A forward movement.

A great big Thank You to all our friends and relatives for your support!

It has been just over a month since we lost our home to a catastrophic fire and slowly the events in our life are moving on. Some positive and some not so much so! I sincerely hope you never have to go thru something like this in your own lives!

Yesterday we received a phone call from park management stating their insurance would not cover any portion of our trailers demolition expenses or lot restoration. So I made a call to the demolition company, went over concerns I had with the quote they had submitted and gave them authorization to expedite their services at my expense. To the tune of just over $11,000.

We also went to our fire destroyed home for the last time attempting to salvage what little is left of our lives possessions. Typing this attempting to make sense of what Cindy and I have gone thru since the day of the fire might sound tragic and it is. But at least now we can pick up the pieces, pull up our big boys and move on with our lives.

Yesterday we met with Brian and Carol, a Canadian couple that live in the park during the winter months, and came to an agreement with them to purchase their house. If all goes as planned, thanks to the generosity of all our friends and relatives, we will take occupancy on Dec. 29. Putting us back on the same block we lived on when we first moved to the park. Just 5 homes south of our first house here.

Brian is only a few years older than us but because of medical issues this will be their last year of coming down. So they, after hearing of our plight, have agreed to sell us the home “totally furnished”. Which under the circumstances is a very huge deal to us.

Brian has lived in the park for approximately 12 years, first like us coming down in their 5th wheel trailer and then later purchasing the home from its original owner. So he could fill me in on a lot of the changes and remodeling that had been done to the home during his and the original owner occupancy.

And although there will be a few things that need to be addressed to make it a year round residence this far south. The home itself is one of the better built homes in the park. Resting on concrete pillars and steel beamed foundation, it even has landscape blocks under the home for off ground on site storage.

The new home also has a second bedroom which is unique in that most homes here only have an Arizona room which is generally described as a three season porch. Where this, unlike our last home, has a completely self supporting structure for the second bedroom. It also comes with a washer and dryer saving Cindy from the commute to the in park laundromat.

Now on a reality note keep in mind even with all the storage this home offers, everything we own and will be moving to the new home will fit in one trip in the back of my pickup. And we are not talking any stacking……. The doctor said I needed to lose weight, I wonder if this is what he meant.

It is Always an Adventure!

Mark