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hola! .............we are back home........ all is well..............

the old house is not ours any longer,

sad, but sweet........

it was hot in tucson..............

it is hot in alamos..............and it is very humid.............

it rained here while we were gone................. the mountains are turning a fuzzy, brilliant green......

the cats are very mad at us.......... tomorrow i will get pictures for you...........we drove alot of distance in a short time............

i am pooped.

will you believe me if i tell you we have to go back to tucson next week..........our old antique furniture did not sell in the old antique store and the agreement was they would keep it for one year...........................suddenly it is one year and we are having the furniture shipped to tucson.................... and it will be there sometime next week....................we will have to drive back to tucson......................to use the key..................................to open the door..............to let them put the furniture in the storage unit...............and drive home again.............we need friends in tucson...................

And finally......

Hola! We came home late yesterday afternoon after an overnight in Hermosillo.

There was a cloud over Mt. Alamos and within an hour, the sky was filled with boiling clouds.

The clouds seemed to stall right over our casa and the wind pushed from all directions and the sky filled with lightning and all we could hear was wind and thunder and the cats ran for cover as the rain fell. It was wonderful!

Because there was so much wind, the rain could never really decide where to go. Very little came into the garden room, so we were able to sit there, under cover, and watch all the excitement. Long after the rain stopped, there was lightning for hours in the distance.

There is a tropical depression off the coast of Sinaloa, perhaps it has moved farther north. It was not expected to reach the coast until early Saturday morning. I have not checked the weather today but there is an large, dark cloud over Mt. Alamos this morning and some darker clouds on the western horizon.

A little cloud has finally been lifted off our shoulders......we have our FM3's back.

In Alamos, we met with an accountant and asked him to file our Mexican Corporation taxes. In Navajoa, it was neccessary to meet him again and go to SAT, which is like the USA IRS. We received an identification number for our taxes. The accountant then filed our 2008 and 2009 taxes (through June, 2009). We did not owe any taxes afterall. We only needed to pay him for his time and work. So, finally that was taken care of......................

The tax identification number and the proof of filing the taxes were what immigration said they needed before they would give us our FM3 renewal.

So yesterday we went back to immigration, in Hermosillo, and gave them the information they needed. Before going it did not occur to me to make a copy of the filing, about 30 pages worth.

After the woman behind the counter finally gave us our FM3's she gathered up all our paperwork to keep in her file. I asked if she could make copies of the filing for me.

WHOOOO_WHEEEEE! Always, make your own copies of everything before you go to immigration. I know this, but I just did not think she would need to keep those papers.

Well, I may as well have been her child who got caught staying out past curfew, or did not do their homework, or went out with the wrong boy. She was not happy.

She made the copies, slammed them on the counter and said something that sounded nasty and senor said................get going now before she takes the FM3s back.

So we went to Wal-Mart and finally............................ I calmed down enough to get out of the truck.

When we got back to the casa yesterday, we opened the back bedroom door and Ashes rushed out. Somehow she had snuck back inside when we were not looking. She was madder than the lady at immigration and would not stop meowing and even clawed me once. Of course, it was our fault she got locked in without food or water for over twenty-four hours. I told her she was lucky we weren't gone for four days and finally..............she quit meowing.

And speaking of being gone from home. We have been gone now, for a little over a year. It has been an incredible experience so far. I think we will stay.

But remember this old house? Here is a photo from a long ago snow storm. See the snowman in the lower left?

And here is a photo below of the new deck and windows we added during the remodel.

The house was put on the market late last August. During May and June, we have been in negotiations with a buyer, and through the realtor, we have been faxing papers back and forth, to the tune of forty pesos per page. The lady at the internet store, who does our faxing, is so nice. One day she even offered me a cup of tea while I waited for about eight pages to go through. She also calls me by my name and has never slammed anything down on the counter in front of me. I think she likes me.

