Today's objective was to take possession of the new house, Barkwhistle, (aptly named by my husband) and the process was not without drama. Deeply buried in the fine print of the volumes of legalese we had to sign to get this far was a requirement for the house to have drinkable water. And -- quelle surprise -- the water test turned out to have failed. Probably because the house has been vacant for several months and the well relatively unused. And of course we didn't find this out until mid-morning, when I was in Owen Sound and Bob was en route with a van full of stuff to move in.

While the lawyers wrestled with this (and you can imagine the expense meter running), we spent a pretty comfortable afternoon with my mother, complete with tea and sandwiches, until we finally got permission to move in (after signing some pretty scary paperwork). There will be a water treatment system installed in a couple of days at the vendor's expense. It will take a few more vanloads and carloads before I really feel moved in, and of course I still have to sell the house I'm in at the moment.

All in all, it was a bit tense, but not too serious. It made me think of all the families there are who don't have drinkable water, and all the people who don't have a safe place to sleep at night. We are so lucky.

Posted by lynda at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In response to an unknown number of people who actually read this, I'm finally posting something. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that doing one more thing in a given day has been totally out of the question on most days lately. This week, much has happened of note, but all I really want to talk about is the Michael Healey play I saw on Tuesday night at Tarragon Theatre. "Generous" is a set of four two-act plays that interweave with humour and power. My friend Marie would love this -- each actor plays two or more parts and the set of four presents itself with the promise of chaos but the delivery that is so sweetly, divinely designed to intersect that you walk out of the theatre just being grateful for playwrights and actors and all of those wonderful people who make plays happen for usually not much money.

I hope it's one thing I will make the effort to come into town for -- plays at Tarragon, that is -- once we have totally moved to our new home, for which we travelled north today to sign the papers in the lawyer's office. Then again, maybe there is good theatre in Owen Sound or nearby. I'll definitely research that. And Stratford isn't so far away.

We take possession of the house next Tuesday. Today we were reminded of why we are moving. For a 3 pm appointment in town, we left my mother's house at about 7 minutes to 3 and found a (free!) parking spot in front of the old house that is the lawyer's office on one of the main streets of the town. Yes, I could get used to this.

Posted by lynda at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The moving plans are proceeding pretty quickly because we get the new house at the end of the month. Alas, buying a house is not one of those parts of life that is very different in the digital age. Shopping for the house was much improved because we were able to view and even tour properties on the web, but actually arranging the money and closing the deal has been a verbal, fax and in-person exercise. And even the fax part is iffy, given that we can't get a faxed signature witnessed in the usual way.

Meanwhile, we've had a brief and delightful respite from moving madness with a visit from UK cousins Lionel and Mary. They stopped in after doing a BC tour of whales and mountains and we topped off their trip with a great family dinner in Port Credit, a Canadian Gradwell/Pryor family reunion that we hope will become a tradition on this side of the pond.

Posted by lynda at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)