Springing Forward

Hooray for spring! I visited our home site on April 3rd and there were stacks of cinder block and of sacks of mortar waiting for brick-masons to put them around the base of the house. I returned on April 7Th and the cinder block skirting was completed, tar applied and the roof and foundation drainage system installed. Sue and I were told, that if we didn't make too much noise we could move in, so on April 9Th we did just that. It was just like camping, we slept on a double wide air mattress for five nights.

On April 11Th our contractor Gary and his daughter Diana, constructed our three porches. Gary finished back filling around the cinder block. While they were doing that our wood stove was being installed. Little did we know on that day just how important a decision it was to go ahead and purchase the wood stove. Yeah! the County Inspector came, checked out the house and signed our certificate of occupancy.

The next day, April 12Th, the top layer of gravel was laid over our driveway. Gary hooked up the water and septic system to the garage shop. In the house, our new carpet was installed. A little rain fell but our spirits were not dampened. Now we were ready to move in our furniture and set up our home.

Thursday April 13Th came and the move commenced. I had lined up my good friend Glenn and he helped me move our furniture from storage out to the house. The down side was that it rained hard that day and for the two following days as well. Because we had no proper walkways Sue and I had decided to purchase two bales of straw. I laid straw down on a track leading from the driveway to the backdoor and from the backdoor down to the south facing glass sliding door. Glenn and I were able to get the furniture in without tracking in any mud. This was the most unpleasant move-in, from a weather point of view, I ever had. I truly thank Glenn for helping.

We did do a wee bit of furniture arranging that evening. On previous occasions I had moved many of our boxes of belongings from the storage units we rented into our garage/shop. It took Sue and I many days to get really settled in. To some degree in fact, we're still getting settled. The garage/shop still has to be put into order. As April moved into May we felt a strong need to get some sort of garden and landscaping done.