Promises Broken

I promised to write about England after France, then I didn't do it. I've been so busy, with work, holidays, shopping, more work. Seems every time I turn around I get called in for another shift.

We had a bid in early December for our winter season ( January 5th - March 15th) and I got a 36 hour selling shift. Sue & Lisa decided to go to Bainbridge and Joe made a bonehead mistake & faxed his bid upside down so I lucked out. Don't know how lucky I really am, since the first two days of each week will suck:
Sunday 8:05am-2:05pm
Monday 1:00pm-6:00pm
Tuesday & Wednesday OFF
Thursday midnight-9am
Friday midnight-9am
Saturday 8:25am-3:25pm
Beginning my work week with 2 graves sucks because I'll have to go to bed early on my days off in order to get up at 11:10pm but its guaranteed hours and winter schedule sucks for on-calls.

I HATE graveyards but getting a nice guaranteed paycheck every month for 3 months will be worth it.

We're planning on another home renovation which will include:
Septic Design upgrade from 2 bedroom to 4 bedrooms
Add another bathroom upstairs
Redo master bath upstairs, currently Jack & Jill bath.

This is into the bathroom from the other room, our current bedroom is on the other side of the far door. 

We will AT LEAST replace this dated cabinet, countertop & sinks with something pretty, maybe rustic. I'll be looking for a good used one and hope to find a good quartz countertop with 2 sinks. I'm sure I'll have to buy that new. We can add a nice back splash since we know how now.

I'd like a vanity like this, plain & simple

From our current room into the other bedroom, sinks on the right of this photo

We won't do anything to upgrade the tub/shower enclosure because its practically brand new. It needs a new fan as the old one is original to the house & has a red bulb meant to warm a person and the fan is LOUD. The sky light is awesome.

The floor is vinyl & we're going to get a plastic/rubber click in floating floor & just put it in right over the top of this. 

The new bathroom would be added beside this one, just reversed and instead of a tub we'll put in a standing shower. 

A new toilet is about $200 and I'd like to have a new one in each bathroom. 

I'd like a single pedestal sink in the new bathroom. We do have to figure out either a fan or small window & right now there will be enough room for a window beside the shower.

But I'll totally settle for a single vanity sink.

Our bedroom currently measures 14.5 x 13.5 feet, the new bathroom would take up 5.5 feet, leaving the bedroom 9.5 x 13.5, still plenty big enough for a kids bedroom. A doorway would be put in the wall where a closet is at, the closet would be removed. There is still another large closet in that room. The door that goes from the hallway to our room now would become the new bathroom door.

I don't think the carpet would have to be replaced, just cut down to size and the extra added to the new doorway. 

We would have to move into the other bedroom as we can't  use that room for the bathroom because of hallway doors & permanent walls. The door from our room into the jack & jill would be moved to the closet area so we wouldn't even have to purchase another door.

Its not going to be cheap, I'm figuring upwards of $10k. And while we're at it, we're going to get the septic tank upgraded to a 4 bedroom (currently 2 br) which could run an additional $10k if it all goes well. We can  only hope for that BUT doing these things will increase our homes value and make it a heck of a lot more sellable.

My Heart Is Full

We had a GREAT time in England & France

In Annecy they had a parade for us

This castle ruins was really cool

Scotland didn't let us down one bit

London

Someday we'll go again & next time we'll know more about what we will do in advance. This was such an awesome trip and we saw so many amazing things.

Next time we go we will have a lot more things planned out in advance. 

We'll do a lot more research (we did tons!!) into the things we want to see and places we want to go. 

In the past I've always had a plan, with a map & predetermined points of interest. This time it wasn't always like that. We knew our phones wouldn't work perfectly but hadn't planned on NO phones unless we were getting free wifi. I hadn't planned on so many people, since last time I was there it was shitty weather and this time it was FABULOUS most of the time.

Next time we'll have a hotel room in a central location & take day trips from there. Not another trip where we're driving most of each day to get to our next destination.

