We made it. We got through the move and we are in the house on Jenny Lane. It wasn’t easy but Chase the Movers made it possible. Monday Katie, Libby and I flew home from our 48 hour respite in Chicago arriving pretty late at night. It was 9:30 actually and Katie had to be up and out of the house by 5:30 the next morning to head to Phoenix for meetings. Our moving date was originally the 15th so this should have been fine, but as it was, moving date was the 24th so the big push was on.
Katie left and made it to the airport and to her meetings just fine. John and I knew we had two days before the movers came so it was time to put on the big push and make it happen. In the meantime lots of things were happening over at Jenny Lane. John left early to meet workmen at the new house. The ceilings, done by Eric, were finished in the two bedrooms and one bathroom so the painters were able to come in and put the first coat of paint on the walls. Eric was a perfectionist and the ceilings show it. Not a single uneven spot, perfect in every way. The painters would paint them prior to the floors going in and they would also get the walls primed and perhaps the first coat of paint on before the flooring went in. Good thing John was here over the weekend and not in Chicago with us.
Tuesday was the designated install day for the new floors in the upstairs two bedrooms. Our installer, Steve, arrived and made terrific headway on day one. He had promised it would be done in a day and half and he was pretty much right about that. The floors look wonderful. It is one thing to pick something out from a sample piece it’s another to see an entire room with the flooring. Clean and light with quite a bit of texture. So now the two most important bedrooms are almost ready. Our team of Les and Chris showed up to install the doors in the bedrooms and the one bathroom and to start putting in the trim, Again, it is one thing to see it in person another in a magazine. The doors are wonderful solid core doors and the trim looks magnificent with them.
At the end of the day our new friend, Jim, came to take out the wood stove apparatus and convert the chimney back to a fireplace. We had big discussions about replacing the woodstove and decided to try this route first. We are so glad we did. Jim had recommended something called The Grate Wall of Fire which is a peculiar type of fire grate that works with a fire back (which we already had) to throw heat into the room and not up the chimney. It really does work. He put a new damper on the top of the chimney, told us we had a beautiful fireplace and that it would work well for us and when he came back in the house with the bill was surprised we didn’t already have a fire going, It was probably 30 minutes later, He was a lovely man, left us with a blessing on our bill which was rather special. Thanks to Jim we will enjoy many beautiful fires this year.
The big wrinkle in all of this is the water so we met with our new best friend Roger to discuss the process for clearing up the water problem. He is quite a character and has worked for one of the LeBaron families from this area for years. The fun coincidence to this is that our local grocery store in North Hatley is owned by the Canadian side of the LeBaron family. Yes they are related but pretty far back. But we are now considered family to him. What he is proposing to do is incredible but we will not ever have to worry about water in the basement again once he is finished. He guarantees it!!! He is also going to rework the front area of the house, rebuild the stone wall and regrade the front yard to keep the water away from the house. This project is supposed to start this coming Monday providing the weather continues to be good.
I took a picture of the last sunset from the farm house the night before moving day. It was after a light rain and beautiful rainbow had appeared. I just knew it was going to be a good day on Thursday. We woke up early, a little bit like Christmas morning. Moving day arrived. In fact, the day turned out to be one of the warmest days of the fall. Made it up to 70 degrees so we were able to have all the doors and windows open in the house. The movers came with two big trucks, did a walk through the farmhouse and started in loading through two doors into both trucks. We did not fill either of them but it sure made it efficient. Again a Canadian coincidence. Over the course of a couple of hours we chatted as the trucks were being loaded. Turns out that the Chases mother and another movers mother were best friends all their lives and moved from Mansonville, Quebec to Claremont, New Hampshire years ago. The families have worked together for years. This group of men had actually done a move from Lake Massawippi back to the States last year. They didn’t remember the name of the family but what a small world. If you know me at all, I marvel at how small world things happen when you stop and take time to talk with people. Never expected to make these connections and with the movers.
It took them 4 hours in total to load and unload the trucks. By the time they left us at Jenny Lane, they were calling everyone by first name as if they had known us all their lives. In the beginning it was “the first bedroom” or “upstairs bedroom” then it was “your grand daughter’s room” or “your daughter’s room” by the time they left it was “this is from Libby’s room” or this belongs in “Katie’s room”. So fun. They loved the animals too, especially Bean who supervised everything. I was afraid she might end up going with them when they left.
It became apparent as we unloaded the furniture that our idea to camp in the living room until there was a suitable bedroom for us downstairs, was not going to work. So we decided to make a temporary home in what will some day be Jack’s bedroom. Now this is not an easy thing to do as there are no walls down there thanks to the demolition done by one John Moses. Exposed outside walls with some green insulation, exposed pipes both incoming and outgoing, exposed electric wires pretty much sums it up. We hung some quilt covers to make a wall between the two rooms, put some styrofoam around the water pipes coming into the house, put up some curtains and voila we have a cozy cave. There is a door on the room and with a rug on the floor and some furniture we are ok. It won’t be forever but for now we have our own space and the living room can be a quiet, calm spot to relax for all of us.
Katie arrived back from Phoenix about 10 pm and was delivered here to the new house. I was almost asleep on the couch but we still had a welcoming fire for her and a glass of wine. I think she was a bit overwhelmed with it all. We all slept well our first night in the house. The cats are thrilled to have us back. Wyke is recovering from his surgery for an abscess that he had in his neck so has been a little off all week. He is getting better but I don’t think he is very comfortable. Otherwise all the animals are happy to be together again and with us all in one place. So are we.
The last of the clean out of the farm house has been done and our house keeper, Ginny, went in after we left and cleaned it beautifully. I was just too tired to do it and so was everyone else. Nice to have some new energy to help us out. John found an electrician who will come next week to do, we hope, the wiring we need done before we put up any walls in the downstairs. Our sincere hope is that we will have real rooms down there by Thanksgiving and maybe even have floors by Christmas. We are going away for Christmas just to keep our sanity.
Our Katie treated us to a beautiful meal at the New London Inn on Friday evening to say thank you for all we had done for her and Libby and the move. It was delightful and just what we needed. Calm atmosphere, white table cloths, a delicious Caesar Salad and a Filet Mignon with a good glass of red wine and everything looks wonderful again.
Here are happy fur babies enjoying being under one roof together again.
