Update, for Sue. Even though you know everything, now you can read it.

I am living plan B. For being a backup plan, it’s pretty fantastic. Although when it snows I do miss the thought of being cozy by the fire in a house boat on the land, this is probably a better option for us both in the long run. So…I am in Boston. Michael and I are living in a 3 bedroom apartment in Brookline Village with 2 other awesome roommates. Michael is going to school and has an internship at the TDBanknorth Garden doing cameras/sound for the Celtics which he absolutely loves, and I am currently job hunting. Looking for a job has been frustrating, but as tax returns are creeping towards my bank account, I am feeling better about things. I’ve also been in the beginning process of applying to law school for the fall. We will see I suppose.

Boston has been great. I love walking places. Growing up in a place where there weren’t sidewalks(which made sense, considering everything was at least a 15 minute drive from everything else), it’s a nice change. I feel more active. I sold my car, so my feet, the t, commuter rails and the Amtrak are how I’ve been getting around. The T systems is pretty lousy for someone who needs to be somewhere on time, but considering my situation, (never needing to be anywhere on time, or I suppose, never needing to be anywhere) I don’t really mind.

Events since Boston:

I have been taking classes at a hot yoga studio, but I recently quit because it sucks. Don’t ever do it.

I am making friends. I have…like 5.

Our plants like it here! But my fish didn’t, they all died.

Cover letters, resumes, one interview, one on going hiring process with 189 steps

I discovered a beautiful pond that I run around when there isn’t snow!

I have been playing a lot of music.

Richie and I visited our cousins who live not so far from here, fun!


Okay, if I think of more to write, I will. To wrap it up, we have moved to Boston and we love it. Everything is falling into place for Michael, and I’m thinking that my turn will be soon too. Things certainly happen for a reason, and although at times I think fondly of our boat, Henry J, I am glad to be sitting in a warm, lit, comfortable, BIG apartment.

The final countdown

Our countdown is finally coming to an end, only 3 days until the boat is finally here. In the meantime, we have been working away at our outhouse which I personally think is better than any regular bathroom I have ever been in. We worked on it all day yesterday, and minus the pounds of dust, sawdust and small evil animal nests we inhaled it went incredibly well. I think Michael sneezed well over a hundred times but he seems to be feeling much better today. Minus the rash he got from a weird gray fuzzy plant.

Yesterday felt like a makeup day for all of the pain in the butt things that have been happening to me lately. I go to the store, and I buy the wrong thing or I forget something and have to go back. I cant find something and spend hours searching for it and end up never finding it. I put something down and immediately forget where I set it. For some reason, nothing has been easy. Yet miraculously, yesterday everything worked. It was bizarre. Michael said, well, we should probably go out and look for some type of shower base. We talked about it for awhile and then went to my grandmothers to stop in and she said, now, if you go in the basement, I think there is a shower down there that we just took out if you need it. And it was perfect, literally. We wanted to find some type of weird bowl for the sink, and we found the perfect one in a dusty cupboard. We talked about how we wanted to get some blue plaid fabric for curtains, and as I went into the bathroom at my grandmothers, there was a plastic tote with 2 types of blue plaid, more than enough for 4 curtains. The whole day went like that. We even cut down this impossibly high branch with a limb hand saw. I really didn't see that working out, but we did it. I hope our luck doesn't fade, we still have a ton of work to do.

Video of the inside!

We have a lot of work to do....but it's awesome! It starts in the kitchen and ends in our bedroom. There is a bunk room at the very front that we are completely taking out and we'll have much more space...well....not much more, but more. Enjoy!

Packing Outhouses and Food

September 27th. Or so we think. I won't even begin to think we can get it moved the 22nd, even though they said there was a good possibility we could. So September 27th will be the day. It seems so far away, but there is plenty to do in the meantime. Michael has started moving out, my stuff is still all packed away in the garage, and I think we're going to be moving everything up to camp next week. (Camp is where the boat is going...for those of you who don't know) During the forever until we actually get the boat, we're going to be working on our beloved outhouse. Crescent moon and all, we are going to be making an old ice shack into our bathroom. There are fish drawn all over the wall, unneeded shelves and benches, and I'm sure there are squirrels, mice, and other things I don't want to think about living in there, but we're going to get it in tip top shape in the next week and a half. We're going to make a toilet seat out of that blue insulating foam board, a friend told us that it never gets cold which makes sense I suppose. It's going to be freezing in there in the winter, so we're going to have an electric heater that we can plug in inside the boat before we go out. We're also installing a shower which will most likely be a summer only deal, unless we can figure out a crazy water system that won't freeze.

In packing news, we recently discovered that over 3/4 of our belongings are kitchen utensils, pans and baking stuff. We've tried to cut down our belongings, but considering how much we love food and cooking, everything in the kitchen is a necessity. I think we're going to have enough soup this winter to last us a lifetime, simply because the atmosphere calls for it. Soup, tea, hot coffee, hot chocolate and ice pops. Just kidding, the closest thing to ice pops in our boat will most likely be us. I think I'm going to become a master of baking sweets over the next few months. Our relationship works primarily because he cooks dinner and I make dessert. Period. He even got a legitimate wok since we both love love love any type of asian vegetable stirfry. Even if we are freezing, we will make up for that discomfort with a constant supply of delicious food. While we're on a food note, we have also been thinking a lot about trying out vegetarianism. We don't eat a lot of meat as it is, so it wouldn't be very difficult. I'll keep you posted on that one, considering my mouth is watering as we speak at a roast chicken my mom took out of the oven. Oh how I love coming home.

