“Hey… this place has A LOT more views!!!!!

Oh… at least I’d hoped there would be. My plan was to get moved in, then immediately run to the studio, crack open a box of yarn, and start a new pair! I have a particular yarn and pair in mind too!

But you know what they say about best laid plans.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve not had much time to do much of anything, let alone knit.

I’m back at the townhouse AGAIN today. We just couldn’t fit everything left in Dory – sometimes I think she’s a lot bigger than she really is. But three window a/c units and a 40 gallon fish tank pretty much filled her. I still have to pick up the fish tank stand, a few odds and ends, and give all the floors a once over so the unit is left in decent condition.

I may even swing up to Mom’s and spend a little time with those adorable burrito pups. I’ll try and get some pictures for you.

And then maybe, by the weekend, I can make a dent in this…

And finally dive into a new pair of socks!

Yesterday I mentioned that Mom didn’t help out with the move. She was busy elsewhere.

Something has been happening in the background that I haven’t told you about. Several weeks back, Jem had a “date” with a Labrador up the street named Hank.

And as a result, our little Jem was pregnant (don’t worry, it was a planned pregnancy). Breeding Jem is something Dad has had planned since he brought her home.

When I booked the moving truck and told Dad the date, the first thing he said was “That’s the day my puppies are due! I might not be able to help.”

Of course, we all know babies are rarely born on their due date, so I wasn’t too concerned. And we could manage without his help if we had to.

Well… the day before we moved, I asked Mom how Jem was doing, and she said she was pretty sure she was getting ready to give birth. I checked in before I went to bed that night, and there was still nothing.

But… when I went to pick my brother up from Mom and Dad’s on moving day…

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There was a pile of fuzzy, squealing little burritos! Jem started giving birth in the wee hours and kept Mom (and Rowan and Jenn who came to help with the move) up all night as they kept watch over her.

Dad did help us move (he’d gotten some sleep, unlike Mom), and while we were moving, Jem produced a couple more!

All tolled, there are nine! (Three yellow, six black). And two girls, with seven boys).

Jem is a very proud mama. As soon as I sat down infront of her nesting box – she picked one up and plopped it in front of me, as if to say “Look what I made!”

I’ll keep you all posted with pictures as they get bigger (and cuter!)

I know all of you are waiting on tenterhooks to hear how the move went….

First… let me say… if you can avoid moving in July… avoid it! I’m pretty sure we ended up with the most humid day of the year on Saturday. They say it was only 23 C, (73 F) but it was so humid, it felt absolutely disgusting.

The crew for the day was myself and Dave (of course), my brother and sister-in-law Jenn, neice Rowan, my brother’s best friend Shawn, and Dad (Mom stayed home – I’ll explain why tomorrow). I neglected to take any pictures… but boy were they a fantastic crew.

Due to a last minute change from U-Haul, we had to pick up the truck from three towns over, instead of 15 minutes away. It added an extra hour and a half to a very early morning (I’m not very happy with U-Haul’s service, let me tell you), but we had the truck loaded and were on the road by noon.

As you know, it’s a two-hour drive to the new house, so we started unloading around 2. But by 4:30, the truck was empty, and the house was full.

My best friend Samantha texted me that evening to see how everything was going… this was the picture I sent her.

I was hoping to be able to put a good dent in all those boxes on Sunday, but unfortunately, I didn’t rent a big enough truck.

So…. Sunday it was back to the townhouse. Dad met us there with his truck and trailer, and between that and my little Dory, we managed to get almost all of the rest.

There are a few small things left, as well as our fish tank (the fish are at the new house, in another tank, don’t worry). As you read this, Dave and I will be back there, grabbing the last of our stuff and giving the place a good clean.

I did take yesterday off from driving though – I needed a break from those two hour runs!

Instead I focused on unpacking. The kitchen is basically in order. I’ll probably rearrange some stuff in the cupboards as we get settled – but can I just say…. HOLY CUPBOARD SPACE! The kitchen in the townhouse a tiny little corner kitchen – Maybe 80 sq. feet at most… this one is around 200!

