Weather

Okay, we are in the mountains, so a person should expect some drastic changes in the weather, right? And we were prepared, since we had a vacation home up here for the past 5 years, right? Well, not quite....

It turns out that our little house on the hill is higher than much of the area, so we do get some interesting weather patterns. The sunrises and sunsets are gorgeous, and the clouds are so close and easy to observe. (Okay, we are not that high. But compared to NJ, we are.) It also turns out that we are on a weather line, which means that it can be sunny in the front of the house and snowing/raining in the back of the house. Remarkable! When we watch the weather on TV, we have to take an educated guess as to what we will get. I do know that whatever temperature they predict, we can usually subtract 10 degrees.

So how do you prepare for the weather? I know we have more sweaters in use than before, and dressing in layers becomes a fashion statement of necessity. I used to laugh at the locals who walk around in shorts and t-shirts as soon as the weather hits above 50 degrees. Now I understand - you really want to get out from under the heavy clothes by the end of a long winter. And, yes, you do get used to the cold. Not that you don't feel it; but it does not hurt so much, and when you go to warmer climes, you now laugh at the people bundled up! (It's only 45 degrees, so I don't need the coat with the sweater!)

Moving In

We decided that we should move up here as soon as possible after closing so my husband could start a job that he had managed to find in-between looking for houses. Have I mentioned that we have cats? I will not tell you how many, but enough that moving takes the planning and coordination of starting a new company. Certain members of the feline family are okay with the moving process, (the 'zen' cats), while others feel that any movement away from their usual spot is an affront to their whole well being and must be punished by any means possible. So we loaded them into their carriers (That was fun! When one sounded the alarm, they all hid!), buckled them into our cars and headed off for three hours of the most ear piercing cries and moans that humans were ever meant to hear. And crying is not the only means of expressing displeasure, and it goes without saying (but I will) that much cleaning had to be done to the interiors of the cars!

So why move them out of the old house first? Because the realtor selling the NJ house said that the only way to get the house sold was to de-cat the house. Now, I kept a very clean house, but we did have litter boxes that some people found objectionable and I understood that. So, welcome to your new home kids!

The Mechanicals and Fix-ups

The house was really move in ready, but everybody who moves into a different house has to put their imprint on it. That means paint, clean, and fix the flaws as you see them. The house when we first moved in had one very small bathroom, so we knew that we would have to add a bath and remodel the original bath to make it a little more 'roomy.' The heater worked, but needed oil. And the previous owner left a washer and dryer in the garage, which worked but had to be dragged back into the house and hooked up.

Quite frankly, there was no real rush to get anything accomplished at the new house - the one our realtor said needed a lot of work - so we concentrated on getting the house in NJ sold. We had to paint that, do some minor repairs, stage the house to sell - and then wait a year to get someone to buy it. What housing downturn? I week after we had listed it on the market, we had an offer from a business man from Guatemala - who promptly disappeared! So our lives for the first year here consisted of shuttling between NJ and the Poconos.