You're doing WHAT?!!?

Living with our friends for the summer. You know, the ones who also have four kids? Yeah, yeah, call us crazy, but so far so good. As I mentioned in the previous post, we have officially sold our house, our first home, paying off the mortgage as well as the mammoth home equity line of credit we took out to build the second home. (That alone is cause for some serious celebration! What a relief.) Anyway, back when we were putting our house on the market (Craig's List and isoldmyhouse.com - no brokers for us) our best friends (the ones with the four kids...) offered us their home to live in if selling one and moving into another should happen not to correspond (of course it didn't).

This past week has been one of almost non stop packing. We ordered five of those storage pods and emptied the entire house into them, having first saved out everything we thought we would need for the summer. Saturday we moved into our friends' house, Sunday was a final sweep through the old house, and this morning we handed over the keys. Feelings are mixed, esp. for the kids. But so far it has been great. You know, living with another family actually is EASIER. There are two more adult hands and the kids are largely distracted by their buddies. Plus, having the close up view of how another family does things makes you aware of the good and the bad sides of your own and therefore is a chance for self-improvement. This is especially true if the other parents are really GOOD ones - ones I want to emulate in many ways.

So, long term here's how it's going to go down: we live together, all 12 of us, for two weeks. The other family then heads off to Maine for the rest of the summer, leaving us to our own devices for the remainder of July and August (a good opportunity to put into practice all the lessons learned from the weeks of cohabitation). If the barn house is NOT done by the time they return at the end of August (again, I am not holding my breath...) then it's "Cheaper by the Dozen" all over again.

Speaking of the barn house, here's the update: The SIPs are almost completely installed (about 1/4 left as of the end of the day today). I met with Bud the Builder (go on, sing the tune: "Can he fix it?" "He damn well better!@#!") and we looked at some windows. He is ready to place the order (we are going with Marvin) and will have them in two weeks. In the meantime, the crew will cut the rough openings into the SIPs. (Because SIPs are structural, there is no framing around the windows necessary, literally just cut the hole and insert windows.) Also due to arrive this week is the metal roof. Can't wait to see that go up. On the morning of July 2, the trailer is being picked up and (lastly) we are working on those deck plans you saw in an earlier post. So I guess things are moving along nicely, although not so nicely as to have us in by the end of August, I fear.