where others come for vacation ...
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We've had an uneventful first night at our Home. We managed to sleep comfortably after a hectic day. To our pleasant surprise, it wasn't too cold inside. The cats find their own comfort spots for the night. Morning finds them both sitting in our bedroom -- waiting for us to wake up & feed them. We have decided to keep the cats indoors for at least a month, so they get accustomed to their new home and not try to go back home to their old apartment in Beckenried.
Lukas needs to go back to Beckenried for pretty much the whole day on various errands. He slips out quietly ensuring no cat manages to get out. I get busy unpacking and settling down. Nellie shows up now & then.. curious about what I'm upto.. sniffing into the open boxes, playing with the packing papers, meowing to offer me her support. It's late in the afternoon & i suddenly realise, i haven't seen Skylar all day. I look for her all over the house, under the beds, amidst the boxes, closets.. she's nowhere. I call her quite a few times, but only silence.. No meows.. Where could she be?
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Today we're ready to make the "400 year old House" our Home. Our day starts very early, finishing the last minute packing. The Packers and Movers arrive promptly at 7:00 AM. Soon the dismantling, packing and loading is in full swing. There's intermittent rain in the forecast and I'm a little worried. The Movers' trucks cannot be driven to the House. The construction road to the House from the Parking is pretty steep, so we have made arrangements with the neighbour farmer to use his Agri-Transporter for the last leg of the journey. If it rains hard, it will not only make the road slippery, but will also soak the goods during the transport.. Anyways.. there's no other way out.
The cats are not having a good day, their comfort zones are being stripped away one after another. Lukas takes them to the laundry room, so they're at least out of the way of the movers.. and in a safe place.
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In Numbers:
- 7 months of Renovation (Kitchen, Bath, Roof, Electric & Sanitary Retrofit)
- 12.5 tonnes of waste disposed
- 3.5 tonnes of natural mortar used to stabilize the 70cm thick Stone wall
- 1.15 tonnes of handmade clay floor tiles for Kitchen Floor
- 11.5 tonnes of clay roof tiles covering 158 m2
- 10 contractors (7 of whom we wouldn't hire anymore)
- Countless hours of research & trips to hardware stores
- 1 Man with a Vision... (Architect/Designer/Builder and more...)
Today, this 400 year old House is ready to become a "Home"!
Our Labor of Love, Sweat, Blood, Tears, Stress and Joy -- is finally "Move-in Ready" 
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Storm Burglind (Eleanor) made landfall in Switzerland this morning. What began as a windy morning, soon turns into gale force winds of ~150 km/h and heavy rains. The windows in the apartment are rattling so violently, I feel they will break at any instant. I step outside into the balcony.. It's hard to stand there, you almost get blown away. The howling winds have turned the normally placid lake into a raging monster, with huge waves crashing full force into the shoreline.
Later in the afternoon, after the storm has quietened, we head out to Seelisberg, to check on our "House on the Rocks". Hardly 10 mins into our drive, we have to turn back as the road to Emmetten is blocked due to uprooted trees. With crossed fingers we hope for the best in Seelisberg..
Next day, after the roads have been cleared, we're finally able to make our way to Seelisberg.. All along the road, we see parts of uprooted trees. Storm Burglind has wreaked havoc in Switzerland and has felled around 1.3 million cubic metres of wood in Swiss forests. Quite a sight awaits us when we reach closer to our House. Not only is the access road to our property blocked by fallen trees, about half of the old trees in our property have been uprooted. The "Natural Tree Pagoda" on the picnic place no longer exists, the tops of three fir trees have fallen down, one narrowly missing our roof by a couple of meters (Whew!!). The fairy tale pathway to the house from the parking is totally blocked by uprooted trees.. 