Two years ago (fall of 2016) we moved into Soho (the family property) for the winter while we rented out this house to a work crew renovating a house here on the island.

We froze at SoHo.. That house needs some major work on its heating set up. My slippers would be wet in the morning beside our bed from the damp and cold…brrrr. We lived out of the garbage-bags we had thrown our belongings into thinking it was going to be two months,.. it was four..

Then we sold our share in SoHo and began the renovation here in February of 2017. It was going to take six weeks… But as renovations go, one thing leads to another. You find yourself deciding to redesign the whole kitchen cause the old one doesn’t fit anymore and rebuilding the entire deck cause you can’t have half a new deck and half an old deck. Your well loses it’s strength so you add a rain water catchment system. The window order gets screwed up and you waste three months waiting for its arrival. Taking the roof off and turning it around before putting the new one on proves challenging. Before we knew it, two years flew by and we are still renovating the house.

We aren’t alone. There are others on this and neighbouring islands who have been at it longer than us. Some of us, I suspect, never expect to finish the house and just enjoy the journey…

Last winter, we didn’t have windows until the middle of December or insulation under the floor. I don’t remember being as cold as we were at SoHo the year before (which tells you how bad the heating is there) but it couldn’t have been as cozy as we like. I don’t really remember.. it’s a blur…..

As the saying kind of goes. Fall is upon us with winter soon to follow. Our house now has windows, walls, doors and a roof. We have every expectation that although the house reno is not complete and we will have plenty of jobs to keep us busy this winter we will be warm and cozy with plenty of time to enjoy the new house between chores.

E and I figure if we each do one job a day, that’s sixty a month… with a three page to do list, I’m fairly certain we won’t run out of chores. But if we do ..and the house gets finished….I’m sure we will find

something to do