Two Words.

Uncertainty.

Interesting.

In my last post, I announced that we were moving back to Alaska, and I am still excited about that.  However, with all this corona madness going on, it seems like everything in our plans changes by the day.  And this is creating a lot of uncertainty, which can get also get interesting.

The way things are developing, we have no idea what's going to happen to us.

First of all, that house that we were gonna buy, we bailed out of it because the inspection report came back with some unfavorable findings that we didn't want to deal with.  So that whole house-hunting trip was a waste of time and a waste of money, because now we're back at Square One, looking at houses on line again.  When we get up there again, we will try and look at some different ones.

But this also means, that we will have to rent an apt after we get there because we no longer have a closing date right after our arrival.

I've been searching for apts that offer short-term leases, but unfortunately most of them want a 6-month or a 1-year lease. We are hoping it won't take us that long to get into a house. I found one renter who accepts 3-6 month leases, but I still need to contact them and find out if they will have any apts available for us when we get there.

We also need to find out from the moving company how long they will store our stuff for us in their warehouse once it gets up there.  That is another factor that may determine how much pressure we're under to find a house fast.

On a side note, there is a latest development regarding that house we were gonna buy.  The sellers weren't happy with the results, so they had it retested.  If it comes back okay, they want to know if we would still be interested in buying it.

To be continued until we know more.........

Okay, now this is where things get kinda hairy for us (uncertainty emphasized).

We have been paying attention to Alaska news, and the governor there has mandated that everyone coming into Alaska must be quarantined for 2 weeks upon arrival, whether you're flying or driving or coming in on the ferry, whatever.

I wondered how they were going to enforce this, and I don't know all the details, but I think what they do is they make you fill out of a form telling them where you are planning to quarantine yourself, and then they check on you to make sure you're not contaminated.  I think you're also supposed to record your temperature several times a day as well.  I'm not really sure.  Anyway, it's easy enough for people who live there or have somewhere to go.  But for us, as of yet, we still don't know where we're going, so I need to have an apt waiting for us to go to, so I can provide an address for them.  But, what if we need to spend the first night in a hotel?  Then what?

Uncertainty.

And what if they shut down all the hotels in order to deter travelers?

Uncertainty.

Will we even be able to get across the Canadian border?

Uncertainty.

What will we do if we can't get across the border?

We are getting kicked out of our house on the 30th and may not have anywhere to go!

And how long would we have to wait to get across the border?

And if we can't get up there, will Chuck's boss extend his pick-up date and tell us to stay here until further notice?

If we have to spend weeks in a hotel, this would deplete a huge chunk of our savings.

Uncertainty AND homelessness.

But at the same time, you could say that things could get quite interesting.

It'll be an adventure, that's for sure.

So many questions like these keep running rampant through my head, and none of them can be answered because things change every day. All I can do is pray, pray, and pray some more, and hope that things ease up by then.

We sure did pick a bad time to move back up there.

In all fairness though, we didn't pick this time to move, it just happened this way.

  

I am reminded of what the prophet Habakkuk said to the Israelites, to encourage them when they were being threatened by a Chaldean invasion:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines;

Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food;

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls;

(though the stores run out of toilet paper) - my addition

Yet I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation".

I struggle with the uncertainty of all of this craziness, but Habakkuk helps to remind me to keep things in perspective.  We aren't being invaded by the Chaldeans, but being invaded by a virus can wreak a lot of havoc and turn everything upside down.

This too shall pass.

So anyway, now you know what's happening on our "buying" side of the coin; on the "selling" side, we sold our house on the 3rd day of having it on the market, which was really fast!  It came on the market on a Thursday and sold on Sunday! I'm glad though because it was a big pain getting informed when "someone wants to look at your house", so we had to keep the house clean at all times which is hard to do when you're living in it, but also when we got the call, we had to go through the whole house, scrub out all the sinks, wipe everything down in the bathrooms and kitchen, have all the dishes washed and put away, all the carpets vacuumed, then we had to put stuff in the garage that we thought might be unsightly, like the laundry baskets, and all evidence of our cats (all 3 litter boxes, kitty dishes, and the cats themselves).  Luckily we only had to do all of this twice before we got an offer.  The first time, we took the cats with us in the car.  But because of this corona craziness, nothing was open.  We couldn't sit in a coffee shop or go to a bookstore or anything, so we just sat in the parking lot of the nearest grocery store.  What made it more frustrating was they came 45 minutes late, so that made our car sitting time a lot longer than it would've been and the poor kitties were stressed out and shedding like crazy.  But I figured it would be good practice for them before we hit the road with them next month.

The second time was on Sunday, which happened to be the first Sunday that we didn't assemble at church because of the virus, so it worked out good for us.  They came and looked at 11:00, but this time we left the kitties in the truck in the garage so they wouldn't stress out from being in the car and SHEDDING EVERYWHERE!!  After we got home, we put the litterboxes and the laundry baskets back in the house, and then we got another call saying that the people wanted to come back and look at it again.   ...............sigh! So we had to take everything back out again and stuff the kitties back in the truck.  It was a good sign though, that at least they were interested in the house, and sure enough, they made an offer.  So the closing date is set for April 30, which works great for us because we plan to be gone by then - if we can get across the border.  If not, I don't know what we're gonna do, but we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.  Chuck doesn't seem too worried about it, so I don't know why I'm fretting about it more than he is.  With God's providence, I know we will get through this.

