Building/moving to a new home – day 123

Sunday reflections

It’s Sunday morning and the fragrant smell of cooking bacon wafts through the house. I have finished the first phase of my regular morning chores and am hoping to get in a few words before breakfast.

I look out the expanse of back windows through the trees, across the meadows, to the mountains in the distance, and I am at peace.

All of the effort we have expended has been worth it. Gretchen and I have made many great changes in our lifestyle in the past 13 years and each change has brought us to new friends and new adventures.

Since adventure consists of overcoming challenges, we have also had a continuing series of new challenges to meet and overcome. We have many more on the road ahead, but we have a strong partnership which sustains us in moments of difficulty and we enjoy the tasks we have set for ourselves.

Not all tasks are fun. Some are pure drudgery but they must be done as required to keep the household functioning.

I know we have made the right choices when I catch Gretchen’s eye as we handle our chores and I get an answering smile. We enjoy doing things together and sharing household tasks as well as project tasks. This gives us the ability to co-create in many areas without conflict.

As some of you may know, it is a lot more fun to work together creating something than doing it alone. Shared creation builds a strong bond and when a couple can share in this way, it adds a great deal to their life together.

One last point, when I said I was at peace I meant that life with all of its confusions and excitement is satisfying in the extreme. There is no rest point, no plateau, no "happy ever after" as far as we are concerned. There is only more opportunity to enjoy good friends and to create new business relationships. As long as we can make more right decisions than wrong decisions, we will be able to continue this adventure indefinitely.

I need to break for breakfast. Will continue later…

Four months and counting – how is it all going?

The house is a warm and comfortable oasis in the midst of continuing construction.

We now have a wide front porch with a fine, broad step that welcomes visitors.

Our new side porch provides a sturdy place to shuck off muddy boots before coming into the utility/mud room.

The pillars, beams and joists of our back deck stand strong against the wintry sky. The Windy Hollow Construction team have been erecting this fine deck against the odds of wind and severe weather. We, and our cats, should be able to walk out on this broad expanse and survey our wilderness domain by the end of next week.

Occasionally I have been able to help Bob and Kari in their construction work by holding a heavy beam in place while they secure it, but my contribution has been more in the area of planning and fetching of supplies.  They are so competent in their teamwork that I would only slow them down.

I have my hands full handling the many details that make up a properly functioning house. Putting up shelves and towel racks, installing computer networks, unpacking boxes, and figuring out how to keep the mud outside keeps me busy from dawn to dark. I need to work more efficiently, because my work load is actually beginning to pick up.

The Reverse Osmosis water purification system arrived Friday and I need to get that installed as soon as possible.
We have another medicine cabinet to install.
I am working on building replacement handles for the wood stove.
The office needs to be set up and a computer network put in place.

Most important of all, I am renting a truck this week to pick up the rest of my tools and bring them down here from Charlottesville so I can start work on client projects in my workshop. I have not had a functioning workshop since late October so this must be handled soon.

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