We Have A New Place!

 Merry Christmas!  We haven't been around lately because we have been really busy.  We are now official condo owners!  We closed on our place on December 11th and we have been busy.  We have been painting and putting furniture together.  Grandma and Grandpa arrived on the 15th.  They left this morning.  They didn't stay with us because we are living in a "tiny condo".  Our condo is the size of our 45' motorhome.  It is 338' square feet, I think.  It is a studio which means there is not a separate living room and bedroom.  It is all one room.  We went with this option for a number of reasons. The main reason is cost.  We could have afforded a one bedroom, but the HOA dues are $150 more a month for it.  Dad wants to retire soon and we plan to have this one paid off in three years.  The one bedroom would have taken us probably five years to pay off.  The taxes and utilities are lower in ours too.  We like living small, so it works for us.

We are still working on the condo, but we will show you some photos.  There is still a lot of work to do before it is complete though, so you need to keep an open mind.

Here are the before pictures.

It came complete furnished. 

I immediately claimed this chair.

Mom said we can't keep it because it is too big.

We then started painting. We chose blues for the living area and the bathroom.  The kitchen will be white and the cabinets will be blue.

We ordered our closets and bed from Ikea.  Unfortunately, one box did not arrive. The box was box 1 of our bed We don't know if it was Ikea's fault or the delivery drivers.  We were not given anything to sign accepting our order and saying it was all there.  We called Ikea and Dad spent nearly an hour trying to get it fixed.  They said they could send us the box in a week or we could drive to Houston to pick it up. We needed a bed, so the folks drove to Houston and spent three hours with the drive and waiting in line to get the correct box. We paid $199 for the delivery and $40 for Ikea to "pick" the order and they refused to refund any of the money because we didn't sign anything when the delivery happened.  Yep, it was our fault even though the delivery person practically ran out of the condo and told us to call Ikea if anything was missing.  19 boxes were delivered, so it wasn't like it was easy to tell something was missing especially when some things had more than one box.  Mom expected only 13 boxes, so it was very confusing.   We are not sure how that is our fault, but they rudely told us it was.  Today, Mom received a call from Ikea because they are confused as to whether we received the order that they had scheduled for the since our order was messed up.  They left a message for Mom to call, so she did.  The person answering the phone refused to connect the call to the extension given in the message because Mom only knew the extension number and not the name of the person.  Customer service does not seem to be important to Ikea.

The boxes contain our furniture.

Here Dad is putting the bed together:

We bought this bed because it has storage under it.

Here is our Sleep Number mattress being assembled.

Here is the bed. Mom orderd the comforter online and it is so nice.  I love the bed.

The bathroom is painted a lighter shade of blue and it is a work in progress.  We had the tub refinished last week.  It looks brand new.

 We went back to Ikea over the weekend and spent more $$$ with them.  We like their products, just not the people.

This is our table/desk.  It has a glass top.  It is narrow, but it is what we need.  It has a drawer for "junk".

The table is a TV stand until the TV is put on the wall.  The table also has room for "junk" under it.

Dad purchased shelves for the hallway from Ikea.

The hall has the shelves and two coat racks.  One rack has my collar, leashes and beach walking items.

Today, our recliners arrived.  We had planned on getting a loveseat and recliner but decided the loveseat would make it too crowded.  We really wanted white or blue recliners, but after searching several stores, we chose these.  We could have special ordered, but the wait time was four months and the folks needed chairs.

The white cube "shelves" you see will not be stayng there.  They will be hung over the bed. Dad ran out of time.

The recliners match my bed.  Have you noticed that I don't have a couch?  What greyhound doesn't have a couch?

Here are the closets and dresser from Ikea.  A TV will hang on the wall in the middle.

 

The kitchen still needs to be painted.  Mom is searching for rugs for the entire place.  There is still a lot to do. We will give you another tour when we have more things completed.

This is the view from our place. We have our own palm tree.

Another view from the balcony.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Probably The Newest Greyhound Resident In Galveston

We Are No Longer RVers

Our motorhome has new owners. They took ownership of it today.  They are probably reading through all the manuals and trying out all the remotes right now.  It is overwhelming how many manuals and remotes it has.  Mom thinks she may have accidentally left our Dish remote in it.  We don't need it because we no longer have Dish and we know they have Direct TV, so if it is there, they will just toss it. It is better than when we sold our house. She left her robe on the back of the door.  Dad saw it but didn't tell her. She is still upset with Dad for not telling her it was there. Anyway, it is really strange that another family has moved into our motorhome.  Another dog could be on my couch.  I don't even want to think about that.

