Moved In!

Cheers, everyone!

This week we hit a major milestone in the resettlement process. With the installation of our entry gates, we are moved in. The walls have been painted, the curtains have been hung, the plumbing has been repaired, we obtained health, house, and car insurance, we have a support team in place to help manage our new home, the security system was installed, our furniture is in place, and we have an Irish car. Whew! It has been a crazy four months. 

Now we will move on to the more fun aspects of moving internationally with a pet during a global pandemic. We will become tourists in our adopted country and we will embark on projects to make our house truly ours, as was our place in the US. Our first tourist stop is Galway next weekend. It's on the west coast, about 90 minutes from where we live. It will be Velvet's first two nights alone in the house. Fingers crossed that she doesn't notice our absence. 

We've enjoyed spectacular weather over the past week with almost no rain(!!) and abundant sunshine and warm temperatures. The blue sky seems to go on forever when it's clear. There is no rain in the forecast for the next week, ensuring that August will end on a high note. 

We are learning more and more about life here in rural Ireland. 

• The milk run occurs every morning at 9:30 am  
• The passenger train behind us makes three daily trips to and from Dublin
• This weekend is the big peat delivery time. We've watched a steady stream of peat-laden trailers emerge from the access road adjacent to our property to deliver this very Irish fuel source to the neighbourhood. Check out the size of these tractors in the below photo!
• The swallows have returned on their semi-annual migration. Velvet is entranced by these swooping little birds. They are very fast!

My only complaint is that I am still dealing with a very painful case of sciatica. I've never had anything like this before. The pain is pretty intense and the only way to relieve it is to lie flat. I'm napping a little and am often reminded of my mother's belief that ageing is not for the faint of heart. She would enjoy living here as much as we do. 

Sláinte!

Goodbye, July!

 Cheers, everyone!

The title of this blog should tell you how I'm feeling these days. July was a particularly cruel month for us. I won't bore you with the details but it left me very discouraged and defeated. 

I have a very unfortunate, lifelong habit of berating myself for the things that remain undone instead of finding joy in the things that I've completed. This has followed me across the Atlantic. No matter how many tasks get ticked off the To Do list, I fret over the ones that didn't. We have accomplished so much in three months! During a global pandemic. At our ages. In a country where we know nobody and the citizens are just emerging from a soul-sucking lockdown. They, too, are feeling drained and looking for something about which to be optimistic. 

I am grateful that we found some solace on the last day of this month. We returned our rental car! We signed the paperwork to lease an Audi Q4 e-Tron, an electric car that will be significantly more affordable here than our beloved Saabs. This both introduces us to the era of electric cars and allows us to begin to build a credit history in Ireland. So, a good end to a bad month. The photo below is from our drive down to Limerick today to pick up the car. 

Velvet Jane is adapting so well to her new home! She has lots of perches where she can sit or lie down to watch the birds. There aren't any squirrels here (that we've seen), but she is loving the stairs and the space, zooming through the house like a kitten on catnip. 

We continued to by stymied by the number and variety of day-to-day fees and taxes that are imposed on Irish residents. We recently learned that viewers of cable TV must apply for a TV license and renew it annually. That left me shaking my head in complete bewilderment. 

Our house painting is complete, as is the follow-on sweeping and mopping to remove the dust from sanding. We have finally begun to place furniture in [potentially] permanent places.  The process of unpacking continues, although the number of unopened boxes is small. Curtains are going up, our gate is being installed in a few weeks, same with our home security system, and eventually we will begin to introduce colour in the form of artwork that we loved in our Virginia home. 

95% done, 5% to go. 

Sláinte!

Happy Independence Day!

 Cheers, everyone!

Today is July 4th, Independence Day in America, and Sunday in Ireland. I love fireworks and will miss them tonight. Fingers crossed that we'll see some via a streaming service tomorrow. I hope that everyone who reads this post has a chance to celebrate in their favourite way. 

Summer is in full bloom here and I'm craving summer foods. My first issue was finding hot dogs and pickle relish. Apparently hot dogs are seasonal items but they eventually appeared on the shelves. I made my own pickle relish and was really pleased with it. Now, I am trying to hunt down Crisco to make a pie. It's stone fruit season here and I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and start rolling crust. My backup plan is a rustic plum tart, made from Jus-Rol puff pastry sheets. 

