THE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!-YandA have moved and life has changed

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Dina daughter of Y
Pat/Yael sister of Y
Ruthie/Carol sister of Y
Barak son of Y
Boaz grandson of Y
Reut granddaughter of Y and sister of Boaz

Penny, cousin of Y
Ella granddaughter of Y, daughter of Barak
Zohar and Danny, daughter and son-in-law of A
Shaul and Ma'ayan son and grandson of A
Arkady, infrastructure king of the village known for his nyet responses
 

Sailing on the Nile, not a care in the world

Yes, dear friends and family, Yosefa and Arkee aka YandA have, after several months of deliberation, moved into a new home, in the retirement village of Mediterranean Towers in Nordia, a bit to the east of Natanya. (Note that we deliberated, unlike a certain couple, who moved from New Jersey to California on a whim and impulse.) We decided that renovating the old house in Hofit was not a viable option and Y's apartment in Kiryat Ono was too small and badly located from a family viewpoint.  We were also fed up with commuting 45 km each way, twice a week, for 12 years, especially since we do not own flying cars, alas...

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We visited three potential locations all within a 15 km range of Natanya and decided to take the one that offered the largest house. We need a house because we have no intention of giving up Murphy, our dog.

We signed up for all of them  and shortly after the sale of the Hofit house, which was easier than expected, got an offer for ground level house of 86 sq.m.(plus an upper story) in the Mediterranean Towers of Nordia. This is what the house looks like from the outside.

We liked the size and the general layout, but the kitchen was totally unacceptable and we made a major investment in remodeling it. It looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

It is perfectly clear (at least to andA) that none of this would have succeeded without the energy, talent and can-do capability of Y. For example, we were given plans of the house, but for each room there was a caveat "for illustrative purposes only" and the scale was all wrong. Yosefa pulled out her millimeter paper notebook (from her previous move), measured each room with a tape measure and plotted them to scale. She then measured each item of furniture and fitted them into the room to scale as well.  A stood by and marveled and thanked his lucky stars for the partner he found. (Yosefa, you are not allowed to censor this paragraph).

We have a blow-by-blow history of the move as seen through Yosefa's eyes:
For anyone interested in the  this full description it is available here in both Word and PDF format.

The real story begins with taking the house and making it habitable for us. Do we like the kitchen? Can the fridge go in? How will Arkee connect to the University's computer center through a safe line? Can the piano go up the stairs? We were introduced to Haim the techy, Aharon the carpenter, Erez the contractor, Arkady first-say-no, the man responsible for the upgrading of whatever. First we  decided on redoing the kitchen and traipsed around the various salesrooms for a sink, ceramics and a marble-top (Vid. above pix). Amazingly we found ourselves in agreement with one another on our tastes..

But in parallel Y was breaking her head (metaphorically) over a plan that was not to scale (every time we went to look we found ourselves counting floor tiles, see above) and decided to take up on the offer of three hours free advice from the in-house designer. This lady, a pleasant South American with decided ideas, immediately showed her commitment by asking to see our apartments and what we wanted to take with us. Her real aim was to sell us living room chairs and in the end we bought living room chairs from her and a TV room chair from IKEA. For details of purchasing marble, ceramics, furniture  and the  Lord knows what from whom, you are referred to the detailed 10 chapter magnum opus of Y mentioned above .

The roles played by various friends and family are a story unto themselves. A mostly packed on his own, with the exception of the yeoman work of Zohar and Danny

who cleaned out the shed and hard to reach places in the house before going off to New York for the summer. Shaul and Maayan came for a morning and packed the fancy crockery, the DVD collection and the stuff that will eventually go to them. Y's place OTOH was a virtual railroad station of helpers, including Ella on the computers.

We sent her to learn computers and it paid off

In general, it pays to be the firstborn because it provides you with young strong siblings when needed.

Kid sister Ruth pitches in

On Monday the 15th Alex piano-mover called and said he would like to take the piano that day as he had to be in the Natanya area. Somehow they managed to persuade Moshe piano to come and take the instrument apart so as to be sure there would be no problem transporting it down and then up the stairs at Nordiya. Moshe came at nine pm and the piano was soon a thing of beauty in 11 parts… We had a nice chat.

Alex's men came at 7 am and wrapped and took away the 11 parts (and left behind some wide adhesive film which will be very useful). At the other end they will manage on their own, Y having shown them the pictures of the house and where the piano should go. (Modern technology!).

On the appointed day the move took place. It went smoothly and efficiently without damages, and the adrenaline carried us through. We got to bed at eleven, which was even unexpected. (Arkee did not undertake to carry Yosefa over the threshold, but we had a formal entrance which was filmed by Carol.)

The next daythe great  operation of unpacking really  started. Penny came over and arranged the china cabinet (Arkee’s best china..) and the linen cupboard, for which we were very grateful.  Boaz came and set  up the book shelves from IKEA and and what was left was to fix them to the wall.  All this was going on while various functionaries and technicians were coming in and going out (including the ladies from the day before, only this time we had patience for their questionnaires.) Then Y did a huge shopping expedition with Pat and filled up the house.

Thursday, we went out to gym in the morning and some extra errands. When we got back at 0900 the procession of technicians started up. First the electrician who brought a tall ladder and installed our lamp shade and at the same time put up a couple of statuettes (shmontzes belaaz) in a high niche which will only be dusted (by him?) at Pesach..  Then the TV technicians (four of them) and then the fellows who were supposed to hang the TV on the wall. They all got on marvelously together and were most professional, but meanwhile Arkee was accompanying them to the office and making sure everything was as he wanted and we finally had breakfast at 12 noon

..

So here we are at the breakfast table.

Dina came for supper with the kids and fortunately we had the food Pat had prepared for the day before. . Murphy had joined the party too, having been retrieved from the kennel and carefully sniffed out his new home. We had the noisiest, most joyous dinner party on the block. The picture is not sharp, made fuzzy by good wine and food:

Now we are settling in, meeting people, still buying things that were overlooked or postponed. A continues to go to Hofit for gym and Pilates three times a week and Y is doing gym in the pool and starting to learn wood carving  Murphy runs twice each day in the fields of Nordiya and fertilizes them faithfully. So here we are in our new world and finding our way.

Family picture in our new home