It is a very exciting day! 1. We passed the building inspection of our house, which is a resonating “yeehawwww!” echoing through the ridge tops, rattling all those stick-like burned trees with a joyful ring!  I just went up to give our very talented builder Ryan a big handshake and made him a last celebratory cup of coffee-in-a-jar, as I did through all the cold weather last Autumn, Winter & Spring ~~ but in the new kitchen.  I will miss him, for he has rebuilt our house and been around in our lives for four seasons now.   2. Today has rained a second time in three days, a gentle early morning rain, and a good soaker, so I am feeling utterly relaxed because I can (almost, but not fully) shake off my wildfire worry for a little while. 3. Autumn Equinox is coming very soon, my favorite time of year, and with the full moon waning, and with all the damp spicy forest smells that are about I just can’t imagine a better mood. Got coffee? 5. Yes, I have coffee. Buttered toast?? 6. Yes, yes, lots of buttered toast. All these reasons to post a very sincere Life Is Good in the closing.

Okay. Some of the things which are not so exciting: We won’t be moving into our house for a week or so, because it just isn’t ready, although the building company has completed their agenda and all inspections passed, we now have the weeks rolling out ahead of us to do the finish work at a less stressed, and more leisurely pace, such as installing all the interior doors which will be so nice! Also, there’s a formality of a county engineer approving our new road we had to put in to comply with all the new fire codes, but that is like nothing to keep me from feeling we are there, we have arrived.  Likely in a couple of weeks we can begin inhabiting our new home, even if it takes another year to be fully finished. But you can bet that I will be spending all my time in the house doing things I have had to wait to do. Oh, such as start a quilt, or pot up some plants and put out on the new deck, and get a mattress in the loft room so I can take restorative naps while contemplating the complexities of new knitwear designs! Boy do I need some restorative napping. I was about to go seriously AWOL last night that we couldn’t move in THE DAY of our inspection, or the weekend coming… was frothing at the mouth and my eyes bugging out… but (sigh) after the rain came again, and I had a good sleep on it, I rise today with determination to celebrate this monumental accomplishment with nothing but gratitude.

Another thing I have put off but am now keen to do is to finish painting the kitchen the sienna glaze over the pale yellow (faux old building, like I did in the loft) and paint the bedroom upstairs over, from a what-was-I-thinking green, to a calming mossy green. And you can bet I want to finally start a quilt on my new old sewing machine. Not just one, but a series of little lap quilts to start, and maybe a table runner and the like, nothing too daunting as I overwhelm so easily these days. The things I look forward to most of all I can start doing, for there is room and freedom enough to do what I like in the house now is setting up the ironing board — one of those old wooden ones which was given to me from an antique shop right after the wildfire — and learn ironing the old fashioned way like my mom used to do , and iron the linen clothes I’ve been squirreling away in boxes to keep away from the wild mice in the shed, and one by one . . . (wow, this is so emotional) . . . hang the washed & ironed clothes on my (re)collection of old wooden cleaner-advert hangers, on a long closet dowel, and even with room to skate the hangers around!    To wash the sheets and then ritually hang out to dry on clothes line in the clear Autumn breeze, then make the bed without a worry  of so many lurking spiders  and without my having to tromp on the bed as I make it (as it is done in the tiny house) ~~~ O, dream of dreams, what ecstasy that will be!

I have learned in these last near two years, what is fundamental to my life.
Just as the days when I use to backpack for a week in the High Sierras, when in those wild days of trekking in harsh and exposed high altitude environment what etched into my memory most was perspective of what is essential and what is luxury. Essential only is a bed, food, water. The rest is luxury I tell you!   Running hot water from a faucet, a flushing toilet, a stack of cast-iron pans to cook on, clean sheets on a freshly made bed, and a good amount of ink in a pen with a small bit of paper to write ~~ all elements of pure opulence by comparison! Oh, and buttered toast and coffee. I have everything I need for the high life of luxury, because I have experienced a complete perspective overhaul.

Truth is, I’ve been composing this post while waiting for the county building inspector to drive up, and wasn’t going to publish until I got word that we passed the inspection — so this is a breaking news bulletin!    Life is as good as it can get about now.   Thanks everyone, for reading up on my blog, and a round of hugs to All ~~ but especially Ryan!

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