The slow move back

Our eight weeks of rental time ended this past weekend. It was great while it lasted. I just e-mailed our landlady and told her we wouldn't have survived a renovation if we had to live in the house during the entire project. Now we have two weeks remaining (we think) and inhabit our home once more.

We missed being here. We love my house and our routine doggie walks (even though the rental was a block away, our routes changed); views of South Hill, the activity around the school. All of it! Of course when this is all over, we won't miss the dust, the chaos of living in three rooms upstairs, the lack of a kitchen sink and dishwasher, getting up extra early so that we are not under foot, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with two weeks of pain. We've been very lucky so far.

The first day back, we left the house only a few minutes after Scott arrived. Upon our return we noticed that the driveway was cleaned up, the crown molding above the cabinets was installed, the knobs were in place, more trim was added to parts of the kitchen and the best of it all - we were greeted at the door by Emma. She survived her first day home with the crew!

After taking Emma for a long walk, we ate dinner at our makeshift kitchen island - hamburgers on the grill, salad and french fries warmed up in our toaster oven. Memories of camping came to mind, although I don't camp. Rob took me once and never offered again! You can take the girl out of Brooklyn - just don't make her camp. I pulled all of the ingredients for dinner out of our beautiful new refrigerator now loaded with food thanks in part to our good friend, Sam who owns a great restaurant and a weekend shop at Wegmans. I love the bells and whisltes on the fridge - LED lights, all kinds of sound alerts (door ajar beeping, etc), ice maker (for the first time!) and a freezer on the bottom. Yeeeha! I can't stop opening it! I think I'm in love with my first appliance!

Each day something more is accomplished and soon, we will be at full operation again - our kitchen counters arrive next Tuesday, one day early, and that means the unpacking can begin!