Jackie and Joe Get A Home of Their Own - With Walls

September 10, 2008 - Yes, it has been a while - again. But the wait has been worth it, because I have a good one for you today. We have finally gotten ourselves a home, and a respectable one at that.

Well... I suppose some people may still consider this living on the edge, but compared to camping and living with a parent, it's heaven on earth. We are subletting this tiny place (I've heard it referred to as 'the studio' as well as 'the gardener's shed' so let that fill in the pictures for you). It's about 300 square feet and consists of two rooms, only divided by a small step up, no wall between. One room is our bedroom, the other is the kitchen and dining room. We also have a bathroom. Spiderman lived here before us with all his spider friends. We were a bit busy for several days scrubbing, vacuuming, and preparing to make this our home. Then we had the big move, followed by hours of shopping by me and my mother.

Here is our kitchen -

Small but absolutely functional. It came with just a small two burner stove with a toaster oven to use as an oven. We were going to make do with that, but we have found a little apartment stove with four burners and real oven that runs on propane, so we will be installing that in the next few days. We brought our refrigerator from our demolished house. The sink leaks if you pour too much water in too fast - a quirk we can live with. There wasn't much storage space but the purchase of an extra white cabinet for below the counter solved that problem. And now I can cook!!!!

Here's our tiny little 'dining room' -

Really it's just a table and two chairs, but it's delightful. And the woodstove is right next to it. Off to the left is the bedroom - but I can't show you that. Afterall, some things need to stay private, right? But it's nice how the woodstove is right between the table and the bedroom - a good central location. We also have a propane heater, and will use that to maintain a base temp and wood to add heat when we're home.

The wood floors are one of my favorite features, and the deck we have out back is nice too. But by the far the best thing about the place is that this is what's out our front door -

That's the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge out there and we are directly across from this path that goes all the way down to the river. There's a little beach, places for campfires, and a little marina of sorts. Absolutely gorgeous. Plus this place is in a little community full of interesting people. We are hoping to make many new friends here.

So our house is not built yet - and I'm beginning to realize that things are just as they should be. We are meant to have this interim experience, for whatever reason.

It ocurrs to me that I started this blog in order to document our farming/house building adventures. But what I'm really doing is documenting our life. Of course I have refrained from discussing personal issues since this stuff is out there for the world to see. But I would like to take just one moment to point out that this is our first year of marriage. Our one year aniversary is coming up - one week from today in fact. And boy have we done a lot this year. Sometimes we look back through our posts and are just amazed at what we have done and that we have survived! It's always easy to paint a pretty picture when you're writing a blog that has, well, pretty pictures. But that's not to say that there haven't been a great many challenges and difficulties along the way. Life really is an adventure. And our first year of marriage has been an adventure. But even though many of the days seemed unbearable - now we look back at all of them with such pride. We have a tendency to make some crazy choices that have at times caused us to live uncomfortably - but at least we really lived. And continue to do so!