Our house painting is finally finished! The amount of dust from sanding is amazing. Much cleaning is needed before we can start placing our furniture in its intended space. We've been here for more than two months and our house still looks like we just moved in yesterday, except with prettier colors. I'm looking forward to having this behind us. 

Our imaginations are beginning to wander as we survey our yards. We aren't used to having this much space and it's allowing us to consider things we never could have in Virginia. My top two wants are a stone labyrinth and a gazebo in the back yard. I find walking labyrinths to be so comforting. The idea of having one in my back yard is exciting. Below is a photo of the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, one of my favourite places. The gazebo would be a lovely reading nook on warm days. Finding tradesmen has been an enormous challenge. During the Covid lockdown, so many projects were put on hold. Now, as we gradually emerge, the providers of carpentry, stonework, painting, etc. are overwhelmed with requests. It's good for them to catch up on the lost work due to the pandemic.  

We have faced some unexpected sad turns over the past two weeks.  

I developed some sciatica on my right side. I've never had it before and am surprised by how much it hurts. I went to our GP, who dispensed some pain killers that make me sick to my stomach. So I'm stretching every day in an effort to tamp down the pain and eventually end this. 

I learned this week that a friend of mine from America is critically ill. I've spent a lot of time contemplating what I would do in her situation. She is so stoic. I pray for relief for her. 

After working diligently to obtain exemptions from import fees for our cars, we learned that it will cost €4,600 (about $5,000) annually to register our two daily driver cars. Ireland is aggressively moving to a zero carbon output from cars, which we support. We just didn't expect to have to support it with so much taxation. We will likely ship them back to the US, where our Swedish team of mechanics have buyers lined up for them. That is a bit of consolation for a larger loss. Then we'll purchase an electric vehicle, a whole new world for us. 

We continue to fall in love with this beautiful country. We met more neighbours this week. They told us about when they shook hands with former President Obama when he visited Moneygall, a village about five minutes away from us. They were so excited! They stood in line for more than 12 hours to get tickets to meet the Obamas. Maura said that Mrs. Obama was "a real lady", someone she could speak to for hours. I do enjoy the warmth that Ireland feels toward America and Americans. 

Happy Fourth!

Sláinte!

So much light!

 Cheers, everyone!

I'm not certain of the proper greeting today for residents of the US. It's Juneteenth and the inaugural observance of this federal holiday celebrating the emancipation of African American slaves. I'm looking forward to seeing posts from my Facebook family and news reports of how the day was commemorated. 

Here in Ireland, we are having a glorious start to summer. The sky lightens around 4 am and does not get fully dark until nearly 11 pm. For sun lovers like me, this is heaven. Here's a photo of our back yard that I took at 9 am today. 

It looked the same at 6 am!

Thomas is struggling with this. He needs a cold, dark, silent room to sleep comfortably.  He's been wearing a heavy-duty eye mask to block out the light. It's been partially effective but there is just so much light that he hasn't been resting well. 

Velvet Jane views it as her personal responsibility to announce that morning has broken. I think she may have been a rooster in a previous life. As soon as she sees the first rays of light, she begins vocalising with her entire range of cat noises. She is a very loud cat who loves the sound of her voice. She's learned that standing in the entry area of the house amplifies her sounds. This is mildly amusing in the afternoon. At 4:30 am, not so much. She and Thomas have had some serious conversations about this, to no avail. Here's where her mornings start. 

Yesterday we hung blackout curtains in our bedroom. They were already hung in all the bedrooms when we arrived but we removed them for painting. Our bedroom is now fully painted and the furniture is in so up went the new curtains yesterday. Thomas finally got a good night's sleep! He's still sleeping, although I suspect that the recent arrival of the painters will change that soon. 

This is the difference blackout curtains make. I took the photos after the sun had moved over the house and the room is still much darker! Too bad darkness does not hide clutter. 

We continue our nomadic migrations from room to room as the house undergoes painting. The upper level is finished, except for my pink project room. The ground level is moving along. Today, the second coat will go on the walls of the entry and the sitting room will get its first coat. Then, we will move things from the kitchen/dining/sunroom area to...I'm not sure where...so the main living area can be done. We are very much looking forward to settling in - arranging furniture, hanging pictures, shopping for household accessories. (I'm probably looking forward to the shopping more than Thomas.) 

