When are you moving in?

Now that we are so close to having the main floor and loft finished, we get asked this question all the time. We had set the weekend of fishing opener as our start to move-in date. Before then the cabinets must be finished and installed, radiators plumbed, and base trim installed, closets finished, bathroom floor installed, toilet and sink put in, stove, fridge and sink in the kitchen installed, carpet in the loft plus move all the stuff! Yeah, we may not make it in until the end of May. However, it is so fun to walk through the almost ready place! We have started to feel like the Summer Road place is a cave compared to our new house, which is filled with natural light and has sunny yellow walls rather than dark fake wood paneling. What a difference!

This past month has seen the floors finished, stairs finished, reclaimed lumber re-sawed, planed, cut, routered, and sanded to make the doors and trim. It is really a labor of love to take the nail studded rough sawn rafters and create the smooth, rich material that makes up the doors and trim. There are six custom made doors installed and finished. They. Are. Gorgeous. The appearance of the wood has a patina that comes from the nail stains and wear from holding up the roof of the old Border Lakes building all those years. How special to have a part of that building in our new house. The kitchen cabinet bases have all been built, and cherry wood is being prepared for the drawers and doors. The L-shaped layout with an island containing the stove will hopefully be a comfortable and inviting place to hang out.

We have also begun the process of sorting our stuff once again in preparation of our move across the street. How we decided what things should be moved from WI to MN is really a mystery, since many boxes were never unpacked while we have been living here. We recently played a game called "The Family Purge" to help pare our things down. We took turns drawing cards from 5 categories like Household, Clothing, Toys/Games, Hobbies, and Wild Card. Each time we would select an item that we wanted to get give away or throw away. If it was a personal item, no one could argue. If the item was a shared item, we could choose to contest the decision and make an argument for keeping the item. A majority vote on those items could decide the fate. If saved, the person would choose a replacement item to get rid of. It was rather fun, but after one game of five items each we stopped. We need to play every night!

Cora's dance studio photo for the junior competition team. She is doing a split leap. Credit: Tara Kay Photography.

Family news: Cora was awarded a grant to help defray the costs for her New York trip from the Donald G. Gardner Humanities Trust. She has been busy preparing for her role as Ms. Hannigan in Annie, which will be put on May 12th and 14th. Her dance competitions during the month of April resulted in several awards for the team, and lots of fun visiting Duluth! Raif has had two successful track meets, but since then all have been canceled. He improved his triple jump distance by 3 feet in one week, and is very excited to be running the 110 hurdles as well as the 300 hurdles. We actually had a snow day in April, and are expecting a possible snow day on May 1st! Meanwhile, in 3 year old news Fiona can write an "F", and she is busy cooking and baking whenever she can.

A very enthusiastic egg hunter!

Raif is on the far right, and finished 6th in this 300 m hurdle race. Credit: Ely Echo.

The highlight of April was the visit from our Spanish exchange student Laia along with her brother Jordi over the Easter week. They spent a short week here packed with activity. Presenting to the Spanish classes in Ely, touring Duluth, canoeing through ice break-up to the Hegman Lake pictographs, saunas with lake dips, and eating lots of good food. We took a mini-vacation to the North Shore with them and met up with my good friend Taura and her girls at the wonderful Larsmont Cottages. There we hung out in the outdoor hot tub, played in the pool, enjoyed the lakeside bonfire with s'mores (Laia and Fiona's favorites!) and just enjoyed each other's company! We took a short trip up to Gooseberry Falls for a hike and picnic. The visit ended with a tour of Glensheen Mansion and hibachi dinner in Canal Park. Many times we mentioned how we would love to go to Spain to visit them,

Mark turned 43 on the 20th, and to celebrate we had a date night canoeing Hegman Lake to see the pictographs again. It was one of the most clear, calm evenings. The ice had just gone out, and the sun was setting but the images on the lake were almost perfect reflections. We saw two beaver swimming, grooming, and loving on each other. It was magical.

Mark has spent many days over the past month sawing logs for clients, as well as all of his planing in the shop. Our pile of sawdust has grown. This future garden mulch will provide us with soil amendments. Our attention will soon turn from the house project to the garden and landscaping. We are so eager to start that process.

You can see a small mound of sawdust in the background. Each day this is tossed out onto the large pile which is now a mountain!

My month has been a blur with busy school days and track practices in all weather (snow, rain, sleet, sun). I attended the MCTM Spring Conference for math teachers for the past two days, and the sessions did not disappoint. I always come away from those events energized and invigorated. The conversations that take place are so valuable, and I leave with great ideas I can implement immediately. This time I got excited about coding to learn math. I could go on, but I will save it for my professional math teacher-y blog.

(last paragraph = the philosophical part of the blog) Spring brings new beginnings. We feel on the brink of something new with this move so close at hand. Nature feels a change coming as well, but snow keeps returning. I hope that the next blog post will be all about our first night sleeping in our new home, but you will just need to wait until then to find out.