet, etc wasn't an ordeal, it added to the stress level when combined with other things, like new school enrollment paperwork, new homework routines for Jack and a punctured water line that flooded the kitchen (the cable guy hit a water line in the wall). I also have clients and work to fit in, plus way too much stuff that isn't right stylisticly (sp?)for this house and needs to be sold. I have what amounts to three 10 x 10 storage units now that cost me $400 a month, so that needs to be paired down asap. More fun.
I didn't mention that I'm going to add a second floor, or at least a master suite with bath, laundry room and storage. More decisions there. Just a couple.
I'm sure it will all get worked out. Rome wasn't built in a day. Parts of Rome may look like that (my hometwon of Rome, NY), but they probably weren't. Incidentally, maybe one day I can add a few pictures from summer vacation in Rome and NY and Massachusetts.
All will yet be well. I think Abraham Lincoln said that, which is ironic. All may NOT be well, but I am proceeding on the assumption that it will be and trust that we can get through somehow if it isn't. If Life is Change and change is hard, then Life is...ah, it's not that bad. And Jack came in and kissed my head during the night so
I'm good for awhile. Hope you are, too.
