We are finally here in beautiful Anchorage, Alaska!! It's been a long, and sometimes hard, road getting here, but now we can settle in and enjoy this wonderful and exciting place.
From the day I first learned we were moving here, I have been organizing and planning for this day! We began by getting our Texas house ready for sale. We had the windows cleaned, touched up the paint on the walls, had the carpets and tile cleaned, trimmed the bushes, put down new mulch, and weeded out the clutter.
Then came the house-hunting trip to Anchorage. We were able to get away in early May, which seemed to be a time of seasonal crossover. Some snow was still on the ground, but the plants were bursting to open up their spring leaves. The weather wasn't bad, up to the 50's during the day and upper 30's at night. I was surprised that it didn't really cool down until much later at night, since the sun was still pretty bright until pretty late.
We had a great real estate agent, Mary, who has a great knowledge of the city and it's neighborhoods. We began our house hunt right away the morning after we arrived (we arrived at around midnight!). We had done a considerable amount of "research" online, so felt we knew what price range would provide a suitable home for us. Mary showed us some very nice houses, but a couple of them really stood out. One of those was priced out of our range, so we are now in the other house.
Our house has beautiful views, looking out to Cook Inlet, Anchorage, The Chugach Mountains, and Turnagain Arm. So, pretty much all the surrounding beauty the area has to offer! It's in a really nice, family-oriented neighborhood, too, near to the school my daughter will be attending. Though it seems like it's a long way from downtown Anchorage because it's in the southern-most area of the city, it's only about a 20 minute drive.
Well, since it's getting late here, even though the sun is still bright in the sky, I will continue this another time. Until then...
Connie
so enjoying being here! We've been so busy with all the settling in and today all the busyness has slowed down. We took a drive to see some things, but it was sprinkly/rainy, so we didn't get out much. At one stop, we got out to go see Baluga Point, and it was so windy and cold, that Chris stayed in the car (he didn't bring a jacket -- you must always have a jacket with you, the weather changes quickly sometimes). Stephy, Katy and I did some exploring, but we were cold, too (except Katy who is like a puppy with this cool weather!).
About our trip here and days since: We , I was just so worried about Katy the whole time, though. She did very well, wagging and smiling as usual when we got her at the airport in Anchorage. The kids rode in a taxi van with all our stuff, while I ran to rent a car and met them at the hotel. We got settled there, grabbed a bite (at Subway) and then I went to the closing. After that, I picked up the kids and met Mary, the realtor, at the house, so we could give it a final look over, and so the kids could see it. We couldn't wait to get moved in the next day!
Next day, I began transporting the bags to the house, since the rental car couldn't handle all of them, plus Katy's box, plus Katy and the kids all at once. Since I was up pretty early (that sun!!), I thought I'd just get started with the move. Katy and I ran over a large load, then we went to buy her food, took that back to the house and then went to get the kids. We grabbed some breakfast, so we could make it to the house in time to meet the rental furniture delivery.
They were a bit late, but I got lots of business done while waiting for that. Found out that our closing had been delayed!!! Boy, were Winston and I mad!! Seems the mortgage company wasn't quite satisfied with our final statements?? I was able to get our credit union to fax the last month's bank statement to them along with the wire transfer info and that did the trick. Not before we have to pay a rental fee to stay in the house, since it wasn't officially ours!! The former owners didn't want to make us pay rent, but their insurance company insisted that they draw up a rental contract and charge us something. It wasn't much, but we sure didn't need more expense at this time!! I'm going to send them the bill, since there was really no good reason I know of for them to delay closing when they had well over a month and a half to get all their work done. I don't count on them paying it, but they should know how they effect people when they drag their feet like that.
Well, in the midst of all this mess with the closing and trying to get info and make things happen with that, the furniture came, the air shipment came, the Subaru came, and the phone guy came to get our phones working! Once all that was settled, we took the rental car back and went to Costco and loaded the Ru (Subi)!!! We had to buy a microwave, because they took the one in the kitchen. Then we got lots of groceries and paper goods. I love my "Costco Room" in the basement, which is a large room of shelves and an extra fridge. We put our extras in there, and it really helps with space in the kitchen. This kitchen isn't as large, and doesn't have the storage of my last kitchen. However, as I've been putting stuff away, I'm seeing that it's a very cleverly designed kitchen, with special drawers and racks that help organize and hold more stuff than otherwise.We had a bite out, then came home to finish unpacking.
Had fun trying to sleep that night, since the shades aren't blackout shades! I went to bed around 12PM, when it finally got a little dark, and woke up around 4AM, despite our early morning wake up the day before! It was beautiful, though!! The blues of the sky are just gorgeous in the AM, and, though it looks like it should be 7 or so in the morning, it's so quiet because everyone else is asleep still. Katy and I did a walk a little later, then got down to work figuring out where air shipment things should go and making another shopping list.
Next day I didn't wake up quite as early, though I still had trouble settling down at night. Stephy's been good about heading to bed at a decent hour, but Chris and I are having trouble with that. I couldn't believe he was talking to one of his Katy friends last night, 10:30-ish our time, so 1:30 your time!!
Anyway, we went to a grocery store (Carr's) yesterday and filled in what we couldn't get at Costco. So, more stuff to put away!! Then we went to have an early dinner/late lunch at this restaurant that we'd been trying to eat at for a couple of days, but the crowds were so huge the wait was way too long. Finally got in and had a good pizza dinner. Then Stephy and I went to see the movie "Eclipse". Chris was going to see a different movie, but was so tired he just went home and slept. He picked us up when the movie was over, and then we had another restless night of trying to settle down despite the bright sunshine at 11PM! I pulled out my eye mask and that really helped. Poor Katy is still on TX time, though, as she woke me up at 5:30 to feed her.
Today has been relatively quiet. I ran the sprinkler, and took Katy for a walk. She's been loving our walks, even though it's pretty hilly here. My muscles are letting me know they're not used to those hills -- found even steeper ones today! We've all been enjoying this calm day, just working on details here and there. We took a drive to see some of the sights from the car, as it's kind of rainy and cold today. We're hoping to play tourists tomorrow and hit downtown with it's farmers market and tourist shops, etc.
The kids are doing well. Stephy just loves her room, and has moved in all the stuff we have with us so far. Chris seems to like his little "house" downstairs, and just used his microwave to heat up some bread for a snack. I know he'll love it even more when we can set up the "entertainment" stuff. We're all a bit frustrated right now, as our cable isn't working yet. The cable guy is coming today, so hopefully we'll have TV tonight. I haven't missed it very much, just the lack of news, though I've been listening to the radio and get some news that way.
