Our new home – by daylight… (Feb 15, 2007)

The storm was fabulous, but much too short! Visibility became shorter and shorter last night, but when we awoke today there wasn’t really much snow on the ground, despite the wind. By mid-morning the wind calmed and the snowflakes grew larger, and we had a wonderful storm. The temperature climbed above 0C and great sheets of snow slid off the steep metal roof. The local snow removal person was here at 8 a.m. to plow us out, and back at noon with his blower: either the new minister is really important or those strangers from out-of-province likely don’t know how to drive in the snow! (We’ll soon find out which it is!)

Comments heard during the day of unpacking and relaxing:
(gazing at the speakers set in the ceiling 26’ above us) “I’ve never heard Ian Tyson singing from heaven before!”
I wonder how those speakers out on the balcony will fare in the snow storm…
This is the first time I’ve had a dining room table that filled the entire dining room: and includes 4 benches – 2x4 seaters, and 2x2 seaters.
For those of you who know how much I love placing furniture akimbo – the ultimate: the toilet occupies a vantage point in the corner of the bathroom, allowing a clear view of both doors, AND Ian Tyson is piped in there too!
Pamela, you thought we had a staircase to die for in Morrisburg. Wait til you see this 15 step wonder – straight up from the front door, with rounded treads and risers! Magnificent!

And, a kitchen designed with Fran in mind…well, the bottom half, at least. The counter top is a full 2” lower than the level of the stove, but the upper cupboards stretch about 12’ up, making the top 2-3 shelves perfect for long-term storage. Everything above the first shelf is perfectly safe from my clawing fingers.

Please don’t take any of this as disparaging – the house is totally charming, cozy as a bug and rustic as a 2007 copy of a 1950s chalet, with the proportions gone somewhat awry. (Perhaps it was that translation from imperial to metric that did it!) At any rate, none of the furniture is in danger of moving, even with a significant jostle on the Richter scale.

On the definite upside of all this is the fact that a call to Telus this morning yielded us an operating telephone line by 3 o’clock this afternoon! How’s that for a record? “Quebec sait faire!”