Friday, April 29, 2016

After nearly three months at Twin Lakes, it was finally time to move. We weren't finished with the house, but close enough to reward ourselves with a little change of scenery.  Today's trip was a really short one to an Army Corps of Engineers park on Lake Lanier, 9.3 miles (76,723.4 total) away.

Sam gets very excited when you tell him it's "Moving Day."

The Sawnee Campground was very near Buford Dam and just under 11 miles from the house.  Site 32's pad was a bit short for our 40-foot motorhome, but the generous green spaces between sites was a welcome change from the all gravel parking lot at Twin Lakes.

It was at the top of a hill and next to one of the bathhouses.  There was a laundry and some pretty nice showers.  As a bonus, Home Depot and Steak'n Shake were both conveniently situated on the route from the park to the house (it seemed like we went to one or the other almost every day).

It felt like we were at Twin Lakes campground in Cumming, GA way too long, although we didn't actually spend much time at the park. We pretty much just slept in the coach each night after working on the house all day.

I'm not really sure why I thought we would be done with everything - it's not like we had any experience letting go of a lifetime's worth of collecting or trying to restore a 23-year-old house to "like new" condition.  It was the first time we lived in a house long enough for things to look dated and out-of-style.  In today's real estate market anything, brass screamed 90's and had to be banished.  I agreed with door hardware and plumbing fixtures, but I had to draw the line when it was suggested that the 2,000-pound brass chandelier suspended on 10 feet of brass chain in the foyer should be replaced or "rattle-canned."  Any potential new owner will just have to learn to love it or replace it themselves.

I thought the brass/white enamel fan in the master might be OK, but both Joani and our real estate agent said no.  At least I was able to salvage the drop rod with a little "rattle can" paint.

This had to go.  I can't say David was happy about that, but he was a trooper and went along with it.

It was worth it, but then I wasn't the one straddling the ladder!

While we had finished a lot of work, the remaining "to-do" list didn't seem to get any shorter.  I guess that was because I tended to trivialize some rather large tasks and then expand them to specifics later.  "Paint upstairs" was later replaced by "paint Jon's room, paint Kate's room," etc.  Then later it became "paint Jon's ceiling, Jon's walls, Jon's trim and Jon's windows and replace Jon's vents," etc.

I put up with an awful, torn linoleum laundry room floor for 20 years just to tile it for someone else.

We had made enough progress that I thought I could say with some confidence we would be finished in another two weeks.  The park had a maximum stay of 14 days, but we asked how strict they were about that policy just in case.  Josh, our camp host, suggested we might try reserving another two weeks in my name since Joani had made the original reservation in her name.  She got online and, voila!, we had another two weeks that I envisioned we would spend relaxing by the lake with nothing left to do at the house (we'll see how well that goes.)