Sold, Spur of the moment, Home Again, Figured it out

On Friday afternoon I called a countertop place that I was familiar with. I wanted to get some numbers from them to do the work in the kitchen which was obscenely overpriced by FHIA. When I called the woman asked if I had some pictures of the kitchen. I sent her the Zillow link which she said was great. To my surprise less than an hour later she was able to send me an estimate just based on the pictures. The difference was staggering.

Unlike FHIA who was only going to reface the cabinets this was for brand new shaker style cabinets with a quartz countertop. The quote was 13,900 for everything, including a new stainless steel sink. It was less than half of the FHIA numbers. I was excited by this and arranged to stop over at this place on my way home so I could see the cabinets and quartz surface which both looked great to me. I paid a deposit to set up installation which will likely occur in less than two weeks, instead of the two months FHIA was talking about. I was thrilled to get what I actually wanted for a number inline with my mental estimate.

Friday night on my way home I got an urge to go out and see Shazam 2. Just for the heck of it I texted Monique to see if she would want to go on short notice. I was surprised she was good to go. I picked her up a little after 6, we grabbed a quick meal at Panera and made it to the theater a little after 7. We once again went to the Naples Hollywood 20 which is much nicer than it used to be prior to it’s post Hurricane Irma renovation. The movie was entertaining, along the lines of the first film. The Shazam take on super hero life is more light hearted than most. I’d give it a B+.

Saturday morning I slept late thanks to a delayed bed time and Unisom. I did not roll out of bed until 8:30, crazy. I did zero yard work as my lawn crew was there knocking out the mowing and weed whacking as scheduled, it’s amazing. Instead I ran to get some groceries and Costco. At Costco I went a little nuts, buying two pair of LED sconce lights for the exterior of the house as well as a new smart garage door opener, more on this later.

When I got home I turned my attention to my big to do for the day, a range test on the EX30 EUC I am evaluating. A subscriber made an interesting suggestion that I ride the wheel from the new house to the old house and back. That sounds like quite the haul but when I did the math it was totally doable with the large battery this wheel has. I headed out after eating lunch.

The 65 mile ride was long. In total I was on the wheel for over three and a half hours. It was cool taking a path that was much more diverse in terrain and visuals. I literally rode all the way to my old house. I saw they added a couple chairs to the front landing and I saw what almost looked like jet ski’s on the side of the house. Both sheds were open and the tractor was out in the yard. I thought to myself about how much work they had to do and then compared it to my new normal. I can’t say I felt like I missed the house but it was weird seeing the place I have lived in since 2001 with another set of human beings in it.

Saturday night I played pickleball with a woman I met from playing volleyball. We went over to the East Naples park which was surprisingly empty. We had to play singles for a little while before we could even find anyone available to play doubles. It was fun, she is competitive like me. We stopped after a couple hours as the bugs were really getting bad.

Sometimes I forget just how many things are different where I live now. Taking Elsa for a walk from the front door of the old house was a no go with no sidewalks and traffic flying by on a narrow street. On Sunday I leashed her up and took her around the neighborhood. It was great. As we walked I really appreciated being in this scenario and wondered why I waited so long to pull the trigger. I really don’t think I could have picked a better spot for me to land.

A good portion of the day was dedicated to getting the new LED sconce lights hung. There were a few technical challenges along the way but I was able to plow through them. I love the way the new lights look. They are also “smart” and have the ability to display any color I want which could be cool around various holidays. I got a great deal on them from Costco.

I also was able to get the mystery switches on the far wall of the garage figured out and replaced. One of the switches was a three way which controls the overhead fluorescent light in the garage, the other controls a side light which did not work. I replaced that side light with one of the new sconces as well, a sweet upgrade.

Last night before bed I hopped on the One Wheel and rode some of the streets around the neighborhood. They were basically empty allowing me to do big slow carves back and forth as I admired the homes around me. Did I mention how much I love where I live now…..