To all the dads who follow my blog, my warmest wishes for a Happy Fathers Day on Sunday! 

Sláinte!

What I Do And Don't Miss About America

Cheers, everyone! 

It's been 40 days since we arrived in Ireland! We have been on a wild ride of learning how to live in this beautiful and mysterious country. Each morning, I look out at the mountains, hear the cows moo and the birds singing, and I'm astonished that we live here. Thomas teases me that this has become my new mantra: we live here!

We've experienced one seasonal change. Summer arrived last week. The pounding rains of April and May transformed to warm, sunny days that begin around 4:00 am and end around midnight. Very long days with lots of sunlight! I woke up at 5:30 am today and almost took a photo of our back yard to show how light it is that early. Once I'm asleep, burglars could come into our room and steal the bed from underneath me - I wouldn't notice. Thomas is the opposite. Even out here in the country, he needs a cold, dark room to sleep. He still gets up for second sleep almost nightly. We're adapting differently. 

While every day is a gift here, not everything is all rainbows and shamrocks. There are some aspects of Irish life that completely affirm our decision to move here and others that are...less fun. 

What I Miss About America

The DMV - I am not kidding. The #1 thing I need right now is a surly clerk at the DMV who acts as if he or she is doing me a favour and gives me a driver's license. The process of obtaining an Irish driving license involves a written test, a vision test, and a road test. If I pass all three, I will be given a Learner's Permit. I must hold this for two years before I can apply for a "full license". During my Learner's Permit phase, I may not drive without a fully licensed driver accompanying me. I'm sitting for my written test on August 9. Ouch. Fifty years of driving with a mostly clean record and I'm back to being 16. Our cars are sitting in the garage, undriven except for an occasional trip around the house. 

Hot dogs with pickle relish - these are two foods that I have not found anywhere here. Anything that is Irish and ends in "relish" is to be strictly avoided. I would love an Oscar Meyer all-beef dog with relish. Yum. 

Food delivery - this is not an Ireland thing. They have loads of food delivery services. But we live in the country. There is one Chinese restaurant that delivers and their food suuuuuuuucks. Plus, their driver called me to ask for directions. It was ridiculous. DoorDash, we hardly knew ye. 

Knowing where everything is and who to call for what - our Irish angels, Hugh and Eileen, have been consistently generous with their time and assistance. Our neighbours have stopped by to say welcome and to offer any assistance we might need. It's really been gratifying. Today, one or our bathroom sinks started to drip from the hose. I am completely clueless about whom to call AND it's a bank holiday weekend. In America, holidays mean longer store hours and lots of sales. Here, it means nobody is working - and I mean nobody. Even our painter is taking tomorrow off. 

What I Don't Miss About America

The helicopters - living in the DC area, there were helicopters swooping overhead morning, noon, and night. Crime choppers, Pentagon brass, other DC helo-worthy folks. It was obnoxious.

Lawn mowers and leaf blowers - it seemed as though every person in our neighborhood association knew when we headed to the deck with a glass of wine and grabbed their leaf blowers. Here, our neighbour across the road mowed his lawn today and we were surprised by how quickly he finished it. Our lawn guy, Mac, appears during the week when the weather is good, does his work, and is gone. The rest of our surroundings are mostly fields. Blissful silence!

Militarised police - we needed to register our presence with the local Garda (police) station. We stopped in the Shinrone office and spoke with an official there. She welcomed us to Ireland, talked about where we are living, and asked us to come back when we have an invitation from the State (part of our visa process). A lovely woman who bore no arms and gave us lots of reassurance and numbers to call in case we need help. 

Every customer care person I have ever spoken with - sometimes I felt like I was in a jousting match with any company's "Customer Care" team. Two weeks ago, we bought a chair from Ikea, returned it because it was defective, had another delivered, it was also defective, and we called Ikea. They apologised for our trouble, picked up the offending package at our convenience, and gave us a €15 gift card for our trouble. THAT is customer service. I'm going to apply those €15 to something for my project room. 

We moved here seeking a peaceful and quiet existence. We found it! We bought a house without ever seeing it because Hugh and Eileen told us it was perfect for us. When we arrived, bleary eyed and jet lagged, we were amazed by what we own. It is much more than we expected in so many ways. We still walk around the yard, each trip ending with my saying, "We live here!". 

