We are finally getting into the groove of things here in Bend. Our Bend house is mostly unpacked and our Martinez house hit the rental market today. The kids are really enjoying the new house and their own rooms even more. Mrs. Fong seems to be enjoying herself even with the kids waking her up at the crack of dawn to watch videos in her bed and also their sneaking out of bed at night to play in her room. It’s pretty cute, actually. Mr. WTF and I joke that she can stay here forever. It’s so much easier with the kids when there’s another adult around. I wouldn’t have been able to get the house into order so quickly without her here to watch them.
Two weeks ago today we were driving up in some really bizarre, heavy rain. It was abnormally rainy north of the Sacramento area on our drive up. We hit some really scary downpours where we couldn’t see anything in front of us. Add in 75mph in the fast lane, and I thought for a solid 30 seconds that it was going to be the end of us. Mr. WTF, Mrs. Fong and the kids drove up in the Tesla while I followed them in the van. The last time I experienced a downpour while driving like that was when I was visiting Georgia with my boyfriend at the time. I’m not very fond of driving in general, but dislike driving in weather even more. Bend gets a couple of months of ice and some snow. I expect that I’ll revert to how I was in my NY days and just not go out in the winter unless I absolutely have to. Sorry kids, no winter sports for you! Just kidding. Snow sports are extremely popular here.
In the time that we’ve been here, it’s been very busy. I’ve emptied almost all of our boxes, save for a few that are full of gardening and planting supplies. Our living room looks like a recycling center right now, but I reached out to our realtor to see if she knew anyone who could use a lot of boxes and packing supplies. Luckily, she has someone who just sold their property and will need boxes. Woot! I acquired a lot of boxes from friends, but also had to buy a bunch from Home Depot. Our realtor said that we can also take the boxes to the dump for free recycling, but it’s even better that someone else can use them before they get junked.
The black garbage bag by the piano is full of packing paper that we laid out neatly to save as scratch paper. I got tired of seeing it laying out so it all got rolled up and will be given away. We used a little bit of the paper and found that it is so thin that the kid’s poked right through with their markers. I tried stapling two pieces together for them to paint on, but that is just too much of a time investment for some scratch paper.
The Bend dump is actually only a few miles from our place, but far enough that we don’t smell anything or hear the noise. I mean, everything in Bend is only a few miles away from us. Compared to the Bay, nothing seems that far from us at this point. Give us a few weeks and a 20 minute drive will feel like two hours. (It takes us 20 minutes to get from our house, which is the furthest exit South, to the Northernmost part of the city.) There is also a train that goes straight through the town, but we don’t hear that much either unless the windows are wide open. It was horrible at our house in MTZ. Since we lived on a big hill, the view was beautiful but sound carried so far and so loudly. During the winter, even with the windows shut, the trains would be blaring their horns and wake me up. We slept on the floor the first night that we arrived at the new place and I slept better than in our bed at the old house. It is so quiet here in comparison. The first week of unpacking, it rained almost everyday, but the last few days have been really pleasant. I was outside enjoying the backyard while the kids were bathing the another night and it was so peaceful.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the rustling of the trees and our neighbor’s bamboo chime. It’s even lovelier to sit out there when there is a breeze coming through with the pine tree scent. For some reason, I can smell the pine better in the evenings than during the day.
Then last night, I was in the garage admiring all my hard work (pictures below), I heard frogs through the garage door. I went out front and heard this! The neighbor across the way with the lights on her porch has a beautiful water feature. I think that the frogs all live there. We may have some in our own water feature, but definitely not as many.
There’s not actually much to see in this video, but you can hear the frogs loud and clear.
I don’t plan to do another vlog until we have all of our new furniture. We currently are waiting for some new rugs and the sofa. Once the sofa arrives, the old sofas will move into the living room that is currently covered in boxes. The living room will probably turn into one of those sitting rooms that parents never let their kids in, but unlike when we were growing up, it’s not because we have nice things that we don’t want to break, it’s because the sofa covers only look good when no one is sitting on them. We don’t see the point in buying brand new couches for a room that we’ll rarely ever use even if we don’t have cheapy sofa covers that move all over the place. Aside from the constant shifting of the cover, they’re very soft and comfy. I think they could use another couple of straps that attach under the sofa to hold down the covers. They also might not slide that much on an upholstered sofa. The back of ours is a faux leather so they slide right off. So if you’re looking for a sofa cover, this one is great for the price and comfort, but not great on the color shade and maintenance. The blue of the covers was much darker in the Amazon pictures.
Before
After
We spaced out the sofas to be the size of the sofa that we ordered. It will actually be bigger than the picture because the end table is where the new sofa will actually end. I moved it into place for a better reference after I took these pictures.
