One Mother of a Blog

May your holiday be filled with peace, love and happiness…………..Merry Christmas everyone!

Hello! I treat this blog like an old friend, we may not hear from each other for months but then I just pick up the conversation as if we were chatting yesterday.

This is the first weekend since the beginning of November that I did not to travel for work.   Sunday would end with me staying at a hotel after a four and a half hour drive.

DH was raised on a farm, 3 miles from where we built.  To celebrate his return, we are decorating reminiscent of his childhood, with as much natural items as possible.

Early in October, DH started a two weeks job which also finished this past week.  The job was out in the middle of the woods, so he had many a hour to walk amongst the trees. During his lonely hours as the paint inspector, he collected beautiful pine boughs to make swags for the front door.   When he was a child, his parents would cut pine boughs for their friends in the city.

Along with the pine boughs, he gathered red dogwood twigs and the top of a birch tree which was a victim of the clear cutters at the job site.  More about the birch tree in a future entry.

This afternoon we collected more dog wood, pine, spruce, and a variety of dried flowers which grow on our hill.  We crafted an arrangement for our door stair door and two pine swags for the front entrance.   The perfect way to spend my first Sunday home!

After 16 years DH can still surprise me.  Last Monday I sent him a link from Kijji showing a beautiful custom made kitchen island.   The next night when I asked if he had a chance to email the person, he replied, “Yeah, but it’s sold”.

I was a bit disappointed as this was exactly what I wanted for our kitchen.  A couple of time I thought of getting DH to save the pictures of the island, hoping he could build me a good facsimile.

When I arrived home Friday, DH and kitty met me in the driveway.  DH greeting me with a hug and a kiss, Kitty whining with tales to tell of how neglected she is when I’m away during the week.

Usually we all go in the house together, so I thought it was a bit strange when DH kept kitty out on the deck.

When I opened the front door, I was greeted by this:

Yes the island was sold………….but to us!  DH bought it and kept it a secret all week.  I immediately burst into tears, a sure sign I am very very happy.  When kitty is there, she bites DH each time this happens.   While I kept wiping my tears away to get a good look at the latest addition to the kitchen, I knew DH was wise to keep kitty on the deck.  I couldn’t stop crying tears of happiness.   The vase of asters and golden rod brought on another wave of tears.

The kitchen island was custom made for a couple who first spotted a similar island during a holiday in England.  As it would be too costly to have one shipped to Canada they took numerous pictures and had one built locally.  It is solid maple with a butcher block top, The bottom drawer holds vegetable and is slotted to allow air circulation.  The two top drawers are huge, enough to hold all of our kitchen gadgets and tableware.

The previous Sunday when Andrea and family visited, we had 11 people sitting down to supper.  DH and Andrea’s husband Ron opted to sit on the chesterfield rather than attempting to squeeze in at the table.

Now with the island DH and Ron will be able to enjoy a front row seat during future family dinners, as the kitchen stools I bought years ago at an auction fit perfectly at the island.

Life is slowly returning to normal, if you can call me living 90 minutes away in an apartment through the week while kitty and my DH stay in our new home normal.  For the past two weeks we have been running ourselves ragged moving out of the apartment and into our new home which is not quite finished.

At the end of July we packed up the apartment and moved on down the road.   I traveled in the Honda during one of the hottest days in July, while kitty and DH drove in the air-conditioned van.   Goes to show who is the important one in our little family.   Kitty meowed and panted the entire 2 1/2 hours.  By the time she reached her new home, she was  exhausted.    However she soon recovered exploring two stories of home surrounded by field and fresh grass.  Kitty loves nothing better than a good chew of grass.  After being in a fourth floor apartment for 11 months, she thought she was in heaven.

The plumbing and electricity were not completed so we still had to use the trailer for cooking our meals, and the porta-potty for the rest of our business.  I spent the first two days attempting to sort through boxes making some resemblance of home from the chaos.   I returned to work leaving poor DH to deal with the contractors.   Last Friday I returned to  both electricity, plumbing and running water!  Not bad for less than four months of construction.  DH finally has a few good hairs and we have a home that exceeds our dreams. Life is good.

Compared to previous weeks, work on the house was slow.   The majority of the work was done by the crack fillers.  They would work for a few hours one day then not come back for a day or two depending on the weather.   The area had to be completely dried before they could work on it again.   One day the weather would be perfect, hot and sunny, the next day, fog and rain.   By week’s end we had to resort to using fans to circulate the air to speed the drying process.

The biggest work (in my mind) was the burying of the septic tank.  It sat in front of the house for so long it became part of the scenery.  Now it is safely buried waiting for an array of cutting flower garden  to be planted on top of it.

The electrican has installed two plugs with the full entry hook up to be slated for next week, or whenever he gets around to installing the rest of the plugs.

The dozer guy began backing filling the property, leveling off the roads and the extra banks.  Behind the house we have plans for a flat stone patio with a pergola.   I see it as a place for lazy summer suppers, the family, friends and grandchildren gathered around a rustic old table, eating vegetables from our garden while tiny fairy lights flicker  in the apple tree.  DH sees it as a lot of work, not high on the priority list.   For now it looks like this.