We have not moved into our actual rental yet. We are in the one next to it.  We are beginning to think it is not going to happen. We are still waiting for the countertops to be installed.  Mom saw the condo again today and it needs countertops, a sink, outlet covers and lots of cleaning.   It really doesn't matter now if we get to move into it.  We moved here to see if we liked living here and we don't like it, we LOVE IT.  We also wanted to get the RV sold and that is done.  We are now getting ready to make an offer on a condo to buy.  We hope that happens this weekend. Mom is so scared that someone is going to buy it.  It will be nice to be settled in our own place again.  It will take a little while to get it fixed up the way we want it, but that is okay.  The first thing the folks are going to buy is a bed.  They want a bed that doesn't sink in the middle.  BOL!  I think they may buy another Sleep Number.  That is what we had in the RV and they liked it.

We definitely love our view.

Do you know what I did on Sunday?  I went island hopping!  We drove to the end of Galveston Island and then paid $2 to cross the bridge to go to another island.  We then drove to the end of that island. We couldn't go any further because the road ended at the water. We got out and walked around and watched people fish.  We then got back in the car and drove back to our island. 

Mom's favorite shell.  It is prettier in person. The base of it is shiny.

We love to watch the sunrise each day.

Can you believe that next week is Thanksgiving?  Mom is going to fix a turkey but probably not on Thanksgiving. The folks have reservations at a seafood/Thanksgiving buffet.  I hope Mom doesn't forget to bring something home for me.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks The Beach Is The Best

Still Loving The Beach

We are loving living here!  Mom and I take a morning walk on the beach each day.  It is our favorite time of day.  We walk 1.5 miles.  I always think that I can go further, but it is a good thing that Mom pays attention because I am dragging by the time we get back.  We have taken afternoon and evening walks too, but I can't do those every day.  It is just too tiring for me.  We took an evening walk with Dad last Sunday and that was fun. There were lots of tourists on the beach.

This past weekend was the Lone Star Rally. It is motorcycle rally.  It was LOUD!  Mom moved my bed away from the patio door because the noise was getting to me.  I actually stayed in the bedroom quite a bit because it was much quieter.  In the evenings, the folks sat on the balcony and watched the bikers go by.  Many of them had lights on their bikes, so that was fun to see.  I did sit out from time to time with them.  The folks went to the rally on Saturday. They rode the trolley to it.  Mom said it was obvious that they didn't fit in.  Dad wore his camo shorts and Mom had a blue and white polka dot shirt.  She said she should have worn black and she would have fit in better.  They ate lunch at Willie G's which is a seafood place.  Unfortunately, they do not have a lunch menu on the weekends, so it was quite pricey for lunch.

On Sunday, the folks looked at a condo in this building that they are interested in buying.  It will be really small.  It will be as big as the RV.  We are used to small spaces though. Tiny houses are the in thing, right?  LOL  It is probably bigger than some New York apartments.  The folks have been thinking about it for a while and have some plans to make it work for us. The price and the lower HOA fees make it attractive.  It is on the second floor and we are on the fourth.  Mom thought the motorcycles would be extremely loud from that condo, but they weren't.  The patio door in that unit is much better.  Our door doesn't seal and the noise and air do not stay out.   We will see what happens with that condo.

The view from the condo on the 2nd floor.

Another photo fo the view.

The RV may have a buyer.  We are waiting to find out if they are approved for a loan.

There is always something going on at the beach.

We found this written on the beach.

We almost stepped on this guy.

I was exhausted Saturday night!

Mom and I went to Petsmart today. She wanted to find a collapsible water bowl for me to take on our walks.  They didn't have one.  We will have to order one online.  Mom has been carrying a bag with a water bowl and a bottle of water.  She is thinking of getting a fanny pack type thing to hold everything.    We stopped at McDonald's for lunch.  Yum!  Yes, she is still losing weight, but we go out from time to time and she orders something like a McDouble instead of a Big Mac.  It works.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks The Elevator Is A Great Invention

Double Digits Baby!!!

Today is my birthday.  I hit the big 1-0!  It is really something special because I am the first grey in this household to do that.

I was all ready to head to the beach to kick off my birthday, but it is a rainy day.  We are going to try for an afternoon walk on the beach instead.  I love my beach walks!

