My life on the mountain

It's hard to believe we have been in our house for three weeks already.  Things are pretty much where they are supposed to be and we have a real life going.  There are still things being done on the house. Yesterday the garage doors got painted and the landscaper came around for his first look-see.  Today the cabinet people worked on a few hinges and we got our water pressure adjusted a bit.  Tomorrow the screens should be installed and the propane tank is scheduled to be filled to capacity.  It is generally one or two little things that get worked on everyday, but they don't interfere with life as we know it.

We had our first weekend of company.  It was so good to see Lynn and Kenny.  We joked that since they hadn't been to see us in California in 22 years, we had to move closer if we wanted to see them.  Becky, Scott, and Julia came to spend the long weekend.  Becky was sick for much of the time, but Scott was so sweet to help us out around the house doing things that one-handed Gary had difficulty with.  He cut some firewood for us and even taught me how to use the chain saw so that I can fill up the wood box if we run out of logs before winter ends.  Julia had a great time both in our yard and with the toys from the closet in the spare bedroom. We loved having her around but couldn't talk her parents into leaving her with us until our trip to Ohio next month.  Becky and Scott brought down a jigsaw puzzle of "another house in the woods" Neuschwanstein.  Come on guys - 2000 pieces???  The puzzle is still in pieces on the card table in the bonus room but the edge around is almost complete and the red brick front of the castle is put together.

I do manage to keep myself very busy.  For example, yesterday we spent several hours at a library meeting to set a schedule and discuss goals for the library, I worked on recipes to distribute to the egg co op members, met with the landscaper, took my walk (this time up the hill instead of on our level street), spent several hours on my writing assignments, organized the pantry since a bottle of red wine had fallen off the wine rack and shattered, causing the pantry to need repainting, FAXed more change of address forms,  and spent the evening with a Maeve Binchy book.  Today I've already been to the recycling center, and children's consignment fair, taken my walk, planned out the next big shopping trip off the mountain (if I'm going 40 minutes away for shopping I don't want to forget anything!), and helped Gary struggle with the XM radio antenna.  This afternoon is more writing, including reworking my personal mission statement for the class.

On the horizon for next week:  a visit from my sister and brother-in-law as they move from Boulder CO to the Tampa area, lunch with my writing teacher to explore the possibility of teaching conversational French to the Alexian Brothers seniors, a field trip to the local nursery and lunch with the gardeners of our development,  more library stuff... all quite retiree-ish, but strangely fulfilling.

I'm looking forward to a Skype call with my CA book group.  I hope it works.

Something we learned about our house - don't leave the attic door open

Most of our house is one story, but there is a bonus room over the garage which is Gary's hangout/media room/doghouse.  There is a small door in a hidden corner of the bonus room that leads to the attic.  Part of the attic floor has a plywood floor so we can use it to store seasonal things and boxes of stuff we don't know what to do with yet.  The rest of it is covered in deep blown-in insulation to keep the house below nicely protected.  This morning Gary was in the attic working on some wiring when our contractor arrived.  Wanting to speak with Tracy before he left, Gary hurried down, leaving both the attic and bonus doors open.  About fifteen minutes later we were standing around the kitchen island and a "snow" covered Macy appeared, looking more like a poodle than a yorkie.  She had obviously discovered a new fun place to explore and was covered in insulation puffs, very much like cotton candy.  I had to spend the next fifteen minutes combing her because a brush just caused more static, which made the insulation even harder to get out.  I think she learned her lesson - and so did we!

And one year later - we're in our house

This has been the most eventful two weeks I have spent in quite awhile.  The culmination, of course, is that we are in our house and loving turning it into our home.  It was a tight push on the part of our contractor.  He had subs working late into the evenings and on weekends to get us in by the end of January.  Because of the strange weather we still don't have our outside compete; the concrete walks are not poured and the landscaping hasn't been done, but that will happen when we are sure of a few good days in a row.

Things were made extremely interesting when Gary broke his right hand - and yes, he is right handed - one week before our move.  He was making a hole in the entertainment center when the drill just wrapped his wrist and snapped the bone that holds the thumb to the wrist.  The prognosis is good but he will be in a cast for about four months.  Those of you who know Gary can understand how much it bothers him not being able to jump into things both inside and outside.  Luckily we have met wonderful people who have been pitching in with food, trucks, advice, muscles, and who have taken over manning the electric drill.

Not even a broken hand can keep Gary from trying out his Christmas present.  He doesn't have a man cave, but did get a man aerie in the bonus room above the garage.

It's great to finally see our stuff again.  The movers arrived with our load from storage last Tuesday. Even though our house is around the same size as our one in Visalia, the style is so different that it has been a creative challenge trying to locate things in their proper places.  I know that once everything is placed it will be moved a few times more to make it work for us in our new woodsy lifestyle. Of course there are still unopened boxes.  Those must be the things we shouldn't have brought with us because apparently what they contain is neither necessary nor wanted enough to look for.  It's great having a real kitchen again and after our Costco and Walmart runs, it is stocked with the basics.

 The dogs seem very comfortable to have their things back as well and have found their comfy places in the sun.  They enjoy that some of our windows are low enough to be Yorkie height so they can watch for deer and turkey in our back, but last night they weren't so pleased with the howling of the distant coyotes.  They also don't like that this red clay causes them to need a lot more baths.  I think they are going to need new hairstyles.

I will include a few pictures here, but most of the rooms are still embarrassingly cluttered so I am just posting a few where we have been able to hide our boxes and strewn paper.

Since I first started this post we have made quite some progress.  We were able to take a large load of flattened boxes to the recycling center; the propane tank is filled; the dryer is working so the laundry pile is shrinking.  It's looking like we will be ready for our first company next week.