Sláinte!

Painting!

Cheers, everyone!

We are still unpacking - just enough to decide what needs to be retained and what will go to the local charities. Our Virginia house was packed and shipped before we settled on its
sale. This resulted in us moving linens for a bed that we left behind for the new owners. American and Irish bed sizes are different, so we're sorting through queen-sized linens for donations. 

We had no idea how many wine glasses we own. It became a joke as the movers brought in box after box labelled "Wine Glasses". We filled almost a wall of cabinets before I asked the team to just set aside the rest. Eventually the glasses will live in the sitting room after shelving is installed. And then we can truly organise the kitchen instead of randomly stacking things in drawers and hoping we remember where we put them. 

Our unpacking was also limited to what can be quickly shoved into a pile in the middle of each room. The painter arrived this week so we need to be able to quickly flip rooms from "in use" to "available". We're excited about this change. Once it's complete, we can finally exhale and start the process of actually settling in to where we will live and what we will live with. Our artwork and photos are presently packed away; we're anxious to unwrap them and see where they belong in our new home. 

Yesterday, the painters finished the two bedrooms that are currently guest bedrooms. We plan to remove the wall between them to create a master suite. Here's a photo of them that gives an idea what the combined room will look like. Next up are the bathrooms and sitting room. 

When we bought our home, the entire interior was the palest of yellow. This is not my favorite color and does not coordinate with any of the furniture we moved over. We are using some of the colors from our Virginia house and some based on those colors. 

The painter was pretty skeptical when he saw the colors we chose. Today, he and his assistant declared that the colors are perfect. The blue changes with the light throughout the day. The lead painter said, "It will look warm in winter and cool in summer!". Success! I doubt he will be so enthusiastic about my pink project room. :-) In the meantime, he's promised to paint "anything that does not move". 

Sláinte!

 

Memorial Day

 Cheers, everyone!

It's Memorial Day weekend in America, the unofficial start to summer. Many years ago, I went to Arlington Cemetery to be present at the Changing of the Guard ceremony on Memorial Day. I arrived at the exact moment when Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, were stepping out of their limousine. Times were different then; they mingled with the crowd. It seems like a lifetime ago!

All gave some. Some gave all. 

I hope that many of you have  plans to grill or share a meal with family or friends at some point over the next few days. Enjoy! Please also remember that the holiday is a remembrance of all who gave their lives in service to the nation. The past 15 months have provided us with searing reminders of how precious life is. I'm grateful that people are getting vaccinated and an end to this pandemic is almost in sight.

This is our first holiday since we left America. I feel a twinge of missing the traditions of US holidays. I want to make potato salad and I crave a hot dog. What I miss most is the music of patriotic America. I love the Sousa marches, the anthem, the host of patriotic songs that commemorate the military branches. I'm a sucker for America The Beautiful. I don't know enough about Ireland to be able to correlate America's music to what is tradition here. I'm looking forward to learning about it. 

This looks yummy!!

Instead of grilling or going to the beach, we'll spend the weekend prepping for the painter who arrives next week. We're weary from the move and the endless unpacking. On Monday, we're driving down to Limerick to shop for a guest bed and pick up some vegan cupcakes from a bakery. Not typical Memorial Day activities!

The Republic of Ireland, where we live, does not celebrate Memorial Day. It does recognise Remembrance Day, although not as a national holiday. The citizens of the Republic of Ireland (the southern part of the island) have a somewhat troublesome relationship with the British, who celebrate Remembrance Day with great fanfare. Thomas and I  have so much to learn about the history of this nation!

However you celebrate, please be safe and enjoy the time off from work if you are fortunate enough to get it. 

Sláinte!

Wired and Tired

 Cheers, everyone!

It's a chilly, rainy, windy morning here on the Emerald Isle. I'm a bit relieved that the outside is so inhospitable because it reminds me that I need a break. We have been so busy for so long that it's time for me to just sit and enjoy the time and space. 

I have a lifelong tendency to forget the things I have accomplished and focus on what is still undone. Getting documented, moving to a new country, and discovering a new house in the middle of a global pandemic was enormously challenging. Instead of looking back at that with any sense of satisfaction, I look at a box marked "Pantry" and my stomach starts to knot. 