In addition to the kitchen, we have a temporary sitting/tv area set up in the upper part of the livingroom (I still have mudding to do on the drywall in the lower part), and the bedroom is mostly together (though some of my clothes are still in boxes.) I expect by the end of the weekend we’ll be 90% unpacked.

But I know what you REALLY want to know….

HOW DID THE CATS MAKE OUT????

The short answers… as good as cats can be expected to do during a big move.

Before anyone came in the house and started opening doors, I put all three in Dave’s old studio (which was already empty) with their food, water, litter box and some blankets. The door was shut and no one was allowed to open it, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone getting spooked and bolting.

When it was time to go, I loaded them into their carriers. Burton is a sweetie and he just sauntered right in. Rupert freezes when I put him in the carrier, and then has a little scardey cat spaz as soon as the door is shut. It’s impossible to get Relic in a carrier without first covering his head (I usually wrap him in a towel or pillow case.)

The drive wasn’t too bad. There was a lot of crying from all three when I first loaded them in, but they settled down pretty quick. Burton and Relic would start up again whenever the truck slowed, but then they’d quiet after a few minutes.

When I got to the house, I took all the carriers into the upstairs bathroom and shut the door. I made sure they had more food, water, and litter, opened the carriers, and then left to help unload the moving truck.

I had to go drop off the moving truck with my brother, so it was Dave who let them free from the bathroom when we were done. He said Rupert and Burton came right out and were cautiously exploring the upstairs (only my office, the bathroom and the main bedroom are currently open to them). For all Relic hated being put in the carrier, he decided there was no way he was coming out now!

When I got home, Burton was lounging on the floor mat in the bathroom, and the other two…

I’m pretty sure Rupert was in there trying to comfort Relic, because he came out several times on his own over the next hour. Relic still refused. Eventually, I took the top half off the carrier. Relic gave me a dirty look and ran down and cowered at the end of the hallway.

I got the bedroom set up, covered the bed in familiar smelling blankets, and brought him to it. Aaaaaand that’s pretty much where he’s stayed since Saturday night.

Oh… he just looks soooo sad! And really – I spent all that money and time so HE would have a safe outdoor space (the other two are fine with being indoor only) and now he won’t even come down the stairs!!!!!

What a guy!

Rupert has done some exploring on the main floor – just not when we can see him. He’s doing it at night when we are sleeping. I wake up and his dusty little paw prints are all over the dark fabric of the futon (we’re on subfloors at the moment so everything is dusty).

As I was typing this, he did poke his head down the stairs and watch me for a bit.

But he ran back up when Dave got up to get something from the kitchen.

Now Burton… he’s handled it best of all of them. He’s still spending most of his time upstairs, but Sunday night he came down, explored a little and the reclaimed his favourite spot on the back of the couch.

His favourite things so far though…

Is the upstairs bathroom sink. Nine times out of 10, that’s where I’ll find him if I go looking. I’m not sure why. It’s not because it’s cool… we have an a/c unit in the bedroom window, and it’s WAY frostier in there than the bathroom.

The only reason I can see…

Is that it’s a room with a view.

I mentioned that our big tank is still at the townhouse. Eventually, it will be set up in the lower part of the living room. But since that’s not done yet, we don’t want to set it up somewhere then have to move it. So a week before we moved, Dave set up this temporary tank on the counter in the upstairs bathroom (we have two bathrooms, so it won’t be in our way here).

Burton has always enjoyed watching the fish when they were in the big tank, but he’s never been able to get this close! He’s going to be so upset when we move them!

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But for now he’s pretty darn happy.

We are supposed to get some cooler weather this weekend, so I’ll introduce them all to the catio then.

Happy Monday. Yes, we are all settled into the new house now, and tomorrow I’ll tell you all about it… but first I have to show off this FO.

I know… ANOTHER FO… and right in the middle of the move.

