House Refit, Version Vermont

It’s weird to sit here watching the breeze on the water through newly-plastic-free screens. Across the lake the dinner bell is ringing on a porch I’m intimately familiar with, so familiar I can feel the rope of that bell and the weight needed to get it to ring.

It’s weird to look at the house and plan changes, weirder still to find notes from childhood versions of gone-too-soon relatives.

*We need a cork board to pin up finds like this.*

I’m slowly getting used to this version of life, where Jeremy and I work on work work in the mornings (okay, he works all day) with a lunch break on the deck together. Afternoons are for errands for me, or phone calls or house projects I can tackle without him. Then, after the work day ends the house project work begins.

It’s like what happened when we did the kitchen in the Virginia house; more pertinent, it’s what will happen when we finally get to the boat. Stack 2 full time jobs into one day with visual progress coming in spurts.

Here, Jeremy’s focusing (right now) on the plumbing. He’s run miles of pex tubing in a crawl space that’s wildly reminiscent of Calypso in head room, gotten a new water heater ready to be hooked up, and is cutting into plaster walls right now to run a more modern version of plumbing to the washer/dryer.

He’s fairly certain there’s asbestos in the crawl space. Good thing he brought his respirator.

Dinner runs on the late side, after a late cocktail hour that may or may not involve kayaks on the lake. The first time we did that, we wound up staying out late chatting with others from across the way who also had the idea of sunset on the water. There’s a version of the cruising community right here, even for people who have never contemplated living on a boat.

Northern Vermont feels so very far away from open ocean and our trusty sailboat. Elements of life aboard abound here, from the grocery shopping adventures with different ingredients to the slow pace and essential nature of observing nature. There’s the work aspect too, the need to chip away at some larger projects while other small ones can be ticked off in an afternoon.

For now, though, the loons are calling.

And the sunset rainbow sang to me on my birthday.