What's up with us? (part two)

We left you post our Disney adventure and busy packing for our trip to Tennessee....

We had an uneventful drive and stopped to see our friends who moved from MD to Philadelphia, TN to pick up a dining table and benches that they no longer wanted. Stu had put dibs on it back in MD when he was helping them load their truck for the move. The table now resides in our dining room. The short bench is in our utility/mud/laundry room. Perfect for sitting to put on/take off shoes and boots. The long section of bench is against one wall in the dining area. The bonus? Both seats lift for storage!

We planned on staying one night but the weather changed our minds for us. Snow, ice and below freezing temps delayed our departure until we felt it was safe to continue. We arrived at our timeshare condo in Crossville a day late. It was perfect! Half the price of a hotel, lots of room, free wifi, good television and a well equipped kitchen. It was reasonable because it's off season here. Worked out well for us.

We did our final walk through on Monday the 9th and closed on Tuesday the 10th. It was official - we were now proud but poor homeowners.

We have been swamped with buying things - lots of used furniture locally and even more items from Amazon. We got a duplicate of the floor firesafe we have in the RV, delivered free from Walmart. Our new office chairs were delivered free from Sam's Club. Yes, the mailman, UPS and Fedex drivers now know us well.

We found a small moving company that helped Stu unload all the stuff in our shed on our property. We then hired them to help pickup the last load of furniture and were glad we did. That stuff was HEAVY! Stu also got a great deal on a used lawn tractor and cutting torch from the folks with what became our guest bedroom. We have someone who picked up most of our trash and we will contract with him for regular service later. We met our new insurance agents at Farm Bureau, nice folks! We got our address changed and new driver licenses and as well as changed on the trike registration.

Many, many trips to Lowe's, starting with buying our new Maytag washer and dryer. After using them the last couple of weeks, I am very happy with what I chose.

We have donated three HUGE totes of clothes that will go to the folks who suffered in the recent Gatlinburg fires. Another box of books went to the local library. Some things left behind by the seller were taken to the dump (transfer station) along with a ton of cardboard to recycle.

We still haven't unpacked our safe and set it up, most of what will go in it will come out of the safe in the RV. I have several totes full of things to hang on the walls and sit on shelves, that will wait till spring.

We shared photos of the house before purchase in this blog post. Here are a few since we've moved in.

We have FIVE seats that recline in our living room! Not a fan of the TV stand but love our new 50" television.


Front foyer, cabinet needs contents but we have our marriage skeleton gnomes and my stained glass frog nightlight.


I LOVE my kitchen and all the pops of red!


Dining area works well...the walls are bare and we still need something on the other side, opposite the bench.


Master bedroom - need something on the walls for sure!




Mater bath -


Guest room, ready for company!


Guest bath is ready, too.


You first saw my desk here...


Now here is the office two weeks later. Yes, the elliptical is in the office. That encourages me to get up and MOVE more often.


We bought and installed a security system from SimpliSafe and are quite pleased with it. Inexpensive, easy to set up, good customer service (long phone waits due to how well these systems are selling) and portable if you move. We have all the doors and windows alarmed, several motion sensors, several glass breakage sensors, a web camera and just ordered carbon monoxide, smoke and freeze detectors.

If anyone is interested, PLEASE contact us and we will get them to contact you via email.

Oh, and we had our first snowfall today...well, this morning. All gone now!


We will probably be here another 4-5 days, finishing up all the loose ends. I hope to get some writing done on Almost a Touch while Stu works on "things". [giggle]

Ciao for now!