Next transition

 We have been blessed by Ruth and Hugh. They allowed us to live in their house in November while they were vacationing. It's been a great place to wait out the final weeks before our house was delivered to High River.

Their basement proved great for painting productivity for both of us. I managed to do about 21 paintings during our time here; Heather has 5 different projects nearing completion.

Ruth and Hugh's Canasta decks got plenty of use. We played 2 to 3 games every single day in November. I'd like to think both of us have become better players.

Today we will focus on cleaning the house and preparing it for Ruth and Hugh's arrival tomorrow. We will depart early in the morning and drive all the way up to my sister's place near Sexsmith, an eight hour journey. Our first stop will be Mayerthorpe and lunch at Crockett House Cafe which we discovered back in September.

The reunion with Coco and Shay is going to be something special. We both miss them so much. We have never been apart from them this long.

We will make the return trip to Okotoks on Sunday and spend the next few weeks in the airbnb suite above what used to be Birdsong Studio 2.0. Thankfully, Ashlee and Josh, the new owners of our former home, had a vacancy in December that met our needs. We'll be in a super familiar spot as all the finishing touches get completed on our SEED Home. We hope to get occupancy and the blessing to move in just before Christmas. However, if there are any unexpected delays, we have the loft booked for the entire month...just in case.

Meanwhile, at our lot at 36 4th Avenue SE in High River, work continues to "button up" our house. All the roof panels got placed yesterday with a crane supplied by McIntyre Crane Services. Darcy and his crew successfully did the shallow trenching required to run power to the house. We hope to have the inspection completed and a meter installed early next week. With power available in the home, all the finishing details can start to get done: in-floor heating, bamboo flooring, tiling, counter tops, etc. 

At the SEED Homes manufacturing facility in southeast Calgary, work continues apace on Birdsong Studio 3.0. While it looks rather spartan at the moment, because of the lessons learned during the construction of our home, this second building is expected to come together more easily and quickly. 

We are at the point of having a clearer financial picture of the entire project. We are over budget owing to the big surprise of having to get water and sewer services to the property and the vital expertise that handled the complicated permitting process. However, we are still under what we would have spent if we had purchased any of the options we were considering in Okotoks. We chose a path that, while difficult, was important and in alignment with our purpose. We wanted to support a company that had a bold vision for a new way of doing modular housing. As it turns out, we ended up being their very first build. It's been an honour being part of their success story. SEED Homes was a great choice for us. We hope we have been a good choice for them. We also wanted to add value to the High River community and our new neighbourhood, and be a part of its continued renaissance following the flood of 10 years ago.

We have shared our journey in a very public way. We hope our transparency has been interesting, and maybe even useful. Heather and I haven't held back in sharing both the highs and lows. To say we've learned a little would be a gross understatement.