We received a flurry of deliveries this week that demanded our attention. It's interesting to see how drivers either know our house by the shopping habits of the previous owners or simply cannot find it at all. Ireland uses a system of Eircodes, similar to ZIP codes in the US. Due to our rural location, our Eircode is specific to our house instead of a neighbourhood. Some delivery people buzz in, drop stuff off, and head straight away. Others call, asking for directions. When they hear my American accent, I sense their heart dropping and imagine them plugging our Eircode into their GPS to find us. 

We took three trips to Nenagh, a town about 30 minutes away from us, to get our Irish cell phones set up. It looks like we are both finally done with that. Neither of us has figured out how Irish phone numbers work.  

Mac, our lawn man, came yesterday to mow. The yard looks beautiful in the lashing rain that is encouraging it to keep growing. 

The FedEx box over which I fretted for weeks finally arrived this week. It did not have the two pieces of paper I was hoping I had stashed in it. More stomach knotting. 

Ikea delivered three items to us early in the week. We put together the bathroom storage. I swear, putting together Ikea items evoked more relationship tension than the entire trip over to Ireland. We persisted and succeeded in getting two of the three items done. Our bathrooms are tiny. I ordered what looked like toy furniture. They fit perfectly. The third, a test of a dining chair, will have to be returned. This requires a trip to Dublin, an hour away. 

We received a package with a water fountain in it for Velvet Jane. She refuses to drink still water, insisting on a moving stream. When we were in temporary housing, we just opened the taps in the bathrooms. We expected her to be delighted to have a fountain similar to the one we had in our home in Virginia. But she looks at it with scorn and jumps up on the sink in her bathroom, impatiently waiting for one of us to provide her with water. 

Our technology needs continue to be ticked off the To Do list. The network was in place when we arrived, thanks to the helpful previous owner who combined the removal of his router with making sure that ours was put in place. We have TV (the Sky man dismissed our Amazon Fire TV stick by simply removing it and laying it on the floor), our computers and printers function, our phones are Irish, and we are slowly acquiring appliances with Irish plugs. 

We have gotten so much done! Time for a cup of tea, a blanket, and a long, lazy day. 

Sláinte!

Week Three!

Cheers, everyone!

It's hard to believe that it has been two weeks since we left America for our new life in Ireland. The adjustment has been much less drama-filled than I expected. We are still chugging through moving chores and checking off the boxes on our To Do list, facilitated by the steady hand and ready humor of our Irish angels, Hugh and Eileen. They came to visit on Saturday, Eileen with arms full of homemade chutneys and Hugh casting an eye about to make sure we were making appropriate progress. We had tea and strudel and their planned one-hour visit extended to two, assuring me that we had done well with our first social invitation. 

Yesterday, we drove to Dublin and back to return The Beast for a more reasonably sized car. Thomas is continually surprised by how nice the Irish are. After our interaction yesterday at the car rental counter, he again mentioned it. He followed up with a comment that he's spent too much time living with lowered expectations of how service people treat their customers. Thanks to the very nice Hertz man, we are now driving a normal car. 

We both continue to be tickled by the interest the Irish have in us and the warmth of their welcoming greetings. We also are often reminded of the close-knit nature of our community. Everyone in Glasshouse knows everyone else and/or is related to them. However, the speed with which they've opened their arms to us is very gratifying. Here are a few examples. 

We stopped into the appliance store in Roscrea (the town nearest to us) to while away 15 minutes until the cell phone shop reopened after its lunch break. As I often do, I started off the conversation by explaining that we are transplanted Americans unclear about most things Irish and in need of advice on what to buy. Helen, the sales associate, eyed me carefully and asked my name. "Mary Claire, welcome to Ireland! Where would you be living?" I mentioned Shinrone. "Where in Shinrone?" I confirmed that we are in Glasshouse. "Glasshouse? Are you the Americans who bought the [previous owners] house?" Yes, I replied. "Ah, Mary Claire, that's a fine house. He was a very particular man. That house is like a fortress. He's a teacher, did you know that? His wife is also a teacher. My home place is next to Shinrone." And just like that, Helen and I were talking about why we moved to Ireland, what did we think of it, have our household goods arrived, etc. We have since purchased an iron, an immersion blender, a TV, and a cooker (combined oven and range) from Helen. She sent Patrick, the electrician, over on Saturday to deliver the cooker in preparation for its installation tonight. 

