The first pieces have arrived

 On Wednesday 9 June we took possession of the first 251 boxes of puzzles.  When the workmen came to deliver them they were not at all happy to have to take them into the house. We explained that we had 2 steps to go up if they unloaded into the garage and that the garage was full anyway.  There was a lot of grumbling in Spanish about not wanting to do the work and I had a little hissy fit.  They have been paid for door to door delivery which means putting them where I want them.  They are lucky I didn't ask them to unpack.  

Well, 1/2 hour into the unpacking of the truck, I won them over with cold water.  Did I forget to mention we also had 3 other workers here helping?  Fast forward another hour and lunch was served.  Happy delivery men now!  I asked if they could bring back the furniture on the next trip and that is exactly what they did! We now have all of it installed where it will never be moved from again.  

Now starts the fun part.  It is time to unbox all of those puzzles.  I start with the jigsaw puzzles as those have a home already picked out.  Other boxes are not as easy to discern.  Some are simply marked "Puzzles".  Well duh!  All of these things are puzzles.  What's inside these boxes are supposed to be surprises I guess.  I'm eager to dig into all of these and get as much done as possible.  George says it's time for the fun to begin. Easy for him to say, he plays and breaks down boxes while I unpack. We each have our skill set. 

I went hell bent for leather and unboxed all of the jigsaw puzzles that came in.  This task took me two days. The dexterity puzzles took another two days, and folding puzzles took an afternoon.  I'm working on getting all 251 boxes finished before the next batch arrives. I'm sure it won't happen, but i'm going to give it a good try. 

We've opened a few boxes of wooden puzzles and they are the biggies. I'm sure there will be more to come, but for now they take pride of place in the great room.  I've boxes of glass bottles and china plates to open, but these sadly need to wait until we rent some scaffolding and the rest of the boxes come in.  

It's truly like Christmas here.  I've been having so much fun with this.  There is great joy when I unwrap a puzzle and see something I've never seen before, or when I see an old puzzle from my childhood.  There is even more excitement when I find a puzzle that I had lost, or had regrettably given away. 

Meanwhile this week, George made us two very heavy puzzles for the IPP wall.  We purchased some low slung gaming chairs, but had no tables to puzzle on.  He made our Paver Tables.  They each have 36 4" thick pavers that weigh 6 pounds each.  If you thought the Brass Monkey puzzles were heavy, think again. These are some very heavy puzzles.  No speed solving here.  I don't think we will be moving them any time soon.  Isn't he just so cool in his sunglasses?  He just had cataracts surgery and said the light bothered him.  Even though he wasn't supposed to do any heavy lifting for a month after, it didn't stop him from doing some heavy puzzling. 

Stay tuned for further updates coming soon.