You might be wondering what High on Hooking is up to while we wait for our new house to close later this month. If you’re new to the tale, it’s actually been over a month since the kid and I arrived in Albuquerque and settled into the rental house, i.e., limbo. Tom and the dog showed up a week later after closing on our Massachusetts house and ensuring that our belongings made it safely onto the moving truck.
Amazingly, we found a house to buy after only a week or so. Sure, we intended to downsize, but you know about best laid plans… Still, the fourth bedroom will be good for us, folks who are used to having a cellar – a finished one at that. We’ll put our treadmill and recumbent bike in there. The extra bathroom? Nice, but something else I’ll have to clean. The kitchen is kick-ass, I must admit; the master suite, like a small-apartment-sized, private wing off the family room. With a soaker tub. Never had one of those before. And the closet is to die for.
Like I said, we can’t hang our shingle on the new place till late September, so we’re kind of hanging till then. Just what have we been doing in the meantime?
If you look back at previous posts, you’ll see that we’ve made time for Albuquerque’s Rail Yard Market and Santa Fe’s annual Indian Market Place. Because we didn’t bring all of our furniture from the East coast, we’ve been through a myriad of furniture stores. Not our favorite thing, frankly. Looking for a couch years ago stressed our marriage. Fortunately, the owners of the house we’re buying are willing to sell us the kitchen table and stools. One divorce avoided!
Last weekend we headed into the nearby Sandia Mountains to get out of the heat and do some hiking. The trail was civilized, not too steep, which made us cheer given the 8000+ feet of altitude where we started. Not something that’s a problem hiking in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. (I very much missed NH this summer.)
Only 40 or so minutes away from Albuquerque (near the ski area!!!), the trails here will be a regular on our to-do list.
Other “fun” turns about town included yesterday’s two visits to New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Department in order to procure license plates for the cars and driver’s licenses for Tom and me. If you’ve ever been to Rhode Island’s registries or the one in Waterbury, Connecticut, you’ll know how much we enjoyed the day. They definitely DO NOT put all the info you need on their website. (Why wasn’t page 1 of our bank statement good enough? Just why did they need to make a copy of all 10 pages?) They also never mentioned that the emissions test has to be done BEFORE you show up at the MVD. That was a side trip on the way home to find more documentation in order to hurry back to sit and wait to try again. Eventually, it all worked out and we are now documented residents – and vehicles – of New Mexico.
This weekend we head back to Best Buy to purchase a stove. Gas! The double oven I’ve always wanted. Thank goodness they’ll hold on to it till we move from the rental house. The outdoor table and chairs we found on sale Monday have been nestled into the storage unit with the rest of our things, also just waiting for that day. We’ll get back to furniture shopping soon (including a damn couch). In the meantime, the rug I’ve been working on since just before I got here is progressing. Maybe I can finish it while we’re living here in limbo and before the new house becomes our home.
Your new home is beautiful! So glad you are all settling in and your pup is too. Your new rug is a reflection of your new adventure! Best of luck to you all.
Thanks, Edlyn. I forgot to add that I found an ATHA guild to join. Meeting in 2 weeks!
The rug was just something I pulled together that didn’t take a lot of thought to work on. It’s made of t-shirts, and I knew I could easily get more out here.
I think you new place looks really cool. I love that part of the country. Best of luck!
Come visit! I’ll post more pictures when I have them. I pulled these off a real estate site. Everything is happening so fast… How are you guys?
The license plate looks weird on the Fit but it’s colorful – so that makes it right 🙂 Love the pic of Ty and Tom – give Ty a big sloppy kiss from me. We are circling closer to bringing a canine into the family. Chuck refuses to discuss. Can’t wait to see your NM-inspired rugs. MISS YOU!
Tell Chuck that cats are the boss of puppies. NM has only a back license plate, so I can get a Patriots front plate. 🙂 Ty says hi! We miss you too!
Looks like you’ve adjusted nicely to your new state! House is gorgeous. ..love the kitchen. Tell everyone hello. Hope you’re settled soon in your new home.
Us too. Come visit!
What address did you use for the DMV? We waited to do our official things till we bought the house. It looks great! We will need to do a kitchen re-do in a few years. All the appliances except the dishwasher which did break, are 16 years old! We have a glass top range, which I hate. We’ve discovered we can get a gas line in, so I’m happy about that. More than the neighbors so close, I’m always surprised at the simplicity of the adobe homes. Something in the front will be a nice change! Is the backyard wonderful?
Hey, Deb! -We opted to do the official stuff now only because I was concerned about insurance coverage (we had to tell USAA that the cars were garaged here now) plus Elisabeth and whatever car she buys will have to be added before we move. The good thing is that all address changes can be done online and there is no imperative for actually getting the address on our licences changed as long as they have the real/new address in their system. -As we looked at houses, we realized that we didn’t want to do much in the way of renovations; plus we’d have to worry about having an older pool. (Sh – Don’t tell the Property Brothers…) This house was a good deal, needed no big changes (some paint in bedrooms and baths at most). We’re choosing to put a new stove in. And the pool, of course. It’s not a big backyard; the pool will be smaller and still take up almost half of it. There’s are more plantings back there and a covered outdoor kitchen. Very cool. Eventually, I’ll have pics… -In know what you mean about the adobes. I call this one the Oz house. When you open the front door and go in, it’s like in the Wizard of OZ when Dorothy opens the door into Oz and everything is in color. 🙂