We stayed at a hostel in London, the White Ferry House, above a pub;

they had 9 males & females in our room, there were 8 rooms all together with only 2 bathrooms w/5 stalls in each. That's 10 toilet/shower/sink tiny rooms for 72 people to use. You couldn't get dressed in your room because there were people of the opposite sex in all the rooms and the bathrooms had an hour long waiting line and there were no toilets that weren't in the tiny shower rooms.

Next night was in France at an Airbnb in Montpellier.

It was hell getting into the room because of no phone service but nice people spent an hour helping us. The room was small & had a fold out double size futon. Check out @ 10am and no time to enjoy the cute little outside garden.

The 2nd night in France was another Airbnb studio with another fold out bed. Much cuter than the first place, this one was in Cannet, the old town just above Cannes. So beautiful, with tiny streets that everyone whipped through in their cars. parking was scarce, motorcycles & scooters everywhere.

This window looked out over the tiny alley, into & through the neighbors yard. It took us about 2 hours to find this place & another hour to park.

This is the stuff I wanted Lan to see & he loved it.

Tourettes-sur-loop village. 

This place was AMAZING. People still live there & work in the small buildings & run shops. 

 On Saturday we were in Annecy, where they had a freaking parade for us!!!!

The Return From the Alpine Pastures.

First there was delicious food, sausages & scalloped potatoes cooked in HUGE flying pans.

Then the parade.

We went to the Museum of the French Revolution

Back I n the olden times, Lans ancestors were 'ROYALTY' in France but were on the wrong side of the people & suring the revolution they had to leave France for America in the dark of night.

This chateau used to be a castle so while visiting it I made up stories of what Lans great-g-g-g-g grandparents would have been doing while there.

On Sunday we went to Chamonix, rode the gondola up to the top.

We spent 3 hours up there, 12,602 feet in elevation. Can't say enough about this place, LOVED IT.

Glass floors with nothing below you for 1,000 feet

When we were leaving the Alpenglow on the French Alps was oh, so gorgeous.

Then we headed back south Monday; this is the Carcassonne Castle.

We got there too late in the day to go inside but the church was still open & it was beautiful

We also enjoyed a vry nice dinner in one of the squares, I had blackened escargot in a tomato sauce. YUM.

Tuesday we were flying back to London but not till 2:30 so we had several hours in the morning to explore. Decided on a castle ruins 2+ hours northwest of the airport.

Stopped for a pee break along the way and found this gem. An old swimming hole with this OLD bridge over it. You can see where the old bridge was added to to make it fit present day cars.

Château de Peyrepertuse

next post will be all about the UK portion of our trip.

Count Down

About 38 hours left before the big adventure begins.

4 Days

Our vacation begins in 4 days.

4 days from now, Sunday, I'll be doing last minute things like giving the dogs belly rubs, ruffing up the kitties, making sure I have EVERYTHING I might possibly need on our trip. We catch the airport shuttle 5 miles down the road at 9:50am, arrive at airport at 11 and our flight leaves at 1:45pm.

We will arrive in London's Gatwick airport Monday morning at 7am and we'll be in London about 36 hours. 

Tuesday afternoon we fly out of Stanstead airport to Carcassonne, France, landing at 5:30pm. We have 2 nights prepaid in the south, then wherever we end up until we fly out again on the 15th.

On Wednesday the 16th, we fly from Heathrow airport north to Gateshead, where we will meet up with Michelle & Guy for a week.

On Tuesday 22nd, we fly once again, from Gateshead back to Heathrow. We'll have a 10 hour window to sightsee, then spending the night at BLOC hotel inside Gatwick airport.

Wednesday October 23 we fly back home and arrive in Seattle at 11:45am. We'll have a couple additional bags by then so will have to gather them, then catch the shuttle back to Purdy. That's going to be a LONG day.

Vaca is Coming

I have a lot of things to do to prepare for our trip. I've already packed & repacked, I've still got to do it more. I need to know what I'll be wearing on the plane & for sure what all I'll be taking.

Took this the other day.