I definitely wasn’t planning on this one, but you will recall that our washing machine crapped out, so I’ve been doing laundry up at Mom’s. Last week, I wanted to do a couple more loads so we weren’t moving a whole bunch of dirty laundry.

And you might remember that I finished my last pair of socks… so I didn’t have anything to do while I was waiting for my laundry to wash and dry. I was going to raid Mom’s stash and start a new pair… but then I recalled that I still had this top sitting there, just waiting to become a quilt.

It’s just a little one (37″ x 42″) so it didn’t take very long. I had the whole thing quilted and bound before I was done my last load of laundry.

I love this pattern. And all these little space dudes…

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That’s just too cute!

And check out the flannel I got for the back…

Who knew robots could be so adorable?

It felt so good to be back at the quilting machine again. I can’t wait to get my new studio set up!

In the meantime – this one is available in the shop now.

And now I have to unpack it all! See you soon!

It’s officially here – Moving Day!!!

This one doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to be boxed up and set on a new adventure. We’ve got a two-hour drive ahead of us with three caterwauling cats (the longest any of them have ever been in a vehicles is 30 minutes). It’s going to be fun!

I’ll report back from the other side as soon as I can!

I feel you Burton – I feel you!

As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend was our last chance to work on the house before we move in. (As you are reading this, I’m probably in frantic packing mode).

When we started this crazy adventure, our plan was to redo almost the entire main floor before we moved in. Then a couple days after we took possession, we hit a small financial snag. Some money we were expecting was not going to materialize. So we scaled our plans back to finishing Dave’s studio, and the lower part of the living room which is where our TV and couch will live – the rest we could do as we could afford after we moved in.

Well.. as they tend to do, things snowball, small jobs become bigger…. and we are close… but no cigar!

Dave’s studio is the closest to being done. It just need a few spots touched up, primer, painting and floors. We should be able to finish it in short order after the move.

The living room, which once looked like this…

Currently looks like this.

Dad and Dave got all the drywall up, but I still have to do the seams. Then like the studio, it needs priming, painting and floors. If we get this done by the end of August, I will be a very happy girl!

So… that’s it until we move. Renos will still be all encompassing, I’m sure, but at least I won’t be driving two hours to do them!

The last weekend to work on the new house before we move has passed. As you know, one of my main priorities was getting the catio fence up.

While I never complain about rain in summer (it helps to keep the humidity down), the fact that it was always falling on the weekend was really putting us in a bit of a crunch. But… by Saturday afternoon, things started to dry up, and Sunday was clear and sunny.

We had a later start than usual, but once we got there, the plan was that Dad would give me some guidance (mostly on how to drive self-tapping screws) and I’d be off and running, while he turned his attention to finishing the walls in the studio.

But… after a couple of screws… it was apparent that I was not going to have the muscle to get them through the metal – self-driving or not. Even Dad was having issues – and his poor hands got some pretty good wounds by the time we were done.

It took all afternoon… but this…

Has been transformed to this

Dave said the neighbours are going to think we have an orangutan… and Dad says it looks like a kitty prison. But I am very happy with it!

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There’s a heavy-duty “chew” guard at the bottom (plastic coated wire mesh) that’s staked into the ground every few inches so they can’t get under it. And the curved overhang means they can’t climb over it. The fence with over-hang is 7.5 feet high, so both Dave and I can move freely under it.

All tolled, it gives them about 350 square feet of outdoor space to enjoy safely, and they also have full use of the sun porch (which is at least another 100 square feet)

If you look closely, you can see my up-cycled garden cart in there. It will be the base of operations for my gardening endeavours, and eventually the “prison yard” will be nicely landscaped inside for both humans and felines.

This is the current view from the inside (from the steps that come off the porch.

As you can see, I’ve got my “garden” in pots right now. The cats won’t mind it all there, and by fall everything will be in the ground.

This is the type of thing I always wanted at the townhouse but could never have! It’s so nice to have it finally become a reality! I just hope the cats like it as much as I do!