OUTSIDE ALMOST DONE, EH?

A few more pictures on the progress.....
Looking good now eh?

Looking Good!

Things are looking good with the house now. The siding is almost done and the stonework on the front of the house around the porch and garage is almost complete. Just 2 months and 13 days to go ....

What no letter box!?

Across the street from Neil and Sophie's red house. Notice the big brown metal box there on the curb? That is the post box. In Canada you don't have a letter box in your door, you have a pigeon-hole thing in a box like this at the end of the road. This way Postie doesn't have to go far in the freezing cold. Luckily for us our post box is just across the street. Oh, it's also where you post letters too. Very handy indeed.

Oh look! another photo of our house, now you weren't expecting that were you!

What a gorgeous view of the back yard! So pretty.

This our "MAN DOOR!"in the garage. Sounds good eh?

Hasn't our siding man got a good tan? Looks warm in Beaumont.

Red Siding

The siding is on the house. Not quite finished yet but you can tell it looks good! For the last few months we've had a few funny looks from people when we say that we are having a red house. Well, now you can all see that it's not so odd after all. In fact I think it looks really, REALLY GOOD!

In other news, Neil's dad Dale has come over from Malta for a visit. As we don't currently have a house for him to stay in he is at Chris and Annie's for the week. So far we have been over every day and BBQ'ed. Their house is amazing, an old cottage out in the sticks with the most beautiful garden you could possibly imagine. We've been watching the bunnies and the pheasants wandering around while we scoff burgers, sip wine and listen to some more of Dales tales.

Oh I forgot to say that my dodgy Knee has returned with a vengeance! I have a loose piece of bone knocking around in the joint and generally causing me a little trouble. So, I'm back on crutches, well crutch actually as I don't really need both. I'm booked in for an Arthroscopy (err... not sure that's the right word?) on Thursday 25th when they are planning on sticking a little camera into my right knee with the hope of spotting the pesky loose bit and bringing it out. It's a general anesthetic job but I should be in and out of hospital in the same day and with a bit of luck back to normal walking within a few days, we'll see. I'm supposed to be off to Germany for my cousins wedding this weekend, oh how very elegant I'll look hobbling around with my stick!

Preparations for the big move all seem to be in hand. We've got a stash of packing boxes arriving today sometime and Neil has enlisted the ever helpful Dale to help us sort out what needs packing and what still needs ebaying. We still have two rows of three airplane seats available if anyone is interested?? Doogy is acclimatizing to his travel crate, He's been sleeping happily in it for about a month now. We've not tried him with the lid on yet but he defiantly knows that it's his bed. I'm actually quite jealous of the amount of space he'll have on the flight over to Calgary. If only the airlines stipulated that humans must have enough room to lay down and turn around too!

My Mum has booked flights to come over to Canada for a visit. She and Winnie will be arriving on 25th October and staying for a full 10 days which means they'll be with us for Halloween and my birthday! Its good to know that when we say goodbye in August (sniffle, sniffle) that it won't be long before we see eachother again.

Kate and Paul have finally signed their contract for The Boathouse in Upnor and should be able to move in in a couple of weeks. Miss Jerry Lee is going to love it there, she'll have a cat-flap once again and no more noisy traffic. Also she'll be near her ex Mummy and Daddy again so hopefully we'll be able to see her a bit more before we go.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

We have our visas! Yeah!
We actually got them last Thursday but it wasn't until we got them home that we realised they had spelt my name wrong. I was distraught! The visa was for a lady called Sophine?! Anyway Neil saved the day by queing for 5 hours the next morning at the Canadian High Commision where they stamped both of our visas CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE and issued us some nice new ones. So now we're all sorted and ready to go and become permanent residents of Canada, Yipeee!