Anyway, that's the current update. I feel bad that I haven't written in a week, but I'll be pumping out entries when we finally have our house where it's supposed to be! Feel free to write any ideas, we would appreciate any help we could get! Also, if anyone has or knows anyone who has a small/medium sized wood stove lying around, we have been all over craigslist looking for a decent one, and it's already getting chilly out!

And we wait...

Of course, the morning of the day to move OUR boat, the hydrolics on the trailer blew. I almost felt lucky though when I found out that the boat moved right before ours was still stuck on the trailer as of 5pm. Our boat was supposed to be moved at 1:30. I won't pretend I wasn't disappointed. It was a day of waiting around, bad cell phone reception, and sadly, no boat. Yet on the brighter side, we accomplished a lot and had a pretty good time. We bought all of our blocks, got the area ready, cut(and kicked) down some trees, and had fun riding around on the four wheeler. Michael was abnormally optimistic when we found out that we would have to wait until next week, he cheered me up in no time as we reluctantly took a step back to the excited planning phase. The best thing about this whole situation, is that next week, we will both be done working and we can move up there for good. It would have been hard to leave the boat and drive back to wait tables tonight.

That's all for now, I will write more soon! I will also upload more pictures as soon as I can get them on my computer.

Ode to Bruce

I love Bruce. He's seriously the nicest most excited about everything person I have ever met. Yesterday we encountered a few challenges. We found out that we don't have the boat stands, so we had to come up with something quick before the boat is moved on Tuesday. I talked to a lot of people about it at work yesterday, surely some poor customers who didn't really care at all as I'm rambling on about the electrical work and cutting down trees to use as support beams. You know what though? I listen to them all the time and get them 57 refills of water with extra lemon and still don't get tipped well, so I will talk all I want. I am a waitress, in case you didn't know. Anyway, I have found that talking to every possible person I can is extremely helpful. People are smart. They have connections. They have names and phone numbers. They have ideas. So throughout my eleven hour shift yesterday, I drew up about twenty different plans for a stand for the boat. However, they all involved an extensive amount of lumber which can be super pricey. One of the plans we drew out would cost us $400 in wood alone. I would cut down trees and use those before I would spend that much on wood. Seriously! So today I had planned on going up to camp and cutting down trees. On the way, I called up Bruce to talk about possibly borrowing the stands for a few weeks while we built our permanent frame. Did I mention how much I love Bruce? Not only did he brighten my day, but he saved us a lot of time, energy, and money. All we need to prop the boat up is a whole boatload(hah) of cinderblocks. They cost $1.42 each. I drew it out on the new whiteboard if you can see it. Three blocks underneath the keel, and then three 3ft stacks of blocks on either side to keep it from toppling over. We'll spend about $40. Thats more like it.

We also found a wood stove kindly donated by our friend Mike at work, and as of this morning, everyone in my family is cool with our project. That was super important to us considering it is my whole family's land. I'm sure they are all thinking it is completely crazy(okay...it is...a little) but they have all given me the same kind of response. Its the shaking of the head "Okayy Emily" in that higher tone of voice as if they are saying "You are insane but if its going to make you happy then I guess go ahead and do it.." Which I appreciate. I have just had to promise everyone that we won't freeze to death. Or burn the boat down accidentally.

Michael and I are really excited. This is finally coming to life now. Henry J is seriously all that we have needed. This summer has been pretty hectic, we were both working a alot, Michael especially, and thinking about going through the winter the same way was exhausting. When he first brought up the idea of living in a boat, I was on it. And when I say on it, I mean I talked about it constantly for about three days and put a crazy ad on Craigslist. We both came to life when we were talking about it. Even though it was just an idea at the time, we needed something to think about that wasn't work or bills. When I started getting emails, it became even more real. And now, when I say on it. I mean literally on it. We will be on it, on Tuesday. On our boat. In our new house.

Getting a Whiteboard

I need to buy something for the boat. It's been hard waiting but I really don't have space to store anything nor do I know what to buy. So today, I'm going into town to buy a whiteboard. Michael mentioned it the other day. He thought we should have one to write our plans and phone numbers and things we need to buy. So I'm going to get the biggest one I can find and we'll start writing down our plan of attack. Once the boat gets there of course(which is only 5 days away), the list goes a little something like this:
...keep in mind...there will be many changes and surely more things added in between. Oh the beauty of a dry erase board!

1. Demolition of the interior. We are going to take out the two built in couches and the wall between the main room and the bunk room. We are taking out the bunks too to make room for the woodstove.
2. Powerwash the exterior so we don't have peeling paint all winter, and also check for cracks so we can repair as necessary.
3. Insulate everything. We will attempt to use the insulation blower that we're planning on renting...could get messy
4. Construct a hearth for the woodstove and do carpentry in the interior
5. Paint and such

And that is as far as we've gotten. My mom asked me the other night about our 5 year plan, which is nonexistent. We are on a 5 step plan as of now. After that we will be making it up as we go.