Thank You, Uncle Butch!

We walked on our future living room floor today. The outside areas and the garage are covered with black plastic, but the smooth part of the foundation is uncovered.


My Uncle Butch came over today to help us out with some much needed wall repair. I can't beleive the way our smashed up corners and walls have been transformed to new! The walls look fabulous because he is a professional. THANK YOU, Uncle Butch!

Uncle Butch had another wise suggestion- he said that we should move first and then sell this house. The thought of trying to pare down, keep this house clean and live with six people has been overwhelming. We looked at the calendar and every weekend from now until January has at least one major event planned. So, Brad is now busy examining our finances to see if it is possible for us to live with two mortgages for a little while.

Our trusses have not been delivered yet. If they could wait until Tuesday or Wednesday that would be ideal. Wilma, and now Alpha, should hopefully be out of the way by then.

Also, I think I am going to take the job offered to me by the school in which I am an intern. The principal said that she would be very flexibile. Really, it is an offer too good to pass up.




Here are two views of the back yard. Does this look big enough for a pool? We want no grass, just a pool.

FOUNDATION!

Brad stopped by the lot on the way to the office near the airport today and he happened upon them pouring our foundation! Most of the work was done, but he got some pictures of them finishing up the last bit of the garage.

Here they are using a board to level out the garage.


This machine smooths out the concrete.

The back porch at last! I can't wait to go and stand on it.

They might have delivered the trusses and wood for the framing right after the foundation was finished, but we kind of hope that they will wait until after Wilma gets out of here. For the next two weeks we need dry weather!

Other news

The last few days have been eventful for me. Today I got a job offer for a position at the school in which I am working. I'm going to think about it very carefully this weekend.

I also received my graduation announcements in the mail. Although graduation isn't for almost two months, it is great to have something tangible. The most valuable lesson that I've learned by returning to college is that every goal starts with some small step. I remember the first steps feeling almost overwhelming. Once I got a few of them behind me, the rest seemed easy. Registering for classes, buying books, and attending classes with teenagers turned out to be mostly fun. Oh, and I never thought that I'd make it through Spanish I and II, but of course I did.

This is the first of many times that I will thank my family and friends for encouraging me, supporting me and believing in me. Most importantly, thanks to Brad for being patient and generous enough to give me this time.

Boiling Water

If you've been regularly checking on the progress of this house, it must seem like watching a pot of water boil. We've been simmering without a lot of action for a long time. Today, we've just started getting all of those little bubbles shooting to the top right before the rolling boil starts to happen. The steam is getting thicker because we are just on the verge of something big!






Look, we have rebar and plastic! The foundation is supposed to be poured either tomorrow or the next day.


Here you are standing at the corner of the garage looking toward the living room on the left. The stairs will rise between the dent and the garage wall.













This is the back porch. See how it runs the entire length of the house? The bay window is in the kitchen. If you can see the horizontal boards, those are where the back sliding glass door and the pool door are going.









This is the front porch. It will have a sidewalk that runs from the driveway. Those get cement much later.



The whole crew made the treck to the dirt- can I call it that anymore? They knew we'd be going out to dinner afterwards so they agreed to pose for one picture.

Birthday Luck

Charlie's birthday, Friday, October 14th, is also our official start date. Charlie got a nice dinner out with just Mom and Dad at Olive Garden and then a trip to ToysRUs to spend his birthday money.



The house got some pipes. The grey pipes furthest to the right mark the spot of our future kitchen island.


Most of these pipes are the downstairs bathroom.

This is the view from the front to the back. Don't the trees in the back look nice? See all the space above the dirt? That will soon be filled with house. That's what we're hoping for anyway.

Oh, did I tell you about the meeting with the builder? We reviewed the plans to make sure that all the outlets and light fixtures and such are in the right places. The plans show that the top of the stairs has bannister instead of a 1/2 wall. They were quick to say that the plans were not completely accurate, but I hope the banister stays.

Pipes!

Although we have only been able to see them in the dark, we have trenches filled with pipes. The sun is going down sooner, and we are having a hard time getting to the lot with enough daylight to get a good look at things.

