It ain't home till you strip the wallpaper and paint the rooms

C+3

Today we began the repainting process. It seems that no matter where we go, we immediately get involved in the process of repainting the house. Today was no exception, we bought paint yesterday along with all the equipment needed (brushes, paint, tape, drop cloth, rollers, pails, etc). Today we put those to use and began taping off the master bedroom as well as stripping off the wallpaper in the other bedrooms. You would think that we would have gotten quite a bit done today with the painting, but we had social obligations that came first.

Dr Dickieson and his wife wanted us to have brunch with them at the local golf club, and brunch turned the house so they could look it over and render their opinions. So, the noon brunch ended around 3:30 and we began to tape the bedroom and strip the wallpaper. However, we were not to get too much done because at 6:30 we had a dinner date with Pam and Jim at their house and by 11 pm we were back home to gather our things to go to the hotel for the night.

“Hotel for the night? I thought that you were in your house?”
Well that would be correct, we are in the house, but our household goods will not be arriving for another two days, and so we spent last evening at a hotel, and we will spend the next two nights at a different hotel.

“So that is Saturday and Sunday night in hotels, what happened Friday?”
Well Friday we arrived at the house and got things set up in the home (including the movement of the fridge etc) and then we settled in to fall asleep. The trick to the sleeping was that the only bed in the house was the dog bed. Granted it is a nice bed, but it is not a proper bed. As I mentioned yesterday Nancy had the bed and I had a yoga mat. Well everyone insisted that we could not sleep on the floor again, and so they put us up at a hotel. We had the best night of sleep that we have had in several days. Needless to say, when they offered to continue to put us up until our stuff arrived we took them up on it without question.

So, today was wonderful with a series of meals and conversations. We did not get as much taped as we would have like to do so, but we did get some “work” done. Tomorrow we get the last of the customs papers completed and fax off the last of the paperwork for the horses. Also, we will get some painting done.

Seven days and counting.........

No more mattress problems……..

In our last adventure we were trying to find a way to get our mattresses across the border to Canada. I could not believe that I had to fumigate the mattress and certify that it was fumigated in order to get the mattress across the border but there it was in the regulation that makes it appear that mattress trafficking is forbidden. So as you know I called as many folks in the local area as I could to find someone who would be able to complete this task, to no avail. Well, things were getting a little more concerning, and thus began the rationalizations.

Well we have had the mattress for 10 years………
I guess we should not pack it in the first place……
We could always fake a letter………….
We could get one of those do it yourself household fumigation kits….
Maybe there is a place on the border that can do this for us…….

It was the last item that prompted a change in fortunes. In search of a solution for the problem, I fired up google and went looking for a place in Maine that might be able to fumigate a mattress. After a long hard search with great handfuls of nothing to show for it I changed my query mode and entered the following “mattress fumigation Canada” into the search box. Well that did the trick, I landed upon a site called BritishExpat and they and they had the answer (turns out the regulation is poorly written and does not apply to folks form the US or UK).

This is a great site that provides a huge amount of information on moving to Canada. In fact they even provide a general list of what to accomplish prior to your move. Granted it is geared toward the British, it is still a very valuable resource and one that we will be combing over in the last days in the heat.

So, the mattress issue is solved and we are moving on, next stop, finalizing the route of travel and booking the hotels.