Because we are out in the country, we had to find and contract with a trash and recycling service. We chose Ryan's. The Ryan's man delivered our trash and recycling bins last week. Before he turned them over to us, he carefully wiped them down with a cloth. We stood, watching in amazement, as he turned the cloth over and over to clean each part of our trash bins. 

We ordered some pet supplies for Velvet Jane from a shop in Limerick. Limerick is officially designated as a city, a coveted designation that affords extra local governance. There are only six cities in Ireland. Hugh disdainfully refers to Limerick as "a glorified town". Any way, the pet shop sent a text that they'd be delivering our goods between 3:37 and 5:37 on Tuesday last week. Thomas commented on the specificity of the timing. When the driver arrived at 6:00, he was full of apologies. His van had broken down and he needed to locate a working one, empty the contents of the broken-down one, and restock the functioning vehicle. Never did he complain about this; he simply apologised multiple times for the enormous inconvenience suffered upon our cat by his delay. I assured him that the delay was not a problem and offered consolation for the awful day he was having. 

Then, we hired Gerard to replace the locks on our house and to key them all so that a single key would open each door. He came out from Roscrea, inspected the locks, commented on the very particular needs of the previous owner (did we know that he's a teacher?), and expressed apologies that he would have to return the following day with the lock sets. Apparently, they are not your run of the mill lock set. The next morning, he called to ask when would be a good time to return. He showed up on time and spent about 15 minutes efficiently installing the new locks. He presented us with an invoice for his services. When I asked what type of payment he would take, he responded, "Ah, just drop by the next time you're in town and pay me then". 

Today marks the end of our self-isolation period (and we have a normal car!). I will start driving to town and over to the monastery for morning walks. The peace and quiet that we held our breaths and hoped for has arrived in full bloom. I find it miraculous that I am living in this gloriously beautiful country, surrounded by nature and friendly people. 

Our next challenge is to obtain Irish driving licences. I think there will be a blog post worthy of that endeavour. 

Sláinte!

Moving Day!

 Cheers, everyone!

We are steadily adjusting to life in rural Ireland. It has been a daunting transition as we identify all the things we need (electricity, broadband and phone, gas, home/health/car insurance, doctors) and realise all those we don't (about 15% of what we moved here). Our household goods and vehicles arrived today in an explosion of activity that rocked our rural neighbourhood. We went from a big empty house to box-filled rooms of incoming stuff. 250 boxes, crates, and pieces of furniture were delivered. 90% of them were unpacked. Our two vintage cars and two "grownup" cars are here.  

The finicky Irish weather cooperated with the moving team today. The sky was brilliant blue with a few puffy clouds. To remind us where we are, the threat of a storm moved in but never materialised. We feel so lucky to be in this house in this country with our adorable (and slightly confused) cat, Velvet Jane. I would never have imagined that we would make such a drastic move at our ages and yet, I am perfectly content and thoroughly exhausted. 

I did not envy the driver of the truck that delivered our vehicles. These narrow Irish roads are fearsome in a small vehicle. 

We started the morning with a chair being revealed. A mere three hours later, every item was inside the house and I was madly stowing the kitchen parts. I need to make space for the rest of the unpacking tomorrow. Our kitchen was advertised as having "endless storage". So far, I have packed it with the contents of our kitchen, living room cabinets, sunroom cabinets, and pantry. There is room left over! The tradeoff to this is that there is no other storage in the house. 

There remains great trepidation about COVID here. Everyone wears masks, even out in the country where we live. A neighbour came by on Monday to bring flowers to welcome us. I opened the door to ask her in and she quickly backed away, with a brief "Y'know, COVID" explanation. This makes it difficult to obtain appointments for our resident visa and various car and driver registrations. The Irish are an eminently practical people. Rather than try to Zoom or phone everything, extensions are granted when proper proof of intention is provided. It is a much slower pace than we are used to and we are grateful for that. 

