Update

So, I feel I owe you all an update. Unfortunately I can't post any photos because the charger for my camera battery is a two pronged round thing and I'm waiting for Matt to get up here tonight with an adapter.

We arrived at the house on Monday after a lovely drive in our hired Yaris which Ella has named "Gary". We stopped a few times along the way...we even managed (at Kit's insistence) to stop and have a lovely browse around Webs (America's largest yarn store) where I got some lovely (cheap) cotton and linen yarn.

When we got to the house, we did have to spend a fair amount of time putting things back where they belonged (from dining chairs to knives). Last summer we'd let our neighbours host some Chinese exchange students here and let's just say they didn't make too much of an effort to put the house back as I left it. There was a bag of opened rice in the kitchen (hello mice!), books crammed back onto the shelves with the spines facing in etc. No major disasters, but I know how hard I worked to leave the house in a perfect state. Which is why, for the most part, the house is empty during the year. I'm glad now that we've made the decision not to rent it out. (Still available for friends though.)

Then on Monday night, the water went off. Tuesday was spent calling people in, and getting a new well pump installed (hello $$$), and it was only by Wednesday that we could drink the water, flush toilets, do washing, shower and had hot water. Sigh. That meant that cleaning up all the mouse poos and washing all the dishes that were left in the dishwasher and just generally cleaning floors and toilets (sludgy mess from the disturbances in the well) and washing all the sheets and duvet covers (mice once again) has all taken more time than I'd hoped. Thank goodness for the yarn I bought, and being able to sit and knit for periods of time to feel relaxed. Oh yes, and I still have some plumbing to do this morning as the kitchen tap started leaking.

And while it has been a little stressful dealing with all that, it has been so nice to cook a quick dinner on the stove, to sit and watch movies with the kids in the back room, to rediscover books and things in our shed, to wear ugg boots!, etc. It does feel like home.

Today, Matt is coming up, I'm picking Remi up off the train and Oscar is driving up with his girlfriend. I'm hoping that the rain will stop for a day or so (seriously!) so I can get all the boys out the side moving the grown-in outdoor furniture so that we can mow so that when the rain does stop I can get to the side of the house I have to paint. Then there's all the gardening that needs to be done....
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