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Things are really coming along now in the house. The painting is all done (for now, there's more I want to tackle later on), the living room baseboards are finished and slowly yet surely those pesky corners are all getting cleaned. I'm finding myself busy removing bits of old painters tape from the baseboards and drips of dried paint from the floors. Both were left by previous owners. Apparently they thought they would get to it one day and never did.

All the boxes are officially unpacked now. The spare room is still a work in progress, but is now a functional guest room and craft room type area.

This house hasn't been lived in for several years and that is very apparent by the state of cleanliness I'm encountering. Add that to the fact that it was previously a bachelor pad - minimal "good enough" slap happy type cleaning - and I'm reassured that although this particular cleansing is taking forever, once I'm done it will just be a matter of maintenance care to keep it tidy.

We have a house phone line now too, which is good because of the varying degrees of cell phone service we have encountered here. At first I thought it was kind of charming that we were "unplugged" out here in our new country home. However, after many a time picking up the iPhone to send a quick text and seeing that dreaded 'No Service' staring back, it's getting kind of old.

Texts don't go through sometimes, either sending or receiving, or they take hours to reach their intended party. It's a bit frustrating. Not to mention the constant cycling between three bars to no service runs the battery down fast.

The load times for emails or Facebook differ only slightly - from abysmal to terrible. I'm sure we won't bother with getting Internet access as it's sure to be about the same speed - and dreadfully expensive to boot.

The alarm system was installed today, and that concludes the intrusion of workers into our house for now.

I have a lot to say about the mud around this place. There is so much of it. And if it would quit snowing maybe it would dry up a bit. I'm extremely thankful for the mud room, and for the easy access to washing facilities.

Everyone is settling in really well. The kids help me walk the dog several times a day and play outside in the snow, puddles and mud. The snow melts a bit more each day and exposes a bit more of the yard. Or what is supposed to be the yard. "Pastureland" or perhaps "hayfield" is more fitting at this time. But! We just got a new John Deere tractor that will make short work of it.

There's quite a bit of large scale gravel on the front yard. I've been trying to convince the kids that picking rocks is fun, but they are too smart for that nonsense.

We Have Arrived!

It's been a long process (and a relatively painless one to boot), and we are in the new house! GramE was born not too far from here, so it's really neat to return to the roots of my family.

Moving went well. It took several loads over several days to get everything here, but it went smoothly and swiftly.

The house hasn't been lived in for several years, so quite a bit of dirt had accumulated. Not to mention a few dandy little mouse turds were sprinkled here and there....

I'm still cleaning, but have most of the dirty dirt-dirt cleaned up. I have everything unpacked and put away except one lone box in our bedroom and the craft room/office/guest room. I'm not sure how to organize all that just yet so it can wait until the weekend.

I think the dryer is on the outs, but it might just need a thorough cleaning.

Ryan phoned our painter and he was available this week so he's been working away making our house beautiful. Carter now has a lovely blue room and we couldn't be happier with the color choice. Cailin helped me decide between three colors of blue - I was leaning towards the 'Viking Blue' and that was the one she chose too. He's part Viking right? Right.

The rest of the house is going to be painted a nice warm white. It's currently a greyish color with purple undertones. It's not a bad color per se, but the paint job itself is in pretty bad shape.

I'm excited to pick out a few items to make our home cozy - curtains and such. It took Carter about 24 hours to break the vertical blinds (a record I think) and I removed them with glee. I'm not entirely sure the front window even needs coverings, but a few breezy sheers may look pretty sporty.

The kids are adjusting very well and have been sleeping through the night in their own rooms. Bailey has the cutest little doggie bed in our room. She's been terribly excited to realize there are multitudes of deer to bark at here.

I woke up this morning in our bright sunny room. We are going to be so happy here in our quiet house.

A big huge thank you to my parents. Thank you for all your work, moving us and looking after kids. Letting us live with you for three weeks. Thank you so much!

Thank you GG for helping too. Love you!