Life Unfurling

 

 

Blogger is doing strange things as I try to update.  Looks like I've wrangled it into submission now.  I guess we'll see.  It's appropriate, since nothing else has been super easy about the plans to retire here!

We finally moved here at the beginning of summer 2022, after I homeschooled my grandchildren for two years through COVID.  Tim got worse and worse.  I had not only done most of the work in buying our home in PA, I also did the work of selling it and our other home in ME. 

We moved into this house, our Gull Haven, unfinished, but livable.  I got the downstairs shower that had been started, taken out and redone.  I had a radon mitigation unit (actually 3 before it was effective!) installed.  Got wood trim up and a new front door.  Had a shed built.  Moved us in as snug and cozy as possible.  He got to take walks and chat with neighbors, in a fashion.  I was his caretaker 24/7.  I got us here a year and a half before he passed away. He passed here in his own bed. I was grateful for that.  And so was he.  A night in the ER taught us that if we could we wouldn't be doing a facility.

So I am here now.  I look out at the view and wish he could share it with me.  The last two years have been especially hard, as he had little interest in doing anything except watch dvds over and over, and going for short walks outside.

I am learning how to be me alone.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.  The COVID vaccine and booster set up an inflammation in my spine that made me less than mobile for awhile.  And getting the shingles one 5 months ago set up another inflammation.  End of June I should be fine again.  That's how long the others took to get almost back to normal.  I'm walking without a cane now, so I'm on the way!    I can't be taking 6 months of no sleep, no exercise, and no joy in of my life each time.  The shingles vaccine had the added features of having a traveling infammation that went from back to knees, shoulder,  jaw, and  eyes.  Something is up with my body's sensitivity, and the vaccines since my first COVID vac are trying to kill ME, not what they're supposed to be killing!  No more vaccines, doctor agrees.

Daisy and Shadow share my home now.  Daisy loves...  No, Daisy LOVES sitting on the front lawn watching bugs, birds and water.  Shadow liked to hide out mostly for the first year she was here.  She's settling in now and knows I'm the source of good things.

Winter was rough.  The weather pounded the coast, but we were fine.  The snow was not deep.  It was mostly windy and rainy!

Next post...spring again.

Such a Long Time...

Just came back to this blog to see where I'd left off.  It said that this was a draft...though on the sidebar it says "pulished on 7/14/ at 3:29 pm

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7/14/21

So much has happened to delay and change our plans for Gull Haven.  The loss of a substantial amount of money to a cabinet maker who never produced the cabinets and has never paid us back - despite winning the lawsuit - was such a setback.  It was a equity loan for construction, so we've had to pay that back, but have seen nothing for it. The pandemic seemed to make it convenient to not have to pay back debts (except for any debt I'd incur, of course...).  That was a huge disappointment and a huge financial burden. The used kitchen cabinets that I found and bought from a renovation project are in and the extra cabinets are being dismantled to use the solid cherry to craft the fill-ins we need. No garage in our plans now, and less faith in the goodness of man. 

We are moving in shortly regardless of the state of the house.  We currently have the closet in the downstairs den/spare room being converted to a shower, so we can have first floor living.  Got a nifty glass bi-fold swing in or out door for the rainshower system being installed.

I have a couple of twin beds going in the room when it is finished.  Bought a love seat sleeper for the living room; and two hammocks and a mattress for the yellow room for kids, plus the bed we had there for last year.  So we will should have enough sleeping space for 7 or 8 people at a time!  It's a small place, but I'm going to enjoy filling it with people any chance I get.

We discovered that the water treatment system we put in a number of years ago when we put in the radiant infloor heat is not getting rid of the rust, so we need to clean fixtures and get the water smelling good.  A water softener is going in July 20 - that'll be cheap. 

Deck and mudroom will begin when we have company the first week in August.  I do hope we can get to live there for at least a year before it gets too much for us to do.  We shall see how life goes.  We shall see.

There will be s'mores made at Gull Haven again this year.  I do know that.

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Update:  There were s'mores that summer, but we moved back to PA for one more year, so I could homeschool my grandchildren through one more COVID year.  I had a blast.  Tim was getting worse, but still manageable.  

I'll post some from 2022 and 2023 to the present next.  Some things have changed a lot, some a little, some not at all.