Since it is my birthday and today is all about me, I thought I would share a few photos of yours truly.

My first Halloween as a retiree, 2011.

I added a coat and now I kind of look like George Washington. BOL!

I have worn this costume several times at Halloween and also RV events. 

My cool dude look.  This was in 2012.

Enjoying my couch! 2017

Enjoying life at the beach!

Life is good, don't you think?

Joey,
The Greyhound Who May Be Getting A Hamburger To Celebrate Turning 10

Another Chapter Has Ended

Our RV traveling days have ended for now.  We picked up the motorhome from the RV park that we have been living at for the past six months and drove it to Lewisville, TX on Sunday to sell it.  It definitely looked sad when we left it yesterday.

 

We hope it sells quickly.  The salesman said he expects it will be sold by Thanksgiving.  They do have a few people who are interested in this model, so hopefully one of them falls in love with it. A salesman stopped by as we were signing the paperwork and said he was calling someone to tell them about it. Yes, they could just be telling us these things, but why?  The deal was already done with them.

Mom took a few photos as we were leaving.  She didn't take pictures of the whole thing because we already had some of the furniture stored for travel.

Ths was the master bath.

The fancy bedspread that was only put on the bed a few times.

The fireplace that we loved.

The fridge was also a favorite.  The folks can't get used to a regular one. They don't like bending down to get things out of it.

We ended up spending our last night in the motorhome at the KOA in Sanger, TX.  We stayed there last year for two weeks and did not enjoy it.  We found management to be the same as last time, which was non-existent.  When we arrived at 3 p.m., the office was closed.  The sign said they were open until 6 p.m. but they never seemed to be open on Sundays when we stayed there.  There was NOT an envelope on the door for us telling us our site number.  We had made reservations online.  There was a sign saying that there were no vacancies.  Mom called their emergency number to find out if we actually had a site even though the sign said to only call if someone was in our site.  The guy told her to just take any site and she could pay him in the morning.  She told him that she made the reservation online.  He said rudely that our site number was on our reservation then.  Well, it was not.  There were many open sites, so the folks just took the first one.  We think they just say they are sold out so that they don't have to deal with people as all those sites remained open. 

Sunday evening, we walked around the park.  Mom wanted to see if a friend she made there last year was staying there.  She doesn't live there year round, but Mom had a feeling that they might be there because they like to stay there and then move on to Galveston.  We couldn't find her and Mom couldn't remember what her rig looked like.  The next morning, we got up early and did our final cleaning.  Mom and I took a walk and then we ended up running into Gwen, the woman that we searched for the night before.  She was really surprised to see us.  She will be coming back to Galveston, so we will probably meet up then.

It was finally time to take the RV to the dealership.  The drive was about 30 minutes from the KOA.  It was an easy drive.  Mom and I followed Dad.  The people at the dealership were nice.  They let me lay in the office and a lady even brought me a bowl of water.  It took less than an hour to do the paperwork.  We were on the road by 11 a.m.  It is a long drive back to Galveston.  I was not thrilled with that long of a ride in the Jeep.  I had a few muscle cramps.  We stopped at this place called
Buc-ee's.  That place is cool!  You should see the dog walking area.  It is huge!  We never stopped at one because we always had the motorhome. Mom always wanted to though. The folks both had burritos for lunch and then we faced the Houston rush hour.  It sure was nice to get back to the condo.

This morning we were back on the beach doing our morning walk.  It was a cloudy morning, so the sun did not greet us.  It was a nice morning even without the sun.  We didn't find anyone good shells today.

Mom had planned to keep paying the pad rent at the RV park so that we would have a site in case this condo thing doesn't work out.  It is still hard to find a place to stay in Houston due to Harvey.  Mom got a little miffed when the park owners decided to raise the rent for everyone. We understand supply and demand, but many of the people staying there don't have other options now because of Harvey so the park owners are cashing in by raising the rates. Mom decided that we would not be moving back in December so paying the rent for November was just a waste of money. We ended up saving $740 by not extending our stay there.  It was the smart thing to do.  If the condo doesn't work out, we will figure something else out.  Mom said she feels very good about the decision.  She joked that maybe island life is already making her more mellow.  BOL!

We will feel really good when the motorhome sells.  Mom already feels better having it at the dealership.  We put an endorsement on our insurance policy that covers it if damage occurs there.  That was a little pricey, but necessary.  We will let you know when the motorhome sells.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Has Something Big Happening Tomorrow