Nothing Happens At Ten

We had a fox in the back yard. It looked like he was making a nest behind our leftover patio blocks. I snapped a photo through the kitchen window.

As soon as I snapped the photo, he looked right at me and then moved on. Good hearing.

As the Robert Burns poem To a Mouse says, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley,…“. And as it is with mouses, so it is with houses.

One of our garages, which shall forever obviate the need for ice scrapers on cars, was still blocked by the POD when the blizzard hit, leaving us with this:

Oops.

Oh well. The POD is empty, and they are picking it up tomorrow, so this is truly, positively, and verily the last time that this will happen.

Knock wood.

We are back online. This blog was down for a few days because our internet connection was disconnected for the second Big Move. But we are back up again.

We are also back at our old location, but in our new house. It is a wonderful house.

We moved out during a heat wave, so to keep the karma balanced, we moved in during a snow storm.

But, that doesn’t matter because, now we are here, and as a smart man said to me once, “It’s all good”.

Thanks to everyone for all the support you gave us as we went through this transition. We want to wish every one of you a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

P.S. Don’t stop reading the blog yet. There are lots of loose ends to tie up, so there may be some funny stories yet to come.

Our new table and chairs were delivered today. They had to bolt the legs onto the table, so it spent some time on its back on the floor.

But then we noticed that our table is signed on the bottom. You can barely see it in the photo above. Here is a closeup.

The table and chairs are solid cherry wood. The table was made entirely by a single craftsman. It looks like the chairs might have been made by several different craftsmen.

We also received our stools for the peninsula. The stools are solid maple. You can see the table and chairs and stools in the photo below.

The stools were made in Canada. Here is another view.

We chose those chairs because of the lumbar support provided by the recurve in the backs of the chairs. They are really comfortable. That will certainly make it difficult to get up from the table.

The plants are in the house.

Well, not all of the plants are in the house. But some of the plants are in.

The final touches are done on the upper cabinets. A small molding has been added around the bottoms of the upper cabinets to provide cover for the under cabinet lights.

Hey, look! More plants.

Here is a closeup of the molding.

It looks nice. If you look closely, you can see the tendrils of the plant creeping up toward the electric sockets. They are taking over already. Spooky.

I was over at the house this evening, and there are new details to report.

The shower fixtures are in.

The mantel is around the fireplace.

The refrigerator has been installed.

That old stove has been put in.

It doesn’t look too bad. We took that stove out of that other house. We can replace it later if we find something that we like better. For now, it works and we know how to use it.

The fan blades have been turned over and look wood-colored.

The electric panel is finally done! Look at all that stuff!

The Transfer Switch is at the top left. Look! Labels!

The Firematic valve has been put on the oil tank.

Lastly, the lamp pole has been installed by the walkway.

That is all for tonight.

Some more of the fixtures went in today. The lights in the living room / dining area have been installed.

When they are lit up they give off a very warm light.

The fancy light in the reading room has also been put up.

We thought that it would provide an “Old World” look to the room dedicated to books. It makes interesting patterns on the ceiling when it is on.

The Den will be the “Cave Room”, away from the hustle and bustle of the world. The TV has been banned from the Den. Only quiet pursuits will be allowed……….. oh…….. and my banjo playing…. but then, nothing’s perfect.

The fan has been installed in the sun room.

It also has lights.

They were supposed to put the wood grain side of the blades down, but they put the plain black sides down instead. Maybe we can get the guys to turn them over.

Last, but not least is our track light over the peninsula.

It is stunning when the lights are on.

There are other lights, but I am out of time. Just a couple of other things to mention. The dishwasher and kitchen faucet are in.

And the outside sill cocks have been installed.

That is a “freeze proof” sill cock by the way. It is self-draining. All we have to do to winterize it is to turn it off and disconnect the hose. Ask me some day to explain how that works.

I did not go over to the house tonight because they put the last coat of urethane varnish on the floors today, and I am told that it really stinks in there. If you want to experience first hand the kind of stink I am talking about, just scratch the spot below:

OK. If you really did scratch that spot on your monitor……… get help.

As promised, the counter tops arrived today. These are Cambria® counter tops, which are a manufactured quartz product. They are made of crushed quartz with some pigments and resin added to hold it together. Since the quartz is not porous like granite, they do not need to be sealed and molly-coddled like granite, just used. They are made in the good ol’ U. S. of A. (LeSueur, Minnesota). The color of our counter tops is “Bradford”.

Because they are made mostly of stone, they are very heavy, so it was quite a chore to install them. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Here’s the sink hole.

And here’s a man who really gets into his work!

Slicing off a piece of stone makes a bit of dust.

The biggest piece is the peninsula, which is 9 feet long.

They wrassled it up the front steps.

… and into the kitchen….

where they glued it down to our gorgeous legs.

So here is a quick tour of the kitchen as it is now. The stove goes here.

Here is the view out of the kitchen window over the sink.

Our stone wall is still there, chipmunks and all. We will move the paving blocks out of view next Spring. They will be used for some creative landscaping later.

Looking into the kitchen from the dining area, here is what we see.

A slightly different view, showing where the refrigerator will go (on the right).

And finally, looking toward the dining area from the kitchen floor.

The dishwasher goes in the hole next to the sink.

I guess the appliances go in next. Or maybe the track lights… or the faucet. I’m not sure. Wow! It’s like Christmas in December!……… um……….. well… OK……… that gag didn’t work.