Back on the Road — With a Pet Stop!

We are planning to take our sweet time  back toward Arizona. We do need to make a detour to Texas to tend to one last piece of business at our rental house. It hasn't sold yet, so we have to figure out our next move there. However, we're also weaving a few house-sitting stops into our route to keep things interesting.

Planning this leg of the journey reminded me of a few years ago when we did a good number of house sits through TrustedHousesitters.com. We truly enjoyed the experience back then, but when some medical issues arose, we ended up letting our subscription expire. We decided to renew it this year with the specific intent of picking up a few assignments on our trek back from North Carolina.

We applied for a sit in Savannah, Georgia, and were absolutely thrilled to secure it after a great chat with the homeowner. The assignment was right up our alley: taking care of a sweet small dog in a beautiful, historic 1910 vintage home right in downtown Savannah for four nights.

After wrapping things up in Raleigh, we made the 300-plus mile drive down to Georgia. Traveling in the car is definitely a different pace than the old RV days, as we watched the miles fly by. Once we arrived in town, we contacted the homeowner and made our way over to our temporary home.

We pulled right into the back driveway to get settled in. The owner greeted us and went over all the details of the sit. She also gave us a lovely tour of the property. Walking through the rooms felt like stepping into a time capsule; it looked just as it must have back in 1910, complete with gorgeous vintage furniture that perfectly fit the historic era. 

Our four-day stay was absolutely delightful, even though mother nature didn't entirely cooperate—it rained quite a bit while we were there. But a little rain couldn't dampen our spirits! The little dog we were caring for was an absolute joy and had quite the entertaining personality to keep us company.

     

Whenever we had some free time away from the house, we took full advantage of the opportunity to explore Savannah and the surrounding area. Those who know us won't be surprised to hear that we really love this town. It is always a treat to walk anywhere in Savannah. The stunning historic architecture and the beautiful squares filled with Spanish moss-laden trees make strolling through the city incredibly charming.

While we were busy enjoying our time in Savannah, we actually managed to line up another house sit just 40 miles away in Hilton Head, South Carolina, which is just a short drive north of here.

So, after we wrap things up here, it's straight on to our next adventure on this road of retirement!

Back on the Road — This Time Without the RV

 

After completing some of our renovations on the Park Model, we knew one thing for sure; we didn't want to spend the summer in Arizona. We made plans to head east for an extended stay with our daughter and her family in North Carolina.

We packed up, locked the Park Model, and hit the road. However, this time, there was one big difference—we left the RV behind with its new owner.

Traveling in a car is definitely different from traveling in the RV. After all these years of being on the road, we got used to limiting ourselves to about 150 miles a day. That's a pretty easy pace when you're traveling in a motorhome. In a car, though, 600 miles in a day doesn't seem nearly as crazy. I have to admit, it's a little strange to look at the mileage and realize just how far we can go in a single day.

Our first stop was Texas, where we spent some time with our son and his family. It's always nice to be able to slow down for quality time with family. Our grandson, Cameron who just graduated from High School was happy to show us his new car and took us out for a spin in it! We also managed to make a few stops at some of our favorite places, including Luckenbach and the old River Road in Central Texas. Some places just never get old.

While in Texas, we headed over to College Station to take care of our rental house. We decided it was probably time to exit the rental business, so we spent some time fixing the place up and getting it ready to put on the market.

Of course, nothing is ever quite as simple as it sounds. We're going to try to sell it, but if it doesn't move fairly quickly, we may decide to rent it again. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Our next significant stop was in Mississippi, where we spent the night. There was an important reason for stopping there—we needed to share a delicious, massive shrimp po'boy before moving on down the road.

From Mississippi, we continued east until we finally made it to North Carolina and that's where we settled in for quite a while.

One of the best parts of retirement is the ability to spend an extended amount of time with family, and this trip gave us the opportunity to really soak up some time with our grandchildren, Allie and Emmy. It was fabulous to experience day to day life with them making priceless memories while also enjoying time with our daughter and her husband.

Of course, when the kids were at school and their parents were at work, we had to find something to keep ourselves occupied. Naturally, we played quite a bit of disc golf and visited a few places for craft beer.

Those who know us probably aren't surprised by that. Disc golf and finding good craft beer are two of our favorite ways to spend our free time. 

I won't bore you with all the details of everything we did during our extended stay in North Carolina. Let's just say we had a blast. There was plenty of family time, plenty of fun, great food and plenty of memories made. But, as it always seems to do, the time eventually came for us to move on.

