Oh yeah!

We have been so used to making do and doing without, here at the church, that we forget sometimes how far things have progressed. It brings moments of humour. For example, my husband was about to head upstairs to the bathroom when I reminded him that we now have a functioning bathroom on the lower level. Oh yeah! He'd forgotten! I fumbled my way down the stairs in the dark a few times before remembering that we've had lights installed in the stairwells. I forgot and overpacked clothing because I forgot the washing machine is hooked up now, so I can do laundry halfway through our stay. There's a stove hood vent with a functioning fan that I completely forgot to use when cooking. We're so used to doing without heat and light and other essentials that it's astonishing when things actually function the way they're supposed to. It will take some time to get used to it all, and to trust things to keep working.

There is an element of trust to it, too. Each time we drive up from the city, we wonder aloud what disasters we will encounter when we arrive. Has the sanctuary ceiling collapsed again? Has a tornado taken the whole thing out and scattered asbestos across the countryside? As soon as we get to the church, we tiptoe around and scan the whole place to look for water in the basement, a defunct sump pump, or at least a dead fridge. But no, it's all okay, everything is fine, there's nothing to fix, nothing to scramble to deal with. Everything is as it should be. There's no emergency. And that's the most astonishing thing of all! It will take getting used to.

When to make the leap?

We now have occupancy permission for the church, other than the balcony, which needs a higher railing. After three years of work and waiting, I'm suddenly caught off guard. There's nothing theoretically stopping me from moving in now. But suddenly there are all kinds of thoughts and questions to sort out that I haven't wrangled yet. 

When do I jump from city to village? What do I do with my city house? Am I ready to leave my current garden (my happy sanctuary for 20+ years) to establish a new one from scratch in Warwick? The plan has always been to rent out our city house and not sell it. Do I truly entrust my home and garden to a renter? I can't possibly ask a renter to deal with our Hedge-from-Hell, so I'll still need to come do the pruning 3-4 times a summer. I still have to go into the office in Toronto occasionally, and my husband has band 2-3 days a week, which means we need a place to stay when we come back to the city. If we rent to our children, that would solve that problem -- we could just crash with them when we come into town. We only have one car, so coordinating our trips into the city will take some creativity. Do I move all my stuff up to Warwick or leave some of it behind for when we're in town or for the kids to use? Do the kids even want to rent at this point? A lot has changed in their lives too, in the last 3 years. A swirl of questions!

No doubt it will all get sorted out. But I suspect I've focused almost entirely on the physical aspects of preparation and not enough on the emotional/mental. Can you imagine the look on my husband's face after he's put so much labour and money into readying this church, and I say "Yes, but I can't move yet. I just planted the garlic!"