New Furnace!

I never thought I would get emotional about an appliance. However, I am very thankful for the new high efficiency gas furnace that was installed in our home this week. We have been waiting since September for the old furnace and oil tank to be removed, and this furnace to be installed.


It has a footprint almost 2/3s the size of the older oil furnace. The space left where the old oil tank was located will become my paper storage cupboard in the coming weeks.




The two men who came to install the furnace were wonderful. They worked for two days and did a marvelous job. They had to drill through our foundation wall to put in the new fresh air and exhaust conduit pipes and told us that our foundation has 10 inches of concrete between the plates of the poured walls. Very solid home.

It now seems very real to me that we are home. This last big piece of infrastructure to be put in place means that I can begin to paint walls and the floor in this section of the basement, and then build my paper cupboard, with help from my husband.

I have about 20 cartons of parent size paper and numerous boxes of smaller sizes that need a permanent, accessible home.

Being able to finally put all my paper and supplies away in the basement will help me make way for actually making art again. I am hoping by the end of the month to be well on the way to having our home in order.


My heart is heavy, missing family and friends in Iowa and Cambridge, but being "home" here in Deep River has many meanings for me. My spirit is at peace in a way I have not known since living on Bluff Blvd in Clinton, Iowa all those years ago. I feel settled and anchored in my creative life in a remarkable way. My journey here is just beginning, but like our foundation, has a sturdy, well built thickness to it that is hard to put into words.

All will be well, and all will be well, and with God's help, all will be well.