Now it's time to slowly start making our way back toward Arizona. We're planning to take our time, make a few house sitting stops along the way, and, of course, find a few adventures along the way.

After all, that's what this life on the road of retirement is really all about.

Next Up! Dining Room and Living Room Facelifts!

With the kitchen renovation finally finished, it was time to turn our attention to the dining room and living room. The dining room definitely needed to be painted, but the living room was in pretty good shape and we really liked the color that was already there. We felt there was no reason to paint it just for the sake of painting it.

For the dining room, we chose Agreeable Gray, which was the same color we used in the kitchen. We also decided to paint the walls in the hallway leading to the bedroom. Just painting over all the little grooves and imperfections I had to spackle after removing the splines that ran up and down the walls made a huge difference. The room looked so much better and actually seemed to open up the space quite a bit.

To finish off the dining room, we added a light fixture to the ceiling fan. This appeared to be a pretty easy job, but let me tell you, it was a pain in the butt! Of course, while I was at it, I also replaced a few broken electrical outlets. 

While all of this was going on, Sharon was using ChatGPT to help us figure out how to decorate both the dining room and living room. We already had a beautiful dining table, so we really just needed to figure out what to put around it. Before we could put the finishing touches on the dining room, though, we needed a new sofa. The one that came with the place had seen better days. It took us a while to finally find one we liked, and even after we bought it, we still had the old sofa sitting there until we figured out exactly where we wanted everything to go.

We also bought a couple of ottomans to make the swivel chairs a little more comfortable. We decided to keep the chairs already there when we bought the place because they were really nice. Once the major pieces of furniture were in place, it was back to ChatGPT for more interior decorating advice. It gave us lots of ideas for using things we already had and also gave us some suggestions for things we didn't have.

There's a boutique/thrift store nearby we  heard about, and one Monday everything in the store was half price. Let me tell you, it was amazing! We found so many things there that we could use to decorate the house. We had been looking for artwork for the living room for quite a while, and we really scored. We found lots of artwork at some seriously discounted prices.

Once we brought our bounty home, we started putting everything together. We moved things from one place to another, moved them back again, and consulted ChatGPT along the way. Eventually, we finally placed everything where we wanted it. We only had to buy one more piece of artwork, which we found on Facebook Marketplace, and then we were done. And I have to say, it's starting to feel a lot more like our home!

    

We still have plans to paint and decorate our bedroom and the spare room. The bathroom, however, is going to have to wait a while so the budget can recover! But for now, Phase 1 of our redo is finished.

It's amazing how much of a difference some paint, furniture, artwork and a few other changes can make. When we first moved in, it still felt like somebody else's place. Now, little by little, it is starting to feel like ours. Of course, we won't be sticking around to enjoy it for too long. We're going to escape the desert heat and head to North Carolina to visit our daughter and our grandkids.

And that's not a bad way to celebrate finishing Phase 1!

Kitchen Renovation - It's a wrap!

With the walls and cabinets in our newly acquired home finally painted, it was time to turn our attention to the rest of the kitchen remodel. Before having the new countertops installed, I wanted to replace the two windows over the sink. The original single-pane windows faced west, and since we plan to live here year-round, upgrading to double-pane windows made sense. They would be much more energy efficient thus keeping the kitchen more comfortable during the hot Arizona summers.

Replacing the windows turned out to be a fairly easy project. They were secured with screws from the outside, so I simply removed the screws, scored the old caulk with a utility knife, and carefully worked each window out of the opening.

The hardest part of the job was removing all of the old caulk. Once that was finished, I set the new windows in place, made sure they were level both horizontally and vertically, and fastened them with screws. A generous bead of exterior caulk around the perimeter sealed everything to prevent any future leaks.

With the windows finished, it was time for the countertops. We found a local fabricator who offered a solid-surface product similar to Corian. After he came out to measure everything, a few weeks passed before he returned to install the new countertops along with our  larger single-basin undermount sink.

Once the installers finished, all I had left to do was reconnect the plumbing under the sink. Then it was on to the next project—the backsplash.

We decided on a simple white subway tile. During a trip to Lowe's, we got lucky and found the tile on clearance for just seven cents a piece. In fact, the tile, mortar, and grout together cost about the same as the tile saw I had to buy to complete the installation.

The kitchen has now become exactly what we envisioned. Someday we'll probably replace the refrigerator, but for now we're very happy with it. We also found a few finishing touches on Facebook Marketplace which helped pull everything together without spending a fortune.

Looking back, this was one of those projects that made a dramatic difference in the look and feel of our park model. Best of all, we were able to accomplish it without breaking the bank.