I’m also planning to put up some bookcases and shelves in front of the large guest room mirror to function as an entertainment center. We’ll move the sofabed to the opposite wall where it fits perfectly and set up the tv on the low shelves with tall bookcases flanking the sides. I think this will cover the mirror well enough. My mother-in-law is fine with the mirror, but if her door is open and I’m walking out of my bedroom, I see my reflection and startle myself. I was all set to buy a ton of Ikea shelves, but the shipping was $200! I can rent a truck and then drive to and from Portland to shop at the actual store for less than that!
Okay, onto the pictures otherwise I’ll continue to ramble in the narrative AND the captions.
This is just a part of what it looked like on move in day. Happy to say that all of my holiday decor, gardening tools, kid’s outdoor toys, bikes, scooters and Mr. WTF’s charcoal grill suppliesfit in the shed.Since this picture was taken, I have moved even more boxes from the garage that didn’t get sorted when the movers were here.
I orderedthis rug from Ruggable.com for the dining room. Mr. WTF put his foot down when it came to ordering new dining chair covers, so I’m really hoping that this rug will help break up all the browns in that room. The blue-teal will hopefully tie in well with the blue sofa covers. If you remember from my vlog, the dining and living rooms connect. Normally, I like to decorate with neutral colors and then have a brighter pop of color. This house is so neutral and brown on its own that I’m having to choose larger pieces to incorporate more color. Right now it’s brown on brown on brown.Leona Rug
This rug is also from ruggable and will go in the family room with the new sofa. Thalia Rug
THIS is why we need washable rugs. As brown as the carpet is, I’m already finding stains. I never understood why people put area rugs on top of carpet until I had a place of my own. I get it now. We used to have rugs on our carpet in our old house because of Emmy. Now we have them for the kids, who are far messier than Emmy ever was. Here’s a better look of the bookshelf that I put into the guest room closet. I gave my bookshelves to the kids and took theirs. I also cleaned up those plastic tubs next to the shelf for guests to use as shelving. This is the linen closet that I showed in my vlog, but was probably hard to see and nauseating.
These stayed like this for about 36 hours.
I got our closet mostly organized the night that I did the vlog. I couldn’t stand it anymore. Since these pictures were taken, I’ve found more of the tan baskets and have also assembled all of my matching shoe boxes and put them on the top shelf where those paper bags are. I switched the bags to the other side of the closet so that I don’t see their different sizes when I first walk in (they’re blocked by the door). Yes, I’m that OCD. I don’t like that all the bags are different sizes and poke out in different directions.
Lucas was very pleased to have all of the stuffed animals back that I used to pack around the breakable decor.
Art supplies fit in the island cabinets.
As far as organization goes, the kitchen, garage and art supplies are done. We have a repair person coming today for the dishwasher. The problem is that the computer mechanism on the door of the dishwasher isn’t talking to the rest of the machine so after a few minutes, the whole thing shuts off. We called our home warranty people and they had someone come out to look at it right away, but said that with Covid, it would probably take two weeks to get the replacement parts. So then I tried calling GE since the machine is brand new. They scheduled me with a local GE certified repair shop, but those people never showed up. After a few different calls, I got hold of the GE certified repair shop and they booked me out for June 16th! Pitfalls of a small town, I guess. Meanwhile, we still had the service ticket open with the home warranty people and now they are expected to be here for the repair today. [UPDATE: In the time that it’s taking me to get this post up, the repair guy from Home Shield came and fixed the dishwasher.]
Before
After
Neither of us were really in love with the chandelier. After a few nights, I took a good, hard look at it and realized that the frame is very similar to our nightstand lamps. I tested out one of the Edison bulbs in the chandelier without the frosted glass shade and liked the look. After replacing all the bulbs and removing the shades, it fits our style much better at a pretty minimal cost. I bought some bronze color paint to do the bottom of the bulb where it is white, but I actually kind of like it white now that it’s been like that for a few days.
Mr. WTF helped me put up some pictures this weekend. I would not have had the patience to use the laser level. My method is to eyeball everything. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. In this case, it’s good that he calculated the measurements and used the level so that our gallery is straight.
I centered the mirror with the front door. I’m sure the lamp will end up moving once I figure out what kind of decor I’d like on this table. I’m also thinking about getting some large, round wire baskets for under the table.
Parachutes!
Dauber painting
Practicing motorskills and counting.
This week I actually had time to start Learning Time back up again. The kids were asking and asking about when I’d start doing them again. Now that I found their art supplies, we can resume our schedule.
We’ve been going on walks in our neighborhood just to get out. One day they saw a giant caterpillar and then they saw a family of deer in someone’s front yard!
On Memorial Day, we went on a little walk along the Deschutes River Trail. For now, it’s only a one way path to prevent people from getting too close to each other, but normally you could start from either side of the loop. It’s great because the entrance where we parked is only 10 minutes from our house!
WHAT THE FONG? 
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