So, eight days in and we are beginning to feel settled. Now that we have our own bed and normal sized cars, I will start driving and we'll return The Beast. Our period of self-isolation ends if we can obtain a negative PCR test tomorrow. Some of the national lockdown prohibitions will be lifted next week, allowing us a bit more freedom in shopping for non-essential items and exploring our region. The days are long here already. It's almost 9 pm and the sun is just dipping below the horizon. 

Dreams do come true. 

Sláinte!

The Origin of Glasshouse

Cheers, everyone!

We've been resident in Ireland for four full days now. We feel like we should be able to drive from our home to the nearest village on our own. Nope. These Irish roads are full of twists and turns with no signage. We are completely reliant on GPS (SatNav in Irish). Sometimes Siri and Google disagree and we have to make split second decisions. It's a bit nerve-wracking in The Beast, the enormous vehicle we rented to make our maiden voyage to our new home. We will return it next Saturday, when our self-isolation period ends and inter-county travel is permitted. 

We have been curious about the name "Glasshouse" since we first encountered it in the online real estate listing. Were we buying a named house? No. Is Glasshouse a town or village? No. Is it a neighborhood like Ballston or Courthouse in Arlington or Foggy Bottom or Georgetown in DC? No. 

I searched in the archives of the Irish Times and found the answer. The origin of the name Glasshouse refers to buildings that were active around 1590-1640. Glass was made in vaulted buildings using wood and heat to create glass from nearby silica. 

I also searched my repository of online knowledge, Wikipedia. Here I learned that Glasshouse is designated as a "townland". According to that citation, "A townland is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland." Here is a list of all the town lands in County Offaly, where we live. The townland of Glasshouse includes 838 acres in our baronry, Clonlisk, and 134 acres in the Tullamore baronry. 

I was a little blown away after learning that we're living in an area that's been commercially active since the 16th century. The additional information about how glass was made at that time fascinates me. However, there is now zero cachet in telling the locals that I know where my great-great-great grandmother, Margaret Lyons, was born. They are not impressed. Perhaps I need to be more explicit about our location: "you know, where they made glass in the 16th century". 

Sláinte! 

Our three top picks for houses

After we made the decision to move to Ireland, we had to find a place to live. This sounded easy. I went to www.daft.ie and started looking at houses. I narrowed the number of houses to look at to 810 by having already decided on an approximate location. We eliminated...

• Dublin - much too expensive and no space to breathe
• The West Coast - similar to the West Coast of the US, the weather is severe and eventually climate change will destroy portions of it
• Cork - this is a bustling city filled with young families and industry
• The Southeast Coast - horse country; we are not horse people

We started looking at houses in July 2020. The number of houses I viewed online confirmed our selection in the very center of Ireland. I spent 19 days in Ireland in September 2020, 14 of them in self-isolation in a hotel. Then I started visiting houses. 

This is the first house we both swooned over. Look at it! A swimming pool and 1.5 acres of good Irish land. It was our first pick as the perfect house. 

Alas, there was a problem. The owners did not obtain a permit before installing the pool. A review by the Planning Commission was needed. They would spend two months deliberating whether to allow the pool to remain on the property or to remove it or to modify it. We were heartbroken but forged on. In April 2021, we learned that the Planning Commission ruled that a hazmat team was needed to empty the pool. The owners then needed to have it professionally cleaned and refilled by another hazmat team. We let out a huge sigh of relief. 

The second place we fell in love sat on a gentle rise on 1.6 acres and had a killer floor plan. All the public rooms were in the front of the house while all the private rooms sat in the back. The areas were separated by a breezeway. Again, sounds like heaven, no?

Well, it did sound like heaven, but when something seems too good to be true, it generally is. This property is owned by a gentleman who resides in England. The home is surrounded by five other homes, all owned by siblings or relatives. All five of them had to agree to cede land to the seller because the folio (land drawing) revealed that the seller did not own the land where the driveway is. If we purchased this home, we would be "the Americans who forced all the Rs to give up their land". And we'd be living right in the middle of the clan. Our solicitor warned us that we were treading on precarious ground. We backed out. 

I had been looking at the house below for months and could not get a good sense of the approach or the neighborhood. Our Irish angel (Hugh, our accountant here) and his wife, Eileen, drove down from Tullamore to visit. Hugh declared it a fine house, a description reserved for the top 5% of Irish houses. We entered contract negotiations and immediately hit a snag. 

