It's done.

We're all moved in.

Well, all of the boxes are inside the house, stacked up randomly in various rooms. To say we're in any way able to function at the moment would be exaggerating, to say the least.

It only took myself, my dad and brother-in-law two hours to shift everything from the garage to the house.

But, after lifting nothing more than a coffee cup for the past four months, I discovered it's best to warm up before hurling a fridge, washer and dryer, and freezer.

Bry, the bro-in-law who lifts steel girders for fun at work -- had a bit more energy than I did when carrying the large appliances into the house.

After carrying the fridge in through the front door, my biceps were so shot I couldn't lift my 'sody pop' bottle to my mouth without shaking the contents all over the floor.

I was further questioning my maleness, once the evening's labours wrapped up.

I realized, with creeping horror, that I'd failed to set up the stereo system during our first night in the new house. I know, I know, I don't deserve to call myself a man. It's truly shameful.

All of a sudden, it was 10:30 p.m., my body ached, and I looked over at the electronics boxes piled in the living room.

The components mocked me, in a Terminator sort of way.

"You pathetic girlie-man. You should be listening to us right now, instead of setting up the bed. If you don't have chest-pounding bass shaking the new foundation within the first hour of possession, you must forfeit your remaining testosterone."

Speaking of mocking, Bry got an eyeful when he was trying to figure out how to get the bidet going.

He turned this knob, he turned that knob. He finally found the right knob, and a fire-house strength blast of jetted water sprang out and nailed him in the kisser.

While he has excellent reflexes, he still got soaked, and swore if I put it into the column, he wouldn't let me forget it. Well, now no one will forget it ...

Despite the chaos and debris throughout the house, the feeling of waking up the next morning and watching the sun rise through the trees in the backyard made everything worthwhile.

Our cat also made a quick transition. He was tearing around the house, enjoying the long hallway to the bedrooms, with his tail fully fluffed up for effect. He also loves the large window sills, and squeaks at the birds bouncing in the tree branches in the backyard.

It should be noted that our walk-through with Trevor was quick and painless. Unlike our experience in Calgary when we had three full pages of "deficiencies" to go over, the dozen items we wanted Trev to look at were acknowledged and will be dealt with quickly.

The main thing is a couple of back-ordered parts for the cabinets, which prevented the installer from completing the job.

Even without the missing bits, the cabinets look sensational.

After we finish unpacking -- sometime in the latter-half of 2005 -- we'll sit back and revel in the meaty goodness of our home.

Bottom line: Although it was at times stressful, frustrating, and even scary, it was completely worth it.

The end result exceeded our dreams, and we'd been dreaming about this for years.