June, 2008 - A New Beginning

It’s been about a year since my last post and our lives have certainly undergone a dramatic change. Last summer we headed back to the Puget Sound area to visit family and enjoy the great weather and beautiful scenery. I was born here, but when I first introduced Ez to this part of the country over 20 years ago he fell in love with it. So it really wasn’t that big of a stretch when we decided that this might be the place where we wanted to plant our roots.

Gig Harbor, Washington is a short hop across the Narrows Bridge from Tacoma. It’s a charming little harbor town that we’ve always said reminds us of the small coastal villages of Maine. This side of Puget Sound is much more quiet and rural than the cities along the I-5 corridor to the east. Although we first discovered our new home in August, we decided to head back to Phoenix for the winter and postpone any major decisions. Smart move! When we returned in February the price had come down considerably!

We moved into our new house in April, and it’s a big switch from the house we planned to build in the Arizona desert. We have over an acre and a half of property in a thickly wooded area covered with huge cedar trees. (We’re letting our neighbor graze his horse on part of the property that’s not landscaped.) The previous owners (the house is five years old) carved out a beautiful yard with huge lawns and dozens of rhododendrons and azaleas. We’ve been enjoying the changing floral display throughout the spring. The house has all of the appropriate amenities of course plus big windows that look out on the garden and trees. We like to sip our coffee in the morning and watch the wildlife outside our window. We have a huge variety of birds that flock to the feeders we’ve put up, plus squirrels and rabbits. We’ve even seen eagles circling in the sky high above us.
And we’ve been busy! Before we hit the road over three years ago, we downsized so that everything we owned was in a 10 X 10 storage locker. Now we have to set up housekeeping again. It’s fun, but grueling too. . Since we will be furnishing a whole house, we joined DirectBuy to take advantage of their big discounts. It’s a different way to shop. We drive 20 miles to their showroom, do all of our browsing in their catalogs (nothing to touch or sit on or try out!), wait four to six weeks for it to be delivered, bring it home in a rented trailer, uncrate it and set it up. But we have saved a lot of $$$. And we’re not done yet. We still have only two chairs and a patio chair in the living room and the dining room is a sea of boxes.

Of course, there’s lots to do besides shopping. . I scrambled around and painted the laundry room and office before moving in new furniture. I’ve been looking forward to doing some gardening, so Ez built a couple of raised beds and we’re already harvesting radishes, basil and spinach. The tomato plants are coming on strong and we’ll have lettuce soon. I expect we’ll be overrun with zucchini by August. Wild blackberries are the scourge of the northwest, so we are constantly attacking them with pruners and noxious chemicals to keep them out of the gardens. (But we wouldn’t wipe them out even if we could - they protect our privacy and we’re hoping for some blackberry cobbler.) Keeping the weeds under control is a battle and there’s always something that needs to be clipped back. Ez is a happy man though - even if the lawn needs to be mowed every five days, at least the house came with a riding lawn mower, so he can accomplish this task in style.

It’s not all work and no play though. We joined the local golf club and have participated in several events from couples tournaments to luncheons and dinners. It’s a very informal crowd and everyone is friendly and outgoing.

Another big plus from our move - family is closer, so our guest room is getting a workout. Our two daughters are both in Portland, so they’ve come for the weekend. Son Todd made the pilgrimage north when he was in Portland on business, and Matt and Amy will be here for a longer visit at the end of the month. We hosted other visitors this weekend, so we’re honing our innkeeper skills. And we’re looking forward to welcoming other friends and family this summer so we can show off our new home and this beautiful part of the country.

All in all, it’s been a big change. We’re busy most of the time, our muscles are sore from moving and gardening, and we collapse into bed at the end of the day. But it’s a good change and we’re having fun. Can’t ask for more than that. .