Friday, August 21, 2009

We're On the Move!

On Monday we passed inspection! With that done, we can move in, which in truth we have been doing for some time, but now we can move the beds and the refrigerator and the washing machine and, well, everything else and live there full time.

I expect we will be living in our new home in a little over a week, as soon as we've figured out where everyone's sleeping and gotten things moved more or less where they're supposed to be.

The boys return to school on Monday, Danny going into first grade where he'll be in school all day for the first time. William is going into third grade. Where does the time go?

Even as summer comes to an end, we're getting our first real taste of summer weather, with hot, muggy days and thunderstorms in the afternoons. We'll have to work around the rain this weekend to get as much stuff moved as we possibly can. The last few days have been without rain, but they've also been miserably hot. I sweated several pounds away just moving the pieces of Karen's animation desk to the second floor. I wonder what the winter is going to bring.

But never mind that now. This week is going to bring a lot of furniture and boxes into our new home.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Pins and Needles

Today should be our final inspection on the new house. The last time, the inspector gave me a list of things to correct. Not a very short list, but a straightforward one.

I had to add joist hangers on the back temporary deck, put in handrails in the front and down to the basement (what I had there didn't qualify as a handrail under the new code), and post our house number so that it's visible from the street, among other things. I've done all of that, and the inspector is coming back late this afternoon to, I hope, tell us that we are ready to live in the new house.

It won't be easy. We'll all be moving into smaller spaces to start with, and there is still a lot of work to do to make the house a home. But we are all so excited about finally moving in that I don't think any us us will really mind.

Yesterday we made our annual trek to Storyland before the kids go back to school. We all had a wonderful time, despite the heat and humidity. On the way home we stopped at Bobby Sue's in Freedom, one of our favorite ice cream places. Today, though, I feel a little crippled from all the walking. I need to get over it, though; I'll be moving furniture for the next month!

Looks like we're getting a break in the weather for the move, though. Although the forecasts go back and forth on the issue of rain, it's mostly back to the normal August pattern of sunny, humid days with occasional afternoon showers, which come on quickly but not entirely without warning.

The new house is so close to the old house that everything will just be carried up the hill or brought up on hand trucks. That's what we've been doing do far: just grabbing a box or a small piece of furniture and carrying it up when we go to work on the house. Now it's going to be more like a trail of ants carrying things along three well-worn paths, one directly into the basement door, one up the back steps to the kitchen, and one around the line of trees on the north side and up to the front door.

It will be a flurry of activity for a month, and then we will collapse for awhile before we start moving things to their final place in the house, or out of the house completely if we're at all smart about it. There won't actually be that much unpacking to do, because there wastn't that much real packing in the first place.

And then finally, the new house won't be the new house anymore. It will just be home.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I'm Back!

Now that "Don't Drink the Water" has had its run, it's time to come out of blog and Web update retirement. Not that we aren't still busy, but not having two weekly rehearsals to attend, not to mention all of the homework involved with directing a play, gives me just a little more control over my time.

The play, by the way, was magnificent! I had a cast of fifteen, and there wasn't a dud in the bunch. They all played it for all it was worth, and added so many wonderful little touches that aren't in the script. And the audiences had a grand time, which is what makes the whole process worthwhile.

The house is so close to completion. I predicted back at the beginning of Spring that we'd be in by the beginning of Summer, but going back to work moved that target a bit. We actually had an inspection over a week ago, but we didn't quite pass. We need a floor in the kitchen and some missing stair rails. Then we can move it.

Not that we haven't moved a lot of our things (which is fine as long as we're not cooking and sleeping in the new house). Any furniture and personal possessions we don't need to live in the old house are being moved to the new house. We're expecting to live in the new house within two weeks, and completely cleared out of the old house a couple of weeks after that.

In the days ahead I'm going to bring the site back up to date, more or less. I'm planning a minor change that will allow me to update pictures in either large batches, allowing me more time between, or in little bits, which more reflects the way my time works these days. Keep checking; I'll get there eventually.