Wouldn't you know it...! On October 26th we asked Martin if we could have the refrigerator delivered and working so that it would be ready to receive food when we got the okay to move in. He said sure, and that was a relief. It takes time to get appliance deliveries set up.
But then he said, "My cleaning crew will be here tomorrow and you can start moving in after that."
Really!!! Wow! So we quickly called to tell the movers to come move us on November 1st, the earliest date we could get them. Then we headed to Temporary House to start the process of packing up the stuff we could move ourselves.
Meanwhile, in yet another surprise, Gary said it was okay to go to Fifth District Savings Bank and sign the remaining documents, and we could start moving in over the weekend. We went right away.
107 days total.
But the movers were already scheduled for November 1st. That meant we would have to keep sleeping at Temporary House until the movers moved our furniture into New House/New Home. No matter because we were so excited that it went by quickly. And here we are on November 30th pretty much settled in and living comfortably.
There's lots of boxes (mostly tools) in the garage to be unpacked but the rest of the house looks like we have been living here for weeks, if not years.
Meanwhile, Brother-in-Law, Allen brought some cabinets from his former employer's attic that were quickly installed in the garage by Allen and Nephew #1, David. I helped but was more in the way than actually helpful. Some of the cabinets needed modifying so they would fit better, but they turned out quite well. We'll paint them in time but for now, they are already starting to hold stuff that needs a place to go.
We also built our own desks for the office. They are both beautiful and functional. I'm still trying to find time to put all the hardware (battery backup/surge protector, modem, router and two external hard drives) on a shelf under the desk. I'll get to it soon. Right now it's just nice to have Internet access again after almost a month without it. Yeah, we were too far away from a cable box, so we had to wait until a new cable was buried underground from about 100 yards away. It took a few days.
The New Coop area is still being 'adjusted' to accommodate our new appreciation for more space in the outdoor kitchen. We now want it to hold a small table and four chairs so we can enjoy eating outside, but under a roof. The New Coop is our next priority.
But we've managed to cook a few things on the Eggs under the blue sky. Oh, and we now have three Eggs, two larges and a small. We really only need the two larges, so we'll see how that goes.
And get this: not only were we moved in by Christmas, we were moved in three weeks before Thanksgiving, something we had hoped for, while also realized that it takes time to build a good house. We didn't want them to rush it too much. But instead of 167 days, it only took 107 days!!! We could not be happier.
We've even had our first overnight guest. A long time Egghead friend, John Murphy from Tulsa Oklahoma stopped by in route to Miami. He was on his Harley.
We call our new home, La Maison du Poulet (The House of the Chickens), to reflect our long history of being Spring Hen and Spring Chicken in Big Green Egg circles.
And now the first Christmas decorations are bringing out the true beauty of a happy home.
Needless to say, we love our new home and our new life here.
A video tour is in the works, but there are literally thousands of photos to sort through and edit into less than three minutes.
