All Over But . . .

Friday morning the moving company hauled all of the furniture and boxes from the storage bin to the house. It took them 2 1/2 hours.  We spent the rest of the day settling things in and started unpacking.  By the end of the day, we had arranged the Great Room and were able to watch the news. 

It is all looking pretty good, including the library.  Yet, much more still needs to get done.  Today, we spent the day hauling up boxes stored in the basement storage room.  Boxes full of dishes and china, glassware, tea pots, cookware, kitchen utensils, cookbooks and so on.  But there is much more, since the storage area is only half empty.  We haven't dug out the two more sets of china, spices, canned goods, and who knows what else.

We spent the night last night, the first time in nine months.  It was good.  However, the condo in DC is still full of all of the artwork, photos and albums, and lots more to take back out to the house.  So it is not over yet.

Starting to Move In

Maybe it looks like a bare room, but look at that piano!  That has been wrapped up in an old quilt, then plastic in the basement for the last nine months.  Three men came on Friday, rolled it from the basement up the hill to the front door.  The soil had been dug up for the septic tank, so they used plywood sheets under the dolly to keep it from sinking. 

David spent another two hours cleaning up the piano, which still had collected construction dust.  Now we need to get a technician into check it out and tuning it. 

I also put our new rag rug in the bedroom hallway.  We first saw Claudia Mills' rugs at Chautauqua last summer, and I fell in love with her colors and her different patterns.  I told her about my Grandmother Destiny who made rag rugs, several which I still use.  Destiny would have loved having those colors available!

So when she came to a craft show in Baltimore, back in February before everything changed, we went up to see them again.  Obviously I bought this one.  I am tempted to buy more rugs, or to get a custom sized one for my office.  But money is still tight buying essential things for the house. 

We have approved the final payment to our contractor.  There are several small punch list items before we give him a final check for the last change order.  We need to schedule moving the furniture back from the storage bin. Hopefully this week?

New Location for Shed

We spent another day getting the house ready to move things back inside.  Outside the shed had been moved to its new location away from the house. It used to sit behind the decorative block retaining wall in the center.  If you look closely at the bottom of that wall, one bright green top of the new septic tank is visible.

The Parrotia Persica had three of its lower branches cut off for the backhoe. I am very unhappy.  I will need to figure out how to balance the other side.

This is the view from the kitchen window, at the top left of the photo above.  Moving the shed has significantly improved the view so that the labyrinth garden is easily seen.  If you look closely at the base of the wall you can see the black cable wire that still needs to be reconnected.  Hopefully it will get done tomorrow.

Finally, the front of the house with four new bushes and one relocated shrub in place.  That is just the beginning of a new garden area. 

Burying the Green Monster

This morning the new fiberglass septic tank was lowered into a deep hole.  Fortunately it is all sand, so it was not difficult digging.  Here they are adjusting the tank to be sure it is level. 

After getting it in place, and the soil/sand was packed around it, they attached the line from the house to the first of three tanks.  Soon after they asked me to flush a toilet with toilet paper a couple of times.  They wanted to be sure the line was open.   It was.  Then the electricians put in all the electrical components. 

I stayed with the crew as they re-positioned the garden shed, and helped with regrading the soil.  We were almost done when the backhoe operator caught the electrical and cable wires and pulled them off the side of the house! Thankfully, no broken wires.  The guys working inside didn't know it had happened.

We left them waiting for the power company and drove back up to DC.  We wanted to arrive well before the curfew.  The electrical inspector needs to check the wiring, but that should complete all the major work on the house and allow the final inspection to be done.