Finally!

So we can finally say we are proud owners of 50 acres of Cape Breton. We have confirmation that we closed on the purchase this past Monday 19th March 2007. From having an acceptance on the offer on this house on the 17th March last year, things are progressing very well.

On the left here you see an approximation of what the house will look like. It will be 50 feet wide by 34 feet deep and will be in three bays 18 feet wide. Thank you Matt and AJ for putting the plan of your house on Downshiftme , and instigated Jerry to work on ours using the same software, well done Jerry!!! Jerry has also added the house to GoogleEarth, so we can see how the house will look on the lot. What we need to do is work out how to attach that to the Blog.

At the front next to the glass we will have a planter bed which all adds to the inner workings of a passive solar house, and will give us all year round tomatoes amongst other things.

Now we know that once the snow is gone we can start marking out the site and get started with the digging. Jerry has two brothers in his class, who are part of a family business, who we hope to use to get the foundations completed. Today I also found someone at work, whose partner works in an electrical company, and who we can purchase what we need at cheaper prices through them. So now all we need is more of everything cheaper.

At school Jerry is going to be involved in a project for the local pathways association for Cape Breton, due to being a swot, and ahead of the other groups, and it involves building some structures for storage, and as such these will have roofs. Yes a building that has a roof, and why is this surprising, they are not supposed to do roofs until next year. Well by doing roofs this year, Jerry will be prepared for roofs in readiness for our own house, which is marvelous truly. The tutor knows that this is pushing things in our favour, so that we will not have anything holding us back to complete the house. This is saying a lot since we haven't started yet. The ground is still rock solid so we are not in a position to start yet.

The other news is that my sister (Gemma's sister in Toronto) as in Brenda, has invited me to go with her to Wales for our Mother's birthday at the end of May for a week. So having been ill, and feeling so poorly, this is something wonderful to look forward to. And of course here we are in our early 50's able to be daughters and childish again, and drive our mother crazy for a week. I will be going to Toronto first, so we can fly to the UK together, and this way I will get to see her Condominium again, which she is currently renovating. This is the sister that may have a waterfront cottage called Green Acres at one end of our land.

And the last bit of news, is an update on the health situation, which is the final results from the tests that were done in the first hospital visit. I am below a third level on my Vitamin B12, and without it you can find the following: fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, intermittent constipation and diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, menstrual symptoms, psychological symptoms, and nervous system problems, such as numbness and tingling in the feet and hands.
Of these I have the fatigue and weakness, loss of appetite, and weight loss, and sometimes the numbness and tingling in the feet and hands. The other issue was Iron Overload, and this shocks me as someone that has suffered from anemia most of her life, so that can cause fatigue, weakness, weight loss, joint pain, and abdominal pain, and I have all but the latter two. So do you see why I could say 'I weigh almost nothing' now, is dealing with these issues going to mean those days are numbered. I know I have to of course, as health is more important than the waistline. Either of these if left can rot the brain due to lack of oxygen, or arthritis. So I will be a crazy old dear doddering about, and we can't have that now can we.

The final news form Cape Breton today, is last night/this morning's storm. We had quite the storm overnight, although not too much snow in the end, but the Causeway was a whiteout first thing, and the wind pretty much turned over a truck. There were two accidents, and it was escorted traffic for many hours even after the road was cleared. So it was the talk of the day as to what had actually happened. We are fortunate that neither of us have to go over the causeway for work or school, so don't have to deal with this only way on and off the island.