Unfortunately, we may not be able to see our church family again before we leave, and it will seem really weird (and sad) to just leave and not say goodbye to anybody.  I will probably have to make a lot of phone calls.  I've already had some people calling me.

Well, so that is what's going on here. 

I will leave you with a picture of Peeka sitting on her butt warmer.

I have never seen her sit here before, so I have no idea what was going through her head.  I just thought it was funny that she was sitting right on top of the burner like she waiting for it to do its job.

We're Moving!

I know it's been 2-1/2 months since I've posted anything but that's because I didn't have anything exciting to write about, unless you're the type that gets excited about everyday news that consists of washing dishes, baking bread, scrubbing the floor, and trips to the grocery store.  If you get excited about those things, I don't know how to help you.

I did have my mom here for a couple weeks though.  I sort of had to twist her arm a little bit to get her to agree to come visit me cuz she doesn't travel too well anymore.  But I'm really glad she did because I knew it was gonna be my last chance to ever have her over at my house.  She spent a lot of time helping me sew Stephanie's quilt.  I happen to be hand sewing that one, which is what Ma likes to do, so I'm glad we found something for her to do that she enjoys.

Also we took her to Shipshewana, and she got excited about seeing those Amish buggies parked along the side of the building.  She wanted me to take some pictures of her with one of the horses.

Most of you who read this blog,  -- what is the stagnant number? about 4? --  most everyone knows now that we are moving back to Alaska.  I kinda "knew" we would go back eventually, but I didn't think it would happen this fast.  I thought we would be here in Indiana for at least 3 years.  But a job position opened up in Anchorage; we talked about it; prayed about it; and Chuck applied for it.

And he got it.

Wow.  

Really?!

We're actually going back to Alaska?!

Of course I am thrilled about it, but there is a small part of me that is/was having mixed feelings about it.  We've been here for a year and a half now, and that's long enough to establish new friendships, and settle new habits, and learn where you can buy your favorite novelty grocery items, like fresh Amish produce for example, which is something you can't get in Alaska (I will miss that!)

But Alaska is where our girls are. We are sacrificing some of our favorite amenities here, but we feel that we want to be closer to them.

Oh, the things we do for our kids.....!

Lucky for them, I happen to LOVE Alaska!

So we took a trip up there to look for our next house and we found one on the 2nd day of looking.  We made an offer and they accepted, so if all goes well with the inspection, this will be our next abode:

It looks like a really big spread out ranch home, but in reality, only half of that is the house.  Chuck is getting spoiled with lots of garage!  This house has two 2-car garages, and they're both heated, and very clean, and set up for tinkering because the previous owner's hobby (apparently) was working on classic cars.  Anyway, it is a VERY NICE garage.  Plus, there's another heated shed in the back.

I just love the outside of this house.  It's almost like a little "compound" because there's walkways from one place to the next.  Here is a walkway to the gazebo.

I am excited for summer to come because this is going to be a really neat place during the summertime.

Another thing that I'm excited about is the sunroom.  You can kinda see it on the far left of the house. It's a little room with glass walls and it has solar panels on the roof.  This is where I'm going to start my garden seeds!  It is so perfect for that.  It's also heated and has fans in it, so it's actually a greenhouse.  It is SO cool!  I will love using that!  

Plus the yard is really big - plenty of room for garden beds.

There's also a firepit in the back yard.

And the house sits in a cul-de-sac, so there's a lot of quiet privacy here.

AND, you really don't know what you're getting under all that snow, but Chuck found some summer pictures of this place, and the yard is really well taken care of, and there's two rhubarb plants already matured!  Woo-HOO!

The inside of the house has some pros and cons.

It has a nice big kitchen with an island, so I have plenty of counter space.

BUT - I might be lacking in upper cabinet space.  We'll have to see.

I love the openness of this area when you walk in there.

That couch you see in the background, is not the living room.  That is actually supposed to be a computer nook.  These people just chose to put a couch there, and it looks very cute and cozy, but we are going to put a computer desk there.

If you take a left at that couch, you'll go down this hallway that leads to the laundry room.

I will have a pretty nice laundry room.

That door leads to the glass sunroom (if I remember right).

If you go up those stairs, you will find yourself in a HUGE master bedroom.

It's somewhere around 30' long, maybe it's 27'  - ridiculous big.  I don't have any pictures of it, but trust me, it's big.  The people who built this house must've been very eccentric because they had a stand-alone bathtub in the bedroom.  The people who own it now, have a huge fancy treadmill where the bathtub used to be.  There is a patch in the floor where the bathtub used to be - where the treadmill is now.  The whole floor up there is wood.  Eventually we will get carpet up there and that will take care of that "patch" in the floor where the bathtub was.

