And now. . . waiting til December 10th

December 10th. Final. Moving. Date. Period.

Our moving dates have been moved at least three separate times, in part due to the (unfinished) state of the house, but also due to impending sharp increases in our rent at our apartment. We're staying in a ski resort apartment, and were under the impression that as soon as winter/Christmas season kicked in, the rent could as much as double to quadruple. So we were anxious to be out of here before that happened.

Fortunately for us, winter has not yet arrived in Lillehammer/Hafjell! We've had heavy frosts, -0 C temperatures, but no snow. It has also been an incredibly dry September, October and November, and for this we feel incredibly lucky. Any other year Erik would be moaning about the lack of snow. Not this year. It's nice to have him on my side for once. Our carpenter and his son have been outdoors on the roof for the past few weeks, and we're so grateful it hasn't been sleeting on them for the past 3 weeks. I'm not sure how much that would have slowed things down. We've also had piles and piles of crap in our driveway--the wood from the old porch and tearing down the walls, windows, a mountain of old, nasty insulation, pipes and metal and a refridgerator. . . thank goodness it didn't snow on all that. We (well, Erik) took no fewer than  six trips to the dump today with a trailer. (To my credit, I was along for two of those. And only one dump employee teased me about my face mask, worn to prevent me from gagging over the stench).

Siding and windows in place. Patio door arrives tomorrow. . .
(House will be painted red in the spring).

Living room is sheet-rocked! 

Sunday night with sheetrock and a cordless drill. 

Progress is being made. As shown above, we have windows in place and our patio door arrives tomorrow. The roof is intact. House is nearly completely insulated. Living room and our bedroom are 95% sheetrocked. Greta's room has its first coat of actual paint (pink. That's another story). The downstairs bath is tiled and the miscolored tile replaced. The mudroom/entryway/vindfang (windbreak) has its tiles in place. We have lights installed in the mudroom and "piano nook". The plumber is working on the furnace and soon to lay the warming cables in the floors. That's right folks: it's 0C and we're working without heat. I wear--and I'm not kidding here--5-6 layers on my torso. Usually something like this: wool, wool, polypro, polypro, fleece, fleece. 

So. . . December 10th. . . here we come.