Nice afternoon (considering)

Well, since we still don't have our certificate of occupancy, the boys and I spent the day in our "future backyard." Big Dog and I prunned a wild apple tree and hauled all the branches up to the firepit. Then he suggested we get some hotdogs and have lunch over the fire. So, that's what we did! It was much nicer to spend the afternoon in our outdoors rather than sitting in the rental house waiting for the builder to call! ( Cell phone was close at hand, of course!)

New recipies

Since the house is still at a stand-still, I thought I'd write about a couple new recipies I tried recently. The first one is for popovers. 2 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp. salt. Whirl in a blender and bake in muffin tins 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then 350 for 20 minutes more. I served them with jam. Sweet Pea said they tasted too much like eggss-he doesn't care for eggs. Big Dog thought they were OK- but a little plain. I thought they were pretty good, but plain. Maybe next time, I'll experiment with some flavorings.

The other one isn't really a recipe. It's scrambled French toast. Basically it's French toast, using scraps of leftover breads such as hamburger buns that are torn into bite sized pieces. You can cook in in a frying pan or bake it in the oven.

Patience, or the lack thereof

Having patience when waiting seems to be cyclical. Sometimes, I am excited and things are happening and I am feeling patient. Other times, things just don't seem to be moving at the pace I want, and I feel impatient. This is one of those times. Our house was done last week. We're waiting for permission to move in. I was patient Th, Friday, Sat and Sunday, but no more. I am on Spring break this week and want to be moving into my new house today. I snuck in over the weekend and washed out all the cupboards and shelves in the house. I can start putting things in as soon as I get the OK.

You may recall we are living in a fully-furnished cottage. Therefore, all of our furniture, dishes, linens, and most of our "stuff" is either packed in the pole barn or in the storage unit. So, from that respect, we don't have a lot of packing to do this time. This weekend, I packed a lot of non-essentials from the rental house and we took them to the pole barn. I started packing some food in those blue reusable grocery bags and have them all lined up on the table, so we can still get to the food, but it's ready to go at any time. Jacob took apart our "closet" and we packed up many of our clothes. I've gone through the dishes and packed everything that was ours. Most of the toys are packed and in the pole barn. As soon as we get occupancy, I will load up the truck and we'll be taking things over there. We want to be out of this house by the end of the day on Wednesday if at all possible, so we don't have to worry about another month's rent. As you can imagine, we have numerous other expenses at this time.

I guess I'll see what else I can pack up and then sit around and wait for them to call!

Inspection

We applied for temporary occupancy last week when the house was done except for the concrete being poured for the porch, walkway and garage floor, the back deck, and grading of the earth. It was denied and required that the concrete be finished for the garage and porch, the deck be completed, a rough grade of the yard complete and insulation in the basement.

The insulation in the basement requirement was one that Josh discovered about a month ago when he was researching requirements to finish the basement down the road. He asked the builder about it and the builder got all out of shape about Josh speaking to the township about the house. The builder said we didn't need insulation in the basement to meet code because they meet that criteria through an overall house insulation factor, an alternative to the basement insulation rule. Then, when it showed up on the inspection, Josh wanted to say, "I told you!"

At this point, the house is done. The cement is poured and the deck is built. We are waiting for the builder and the inspector to figure out the insulation issue. Once that is settled, we can move in. I just don't know when that will be. This afternoon? Monday? Next Friday?

Meanwhile, I am cleaning and packing at the rental house. (Actually right now I'm taking a break!) An important goal we have at this point is to be out of our rental house by Wednesday-the end of the month to save us another month's rent. We recently discovered we need an additional $2500 for our retaining wall. We hadn't planned on that cost, so we really don't want to pay another month's rent when we obviously need the money for that wall!

A good day

After 2 days of little to no work on the house, today was a good day! The crew spent the entire day working on all the little details--knobs on the cabinets, doors and doorknobs, towel bars and appliances are all in!

Anticipation!

The anticipation is killing me! We are so close to moving in, we can't stand it! We are anticipating some inspectors to come this week.

The carpet installers came out today (Sunday) and finished it up. We've been pleasantly surprised by subs who work on weekends to finish the job a few times now! We put down some of that sticky backed plastic over the carpet on the major walkways to protect it from dirty feet. Which brings me to mud. Not just regular mud, but the oozy, sink up to your ankles, get your boot stuck mud. The kind of mud that actually has an odor to it--not a pleasant one.

In our rental house, there is not much room to store food-which is an issue for me. I like to stock up on things when they are on sale and have plenty of food in the house all the time. The last few weeks I decided not to buy more than we need each week so we wouldn't have so much to move to the new house. Today at the grocery store, there were too many good deals to not stock up. I got many items for $1.00 each (30-50% off) and I had a few coupons to go with them as well. The need to stock up got the better of me today. I bought plenty of groceries (not a ton, but not a little) for a really good price. Granted we now have 5 tubes of toothpaste, 4 bottles of shampoo and 2 of conditioner and a half dozen boxes of cereal and more, but that's ok. The problem was I really wanted to go put the food away at the new kitchen in my big pantry!

I am also anxiously anticipating getting my garden started! It's too early now, but I have all my seeds and have chosen the site. From seed I will grow carrots, sweet corn, green onion, green beans, watermelon, sunflower and pumpkin. I will get plants from the greenhouse for tomatoes, peppers, herbs and whatever else catches my eye. My mom said she'd get us a couple of fruit trees for our birthdays. I've already got a few blueberry and raspberry bushes.

I am anxiously anticipating getting my "stuff" back. It sounds bad, I know they are just things. But I have all these great things that have been in storage since the end of September and I am dying to use them again! I want my pizza stone, bread maker, waffle maker and kitchen gadgets. I want my own dishes, glasses, couches and my own bed.

I am anticipating baking bread again and making some more soap. I can't wait to fill my freezer again with homemade meals and treats! I want to pick berries again and can some jams!

I bought a great book last spring by Kathy Harrison Just in Case. It gives all kinds of useful information to make your family more self-sufficient and how to be prepared for situations such as long power outages and emergency situations. Last night I discovered Kathy has a blog. It's found at http://justincasebook.wordpress.com/ Check it out!

SO close!

I think today the photos speak for themselves.