Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great holiday. We're learning a lot about Oregon coast property maintenance, which is quite different than back home in Southern California due to all the rain and wind. Today, we're in the middle of yet another windstorm. You need permission to remove and plant trees here on the coast so we had to wait about two months for approval. The arborist was finally able to remove the damaged and rotten trees yesterday, and this morning they trimmed most of the remaining ones. Once the winds die down, they'll be back to finish up. We really wish the sellers had done this maintenance, because it's not cheap and that money would have paid for some of the kitchen remodel. Our arborist said that these trees hadn't been cared for in about 10 years, and while it's no guarantee a tree won't fall at some point, maintenance at least it minimizes the chance of that happening. And we have very tall pines here that can do a lot of damage if they fall on someone's house or car. Had we known, we would've taken the price off our offer. Live and learn. One neighbor even stopped by to thank us for doing it.

At least now, we've completed the repairs and maintenance items we inherited when we purchased the house. Next up will be the fun stuff, like the kitchen remodel and landscaping the backyard. Thanks to the equity from our California home, we can live the rest of our lives mortgage-free, and that's the best part of living here. Well, that and the peekaboo ocean views. We're taking a break until spring and I'm back to writing full-time now that we're pretty much settled in. Hard to believe we've been here 3 1/2 months already. It's still surreal and feels very much like we're on vacation.

Wishing all of you a prosperous and healthy 2019!