Memorial Weekend Update

The best news of the week is that I have accepted a position as a middle grades science teacher for a very tiny elementary school in the town of New Haven, MO. It is a gorgeous town, right on the Missouri river. It is an area full of wineries, winding roads, rolling hills, and beautiful scenery. It is about 30 miles north of the farm, so I'll have a longer commute, but definitely a prettier one! Considering the job market for teachers this year, I am thankful to have found a job and relatively easily. I only went on one other interview before this offer was made. New Haven also works two weeks less than SSD, so that is one thing that is a definite bonus for this job! I have to take the Praxis test, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Then I'm off on a new adventure!

As for the house...we are in a holding pattern. The builder has been on vacation this week. I'm sure the vacation was scheduled with the thought that the house would be completed by now, but we've had some issues concerning which type of septic tank system needs to be installed. Once that was decided, it has been continual rain for several weeks. Of course, the week the builder has been gone things have been relatively dry! His crew is continuing work on the house though, so things aren't at a standstill. We have finally gotten the electrical poles run to the house, so we are closer to getting electricity. The crew has been sanding EVERYTHING inside, because the next step is to spray clear coat varnish inside the entire house. This protects the walls, beams, ceiling and upstairs flooring. Once this is done, there is no more maintenance on the interior walls. Then they can start putting in the flooring downstairs, cabinetry, electrical fixtures, and all the other things that make it a house. I've said once there was septic, electricity and water we would go ahead and move in, and the detail work can continue around us. We started clearing out one of the storage units this weekend and are putting everything into the garage. This is also progress. We have been going out there, taking a dinner and hanging out while we drank a beer and talked and pretended that we lived there! Some new pictures are below.

Here's the upstairs bathroom.  There is a shower on the right side, the copper pipes coming out of the floor will soon be attached to the claw footed tub, and the toilet will sit near the center of the photo.  There is a large linen closet and double vanity also in the room. 

Here's the upstairs bedroom.  It will be a tight squeeze to fit the sleigh bed under the purlin beams, but we are crossing our fingers that it will fit.

This is one side of the loft area. 

Here's a picture of the loft area and the catwalk from the bedroom doorway.

These are all the picket posts for the railings that are stacked in the downstairs vanity.  They look so funny in here,  but hopefully they will soon be installed!

Here's the half log stairs going up.

May 1st....still waiting....

Today marks the start of  our fourth week at Holiday Home Sweet Home.  It really hasn't been so bad, we get out in the evenings with the dogs and walk, or head to a local restaurant, preferably one with outdoor seating.  I miss cooking, and I miss home cooked foods, but otherwise, no real complaints from either one of us.  The dogs have adjusted to the routine very well also.  We have a huge greenspace adjacent to the hotel where we can let them off leash to run and expend some energy.  We are also making frequent trips out to the log home where they get to run around as well.  Progess as of yesterday looked like this:

Upstairs from master looking towards loft area

The bedroom downstairs has this HUGE closet space for me.  Although one day I'm sure I'll complain that it isn't enough room, it is way bigger than what I've had for the past two years!

The upstairs master bedroom.  We are hoping our oak sleigh bed will fit under the second beam from the floor, but we aren't too sure of that!  This bedroom really isn't very big at all, but we both wanted to make the master bedroom upstairs, so this is what we have.

This is the downstairs bedroom, which originally was planned as the master.

The builder's estimate yesterday was three more weeks.  We've had a difficult time figuring out the appropriate septic system for the soil type, and the weather hasn't been too agreeable lately, but hopefully the septic system installation will start this week.  We've also been clearing for the powerlines ourselves (well, mostly Mark!), and that has been a very time consuming process. We hopefully finished that today, and will have the electric company out ASAP to start work on the power lines.  The other hang up has been we took our time picking out the kitchen cabinets, so they won't be coming in until the first of June.  Then they will measure for the countertops, which will be another two weeks.  Fortunately, we don't have to wait on them to move in, although we agree we need water, septic and electricity at the very least!

And here is Home Sweet Holiday Inn.  The manager took out the second queen bed to give us more room, but of course the headboard is attached to the wall. We have the dog crates, and an extra chest of drawers from our house in the room.  We have a microwave and small frige, as well as a big cooler which has been a lifesaver.  We aren't too crammed or unhappy here, although we are both anxious to get into our new space!!