This is the last blog post for The Great Italian Adventure. This is all about repatriating and getting settled back into a normal life in the US again.
Apartment living -- again!
We have gone the full circle, starting off with an apartment in Naples at the beginning of our adventure, and now here we are again, back in an apartment! Much better than a hotel, our little apartment in Mukilteo is 2 bedroom/2 bath on the first floor with a single car garage. It is furnished in sort of standard apartment furniture and most importantly, the beds are comfortable!
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| Living room/dining room |
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| Kitchen |
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| Queen sized bed |
All in all, we are entirely comfortable here while we wait for our sea shipment to arrive. That is estimated to be about 8 weeks before it arrives. It is close to work and has enough creature comforts (tv, microwave, washer/dryer, internet) that we can settle in a bit and I can start my new job without having to search through bags looking for something to wear.
Dumb design
When you live in a place for a little while you notice problems with the design. This one is the door into the master bedroom that sticks out farther than the wall and is right in the path to the bathroom. If you aren't careful, you will run right into it in the middle of the night!
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| Who designed this door? |
Time to ready the old home
While waiting for our sea shipment we launch into some projects at the house. Our renters left the property clean and move-in ready, but we decided to paint, put in new flooring, and tear out the wall between the living room and the den. The wall removal was a project we had planned before we left for Italy, and now it is the first thing we want to do.
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| Johnnie and Bill hard at work |
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| We are amazed how much light this lets into the living room |
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| Da dah! Ready for sheet rock and paint. I love it! |
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| Dry wall done, waiting on texture and paint |
Longing for regularity
I find myself really wanting a normal rhythm of life. I would love to have all my "stuff" in one place instead of strewn between five different places. We have stuff in transit from Italy, in storage in Kirkland, somethings now at the house that came by air shipment, some things my sister was storing (from my brother's estate) that are now in the garage, some things that were in Johnnie's truck, and stuff at the apartment. I never know where anything is!
I also miss the normal food of cooking at home. We are tiring of eating at restaurants, or eating deli bar food. We have cooked some at the apartment and I have lunch food for packing my lunch for work, but we are still missing the relaxing evenings throwing a burger on the grill and kicking back to eat and share our day with each other.
So Hard to Choose Color
I agonized over what color to paint the walls. Initially we only planned to paint the living and dining room which had never been painted since we bought the house in 2005. So I chose a paint scheme with several colors I could use to bring together the floors, walls, furniture, and draperies.
What I chose is called Stoney Path but only after 7 paint samples and painting one wall three times! When Johnnie went to the store to get the paint, we think he got his paint mixed up with someone else's paint cause he got home and painted one wall and it looked too blue for Stone Path. Sure enough, it was a different gray! Back to the store. We liked Stoney Path so well, we ended up painting the Living room, Dining Room, Den and Kitchen with the same color.
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| Stoney Path, lower right |
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| Stoney Path, center |
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| The colors not chosen |
New Floor
At last the new wood floor is down and we love it! It is so beautiful!
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| Acacia hardwood floor |
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| living and dining rooms |
Now we are prepping for the tile installation in the entry way, hall, laundry and front bathroom. Johnnie with Shawn's help tore up all the existing tile in the entry way and the laminate in the hall. Ugh! Hard work! They have to practically chip it up bit by bit. The tile was on particle board which just crumbled.
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| Down to the sub floor |
Now the laundry and bathroom floors have to be done because they are both on particle board too. The hard part of that is removing the washer, dryer, and the toilet and cabinet in order to get up the flooring.
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| New tile in entry, hall, laundry and bath |
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| Love the variation in the patterns |
Delayed arrival and partial delivery
We were notified that the sea shipment is delayed another week so we decided to take delivery on the items that were in storage in Kirkland. We figure it makes sense to do it in two pieces, and lessen the overall work. Well, we both forgot how much stuff was in storage! A total of 240 boxes was delivered as well as several pieces of furniture not numbered. Among the treasures is all the workshop and garden things, lots of decorations and books, all the antique glass and china, the curio cabinets, one queen bed, two sofas, two rocking chairs, TV and entertainment center, all the kitchen appliances, and so much other stuff -- we haven't a clue.
We had a brief meltdown moment when we saw all the stuff. We had just gotten the painting done, the new flooring, and the cleanup and the house was looking pretty good and now it is a disaster again with boxes everywhere. Sigh.
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| The garage |
Our Birds are Back
Our renters were not really into bird watching so even though we left the feeders there, we worried that all our birds would forget us and move on. When we first arrived there weren't any birds around the feeders were molded over. So we cleaned them out and filled them with fresh bird seed. Very soon, our birds were back! We have a record flock of North American Goldfinch this year, our Mama and Papa Mallards are back, and our pileated woodpecker is here too.
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| Papa Mallard is not shy |
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| Pileated Woodpecker |
More Stuff
Only one week after the delivery of the storage items, our sea shipment is ready. After being told it could take 5 - 7 business days through Customs, or even longer, we zipped through in one day! A miracle! So I took off two days, Thursday and Friday and we accepted delivery of that shipment. So much stuff! At one point I accused the movers of having one of those trick vans, like the cars they use in the circus where the clowns keep coming out....
Our garage is now full again to the brim and we are trying to figure out what to keep and what to toss.
New Roof
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| Before |
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| After |
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| The Back and new sky lights |
Last Expense Report Filed
Probably the most annoying part of the entire Great Italian Adventure is the expense reports I have to file with my company. These reports cover temporary living expenses, travel expenses, moving expenses, assignee living expenses (in Italy), and then all the same reports in reverse. On average I spend 4 hrs. a week doing expense reports. To make matters more complicated the company switched from one system to another in November 2012, so for a while I had reports in two different systems. So now I celebrate because the last report has been submitted! This does not mean they are all closed yet, as Travel Accounting typically kicks back 50% of the reports to have me "fix" different things, but at least they are going now. Yeah!
Home Sweet Home
The things that are so sweet about being home:
- family and friends
- our own bed
- our birds in the backyard, our water fountain and wind chimes, the deck, the flowers, the view
- our church
- a dryer that dries the clothes fast
- people speaking a language we understand
- a good deep tissue massage
- predictability about life (sometimes can be monotonous but after almost two years of everyday being something new and different, it feels good to know what to expect)
There are many things we loved about Italy and many things we brought home with us that have changed our lives forever:
- Italian friends
- unhurried, relaxing visits
- strolls together and savoring the moment
- long, enjoyable meals
- Prosecco
- world's best pizza
- fuel efficient small cars
- balcony flower boxes
- hugs and kisses among friends
Lord, we thank you with all our heart for the adventure of Italy. We learned so much about ourselves, about life and about you, Heavenly Father. Our eyes have been opened to a whole, huge world and ways of thinking about life that are new to us. Whatever you will do with this experience in us for the future, we stand ready and waiting. For now, we just rest in the great memories, and lessons, and the quiet of enjoyment.
Signore, ti ringraziamo di tutto cuore per l'avventura di Italia. Abbiamo imparato così tanto su noi stessi, sulla vita e su di te, il Padre celeste. I nostri occhi sono stati aperti per un intero, mondo enorme e modi di pensare la vita che sono nuovi per noi. Qualunque cosa farete con questa esperienza in noi per il futuro, siamo pronti e in attesa. Per ora, dobbiamo solo riposare in grandi ricordi e lezioni, e la quiete di godimento.
