Thanks to a business trip to Virginia, I was able to take some extra days to travel to Blacksburg with a to do list for the new house. I was met there the first afternoon by our lovely realty lady, Charlotte. She transferred all the keys to me and we chatted while sitting in the floor of one of the carpeted rooms. My emotions were running high because I knew I had entered the "last time I'll ever do..." phase of ending my career and starting a new life. It would be somewhat easier, I said, if I could just stay in Blacksburg right now and not have to go back to Germany at all. I would get to skip all the hard goodbyes if I could just stick my head into a hole in the four acres of forest surrounding the house and pretend. Unfortunately, that cannot happen.
Instead, I checked into a hotel and set about working down the list.
Flooring...two rooms from dreaded wall to wall changing to cushion vinyl in the art studio and hardwood in the office. The choices and possibilities were way too overwhelming to handle without a pro to help me out. Finally that one could get checked off.
Landscape...It was an adventure just finding the place in Ellett Valley on a road that should have been named Lost Hollow. I arranged for the millions of leaves to be removed from the limited grass areas of our house and made an appointment with a designer to meet me at the house the next day. Thousands of dollars will be invested in these two projects! Luckily, the house is in excellent condition and not in need of anything except furniture and us.
The nice thing about a town like Blacksburg, is that a network of trusted people is in place and accustomed to doing things for people with empty houses. Charlotte goes the distance with us and will oversee the floor work, the winterizing and be one of the three people entrusted with a key in order to check on the house until we arrive in March. We will then oversee the landscaping ourselves and, of course, the painful arrival and placement of our furniture.
The great room may become my favorite part. As the sun passes from end to end of the back of the house, it floods the huge windows and draws bright blocks of light on the oak floors. A camping chair placed in one of the warm pools affords a perfect view of the forest behind. No house breaks into the portrait of nature. The local deer disappoint me by chosing never to set foot on my land, despite the fact that everyone tells me they are everywhere. I assume that will change about the time the new landscape is placed, offering a new buffet of tastes and smells for them to explore. Though I really want to grow flowers in my retirement, I imagine the garden will be confined to one of the two decks, high out of the reach of the pretty munchers.
After a busy week of buying supplies, asking about cell phones, televisions, cable connections, propane, personal property taxes, etc. I headed back to Richmond only to find myself awaiting a huge snow storm and wondering if I get out of the airport in time tomorrow to connect to my flight in Washington Dulles. It is Dec. 18th and flying promises to be a real challenge between the weather and the holiday travelers. If I were ever a boss again, I'd promised never to make my people fly in December unless it was totally unavoidable!
The forecast in Blacksburg is for 17 inches of snow; Richmond about 10. Bill reports that Germany is not much better; even colder and snow on the ground already. Even Italy and England expect the white stuff. Looks like the tough winter predicted has started. I hope all the trees keep standing at 931.
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