Out With The Old In With The New Part 2

The day dawned with a loud bang on the door downstairs. After my long journey of little sleep the day and night before, I had collapsed upstairs in a heap on the queen sized mattress that was ever so carefully balanced on the double bed frame. On my way down the staircase I noticed that the queen box spring was leaning non chalantly against the wall of what used to be the dining room. The incessant knocking meant that I would have to wait to solve the puzzle of the bed and frame and move onto what was happening outside.

I opened the door to find a delivery man who was very intent in bringing in the new refrigerator I had ordered...NOW. He appeared fairly agitated so I tried my best Alberta girl charm in an effort to calm him down. It did not work very well. He wanted to get this behemoth in the door and be gone. I noticed that he had a small white truck which somehow held the rather large white fridge. He quickly jumped into the front seat, cranked it into reverse and tried to maneouvre the rear end towards my rickety stairs. In his rush he hit the gas instead of the brake and almost took the whole staircase right off! Things were pretty much going off the rails. I looked at what used to be my front porch and didn't really know what to say other than that we should maybe try the dolly. He let out a heavy sigh as we moved the hulking beast onto what was left of the porch and squeezed it through the entry way. I, was by now getting pretty worked up myself as this whole situation was going to cost me more than the price of a new refrigerator! When he turned to leave - leaving the hulking refrigerator on the porch step - I firmly suggested that he needed to stay and help me drag it into place in the dining room.

Dragging it across the lino in the kitchen was a reasonable exercise - but by the time we hit the dining room - the wheels got all tangled up in the stringy bits of the indoor outdoor 1960s yellow and orange smelly mess that was the carpet. I gave up the fight and sent him out the door, then sat in the kitchen contemplating my fate. I had the ruins of a rickety staircase barely hanging onto the front of the chateau, I had a large refrigerator stuck in the middle of what used to be a dining room and I had a box spring plastered against the wall that I coudn't get up the stairs to the master bedroom. And it wasn't even noon yet!

I didn't even have time to feel sorry for myself as suddenly there was another knock at the door. Someone named Bruce who had come to take away my old furnace. He also had a truck...

Out With The Old In With The New Part 1

May turned into June turned into July before I was able to return to my beloved "Chateau", however time was not wasted while I was 3000 miles away. I was on my own now as the Chateau had failed to impress my husband on the maiden voyage. In many ways I was just as happy to be left to my own devices. This was to be my undertaking, my space, my house. I took great solace in the peace I thought I would find amongst the hills and waves of my new surroundings. I was still so very tender from the events of the year before and needed a place to grieve and shed my tears in privacy. I needed a distraction and I needed to feel that I was building - or rather - re - building something. Instinctively I knew this would be a cathartic process. I had no idea then that it would become a long term, passionate love affair.

So I took mental stock of all that was missing or broken and began to make my list. Sears online and I did a robust business. A new couch and chair were in order as was a new refrigerator. Before I headed east again I arranged with Frank (a local) to come out and install a new furnace, water heater and pump. I called the lovely, ever patient Mary at the Sears depot in Parrsboro and arranged for delivery of my items. Someone would meet me at the Chateau with all my gooides the day after I returned.

Yet again I eagerly boarded the red eye to Halifax. The car rental people began to know me by name and vehicle as I happily wobbled off the 6:30AM flight. I had by now fallen into a routine. Wait half an hour for luggage (you'd think it would be faster that early in the morning!), cruise past the car rental counter - chit chat with the guy or gal there. They always asked me if I knew where I was going. I always replied yes, though after no sleep on some flights (when the Maritime boys came back from Fort Mac and were a bit too loud for me to drown out with headsets) I wasn't as sure. I always got a 4 door with lots of room for luggage as I was hauling all kinds of gems from the homefront in Alberta. Extra dishes and pictures and knick knacks. Things belonging to my mother that would have a new life out east. New bedding. New tablecloths. A maritime flavoured wreath from Winners (why I thought they wouldn't have a shell wreath in Nova Scotia escapes me!) I was nesting!! Off I would go - stop at the Timmy's for coffee (double double) and an apple fritter and down the highway I would drive. I'd get the Halifax Chronicle to read once I got "home" and either drove along in blissful silence - breathing in the moist morning air - or I'd crank up the CD and sing along at the top of my lungs. All to celebrate the joy I felt at being in this place.

I didn't care that the furnace didn't work. I didn't care that there was no water. I was free to be with my thoughts and to do what I needed to do in order to get past these untimely partings. Many conversations were had with both my friend Gerri and with my mother on these drives to my reprieve. I would drive up the hill and stop in front of the by now, very wiggly stairs. Turn the key in the lock and...I was home.

A Less Than Spectacular Review

No water - the culprit was a broken ancient water pump - no heat - and wandering into the former dining room it was discovered that the previously working refrigerator had decided to spew all its cooling fluid down the back of the wall. I could have cried!

However, putting on a brave face I called my realtor - well... I tried to call my realtor. Of course part of the charm of the Chateau that I had been crowing to everyone about was that it had no phone, no fax, no internet. Which is a good thing - unless you want to make a phone call. I tried calling from the porch, I ran upstairs and stuck my head out the bedroom window. I ran across the hall and stuck my head out another window. All to no avail. There was indeed no cell service at the Chateau. Drove down to the beach and finally reached Betty Ann who was sympathetic but reminded me that it was a long weekend. Unlike Alberta, folks in Nova Scotia had the good sense not to work long weekends - or Sundays for that matter! It's part of why I loved the place. Right now however I was wishing that someone would show just a little initiative and be a keener.

Tried the contractor who came out to inspect the place, tried a plumber who was recommended - no answer. (Smart man!) Tried an electrician. Tried every person she gave me. No one was home. Deflated I sank into one of the vinyl recliners in the livingroom. My husband gingerly placed himself in the one on the other side of the room, wiping his hands and the chair with a wet ones. Things were not going well.

Undaunted I said, "well let's at least get the mattresses upstairs". Yes, the mattresses had in fact arrived and were completely (to my delight) covered in plastic. We hauled the top mattress up the staircase and deposited it near the master bedroom door. Down the stairs I ran to retrieve the box spring. Up the stairs and I was pulling furiously. I yanked and tugged and gripped, confused as to why things were not moving. My husband urged me to pull harder and he shoved from below with all his might. After about ten minutes of trying every angle to ensure the most clever trick possible, we were once more defeated by this, my most lovely love. This old house clearly had her tricks. A quick measurement of the mattress and then of the opening up to the top floor gave us the sorry news. The box spring was 2 inches too big for the opening. The only way to get it through was to tear open the ceiling. To me this was not even a remote option.

Nothing left to do but go to the beach. Heavy sigh. No one had mentioned the black flies.....