HOME RENOVATION

 Larry's son, Brian had bought our house from us 7 years ago. When we were home in October we mentioned we might look at a house in the area. They then suggested we take the house back for they wanted to buy an old historic home down the road. They were able to purchase that home and moved to it in November but kept watch over this house for us till we would be back in May.
 Will since we bought the house in Florida (see earlier post) we decided we better get back to PA before we went to Arkansas and get it on the market. We left Florida at 5:00 on March 23 and were home early in the morning on March 25. The house has great curb appeal from all the updates that Brian did to it, but a real estate agent told us we had to update the inside to make it sell able or take a big lose on it. So we started our own" NOMADS" project.

 We moved the washer and dryer from upstairs in the bathroom.

 Removed the double sinks from the top of the stairs and took off the door.

 Larry took the area the washer and dryer had been and prepared it for the new sink. The finished project looked great.

 He made a wall with a door into the bathroom.

 Finished the wall where the sinks had been and created a hall closet. Then with Stella's help the floor was laminated.

The washer and dryer was installed in the  mud room and a table was built for folding clothes. Brian  had this room built before they moved.

While Larry built I painted all the rooms - walls and  ceilings. The rooms upstairs have cathedral ceilings! I got them all finished thanks to Valerie coming and helping paint.

                                             We had a refrigerator installed.

I worked on getting the trim painted in all the rooms,

but I still need to paint the trim around the doors and all of the doors when we get back.

Our grandson painted the garage.

We had the house pretty well finished and  rented when we left on April 15th for Arkansas.

We worked almost everyday but we did take a few breaks to visit our new granddaughter and her family. And we enjoyed Easter at my sister's along with Bob and Pam.

FIRST TIME IN FLORIDA

On March 12 Larry's son, Mark and his friend Danielle flew down to visit us for a few days in Florida. It was his first time to fly and his first trip to Florida.

 We spent one day at Epcot. It was during the flower show.

 We enjoyed some rides and seeing some of the shows at the different nations.

Before they left we enjoyed a day at Siesta Beach. They were only here for 4 nights and three days but we enjoyed showing them as much as we could during that time. And we were glad they had some warm weather.

HOME IN FLORIDA

 We are buying this home at Citrus Highlands, which is right beside the Publix near Orlando TT in Clermont, Florida. As you can see it has a place to park our RV.

 It has a two car garage. The garage doors have screens so you can sit inside and look out and also the doors are insulated.

 The back of the property.

 The view from the front entrance. The laundry is on the left  side of the hallway.

 Down the hallway to the left is the guest bedroom,

 and bathroom.

 Into the living room

 Most of the furniture in the house will be staying, even the TV.

 A dining area.

 A nice large kitchen.

 The master bedroom

 and bathroom with a walk in closet.

 A room for an office off the bedroom.

We love the lanai.

 The window coverings go up and down as needed. There is also a hot tub!

The back patio and view of the pond.

We hope to make settlement in April.

FAMILY VISIT

 My sister. Lynda and my son, Bob arrived at Orlando TT at 2:00 a.m. January 2 after driving 18 hours straight from Philadelphia. We celebrated Christmas with them on Friday. On Saturday Larry took the RV to Peace River TT in Wauchula while Lynda, Bob and I went to Ybor City and then to St Petersburg.

  I was surprised to find the pier closed, of course it has been over 15 years since I was here.

 On Sunday afternoon we rented this little cabin for Bob to stay in for the week.

 A little tiny but great for a place for Bob to sleep. It was better then the ground outside where he was biten up or on the floor in the RV.

 Bob takes great pictures with his phone but he used Lynda's camera for the shot of Peace River's resident alligator.

 Our big trip on Monday was to Big Cypress National Preserve. It is part of the Everglades but there is hunting and land ownership in this area where there isn't any in Everglades National Park just south of here.

 We were guaranteed we would see alligators at the Oasis visitor center.

 We sure did.

 And we saw an anhingas.

 We then drove to the Gulf coast to look for shells on Sanibel Island.

 We drove around to Captiva to see the sunset, but it was a little to early.

 As we left the island we saw the sun setting.

 On the way home we had a delicious Italian dinner at Lamotta's in Ft. Myers.

 On Wednesday we went over to the coast again and enjoyed time at Siesta Beach.

 The sand is beautiful here and we took a long walk along the beach.

 The water was 69, a little warmer then the air. I enjoyed walking in it.and could have gone in for a dip if I had my swim suit with me.

 Thursday we visited Solomon's Castle. It is a unique place to visit.

 We took the tour and enjoyed all his unusual art work and humor.

 We ate at the Boat in the Moat which is right on the grounds and run by the family.

 We had a good lunch, just as we remembered when we ate here a few years ago.

 We then went to see the Lipizzaner stallions.

 This is where they train the horses and riders for the show when they are on tour. So there was a lot of do overs. It will be fun to go back in March and see how they have progressed.

 Friday we went to Center Hill Farm to pick strawberries. They sure are good.

My sister and son left on Saturday morning at 9:00. They were planning to stop at a hotel on the way home but once again decided to drive straight through and arrived back in Philadelphia at 3 a.m. We had a very nice visit and I always miss them when they leave.