While in Hermosillo, we learned the house is finally a done deal. We need to be in Tucson on Tuesday of this upcoming week, to sign and notarize the final papers.

So when I look at these photos, of the house, it is with both happiness and sadness.........so I won't look too long.

It is a relief to have it sold, especially in this economy, and we feel fortunate. But, I will miss this house and the family who lived here together, and is now, spread out across two countries..................finally, I have to look at it with some humor as well, because I never got to cook a meal in the new kitchen, never got to use that new stone tiled shower, or sit out on the new deck with friends. I never got to really squish my toes up in that plush new carpet or hang my clothes behind the new closet doors.........never got to slide across the shiny new wood floor in my skivvies, didn't even do a load of laundry after the new tile went into the laundry room.

Soon, I may remove the Northwest photos from the blog, I may take the old studio photos of the shed off the website, even though I don't yet have a new studio to replace it with. I don't know, I guess it's time for those photos to go...........

so, as i say adios this morning and finally, enough of that...............bring on the next rain.

The Adams Have left the Building

OMG..we are homeless..until we get to Alamos.

Those Darn Cats and Windows

Hola! Here is the morning photo. Still alot of snow up top, but we have had a few pretty days again. The rhodies and azaleas are coming out and the Hmong farmers down in the valley have fields of yellow in bloom.


Painting of the outside of the house is almost complete. The trim and railings are yet to be done. Rain will be here this morning so outside painting will go on hold and hopefully some of the indoor issues will get completed.


Two things are holding us up........cats and windows....let's talk about the cats first.

They have to have papers in order to cross the border...papers that certify they have received all their shots and are in good health. I did not think this would be that difficult, but a call to the vet clinic lets me know that the cats cannot have their papers until Tuesday or Thursday....so there you have it....our children and our pets do control our lives.

Below is a photo of Ashes, taken back in December when things were normal. Now she hides in the culvert down at the street while the workers are here and comes out only after they leave.


and this is Cookies. He looks a little sad...they know something big is going on, but there is really not much we can do for them...Ian came home last night and that seems to be cheering them up..Windows....we are waiting for the large hardware store we purchased our windows from to come and reinstall one set. I won't name the company, but they are dragging their feet. We may go ahead and leave it all in the hands of our wonderful realtor. He will be putting our house on the market in a few weeks.


Our last Pacific Northwest post will be this week....we will show you alot of photos of the house in its most completed state!

I also want to give you a short list of all the terrific companies (most of them from right here in the Snoqualmie Valley) who have helped us in remodeling our home.

So we will try and wait patiently for the cats papers and then, we're outta here..

Two Minutes to Blog

I really have an open window of about 2 minutes...we have been sooo busy and today is maxed out and it's only 8:57am. A beautiful sunrise this morning!! Lots of pink clouds in the sky and probably some rain will come in.

We have had a few very nice days and Craig has been painting the outside of the house. The Russian guys are putting in the beechwood floor and the cabinets are pretty much done in the kitchen. Bathrooms are tiled, laundry room floor is tiled.
There is still alot to do, but we are well over the halfway mark now and are planning to leave Carnation next Monday. Ian comes home from Colorado Friday. We will pick him up at the airport and see him over the weekend. Then we will drive to Colorado and visit with KD for a few days and then, head south to Tucson and the storage unit.

I am working on the household list. I am still nervous about not getting the menaje de casa. On one of my posts a lady who is moving to San Carlos commented that she was very interested in that aspect of the trip. Guess What!!! So am I...... Please contact me again, I would love to discuss it more with you! Please leave a way for me to contact you.
If anyone has any further information about crossing without the menaje, please leave me a comment.
I have all of our boxes and loose items accounted for. Now I must get them written in both English and Spanish. We have already decided to take what we can (though we will be leaving quite a bit in the Tucson unit) and if we get the red light when we cross at Nogales we will just deal with it then. If we have to pay a duty then we will.
Over the next few days I promise to find time to leave you some photos of the house, but for now, I am off and running!!

