I Think I Can See the End...

... and it looks like Rudolph's butt – way up ahead, catapulting through the black ether of mid-winter; a winking star-burst of exhaustive potential. Yep, the list is shorter, more definitive, but I see Christmas 2010 as the likely terminus for the work of essentially completing this little task I set for myself.
That said, the shell that, for nearly six months, served as a heated campsite is now beginning to manifest evidence in many corners that a real house is in the offing here. Recently, Bruce Oughten and his assistant, Fred, came by for two days of work to get the eavestroughs and gutters installed.Then, much to my astonishment, a Ditch Witch showed up on the driveway late last week. Murray Klassen, the operator for Wiebe's Trenching (Morden) advised me that we are slated to finally get a phone land line in early June. MTS seemed unwilling or unable to share this tidbit with us.

What else? Costco sent a recall notice for my prized Cummins Onan generator. "No, Cummins will not endeavour to repair the unit. No, we won't be carrying Cummins for the foreseeable future." So I found a nearly-new genset over three times more generative that will allow us to run even our air-source heat pump/AC unit and a bunch of other stuff.Oh, and Paula from Manitoba Hydro's Stonewall office phoned with a friendly reminder that my wiring has to be complete by mid-July. And the verandah wood package from Parkside Home Hardware (Winkler) is featured front-and-centre of the house awaiting installation. And McMunn & Yates should be delivering the last of my siding supplies in the next few days.

The inside story is that the tiling David & Dale did looks fabulous. Since they finished that (for me) monumental task, I have finished installing all the pre-hung doors, the dishwasher, the kitchen kickplates, the kitchen cupboard trim, two more toilets, the loft vanity/sink, three medicine cabinets, the master bath lighting, tidy the garage and basement a bit....
Oh, and I managed to swap the snowblower for the lawnmower on the John Deere. What a prize that owner's manual is: cryptic, poorly illustrated and, mostly, pretty useless.
As of tomorrow, I'm switching priorities to three things: the cladding of the verandah beams, completing all electrical installation, and starting the construction of the back porch and the verandah. To add a little pressure to an otherwise leisurely completion backwards principle (decades-old musical allusion there), we are having a birthday celebration for Thomas & Claire in early June, are hosting the choir wrap-up party on June 26th, and the hosting granddaughter, Kate's, first b'day at the end of June.

Hey, the grass and trees are green, the temperatures are pleasant, the flies and mosquitoes are no-existent, and the ticks are few and lackadaisical. What more could a BMW riding photographer ask for, I ask you.

Oh, a post script. The three cats are showing the first signs of getting along.