It has been a fun and exciting summer. In addition to the usual fun things (family, grandchildren, cycling, etc.) we have had two new projects.
The first was to remodel the new home we purchased in Leisure World, Mesa, Arizona. And the second was planning and packing for our fall move there.
The new home we purchased in Leisure World was in serious need of remodeling. It was tired. A few things didn't work, and some things were cheap.
What we found was that for extremely reasonable prices we could fix everything and create an almost entire make-over.
We don't have the best photos, but these give an idea of the before and after situation:
We don't have good photos that show many of the improvements. We altered the back patio to give a lot more room, did a lot of electrical work inside, added fixtures, replaced flooring in one room, replaced three sliders and all exterior doors, and more.
The entire home will have a different feeling now, one we want. We are looking for bright and colorful. I think we got it.
We have only begun!
Our second project could most accurately be titled "semi-moving." We aren't getting ready for a usual road trip like we usually do this time of the year, but instead are loading the pickup and camper for a different purpose---to move things there that we want to live there. The plan is to pack for our camping in public lands from Mesa, not from here.
So this has meant going through everything we own to decide what we want here on Whidbey Island, and what we want in Nuestra Casa. We have been working on this all summer.
We have been packing the camper and pickup floor to ceiling.
The back seat of the camper is filled:
The camper will also be filled to the ceiling. It is still a work in progress:
Our plan is to travel to our beloved public lands in a different way this year. Instead of camping and hiking along the way to the southwest where we usually winter, we are going to just drive to the southwest, in two 12-hour days and an 8-hour day. We will spend two nights at KOA campgrounds along the way where we will need to unpack some of the camper floor just to get to the bed.
Just get down there as quickly as possible. It will be a slog, but we can do that.
We will be leaving our wonderful Whidbey Island in about 10 days. We are closing up our home here. We will miss it. We won't be back for eight months--the longest we have been away.
The future is planned in only a very general way: We will leave from Nuestra Casa on 1-3 week road trips to camp and hike on our public lands, returning to Nuestra Casa when we are out of food and water, or when the weather turns bad.
It will be much easier on us to do it this way, having a home base where we can return for a week to restock, take showers, and regroup before we take off again to find adventure in those public lands that we share ownership with everyone. But Nuestra Casa will be more than a resting and restocking place for us--we bought it because we love it in Leisure World and will be able to swim, dance, cycle, etc., and enjoy afternoons on our veranda. It will be a home in addition to being a home base.
If you got this far, we will take care of those lands as best we can until you can come out on them with us. That would be nice.
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