Nesting

Came home from my weekend table-waiting to work on Scampi a bit. Cabinet door painting is complete and doors have been re-attached! We chose "Peacock Tail" and "Opulence" (which I like to call Mustard, but Rae likes to call Sunflower). Either way, we love the colors. And soon I'll take a better photo of the cloth we chose for our curtains. We are still reeling about how well it matches, we couldn't have chosen the colors any better! I started some measuring, cutting and sewing on them last night and I'm excited to come home and do more. Dad calls me "Suzy Homemaker" now after walking in the door to see me on the sewing machine.  :)

 

I brought some company outside for my evening nesting. My work was accompanied by a choir of neighbor dogs. Silly things.

Stella

Binky

I can't wait to see this every evening!

September

Ohhh September, what is it about you?! September consistently seems to usher in an air of change. The directions begin to shift and before you  notice you have already begun taking the alternate path. A small taste of what is to come, clearing like the autumn air.
  Rae and I keep on our doing. We bought the paint and decided on plans for the internal cosmetic overhaul of Scampi (or so we call him, our little camper.) I am feeling my maternal instinct take over hold here as I hold Rae out of the way so I can get a better mental image of our new home. Jeep is his, Scamp is mine. After all, and I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention this before, when we looked at the tag upon purchase it was already registered as "S - Stephens."    :)

All the OSU stickers have been removed. No offense to my alma mater, but I don't really care about you at all. My life is more colorful than orange and black.

     In addition to the physical nesting, we adopted a new baby. My heart grew a size, or a few, at this little guys face. Rae has wanted a Yorkshire Terrier since we've been together, so when we found him I folded (and then fell in love.) This little one needed re-homed due to owner health problems and spousal death. He's 5 months old and we named him Woodie Guthrie (to be called Guthrie for short.)
     The owner contacted us a few hours after we told her we couldn't have him till we left for Washington. She had decided he was ours, whenever we were ready. Our anticipation pushed us, so yesterday we picked him up and dosed him with as much love and booster shots as we could before letting him rest at his foster home. He and Frankie will be best buddies and bunk-mates for the Pacific trek.

I am glowing and aching with anticipation, heartache and love. I am ready.

halfway there

ohhmygaaash! So much to update...

We have been living at my dads for a few weeks now and its lovely. Packing the remaining of our belongings into a single bedroom (with just a couple "must keeps" in storage) was a challenge, but we are finding our quiet space here. And definitely grateful for how fortunate we are to be saving some money and spending more time with my family in the meantime.

I can't remember if I had mentioned our "house on wheels" plan before. If not - buy a pull-behind camper and live in it during our leisurely trek to Washington and for the first bit of time (indefinite) while living there.

So, two weeks ago Rae and I purchased a camper...
1972 15-ft Fleet-something (not Fleetwood, but the type on the back was too faded to tell)

Cute and definitely a fun project to work on. Structurally and technically sound, but still a bit heavy for our Jeep. And then we found that it was going to take a lot of $$ just to update some of the basic stuff we were wanting (make sure all windows open & close, refinish inner walls from where the last owner plastered an a/c into it, etc). The cost for something we'd feel comfortable living in for an indefinite amount of time was increasing thousands of dollars. Feeling a bit in over our heads, and at the advice of the RV repairmen, we began to consider re-selling it and looking for something with a bit less maintenance.

And so we went home, listed the Flee on Craigslist, then stumbled upon this...
(which we had just enough cash for, and picked it up this morning!)

1993 Scamp (totally pimped out OSU Pokes-style...LOL)

Our perfect little baby! Nice weather-seal tinted windows (huge deal for us for trekking through a handful of US climates), propane stove and heat, battery-run electric lights and a/c. Yessss!!!!

Of course, neither of us even near OSU-freak-fan status, so we're going to undergo some sticker removal and accent color-painting (turquoise instead of orange, maybe?!). But we like the black. And we have very little to update...cleaning, some paint, curtains and cushions. My nesting tendencies are going wild. I'm soooo ready to decide on a color scheme and buy paint!!! Other than that we're good to get on the road.

Halfway there, so it feels. We've got our mountain-worthy Jeep wheels, and now our home on wheels.
So now it's save, plan, save, plan.

SO EXCITED!!!! EEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I've been squealing like this all day long)

Cheers!