The garage for this property was not built in the location where it was approved to be positioned. During the build process in 2007, the owner decided he wanted something bigger than approved and on the other side of the house. The dreaded Planning Commission came into play again. This time, the possible outcomes were a) do nothing/approve, b) require that it be torn down, or c) modify the building. 

By this point, we had been living in a small condo in Virginia since October 2020. It was now December. Our house in Virginia was sold and pending closing. Our dog was 16 years old and rapidly losing steam. We were tired, discouraged, and so sad that we could not find a place for the four of us. We decided to move ahead with this house. 

It took an additional four months to close on the property and be ready to move. We spent those months in our cramped condo. Our beloved poodle died in February. It took a month to schedule and prep our cat for transit. We packed suitcase after suitcase. We watched the Irish COVID guidelines change multiple times for people from "designated countries". The United States went on the redlist of designated countries a few weeks before our planned departure. We pushed on and started to obtain our cat's customs clearance (cats can only fly on Mondays into Dublin) and our COVID vaccinations. Two weeks before we left, the quarantine hotel regulation was lifted for fully vaccinated people. I achieved fully-vaccinated-plus-one-day status on the morning of our arrival. Thomas had one day more than I.

It's Thursday afternoon. We arrived at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning. We have checked the following off our To Do list. 

• met our amazing accountant, Hugh, and his wife, Eileen
• been to town three times for groceries, wine, and miscellaneous items
• gotten an Irish mobile phone
• arranged for trash and recycling pickup
• purchased a toaster, water kettle, iron, immersion blender, TV, and stove (interesting list)
• spent two hours with the previous owner to review how all the heating systems work
• met with a water treatment system specialist
• scheduled a meeting with the painting team to update the interior
• had the keys to the house and garage changed

When I look out the kitchen window, I see a field of cows. They belong to Paddy. His brother, Willie, lives on the other side of us. He has donkeys in the back yard. It seems like we've lived here forever and simultaneously just arrived. 

Sláinte! 

Why we moved to Ireland

This is a question we have been asked numerous times since we made the decision to move. Sometimes, it's phrased as, "Are you sure this is what you want?" or "Why Ireland?" or "Why not just get away from DC?". 

We chose to move to rural Ireland because...

• it is a slower-paced lifestyle 
• the rural life is familiar to Thomas
• we speak about 85% of the language
• we both have Irish ancestors
• it was a sneaky way of getting Thomas to retire
• we want to live in a peaceful country 

Once we made the decision in July 2020, it became my job to get us here. I immediately purchased a subscription to a project management tool because that is within my comfort zone. Leaving the United States involved untold hours of research on whether we could move to Ireland. There are a number of immigration schemes (scheme is Irish for method). We found one that matched our motives and pocketbook. 

Next came the truly heartbreaking decision to sell our home of 20 years in Arlington, Virginia. We had "bought" the house three times if you count the renovations and upgrades we underwent over those two decades. We added a four-car garage, gutted and rebuilt the interior, and added a sunroom in three separate construction projects, each of which left us thrilled and exhausted. Despite our deep emotional attachment to our home, our decision to sell did not change. 

We considered how difficult it would be physically for us to move. Thomas is 70 and I am 67 years old. To move anywhere other than a retirement community seemed daunting enough, but to move to a foreign country? We are unconventional people. This was typical for us. Also, we completely underestimated the difficulty of moving two senior people, one deaf senior dog, and one cat to another country in the middle of a global pandemic. I had only lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Arlington, Virginia, throughout my life. Thomas has lived in more places and was raised in a semi-rural environment in upstate New York, so this was marginally less traumatic for him. We reminded ourselves that when we team up, we are unstoppable. 

After nine months, thousands of emails, dozens of phone calls, seven months spent in a cramped condo while our house was sold and our lives were shipped to Dublin and stored, we have arrived in Ireland. We bought a house sight unseen - we saw photos of it online. We established strong bonds with our accountant and solicitor, who guided us through the home purchase and move processes (see my next post about Irish houses). We lost our dog to old age in February, so only three of us made the final trip. But we made it. Together, we are unstoppable. We are standing side by side in our kitchen, Thomas researching water softening systems and me typing this post. We are content in our empty house with ourselves and our cat. We belong here. 

Sláinte!