Fingers Crossed - Kit Home Update

Things move s.l.o.w.l.y. We had a letter a while ago saying that the kit will arrive on the back of a truck in the week beginning the 6th of October. Funnily, that Monday is a public holiday, so I imagine if they're gonna load it onto the truck on the Tuesday, the earliest it will get here is Wednesday 8th. And that's if we're first on the list!

Friday before last another envelope from PAAL arrived. Preliminary council plans. I went all quivery looking at them. I showed the kids and "which window is my bedroom?" was their primary - nay, only - response. I think they understood the N/S/E/W views of how the outside of the house will look far better than the floor plans.

Mr Y emailed our reply in the affirmative that the plans met with our approval. Now all I think we do is wait for the fully-sanctioned, proper council plans in quadruplicate to arrive.

Then Mr Y has the task of getting quotes from the concreter, plumber and electrician.

The plan is to get the electrical wiring in place, but having a source of electricity will have to wait some months. Hopefully we'll get it sorted before next winter. But over summer we'll only have the generator for occasional power use, e.g. washing machine, power tools. I expect that we'll be using candles or lanterns of some sort for night lighting. We'll have to sort out refrigeration, too, because summer 44km from a supermarket will make life interesting, especially as I have no idea what state our proposed vegie patch will be in at any given time.

I've been thinking of compiling a list of meal options based on pantry items that don't need refrigeration, just in case. Things like dried beans, pasta, lots of tins, supplemented by a bi-weekly trip to the supermarket for fresh food, e.g. buy just enough meat to cook that night. We'll have some sort of fridge, one of Dave's projects is to research alternatives, but it won't be as commodious as the current 420-litre upside-down fridge. And we may not have a freezer compartment.

One meal that comes to mind is pasta with bottled past sauce and a tin of salmon or tuna thrown in. If we can add a home-grown salad on the side, that's one meal in the fortnight! And Dave does a lovely flat bread cooked in a frypan, so if we run short of store-bought, that could fill the gap.

I'm a reasonable cook, so we won't go hungry, but we'll be eating differently from what we do now. I've surprised myself by realising that I don't see any of the changes that we'll be living with as limitations, rather that I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'm just desperate to get away from the insidious lethargy that I suffer from when I live in rental accommodation. I can't make the house how I want it, I can't make a garden like I want it, I feel guilty when the kids mark the walls, aaaaggghhhh - I'd rather live in a bluddy hut. Fortunately our house will be far better than a mere hut :)