Retirement Phase II Completed

It is now final, phase II is in the books! What started in October, has now come to fruition and it hasn’t been easy. We received our keys to our Sequim house just days before Christmas and the long process of moving into two separate residences began New Year’s Eve weekend hauling our trailer and the first load up to the house. The trailer was to be used as a place to sleep since we didn’t have any furniture up there yet! While we were there, we experienced a nice winter storm that dropped a nice deep blanket of snow that (a)caused us to have to leave the trailer there(we needed to bring it back for a repair), and (b)got our truck stuck in it coming up the driveway. You can watch a video I took of it as it began here. It was much deeper in the morning. We eventually dug the truck out. We made the best out of what we had in the trailer, borrowing plates, cups, pots and pans, camping chairs we set up in the living room, New Year’s Eve dinner on a card table and folding chairs, etc. It was an adventure to say the least! Thus began a six month ordeal that was exhausting and weekend consuming…..sorry friends and family.

The next pieces of the puzzle was to get our Snoqualmie house listed and find a place to call a temporary home while the both of us still have to work. Now we have been up here on Snoqualmie Ridge in the same house for 13 years. We thought about where we wanted to hang for the next few years until we can go up to the house full-time, knew we had to rent, realized that the rents here are crazy high, but since we had everything we were familiar with right here, we decided to stay. The hunt was on for a rental and with amazing luck, we stumbled onto a condominium that was just around the corner, and was roomy and the perfect fit for us. More good fortune was added when we discovered Debbie knew the owners. She just so happens to work out with both of them at her Crossfit gym. The deal was done, leased signed, and they allowed us early access to the place and we began the weekly slog of slowly emptying the Crestview house. The hardest part was deciphering was to be done with the 13 year accumulation of material goods. Some would go to the condo, some would go to Sequim, some would be sold/given away, but in the mean time we still had to live in and keep the Crestview house staged for sale. It was an arduous task and seemed to last forever.

Bye Bye Crestview House

The house got listed, weekend showings were done, we continued dragging stuff to the condo every weekend. A couple of times we would load up the back of the truck and head to Sequim with a load for the house there and enjoy a weekend of continued “glamping”. Finally an offer was made and accepted, appraisals and inspections done, and the real gutting began. It started bringing a feeling of melancholy along with the excitement as our beautiful home of thirteen years began looking like a shell. I always loved this house. It was our home of many memories and surrounded by great neighbors and would soon be empty of us. Two separate moves in as many of days were done with a great local mover to handle the heavy stuff and it was well worth the money! They did an excellent job and we had no damage to anything whatsoever! The only hitch was when we unloaded in Sequim and it was discovered my beloved desk for my office would not fit through any of the doors to the rooms I wanted it in. It sits in the garage there for sale….another story! We would also say what a pleasure it was working with our realtor, Bob Mathias, who is a good friend and Crestview neighbor. He did an excellent job and if you are looking to buy or sell on the eastside, he’s your man!

So after six long hard months of planning, strategizing, packing and carrying, we are done. Our plan worked flawlessly. We are mortgage free, our retirement location secured, and we have a great place to call a temporary home just blocks from our old house. All that is left for the final phase is to put in a few more years working for the man and stay healthy. Although we will miss our former home, we have a great new house and new adventure and also a great view from our rental. I say we had a lot of good luck in this, but we also acknowledge that we are truly blessed. Maybe it’s time to go back to church!

Condo View

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Out With The Old

The year of 2016 is a year of change at the Givens Estate! We have lived here in Snoqualmie and basically not much has changed since we got here! Same old, same old! We brought down a bunch of stuff from the San Juan cabin and furnished one of the bedrooms with some of that furniture. We also bought a new sectional for the family room and also incorporated some cabin tables into the final result! Boy did it change the look of the room, photos below:

The Old

The Old

The New

The New

The New

We also finally got a nice patio furniture to make the backyard more enjoyable. Very nice to light up a fire without smoking out our upstairs or our neighbors homes.

The Old

The New

And finally, after 14 years of very reliable service and just over 225,000 miles, it was time to let go of the old Mercedes ML320! While it was still in great shape, things were starting to go: ABS pump had just gone out, timing chain was rattling, the head was slightly warped, and it had developed a very slow rear engine seal leak. Just too many miles on it to start pumping money into it! We just happened to wander into our local Mercedes dealer and stumbled on this 2014 C300 with only 7,000 miles on it and was a screaming deal! We couldn’t resist and drove her home! Our old reliable found a new home via a donation to Habitat For Humanity Cars For Homes! It was sad to see her go, but it was time. Now we cross our fingers that the Toyota Avalon with 222K on it holds up for a while longer, because we just don’t want two car payments at this time!

The New Ride

The New Ride

The New Ride

The New Ride

Bye Bye Old Friend

A Challenging New Year

Well 2014 hasn’t started very well for us in the Givens household! Granted, everyone in the Seattle area were partying with the Seahawks winning their first ever Super Bowl and that was a helluva party and something to cheer for!! And except for a couple of bumps in the road, thing are still going good for us. Now for those bumps! Back in August I did something to my right heel which created a knot on the inside of where the Achilles tendon inserts itself in to the heel bone. Deb and I went on an easy three-mile, level trail run and I felt fine. No holes or rocks were hit and no trauma was experienced. I had been breaking in some new Brooks Adrenaline shoes and they just never felt right! When we were through, my foot felt fine, but the next day I noted some soreness in my heel. I gave it a day or two then tried another run, and barely got out of the neighborhood and had to turn back. Haven’t run since!!! I kept it quiet for a while and finally gave into going to physical therapy! They worked on it for over a month and it wasn’t getting any better, so I resorted to seeing my foot and ankle sports medicine guy. We have worked on it with anti inflammatory, ice, and six weeks in the below walking boot! I remained working, but I did have to remove the boot while I drove the bus! It was a pain, but after a while, I was used to the boot and it actually felt good when I had it on. There has been improvement and I am back in physical therapy to strengthen the tendons and try to get back to normal. I am just trying to avoid surgery, because it will be major and I will be out of commission for three months!

My Walking Boot

Speaking of surgery, our poor little boy Cordell had to have some to remove a small tumor discovered during his last physical. We were very worried about our little guy and luckily the test results came back benign. He is on the mend and has almost fully recovered, although he still has a hairless patch on his side. He was a real trooper through the whole thing!

Poor Cordell has an oowie!

Now while all this was going on and we didn’t have enough to worry about, the scumbag in the photos below hacked our debit card account and ripped off almost $10,000 out of our bank account!! We presume he somehow phished our information by a fake reader or something because we still had possession of the card. Since the debit card was linked to all of our accounts, he took from savings, checking, and also a personal line of credit. What a hassle it was getting it all sorted out and changing bank account numbers and re establishing bill pays and etc. We are no longer going to use a debit card in such a manner for the future. We opened a local account that we will transfer a limited amount of money into and use it. Below are photos captured from multiple ATM’s he was using and while they are not the best, if you see or know this piece of shit scumbag, contact police. He used ATM’s at only Seven Elevens in the following places: Bellevue, Factoria, Kent on Meeker Street, Seattle on Denny Way, Woodinville, Crossroads, and once in Marysville.

Finally as things have slowly returned to normal I am going through tests to possibly get surgery to fix my GERD I have lived with for years! I had multiple tests done which included a manometry, endoscopy, and a Bravo pH study done. I go back shortly to have a consult on where to go from here! Wish me luck, I will need it!