Making it Live

It's fun to wake up int he morning, get a hot cup of coffee and look out at a beautiful view. However, after that thrill passes you start wanting more; more stuff, more conveniences.

The appliances came last Thursday. It is really nice to have a fridge and a microwave (to warm up the cold coffee). The washer and dryer also came, but while technologically advanced really don't come under my jurisdiction. Unfortunately the installer did a poor job hooking them up and will have to come back and try again. They work, but don't fit the way they should, and the dryer hook up includes about a mile of extra vent hose (a sure lint trap).

The satellite dish was installed on Monday. This was a little tricky since I needed to have both receivers installed in the basement next to the wiring switchboard. It took about 2.5 hours, but works perfectly. How nice to sit in our own furniture and watch "House".

DSL finally got working yesterday. Seems that each phone jack carries wiring for four lines. The office line just wasn't getting picked by the modem. A little wiring suregery by the phone guy fixed it, so say good bye to dial-up. Later I'll investigate how to network the whole house, but for now I'm happy.

The security guy came on Monday. Some of the heat and smoke sensors had failed. What should have been a one hour job turned into an all day affair. He also initialized the home intercom system, but to be honest I'll have to read the book on it. It allows instant communication in case of emergency as well as in home communications, and I don't want to call the ambulance by mistake.

My Mother-in-law spent her first night here on Sunday. Her new furniture arrived on Monday, and I didn't want to be responsible for the QA work or the placement of the pieces. (Looked like a lose-lose situation for me). She loved her choices, and while very tight all pieces fit in her bedroom.

We had a caravan of cars go to the storage units on Saturday. My objective was to clear away the 'surface junk' (those boxes and other items that were stored in the opening) to evaluate how to get the stuff from there to here. We captured two love seats, some miscellaneous small furniture pieces and a number of brown boxes. These had some kitchen supplies, winter clothing, and some office equipment. This small, first attempt at moving in filled our living room with 'stuff'. This is going to be a long haul.

...and in one of the boxes was a toaster! Coffee AND toast in the morning, now that's living.