Sunday, March 9, 2008

A Jenny & Jeff House & Health Update

First off I'm sorry I've been so bad about returning emails and making phone calls, I have to get better about doing it more often. Thanks to all who have emailed me asking how things have been going with the house and my health I appreciate the love. 

We've been living in Astoria, OR since December in a small 1 BR apartment waiting for own new house to be built in Ocean Park, WA. It's been an adjustment living in what amounts to a small bachelor's type apartment in the noisy part of downtown Astoria. Jenny and I both work the grave yard shift so we have to try to sleep during the day which can be difficult even when it's quiet.

It's made even more difficult since when live next door to the School Districts Bus Barn where we hear the constant sound of, "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!" the buses make when they back in to park. 

The really good news about living in Astoria is that's where we both work so we don't have the 30 to 45 minute one way commute to drive.

Astoria has a better downtown, better restaurants and better social opportunities than the Washington peninsula. It's only a 4 block walk for us to be in the heart of downtown.  A week ago Jenny and I went to a Blood, Sweat and Tears concert at the Liberty Theater here in Astoria which was cool. BTW what an awesome lead singer they have now and he's just as good a harmonica player. They are definitely worth the price of admission if they come to your area. What a beautiful old theater the Liberty is, it's an excellent venue to see an intimate concert.

We live within 2 blocks of the Columbia River and really have enjoyed taking walks along it since the weather has finally turned nice here. The winter weather here was God awful so we have really enjoyed the recent sunny days and are thankful for every one. Even if it's cloudy out here and doesn't rain, it's considered a nice day here trust me.

We just finished getting the remainder our belongings out of the old house this weekend so the contractor can begin tearing it down. Hopefully sometime this week we'll get the final blueprints for the new house so we can then apply for the necessary permits to begin building. We've been told it could be as short as 3 weeks (if you call that short) or as long as 6 weeks to get the permits from the county.

I have to keep remind myself to be patient and that I live in small town America again. The pace of getting good and services here is way slower than say San Diego or Sacramento. There are days when I really wish we still lived in California for a whole host of reasons but life here has been getting better.

We plan on building a 1200 sq ft 2 BR house with a 2 car garage. Since it's just Jenny and me we really didn't need a 3rd BR so the plan is to put a Murphy bed in the 2nd BR so we can make it a multi-purpose hobby, den, exercise room.

We have a very nice quiet piece of property to build the house on. We're very excited that we helped design the floor plan and will eventually help the general contractor build the house.

The hope is that we'll get the house completed by July if all goes well.

I finally returned to work after missing almost a month. The broken tailbone incident has been literally the biggest "pain in the ass" injury I've ever had. I can laugh about it now but Man it made my life hell for a while.

Not much else to report. We hope to go to Wyoming in June if we can to get my 30th Class reunion (Yikes, I'm getting old!!) and see my family and friends there but we may not make it out if the house requires us to stay to get it completed.

We miss all our family and friends in California, Wyoming and Florida. We hope all is well in your world. Please stay in touch. Life has been good and Jenny and I feel so blessed and grateful.

Jenny & Jeff

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