Settling In~

Once the decision was made to tear everything out & re-do the house, the next two weeks were busy ones.  Butch stayed ahead of the flooring installer, moving furnace floor vents - all of them were out in the middle of the rooms.  He tore out leaking toilets, doors, cupboards & even a couple small pony walls in the master bath.  For a while, it looked like a war zone!

Besides all the work, we made several trips to Council Bluffs - to find what we needed.  We spent time shopping, purchasing & when necessary, ordering. Home Depot was our go-to place!  Courtney's flair for decorating was put to use, between the three of us, we made decisions on appliances, cabinets, etc.

Kelly's Carpet & Furniture~

 Jim at Kelly's was great to work with.  He'd helped me to pick the flooring long-distance.  It was fun to finally meet him in person.

Courtney never stopped - cleaning, scrubbing & helping her dad with the heavy stuff.  We did take one afternoon off to tour some of the surrounding countryside.  We ended up at what's become our favorite place - Tobey Jacks in Mineola.  It was super sad when Thursday rolled around...  The drive to Omaha was so short & easy - Courtney had to catch her flight back to Washington. :-(  It brought home to us - our kids & grandkids were no longer going to be close enough to visit :-(

Craft Room~

  One of the goals for the first week, was to get the flooring down in the far end of the house.  That would give us the space to move in things from the U-Haul, rather than rent another storage.  I realized how nice it was going to be to have a larger house with two more bedrooms!

Both the U-Hauls ~

The two of us unloaded the 22ft. truck & returned it on the 23rd to the dealer.  The 26-ft. truck that Butch & David had driven out was still there.

27th - Nika supervises - Flooring down, cupboards going in~

The flooring installer was nice enough to help with my railroad desk!  Drew was a super to work with.  Kelly's best installer & it was obvious why!  Once he'd finished - our next goal was to get two of our three storage spaces emptied before the end of the month.

What a job That was!  Again, just the two of us - Butch figured out amazing ways to help get the biggest & heaviest stuff loaded into the truck - then unloaded at the  house.  The weather throughout the move was great & stayed nice the entire time.

Evening view~

November first - we'd just finished loading the last of our things from the final storage space - when my phone rang.  Hearing my aunt's voice, I knew why she was calling...  My Mother had passed away...  Time stood still...

When I think of all the changes - in such a short amount of time...  

I'm thankful Mom knew we were safe, happy & settling in~