Welcomed to Florida by Debby

We made it to The Villages, Florida! After 20 grueling hours - 13 hours last Friday and seven hours Saturday - and looking at this while I drove our car, we arrived safely at our new house. 

Our son, DIL and grandson Austin, were waiting for us in the driveway. It was wonderful to see this little man again. Juniper, their black lab came along too. 

With threatening, moisture-laden clouds overhead, we immediately set to unloading the truck. Within minutes, Dan pulled his back and was in a bad way - a combination of too many hours on a bumpy truck seat followed by lifting without having put on a back brace. The kids and I hustled to finish the unloading and managed to complete the task in about 90 minutes, before the rain started to fall.

And then, rain it did! Non-stop. All night. All day Sunday and into Sunday night. Tropical storm Debby's "welcome" was more than eight inches of rain that fell through Tuesday. Amazingly, the sandy ground here seems to handle water well. Well, except for some of the golf courses that are closed until it begins to dry up. Surely if that much rain had fallen in Des Moines, we would have seen flooding like 1993 when Des Moines' Water Works flooded and the city lost it's drinking supply.

I tackled unpacking boxes and by mid-day Monday, after shopping for groceries, we had the kitchen basically organized and stocked! This pile, in a corner of the living room, is what remains to be dealt with. We're pretty sure we need to buy some sort of shelving or cabinet.

On Monday we accepted delivery of a king-sized sleigh bed with footboard drawers. As much as I'd like to think I'm a princess, sleeping on this bed is just too much. While I don't mind a high pillow-top bed, the height is suitable for rotary cutting! 

The top of the bed is 37" from the floor! I had to use a stool to get into bed. Talk about feeling like the Princess and the Pea! While sleeping on the pillow-top mattress is luxurious, we're going to switch out the box springs to lower it.

On Tuesday, our master bedroom closet went from this...

...to this

Isn't it marvelous!? I can't believe we get to use such a great space! 

This is his end.

This is my end, just inside the pocket door. I'm going to have fun putting everything away. And the tall chest of drawers for the master bedroom hasn't even arrived yet!

This is my sewing room. Not much progress here, though the computer armoire (on the right) is a functional place. That's where I'm sitting right now, to prepare this post.

In an email to friends I mentioned that we have a "Roman shower." It's a term used here to describe a walk-in - or even roll-in, as in wheelchair - shower. It's L-shaped. When you walk in, you can see the seat in the corner. 

Then, when you turn the corner to the left, there's a towel bar and shower head, with the temperature control (not seen) on the left side, just below glass blocks.

From outside the Roman shower.

The floor and drain.

It's so pretty! I'm not only enjoying my showers, but I marvel at the skill of the tiler. Look how he got these corners to match. It's like this on three other corners too. Maybe he's a quilter by night.

On Monday, the Today Show did a segment about the use of golf carts in The Villages and Lady Lake, the city next to The Villages where we do much of our shopping. The prevalence of carts is pretty amazing among the 95,000 residents. Watch the segment here, if you're interested.

During a pause from the rain, we worked in the garage. Hogan joined us outside and quickly found a spot.

In spite of the heat, I think he'll be happy here. Just like us. Linda