Scene of the grime

While the interior of our house is now more or less complete, the exterior is another story -- a recent chapter of which I am not proud.

One dark and rainy night shortly before Christmas I came home laden with parcels to discover our house completely inaccessible.  It seems the pool company had finally sent its crew to pour the promised concrete around our future lap pool and also create a set of steps leading from the car port to the deck. The cement was still wet (as a tentative toe tap confirmed) and the yard, after two weeks of rain, a sea of mud.

Seeing no other option, I donned a pair of rubber boots and grabbed my various bags to trudge the several meters through the mud. In a cartoon moment, half way through my trek I  sank knee deep and quite literally got stuck in the mud -- no matter how I tried, my feet would not budge in the sludge. The only way out was to abandon the rubber boots.  My leather ankle boots (brand new Navyboot, alas!) also sunk in and stuck.

At that point I had no choice but to leave all footwear behind and wade to the safe haven of the deck in my stocking feet. I emerged like some sort of sea creature, muddy from the waist down, trailing my dirt-drenched shopping bags and purse. In the morning, the cement had dried and we were able to recover both sets of boots. These are all that remain of my great adventure.

People who live in glass houses

It has now been two months since we moved into to our new house. That is just long enough to settle in and fully appreciate how many little things you would do things differently if you had a chance.

All those windows we planned in order to take advantage of the nice views are indeed lovely. However, it makes furniture arrangement in certain rooms challenging. And in order to ensure a bit of privacy we probably spent as much on window treatments as we will on window cleaners.  I am definitely not getting on a ladder to clean these babies. 

The placement of light switches is a another devilish detail.  No matter how well you try and anticipate these things, they are always on the wrong side. 

Our kitchen design is quite functional, except for one flaw:  they put the garbage disposal on the wrong side of the double sinks. (This probably sounds ridiculously picky but you would not believe how annoying it is!) Of course we can switch it but it means replacing a cupboard door and the installer wants to charge us a fortune. At one point you wonder when to cut your losses and just live with it.

Lest it appear that we are not sufficiently grateful, I should add that we are absolutely thrilled to be in our new house. And with Christmas just around the corner, it will really begin to feel like home when the kids come home for the holidays. Especially as we will welcome a couple of new family members. More on the ménagerie next time!