September 1st at around 11:30am we were official landed gentry and that meant it was time to move our stuff. Or was it? Actually no it wasn't. It was now time to go over to our house and take a good look at what needed to be done before we moved in. I figured the place needed a good cleaning but the place had no hot water because the gas was not yet turned on and the water heater was a gas heater. So one day I used the cold, sulfery very hard water that came out of the tap but all that would do is stink and curdle soap and detergent. I had rented a carpet cleaner from the local Kroger's and this water was not up to the task so the next day I hauled hot softened water from the old farm and was able to get all but the living room done.
Meanwhile Eugene is getting into fixing windows and plumbing. This goes on for many days and involves numerous daily trips the various hardware stores in the region plus K-mart. I will go on record here in saying we did not use Wal-Mart for any part of the initial house repair/cleaning/painting episodes. I find I really like the Ace hardware in Eaton, OH.
At any rate, by week's end we have installed a new electric water heater, a water softener, have had the gas turned on than off less than 24 hours later due to a gas leak in the line going from the street to the meter, cleaned a lot of cow shit out of the barn (Carlos forgot to secure the basement of the barn and that allowed 3 calves to have a lot of fun down there tossing objects around and crapping on everything) and because Eugene was really antsy to get things moved in a hurry I suggested that we paint the inside of the place before we started putting our stuff in it. He did not like the idea because he wanted to MOVE but saw things my way and soon he was doing the math to figure how much paint we would need and than we were in K-mart looking at paint chips and picking out colors. Soon enough we were taking many cans of paint home.
The following day our friends Saundra and John came out to help us clean and paint and see the place. They are great champions of local farmers and sustainable food, as well as into historical clothing. They did a bang up job of cleaning the upper rooms and the kitchen which allowed Eugene and I to get a jump on painting. Saundra also made a wonderful lasagna and I believe the 4 of us shared the first meal at the new farm out on the deck looking at the pond
The painting went on longer than we expected but not much longer as the house is in pretty good shape on the interior. While I painted Eugene was putting large appliances into the basement in a water heater and a water softener. The goal was to get 4 rooms painted and the hot soft water running by the weekend when we had planned a moving party.
We missed a midweek farmers' market in order to get the job done. It was a bit difficult getting brushes clean with no water but I learned from my brother that wrapping wet brushes up in plastic bags will keep the wet for days. So despite no having water I did not lose a single brush to dried paint. Eugene had to wire in a new breaker for the electric water heater which put us both on edge but we found out that this process is not much more difficult that wiring up a circa 1980's stereo system, only the wire is thicker.
By Thursday we had the appliances installed and the rooms freshly painted and we were ready to start moving in a way serious manner so we rented the big 17' U-haul truck, emailed friends and arranged for a move to happen the following Sunday September 15th
part 2 coming soon
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