After A Few Minor Setbacks We Settle In

Settling into the new and improved House of Dirt and Rocks has not been without its share of bumps. Most of these bumps have come in the past 48 hours.  Two days ago, after a very restless night that deprived b of most of his sleep, Pupzilla relieved her stomach of all its contents.  Shortly afterwards we noticed that she had broken out in hives and a large cyst was found on her ankle. Many hours and dollars later, the emergency vet confirmed b's original diagnosis of an allergic reaction to what was most likely an insect bite (we suspect a spider).  She was given medication and lots of fluids (as she was pretty dehydrated) and sent home to rest.

The next morning b made the critical mistake of requesting a drama-free day.  He went off to work and I went off to run multiple errands.  One of the errands was to drop off the keys to our old house. Also on my list was to make an extra copies of the keys for the new house as the landlord had only given us one set.  Somewhere on my meandering route around SouthLite that one set of keys dislodged themselves from my keyring and escaped.  I discovered this hours later when trying to get into the house with bags of groceries.  I spent the next hour retracing my steps to no avail.  b thought he could get into the house and left work to give it a try.  His love of cat-burglar movies paid off and he successfully broke into our own house.   Unfortunately that didn't solve the key problem and I had to drive an hour and a half each way to the neighboring city where my landlord lives to get a new set.

Last night, although exhausted from all these shenanigans, I stayed up to work on my syllabus. Just a short hour after my head hit the pillow my phone went off.  It was my latest doula client. She isn't due for another 10 days but was convinced she was in labor.  I was dubious.  I met her at the hospital where we waited for over 3 hours (due to someone else's emergency c-section) for the midwife to inform her that she was not in labor yet and send her home with words of encouragement.

In spite of the last 48 hours, I am happy to report that we are happily settled in.  There are still pictures and curtains to hang and a scary mudroom to organize but we have working appliances (well some just barely...there are a few purchases in our future) and the boxes have been both emptied and carted away.

Behold the House of Dirt and Rocks (aka The Tikki Lounge):

Front View

Back View (what once was a shed)

Backyard

Back View

Side View

b's Latest Love

Pupzilla Settling In

Kitchen

More Kitchen

Bar

Pupzilla on her couch

Hallway

Smudge in the office

The Brute in the bedroom

Scary Mudroom

Empty Guest Room

More Empty Guest Room

More Scary Mudroom

Pupzilla patiently waiting for me to stop the picture-taking nonsense and finish making dinner.