50 Days

We have the very fortunate and rare opportunity to spend 50 days in a town where we think we’d like to live before moving there. We are house-sitting for dear friends while they are away on their Summer vacation. We are taking this opportunity when we won’t be in our home to list it unoccupied. We know it’s been a long time since we’ve updated this blog and these 50 days won’t be much about dating our dating, but we think it’s a significant event–this whole thing, and we want to document it.

Today, we met with some painters at our home in Little Elm, got some numbers back from our third realtor, Marvin Jolly, and packed frantically (though it was 6pm when we started) for spending the first night in Denton. We arrived around 8:30. Nichole entered the house and immediately fed Checkers, the sweet cat. It took quite some time to unload the cars due to Persia’s sudden fear of being around the kitty. A month ago, she loved Checkers, even wanted to lay on him. She was so sweet. But during Grandy and Pop’s visit a few weeks ago, the neighborhood stray jumped up on her and she has been frightened of cats ever since. So, this may take a few days of getting used to Checkers before the affection returns.

Finally, the car was unloaded and Shahram wheeled the stroller to the house, thinking he’d keep it in the house like we do in Little Elm. While he finished transporting the previous things from the car, Nichole sat on the porch swing with Persia. Persia enjoyed this greatly. Nichole examined the developed spider webs and the two significant-looking wasp or hornet nests on the porch’s ceiling, remembering how some sort of bees chased her and Persia the previous Summer and how Tiffany rescued them with her quick thinking. Persia also did a lot of looking up. When the strolled came close to the house, Persia wanted a stroll. So Shahram took her for a walk up the block in the dark and they both enjoyed it. The mosquitos must have been taking a break–we were all fine.

Margaux put almost everything away that accumulated inside the door. Tiffany and her family got the house really spic and span before leaving town. Such a nice change from our nearly disastrous home, in the process of packing up, cleaning and staging. The house here in Denton, on this very shady street with so many beautiful old trees is peaceful, to say the least. The energy of the house is just lovely. Even so, Persia is having a hard time. It’s 11:58pm and she’s been up and down three times so far. We just gave her some Cheerios and she was talking to the cat from a distance, laughing as he cleaned his paws. Maybe this won’t take so long afterall.

Tomorrow, we wish we could go to hear the music on the square, but we still have quite a bit to do at the house, so we will return to Little Elm after breakfast and work there all day. We think there will probably only be one or two more days of cleaning, packing, etc. before we’re ready to be out of the house. THe estimate we received from Certapro was about $2400 and change. The estimate from Marianne and Keith Greenwood was $1375, and then they would also replace faucets for $100 labor. The Greenwoods would be able to start on Monday and it would take them about a week to finish. Certapro could do it at the end of the week and it would take them one day. We’re pretty sure that the Greenwoods don’t have insurance, probably aren’t bonded, but they’ve been doing this for years. They’re also homeschoolers of 6 children, with two left at home. They have a nice energy. We also liked Taylor with Certapro and he has a five star rating through Service Magic. It’s not a completely easy choice, but we think we are going to go with the Greenwoods. It will save us $1000, and help support a homeschooling family–and we really like that.

Persia seems to be winding down now with Shahram on the daybed. Wow, that AC is loud when it comes on. That’s going to take some getting used to. We brought out fans and hopefully we’ll have them directly correctly by tomorrow night. Right now, everyone’s really tired and wants to get some sleep.

Good night world.

Shahram, Nichole, Margaux,and Persia
Day 1