Still down in the weeds...

Quite literally, we are still overwhelmed by weeds right now - in the backyard.

We learned that our house had been owned by a 90-year-old man who only had use of one arm. Needless to say, not a lot of yardwork was done, for many years. The backyard, consequently, looks like this:



Which is pretty, and all - if you're going for a meadow, which we are not. To make things even better, we still don't have a shed, so all of our ugly stuff (lawn mower, snow blower, wheel barrow, shovels, snow tires, etc.) is strewn about the lawn. We also have an assortment of things that were broken in the move (a dresser, our barbecue) perched precariously on the weed-choked patio. All in all, our backyard looks so "white trash" that I expect one of our daughters to turn up pregnant any minute now.

Meanwhile, our garage is crammed with empty boxes (and boxes filled with paper) from all the things we have been able to unpack.

We'll call the moving company to collect the recyclables next week. In the meantime, our basement is crammed with boxes and, well, stuff, that does not yet have a home in our house.

On a brighter note, Steve has been working like a fiend to get everything hooked up, installed, and running. Almost nothing was "plug & play:" the stove and dryer needed new connectors; there was no water connection for the fridge; there are, in fact, no toilet-paper holders in any of the bathrooms; and there is not enough built-in storage anywhere. Here he is in his basement workshop:

I can't tell you how many hours (or how many dollars!) we've spent at Canadian Tire, Home Depot and IKEA.

Despite all the chaos, we enjoy being back in Ottawa. We've spent a great evening with Steve's sister and her husband, had a few good visits with Katie and her boyfriend, and even had a day at the beach.