Homestead hopping

I've taken a hiatus from the blog it seems because, well, there's been some other things going on.  Like...moving into our new Casper home!

By the way - we closed on the house on Friday morning and my name was on there, so I am officially a first time homebuyer!  Yay!

Wednesday night and Thursday at ol' 304 in Cheyenne was nothing but packing central.  Our goal was to be on the road to Casper Thursday night, but we were apparently delusional.  We packed until midnight on Thursday, got up at 4:15 a.m. on Friday morning and were on the road to Casper by 5:30 a.m.  Why up so early?  Our closing was at 8 a.m.  We like to keep things exciting.

Here's our life since Thursday...

Ol' 304...

Our little mail slot.  The mailman spelled Todd's last name wrong - it's 'el' not 'le'.

Me packing up our bedroom...

The first mow of the year.  We were the worst kept yard on the block!  But with not being there or it raining we weren't able to get it done.  So, we took some time from packing to weed the flowers and mow the yard...

Packing up the trailer...

Our cute little living room in total disarray...

The kitchen...

Rhubarb from the backyard and a pie our neighbor Betty made for us with some of our rhubarb.  If I had to pick a favorite pie rhubarb would be it.  Pumpkin is a close second... I LOVE the color of rhubarb!

Taking a break to enjoy a piece of pie...

Rigby also taking a break.  It's hard being a cute puppy dog...

The beginning of the purple flowers and end of the tulips that Todd and I planted...

Friday morning, 5 a.m.: Pulling away from 304...

The next few photos document what might be classified as a disaster zone. It's the new house with all our stuff - EVERYWHERE.  The kitchen isn't as bad here.  Not like it was...

But brace yourselves! The living room.  We've slept on the air mattress the last few nights even though our real mattresses are in the bedroom.  Problem is, we don't have the bed frame and it seems pointless to put the mattresses down just to pick them up again and situate on the bed frame.  We have one more substantial load to get from Cheyenne and the frame will be included...

The dining room... You'll notice the place needs some cosmetic upgrades.  I'll get into that later, but let me say: The formal curtains are going, the carpet that is over every square inch of the house (and covering perfectly good, beautiful hardwood floors) will be out, and any wallpaper will be ripped ruthlessly down.  The chandeliers stay...

A prime example: Blue and white shag carpet covering wonderful hardwood floors...!

The upstairs bathroom.  We've decided this will likely be a complete gut.  It's awkwardly arranged making it tight and leaving very little room for storage.  And who puts carpet in a bathroom?  How gross around the toilet!

Speaking of the toilet... It's trapped between the tiled tub wall and the bathroom door making it a tight squeeze.  And it prevents Rigby from his, what we call, Potty Petting Time (PPT).  For some reason, the moment we make our way to the toilet Rigby makes a beeline for us so he can be pet.  He started this at 304 where the bathroom was much more open.  Now, he's having trouble squeezing around the door which seems to be kind of disappointing for him!  And we've become so accustomed to PPT we feel bad for the lil' boy...

And, speaking of Rigby, here he is comfortably sitting on his new front porch.  He loves to go out there and watch the world go by...

I've been jealous of folks who have dogs that are so well behaved they can be trusted to sit peacefully on a porch unattended.  I never thought Rigby would be that dog.  He's a very good boy, but he's also very social and usually can't resist the urge to meet and greet every dog and human within a one mile radius.  At the new house he's been different.  He just lounges out there.  I've only sneaked out a few times to make sure he's still there...