I can’t remember just how much I’ve said on this blog about what my family is doing, and I’m too lazy to try to back into the archives to check, so I thought I would just write a quick post to try to bring things up to date.

As you all probably know, we are in the beginning stages of building a home for our family.  And by building, I mean that my husband will be doing most of the work of building.  I hope to help as much as I can, but I think that with the kids there’s only so much I’ll be able to do.  I’m planning on spending a lot of my time on the garden and outside, getting some livable outdoor space going and getting some growing space together so that we can start growing some of our own veggies.  I’d love to get some chickens this summer as well, but that might have to wait until next spring - there’s a lot that needs to be done first.

On July 23rd, we’ll be moving to our property.  Most of our stuff will go into storage, and we’ll be camping (yes, in tents) on the property for about two months.  Once it the weather starts to change, we hope to buy a used trailer and move into that on the property.  We’ll be in the trailer until we all kill each other or the house is finaled by the county (meaning house is enclosed, electrical, plumbing, waste systems finished, basic bathroom and kitchen installed, stairs and railings finished, and probably more that I’m forgetting at the moment), which ever comes first.  :-)  Matt thinks/hopes that we will be in the house sometime next summer, but I think this is rather optimistic.  Everything always takes longer than it seems like it should on the outset, and I think that with the house this will only be more pronounced.  I’m hoping that we can be in the house in early ‘o9, although even once we’re in the house I’m sure it won’t be finished.  It will be safe, but there will still be a lot of trim work, flooring, and other details to fill in that will help make the house look more settled and get it to the point where we can really start unpacking.

As far as services go on the property, we have the well working, although we don’t have power to it yet.  We do have a generator though, so we can at least run the well and other electrical devices.  We’ve filed the paperwork with PG&E to get the power going, but they aren’t exactly known for their quick turn-around time for this sort of thing.  We’re hoping they’ll be turning on our power sometime this fall.  Phone lines were laid along with the power cables up the road, and we could probably have that in the fall too.  However, we do have cell phone access at the property, so this isn’t quite so much of a priority.  We’ll get the septic put in sometime later this summer or fall, so that once we have the trailer we can hook it up to the septic system and have a somewhat real toilet rather than the porti-potty that we’ll be using while we’re camping.

As far as amenities like laundry facilities, a real refrigerator and a freezer (not to mention a real bathroom!), we’ll have to wait until the shop gets built on the property next door.  Once that is done and their septic and power are hooked up, we’ll have access to it and we’ll be able to put our washer, dryer, and freezer there.  There will most likely be a refrigerator there too, so we’ll be able to use that as well.  And there will even be a real bathroom with a real shower and a real toilet!  I’m eagerly awaiting the completion of this structure, which will hopefully be done sometime in the fall.  (Sooner rather than later, I’m hoping!)

I think my biggest concern at this point is the laundry issue.  I feel that we have other needs figured out fairly well - food, keeping ourselves reasonably clean, lodging, and keeping the kids busy and hopefully not too upset about all the changes - but the laundry issue is a pain.  I think that we’re going to have to go to disposable diapers for a couple months until the shop is finished, because I really don’t think I want to go to the laundrymat every four days to wash diapers.  I really loathe disposable diapers though - the feel, the cost, the whole throwing them away thing - but I’m not sure it can be helped.  If I could find a laundrymat that was open really early and perhaps even had internet access, then I could go by myself before the kids were awake and that would be bearable, but I really, really, don’t want to have to sit there in a laundrymat and keep the kids happy while the diapers wash every four days!  At least I could take them home to dry them afterwards…  but still, ugh.  I may start out trying it though, just because my distaste for plastic diapers is that great.  :-)  The rest of the clothes - well, I can hand wash some things, we can rewear others, and I hope to not have to go more than every two weeks.  We’ll see though!

So that’s where things stand now, and I think I need to go pack some more boxes!   Any questions?  :-)