What's Goin' On

Here is this morning's snow. It is our third snow in three days. Very, very pretty stuff, but doesn't Mexico sound better?

A week ago Saturday, we had a 75 degree day, unusual Pacific Northwest weather!

It was gorgeous and when I was out in the truck, I saw sooooo many people buying annuals and trees and roses. That was a booming plant sale day. And now, after all this snow, the nurseries will have a second round of it when all those folks have to come back and replace their frozen flowers. I ALWAYS wait until Mothers' Day to buy and plant my baskets and other containers. I learned my lesson years ago when I lost all my flowers in late April during a freeze...

The photo below shows a glimpse of the pond through the snowy trees and bushes.

The tire swing, lonely and still, in the woods....(KD, don't look at this photo).....it's just a tire swing ...Snowy branches below.....

So, here is the update:

Bill is still tiling and getting bathrooms ready for the countertops. I think he has a new profession because his tiling is awesome. I will be showing you photos as we get closer to having that done.

I am still running errands in the truck.....gasoline is up to $3.69 locally....so I am trying to make as few trips as possible and that takes very careful planning and organization. The door place messed up our hardwood door order, they neglected to measure width wise and not all of our doors happen to be 30" wide, so we are dealing with that issue and I don't want to talk about it further. I will really get cranky.

So on to the good stuff!

Spanish is coming along great!! We are studying past tenses already, even though I don't really have the all of the present tenses down yet...., but I feel confident that we will be able to communicate in Alamos. Next week, after class, we will take Violeta to our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Puerca in Kirkland.

Even though a lot has been going on, it still seems incredibly slow to me, and somedays I think we are moving in slow motion. I am just so ready to go.

And so much rain has set more than a few projects behind schedule. Craig has not been able to stain the house. The gutter guys can't put in the drain system, and so on and so on....

In the photo below you can see the old retaining wall and how it is falling apart. The ground behind it leads up to the earth house hillside.

So, Don and his crew came out and removed the old wall and during the night a torrential rainstorm washed much of the hillside away. I worried that if it did not stop raining part of the deck would go with it.
The rain got worse after this photo and much more of the dirt washed down.Eventually the rain stopped and days later the guys were able to clean up all the debris and put in the new retaining wall which we are very happy with. I especially like the new steps which lead up to the new flagstone pathway that goes along the earth house hillside.

Back to what's going on inside the house.

I am the 'not so happy about it' owner of a door staining department in the living room. I did not like painting the walls and I don't like staining doors either. But I am working hard at it, and I think it will be done soon. I am staining doors that actually fit in the spaces they are supposed to fit into. I won't go into what we will do with the doors that don't fit in their spaces and I want to end this session on a HAPPY NOTE!!!!!!.


We can't even walk in the living room, it is full of doors, but they will be a nice addition to our house.

I told Bill that we will not have doors in Alamos, just those hippie doorway beads.

Our little casita in Mexico has just gone through a Mexican type of probate, so now we are put on the list of house closing dates. Are we at the top of the list or the bottom of the list? We don't know........

Evidently things are a little behind schedule down there as well. So, there is nothing to do beyond keeping up the remodeling project here and hope the rain and snow go away. Oh and keep watching cable tv while we have it!! What in the heck happened to ICE ROAD TRUCKERS, my best show. I thought it was coming back on with a new season, and if you have been keeping up with this you know that is part of the reason we even have cable...

Oh, well.....
I just took the photos below within a 3 minute period. The Cascades are beautiful this afternoon!

We have been so lucky to keep seeing many wonderful people we know. Whether it is at the grocery store, the post office, at Steve's birthday party, Starbucks, Lowes, the library, the gas station or just two trucks passing in opposite directions on Tolt Hill, honk and wave!...we see so many people every day and it's giving us the chance to keep saying goodbye to all of you!