After months of looking at houses all around middle Tennessee and surrounding states, we finally found one that we liked well enough to put an offer on! After going back and forth a couple of times, the seller accepted our offer! They had already moved out of the house, so we were able to set a closing date on the house within just a few weeks of going under contract. That gave us about a week between leaving Pigeon Forge and getting keys to the house. While waiting, we stayed at the Nashville I-24 Campground, in the Murfreesboro area and began the process of replacing all the stuff we sold in CO. For starters, I bought a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid up near Nashville. So, we got a good taste of the interstate traffic that we’ll want to avoid between Murfreesboro and Nashville as much as possible! 🙂 We also ordered a bed and a sofa/love seat set from Mid Tenn Furniture (we really like the owner & guy working there!) to be delivered asap, so we could actually live in the house comfortably.
Our schedule got a bit complicated during this week, but I was impressed with how smoothly all the travel plans went. Thankfully, the sellers let us park our RV on their property the night before closing, since we needed to be all packed to drive up to MD in my new car immediately after signing all the paperwork. We didn’t want to miss Dave’s (Randy’s brother) surprise 70th birthday party. So, we drove about 10 hours to Mt. Airy, MD on Friday, stayed one night in a hotel, had a great time visiting with family and celebrating Dave on Saturday, stayed one night at Dave and Gay Lynn’s house, packed up and met family for brunch on Sunday morning, then drove 10 hours back to the new house.
We stayed in the RV Sunday night, then the bed and sofa were delivered on Monday. With the food, dishes, clothes and toiletries we moved in from the RV, we were in good shape while we figured out what else we wanted to buy! But on Tuesday morning, we flew out of Nashville to Colorado for a week, in order to say good-bye to friends and meet with the moving company to empty our storage unit. Randy also did a firearms training then officially retired from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. The week flew by and before we knew it, we were back in TN where we could FINALLY enjoy staying in the new house! We had only been able to sleep in it two of the twelve nights we had owned it so far, ha.
I actually liked that we moved into the house in stages. It wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as I remember the VA to CO move being (but having two young kids could have made that move harder, too). Since we had been able to live without the stuff in our storage unit for a couple of years, I wasn’t in a hurry to get it. By the time it came a couple of weeks later, we had found places for all our essentials and bought a TV, swivel barstools, and an amazing dining room table from WestMain. Unfortunately for the moving company, their semi-truck couldn’t fit in our driveway, so they had to use our pickup to shuttle the stuff to the house — oops! While they loaded the pickup, we were able to organize boxes and even unpack some of them before getting another load brought in. It worked out really well for us! Since we had gotten rid of so much stuff before the move, it didn’t take very long to unpack the boxes.
I renovated our master closet by repainting it and replacing wire shelving with wood ones. I was quite surprised to pull out a small dresser and find an old piece of carpet beneath it. There a single screw anchoring it to the wall, but instead of anyone moving it, they cut around it — crazy! Thankfully, there were remnants left in a closet, so I was able to watch a YouTube video and replace the ugly brown with a new piece. That was my first time dealing with carpet repair, but I think it turned out pretty well!
We also had to get a water softener and whole house filter installed, since the city water was too hard and it tasted awful! I immediately missed our yummy CO well water!
The house and property are beautiful and it’s extremely comfortable and feeling like home already! It’s a 3400 sq ft house on 10 acres of land. It’s a long skinny lot, which wasn’t our preference, but the house is situated in a good spot on it. 3 acres surrounding the house are cleared and 7 acres in the back are wooded. We are down a long driveway that goes past a neighbor’s house before getting to ours. There are also trees lining the property edge on both sides, so only the front of the house is in plain sight of neighbors. Besides the bad water (which was thankfully fixed!), I think my least favorite thing so far is the barking dogs just across the fence from our driveway. We are having to still use a noise machine at night so that they don’t disturb us. There is also a donkey on the other side of the property, but it usually only makes noise during the day. We don’t hear any traffic noise here, which is awesome! It’s very peaceful as long as the dogs are quiet.
Now we just need to make some friends! The first time we walked down our driveway to try to meet neighbors, only one guy was home. And he was at least 80 years old and had some obvious memory issues. I loved that our closest neighbor noticed when we drove past their house on our way home from MD, then stopped by to check that we were supposed to be there! It’s still an older couple who own that home, but they have a daughter about our age who lives with them, too. They were super friendly, so I hope to get to know them better soon. We’ve also visited a few churches in the area, two different campuses of New Vision, and the World Outreach Church. We enjoyed them all, but don’t feel like any of them are THE one, so I’m eager to visit others we’ve driven past. With all the traveling we’ll be doing around the holidays, though, it’s going to take a while.
I’m not positive how much I’ll continue to update this blog now that we’re settling back into a “normal” way of life. The RV is winterized for now and we don’t have any future RV trips planned. But we will be going on a cruise in December and plan to take some extended vacations in the RV within the next couple of years, since there are still a few places I’d really like to visit! So, our Great Escape is not completely over yet!!! Stay tuned…
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