I started this blog because I love to take motorcycle trips both local and around the country. And I love finding that roadside attraction or quaint town and of course the best places to eat. So I'd like to share my adventures with friends old and new. And I would like to hear about yours. Feel free to share. What's the nicest ride you've ever taken? The most scenic ride? The longest ride? Rallies you've been to with thousands or a solo ride? The town you fell in love with? The food that you'd go back for? Talk about the motorcycle shops along the way. We all love a warm friendly face. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so use them to help others share your experience.















Sunday, October 16, 2011

Settling In....

Well, tomorrow will be five weeks since we arrived at our new home in Lake Havasu City. And I gotta tell ya, it's been five weeks of blood, sweat and tears. We thought that the house would need some sprucing up but didn't quite expect what was waiting for us. We spent the last five weeks painting and scrubbing and replacing and repairing and just about remodeling the inside of the whole place.
This is the exterior. It was in pretty good shape and the yard work and exterior painting can wait for the cooler weather. Our landscaper does a good job keeping the trees and bushes trimmed and the debris cleaned up. This is the walkway to the front door.
And this is our lake view from the driveway. You're looking west and the mountains on the other side of the lake are in California. That's the Colorado River and we get some really awesome sunsets. Faith has been taking a lot of pictures and we'll be putting some here on the blog and some on facebook.
The back yard is very nice with some flowering shrubs and palm trees and cactus plants. There are a few that need pruning and some that have died and need to be removed but again these are projects that can wait a few more weeks until the weather changes.
Faith likes to have her morning coffee outside under the shaded patio. We've got to replace the shades but for now they work just fine. I'd also like to trim back some of the bushes and trees that are close to the house.The mornings have cooled down quite a bit and it's usually in the 60s when Faith is out there. We're looking forward to the time when we can be outside grilling and having dinner instead of heating up the kitchen. I'm told that time will come very soon.
We very rarely use the front door because the garage door is usually open and it's easier to park and come in through the garage. It's a nice sized garage but with Faith's truck and my trike in there, the Toyota must be left outside. But I hope to be using the trike a lot more so maybe the car will be parked inside and the trike left where it is more accessible.
Until yesterday the garage was very cluttered with boxes and tools and who knows what. So even though we were tired and thought that we had enough with the moving and organizing, we tackled the garage and it actually looks pretty neat and tidy right now. All of my tools and things are along the right wall and all of those boxes stacked behind the trike are going to stay there until I can create my " man cave". They are all of my Harley collectibles and memorabilia and a bunch of bar signs and mugs and other cave things. I never realized how much I've accumulated over the years.
Ok, so we spent some time in the garage getting things looking a little neat and organized but now let's go inside and look at what we've done in the five weeks that we've been here. Like I said, the place was a little more run down and neglected than we had hoped for but together we gave new life to this old house. I gotta tell you, Faith may not have liked it or had much fun these past few weeks but she was right beside me every day whether it was painting or repairing or replacing or whatever. The door on the right is the entry from the garage. The tenants had painted this area and the entire living room a dark brown color and although we didn't really like it, we left it on a few of the walls only because it took 3 or more coats of paint to cover it.
The living room carpet and all of the walls throughout the house were so bad that we decided to paint the back bedrooms and bath and then get new carpet. So we left the dark brown on most of the walls and freshened up the two spare rooms and the guest bath with some paint and then had new carpet installed from the living room through the hall and into those rooms. Project #1 complete! The living room furniture just came this week so we've been watching TV on the floor or on our bedroom mattress for the past few weeks.
Besides climbing on ladders to paint and clean Faith has done a fantastic job of scrubbing every sink and tub and toilet and all of the tile floors in the whole house. Most of the grout was dark and we thought that it was supposed to look like that but when Faith got finished with it, the floors look entirely different and much cleaner. Now if only the tenants hadn't run off with the toilet seat!!
Let's call this back bedroom "Brian's Room". He is supposed to come out here with Laura to spend some time and perhaps make it an extended stay. It's ready for guests and hopefully Brian will be here soon.
This room also doubles as the computer room. You can see that there are still some things that need to be put away but the rooms are getting more and more livable and the rest is just a matter of finding a place for the things that are left. When we got here a few weeks ago we found that the tenants had taken all of the window treatments down and even some of the hardware. So just last week we had new blinds put in all of the windows and new verticals in the kitchen.
And then of course we have "Laura's Room". She's got her ticket and will be coming out in a week and a half. How long she'll stay is up in the air. We're looking forward to having her stay with us and I'm kinda hoping that it's not a short term thing.
Her room is ready and I think that she will really like it out here. We're coming into the great weather part of the year and there's so much to see and do that I don't think she'll get homesick for quite some time.
If we go back out through the living room we get to the kitchen. As with many of the homes in the area, it's a small galley kitchen with an eating area to the side. We are finding that the cabinet space we have here falls far short of what we're used to but we're also finding that we really didn't need a lot of that extra stuff we had. That far wall and the wall above with the vent were painted the same brown as the living room so these were just a couple of the ones that we felt were worth 3 coats of paint to brighten up the wall and make the room seem a little happier.
The wall that the blinds are on was also brown. Another 3 coats and a much nicer look. Although we're not crazy about the color scheme in the tile floor, it's not that easy to replace all of the tile in the kitchen and entry so we'll live with it for now. Faith has been scrubbing the grout and it really doesn't look too bad once it's cleaned.
And last but not least is the master bedroom and bath. We saved this room because we figured we could sleep in either of the other two until we found furniture we liked. Then about a week and a half ago we found something that we both liked so it was ordered and then we had to get to work on the room to get it ready. Again Faith wasn't looking forward to more painting and scrubbing but she did a great job and we got the room painted and carpeted just in time. The new bedroom set came yesterday and last night I slept better than I have in weeks!
I know the walls are kind of bare but we have tons of pictures and other accents that will dress the room up nicely. Right now it's just so nice to be able to relax a bit and feel that we're not pressured to get something done by tomorrow. The house has done a complete turn around from when we got here and now everything is clean and fresh and new we can pack up our paint brushes and start to enjoy this wonderful place and the lake and the weather.
The room that needed the least amount of work was the master bath. A fresh coat of paint and new blinds along with a thorough scrubbing by Faith and we're good to go.
 So today we treated ourselves to a nice ride and absolutely no housework. We hit one of the local watering holes and met some other riders who invited us to join them on their weekly breakfast/ lunch rides. We also have our first ride with the local HOG chapter this Saturday so we're looking forward to meeting more new friends and spending more time on the trike and less time in the house.
We also want to let everyone know that we worked our butts off getting this place ready for company so there is an open invitation for all of you. Friends and family from New Jersey to North Carolina to Oklahoma to Florida to California to Arizona to New York. Friends to the north in Canada and just about anywhere that you are. And all of our friends that we used to work with.
Our door is always open and if you're ever in the area you have a place to stay. We look forward to seeing all of you and hope that you plan a trip out our way soon.


Thanx again honey...You stuck with me and got everything done and the place looks great!!

1 comment:

Tish said...

voAWESOME!!! Really looking like "home" for you. We can not wait to see you! Send your energy our way, lol.