This report covers Thursday, June 15, 2000, Day 11 of our Las Vegas/Henderson
trip.
It's now a certainty that for the first time ever, we will not gamble even a penny on this trip. Everything has been dedicated to using the short time we have available here to activities involving the new house.
We continued in that vein on this, the last day before we have to head back east for a few weeks. And it turned out to be a very expensive day.
We started in the morning by going up to the Sun City Anthem sales pavilion to rendezvous with a gentleman named Russ Angione, whose company designs many of the wall units that house the home-theater systems put together by Eagle Sentry. We decided to do business with him after considering other cabinet makers, and a look at his portfolio of photos showing his work convinced us that this is a guy who doesn't just build cabinets, but fine furniture. After we chatted a while, Russ followed us back to our house, where he took measurements and we discussed some of the specialized features we want in our wall unit.
Russ is designing a unit that will be 18 feet wide and more than 7 feet tall. The cost estimate caused me to gulp and have second thoughts for a few seconds, but we finally decided this was no time to cut corners if we really want it to be our dream home. The end result was agreement to a deal that makes it the single most expensive item we've ever purchased (I think) outside of a house or a car.
Next was a quick lunch at Port of Subs. These people make good bread and do a great lunch business, but I'm not especially fond of their restricted menu. But sometimes one must opt for convenience over top preference.
Back at the house, we started to prepare for our departure. Del Webb provides its homeowners with lots of tips for shutting up a house, as they know many folks are like us in the sense that they are not able to immediately take full-time occupancy. The suggestions include lowering the hot-water settings, putting salad oil in some of the appliances to keep them from having problems in the low humidity, putting plastic wrap over the toilets to prevent evaporation, etc.
We've been able to avoid many of these procedures because of the assistance we'll receive from our neighbors David and Lea. They'll be visiting the house several times a week, running the toilets and faucets, checking the temperature settings, collecting our mail, etc., and this really simplifies things for us. We bought plastic painter's drop cloths at Home Depot and have draped them over all our furniture to keep the dust off. Our neighbors will be using Priority Mail to forward important mail to us, and we'll be in frequent contact with them via e-mail.
Another quick meal, this time at Pick Up Stix on Eastern.
Our model has a deep kitchen, the back portion of which we had elected to keep empty so that we could customize. After several days of telephone tag, we finally were able to arrange a 9:00 p.m. visit from Esteban Fernandez, whose Fernandez Design does all the Corian work and much of the cabinet design for Del Webb. For the next hour, we worked with Mr. Fernandez to configure the kitchen design so that he can build the exact product we want. I won't lay out the details, but it will be quite unique, and even then it will cost less than the wall unit. By meeting with Fernandez before leaving for home, we've gained a great deal of lead-time on the project.
Some packing to finish, and it was finally time to leave for the airport. That was a nice experience in itself: Just a 15-minute drive, with a Beltway exit leading almost directly to the car-rental lots. In three minutes flat, we had returned our Avis vehicle, received our paid receipt, and were on the bus headed to the terminal. We had driven 566 miles over these 11 days, and the total Avis bill with all add-ons included was a reasonable $267.60.
Our 1:30 a.m. flight home on Sun Country Airlines, with a stop but no plane change in Minneapolis/St. Paul, was smooth and uneventful, and we arrived in Boston on schedule at 10:45 a.m. Stepping out into the high humidity and mid-80s temperature in Boston was a good reminder of why we like the weather much better back in our new home than here.
If all goes well, we'll pack up our car in August and make the cross-country drive to our retirement home in Henderson, Nevada, USA.
Thank you for reading my report, and for all the positive comments as well as constructive suggestions.
The planning and execution of our home purchase and move-in was the product
of a lot of hard work, but it could never have gone as well as it did without
the suggestions and shared experiences that so many online friends blessed us
with over a period of many months. When naming names, there's always the risk
of hurting feelings by forgetting a few, and I apologize in advance if that's
what happens now. But we do want to thank a few folks who were incredible in
their generosity, and we want you to know that we will never forget how helpful
you were. A giant among them was CHUCK HUTCHESON, who, while not moving to Nevada,
overlaid his experiences with his Arizona move on too many occasions to count.
Then there's RAY DOWNING, whose many recollections and
suggestions will pay additional benefits during our coming cross-country drive.
To these names we add those of MARCIA ROVINS and JOE COPELAND, who have been
so fantastic to us. And then there are our dear Las Vegas friends, GLADYCE AND
MARTY EHRLICH and BLOSSOM AND HAL BILMES; thanks to sweet, caring people like
them, we are not moving to a land of strangers, but to a community where an
extended and wonderful family awaits.
A young couple who recently moved to the area are quoted thusly in the July 2000 Money Magazine story on Henderson: "Everybody waves to each other. ...There's just a lot of friendly people here."
And, indeed, there are!
--Best wishes from David and Rosalyn, with one foot in MA and the other firmly in NV.