Also there are sliding glass doors in the master bedroom that lead outside to a HUGE deck, raised high off the ground of course, because the master bedroom is on the upper floor.

Unfortunately, this is the only "back door" we got.

So, if you go back to the kitchen, there will be stairs going down to the lower level, and that is where the living room is.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but it is also ridiculous huge.

27 feet long! (this is what makes me think the master bedroom is probably 27' also)

And notice there's no windows, except for one window on the wall behind me that you can't see.

No windows in the living room is a big con for me.  I don't like that, but it's too late to dwell on that now.

The people who originally built this house used this room as some kind of - I don't know what they did exactly - but they had a projector in there and a wet bar, they purposely designed this room to be dark so they could show movies or something, I don't know.  The whole entire house has panels with jacks all over them so they could play their music through the whole entire house.  They had a TV set sitting on top of the fridge which explains why there aren't any cabinets above the fridge.  Anyway, the house does have some oddities.

My biggest problem is the bedrooms, and this is almost getting me feeling a little depressed.  It's too bad we didn't put more thought into this before we made the offer, but then again, we love the rest of the house enough, I don't know if that would've deterred us from buying it.

Besides the master bedroom which takes the whole entire upper floor, there are three other bedrooms.  Unfortunately, one of them is only 8'3" x 8'3" (too small to be a bedroom), so in my mind, there are really only two extra bedrooms.  I need one of them to be a guest room, and one of them has to be for Justin.  I don't know which one to put Justin in because the medium size one is smaller than the one he has now, and he needs his space for all his computer stuff and whatnot.  The biggest bedroom is too big and also has a 1/2 bath in it, which would be perfect for guests, but it would be such a waste to reserve all that precious space just for guests, who might use that room only a few times a year.  It would be nice for Justin to have that room, but if I give him that room, the medium size room would have to be guest room, and that leaves that teeny room for my craft room (and where am I supposed to set up my Bible study area?).  The small room is a good size for a den/study, but then where am I gonna have my sewing area and my scrap booking area?  I have no bonus room in this house to work with.  I can use part of the master bedroom for one of my hobbies, but it's not big enough for both sewing and scrap booking (not with those sliding glass doors in there which we don't want blocked). I also thought of using the big bedroom as the guest room and then I could use part of that room for one of my hobbies, but I don't know - I keep thinking in circles and getting nowhere. It just really stinks that those bedrooms aren't normal sizes. I'm thinking I'll have to utilize part of the master bedroom and maybe part of the living room too, which is too big anyway, but how to do that without it looking bad and tacky? I was even suggesting using some space in one of Chuck's many garages since they are so cozy heated and he has TONS of room out there, but he is against that.  I think he wants his garage space to stay "manly".  Anyway, I get depressed when I think about this too much because I don't see how I'm gonna make it work without giving up one of my hobbies.

But I will figure something out.  Because I have to.

But if any of you wants to come visit, we will gladly give you a room and a bed - you just might have to share a room with my hobby stuff.

So anyhoo, we got all the necessary papers signed and now we're just waiting for the inspection.  In the meantime, we are getting our house ready to put on the market.  The photographer is coming to take pictures on Wednesday, so between now and then, we have to get this house looking fit to publish in a magazine (as best we can).  Our realtor wants to put it on the market on Thursday, and he wants to do an Open House on Sunday (already!)  But if he wants to do an Open House, I'm glad he's doing it right away because the house will already be clean from doing the photos.  The hardest part of all this is keeping the house immaculate at all times.  I hope it sells fast.  The sooner it sells, the sooner we can relax.

On a better note, here are some pics I took when we were in Alaska these past few days.

I took some from the airplane when we were descending.

Oh, how I miss those mountains!

Oh, how I miss driving on these pretty roads!

We even stopped to buy a sandwich from one of my favorite stores!

We didn't have time to look around and browse, but it was nice to see that store again!

Who needs Whole Foods when you got the Natural Pantry?

I was hoping to see some moose while we were there, and we finally saw some on our last day, on our way back to the airport!  I didn't get any pictures cuz we were driving and I couldn't dig my camera out of my pocket fast enough (stupid seatbelts!)  We saw about a dozen of them grazing in "the Flats".

And then I saw this one in the airport:

We were supposed to leave at 1:00 am Sunday morning, so our plans were to spend Saturday evening  in Anchorage with PW after she got off work, but on Friday she informed us that she had the flu.  On Saturday she said she was going to the doctor.  We had nothing else to do and didn't see the logic in hanging around there all day for nothing, so we decided to change our flight to leave at noon.  I'm glad we did cuz that got us home around 3:00 am, which is 11:00 pm Alaska Time.  So we got home two hours before we WOULD HAVE been leaving Anchorage, and that was already a really long day, so I'm glad we didn't wait around for our original flight.

In case you're wondering, NO she did not have the coronavirus.

So there you have it.

Yes, we are moving back to Alaska!

And that means, hopefully I will have more blogs to post.

Weeners was hiding the whole time Ma was here.

It's nice to see her come back out again.

Even if she's sitting on top of my quilting project.