We're outta here!

The best laid plans are often misguided.

Going on two months ago, LeeMichael and I bought a quaint old farmhouse on a beautiful if overgrown lot in a nice old Yankee neighborhood. The house needed work and we happily went about planning our renovations with architects and contractors. We were anxious but excited about our renovation.

We moved into the outdated but seemingly stable house, unpacking only what we needed figuring we would be starting construction within weeks of our move in date. We happily went about touring our yard, watching new plants bloom and enjoying the newness of it all.

Then we got to late May. Construction hasn't started. The lovely blooms of our massive Rhodedendrum plants have fallen to the ground and there isn't a contractor in site (see previous post). We worked hard to remain upbeat.

But the gig is up here people!!!

About a week ago, Chris McLean quietly pulled me aside at LeeMichael's birthday celebration and informed me that our trash smelled. I thanked him and quietly took the offending refuse outside. Several minutes later, with a fresh liner in place, the smell was still offending. Well, it turns out that the 50-year old carpet in our kitchen (YES - I said carpet!!!) had finally ripened and was making noses wrinkle. We cracked a window and made the best of it, taking solace in the idea that this misguided interior design would soon be behind us.

Then Memorial Day happened. We returned home from a lovely weekend away at Lake Winnipesaukee. Cassie headed off to explore her haunts in the yard, and LeeMichael and I unpacked the car and prepared our dinner. Before eating, we decided to stroll through the yard and check out what had bloomed while we were gone. Halfway through our stroll, Cassie came running up to us - DRIPPING in blood. Once the initial shock passed, we took a closer look and determined that our mild mannered little dog had mauled an adorable but fairly large bunny in our yard. Our horror returned and we sadly cleaned up the mess and sent Cassie inside for the evening.

We then ate our dinner while watching a terrifying and disturbing movie. Now fully terrorized, we prepared for bed. Since I had been running about in Flip Flops all day, I needed to wash my feet so I sat on the edge of the tub and turned on the faucet.

Let me digress for just a moment - we have two full bathrooms in our house but neither are fully functioning. One has a broken sink and one has a very tiny and ineffective shower.

Having explained this, I was sitting on the edge of the tub that had a fully functioning bath and shower. I turned on the water and set about scrubbing away the day of grime. When I was finished, I turned the faucet and nothing happened. The realization that I now had scalding hot water pouring into the tub at an alarming rate at 11:00 PM on Memorial Day with seemingly no way to shut it off was a little much. But I was still in control. I grabbed a screw driver and after a long process of twisting, managed to get the tub completely off. I sighed, walked out of the bathroom and headed to Cassie's room to put her to bed for the evening. As I looked into her crate, I heard LeeMichael turn on the tub to wash his feet and I laughed. Not hahaha - no, that nervous, sort of crazy laugh that happens at 11:00 at night. I yelled to him that the faucet was broken, but it was too late. The water was on. I returned to the task at hand and then noticed why Cassie wasn't going into her crate.

Her blankets were saturated with bunny blood.


So, we have moved out of our little house of horrors. It was all just too much. With construction beginning imminently, it was time to surrender, take up our temporary residence with our unbelievably generous friends Meredith and Jeremy Roy and wait for the contractors to begin from afar. We are still visiting our "quaint" farm house and getting our mail on a daily basis. But until the place is properly demolished and exorcised, we are choosing to rest our heads in a less hostile environment.

We're outta here!