Friday we finally get to have the sit down meeting with the builder to go over all of the plans. I'd be more excited if I wasn't so tired.

Charlie's birthday countdown: 2 MORE DAYS!!!

Trenches

Today we went to Keystone to celebrate my grandmother's 85th birthday. All of Ollie's kids were there! Happy 85th, to the birthday QUEEN!

Happy Hockey Day!

The long awaited night has arrived! The official Hockey season begins tonight, and both the Islanders and the Avalanche are playing and being broadcast on DirectTV. Brad is a happy man. He's managed to stay awake all night. Usually he falls asleep while watching a game.

We didn't get any pipes because of Tammy. Not much to do about the weather. Luckily we don't have trusses sitting out and getting warped and soaked right now like some other houses we've seen.

Happy Hockey Day!

Plumbing

We got a call from our sales agent. We are supposed to get plumbing tomorrow. The rain could delay the pipes, but maybe not.

Did you do your homework in school? Fewer than 1/2 of my students turn in their homework on time. What is that all about?

Form pictures

It doesn't look like much, but from this humble beginning our new home will grow. We're just a few weeks from getting framed.

Next week we should get pipes and then a foundation. We're very excited to be on our way!

Good FORM!

After my whine, I am here now to meekly report that they did something! We only got to see it in the dark, but tonight we saw something tangible- the form that outlines our house. Eventually it will be filled in with concrete to form the foundation, but first they have to put in the pipes that go under the house.

Our first impressions are that the house is big, and very close to the neighbors.

Tomorrow we are going back to take pictures. Yippee!

One step forward, Two steps back

We remain frustrated about the seeming lack of coordination and progress at our lot, but there has been another change. We got dirt.





Unfortunately, we also got the next lot's dumpster, and two of our pins are gone. This, we are assured, is no big deal, happens all the time, and they'll move the dumpster when they need to get to our lot. I was hoping that by now we'd have a form- the outline of the house they use to put in the plumbing. The lot that we were supposed to be ahead of already has a foundation.



I know that I'm whining! WHINE! WHINE! WHINE!

He's a Senior!

I thought y'all might like to see Bishop's senior pictures. I offer this as proof that time flies.

We've Been Pinned!

I guess this means we are going steady. They've put stakes in the ground on our lot with measurements that show where the dirt should be made level. They call this "pinning." The back of the lot doesn't need much to reach the mark, but the front of the lot does.

Located sort of in the middle of the lot is a pile of dirt that has grown grass and weeds over the months of sitting idle. There is a nest of mud daubers in the side of the hill. Hopefully, nobody gets stung when they flatten it out. We tried to clean up as much trash as possible to keep it from becoming part of the landscape.

So far tonight, Brad has suggested that we drive out twice to see if they dumped our dirt and leveled the lot.

We have some exciting blog news. Ned and Stephen have started a blog, too! Go and see, go and see! http://www.stephened.blogspot.com/Now you'll be able to see two houses being built. Our advice: patience is a virtue. Of course, we can't seem to take our own advice, so take that with a grain of salt.

Today was my first day as the teacher. I taught an introductory lesson about Media Literacy in a build up to persuasive advertising techniques. It went well, but I was tired. I spent so much time last night needlessly stressing and worrying that I didn't sleep. I'm sure this will get easier the more I do it.

In other news, everybody seems to have settled into school just fine. Charlie likes a lot of things about middle school, like having chorus twice a day and changing classes, but he doesn't like middle school gym. Who can blame him?

Bishop's job at Publix is going well. He's working just enough so that he doesn't feel overwhelmed. Most of his shifts are short- just three hours. This is the perfect teen job. After he finishes paying us back for the door that he broke, (yes, he broke the front door), he can start to save for his insurance payments and get his driver's license.

Mitchell is digs art, but hates drama. He's the kid who is never happy with his electives, but usually likes his academic classes. Did I tell you that he got a perfect score on the reading FCAT last year? That's pretty amazing.

Fourth grade is going well for Olivia. She's enjoying being the only one in the family at her school. For once she is not somebody's little sister- except that Charlie had all of her teachers before she did. She has learned how to do a front flip at gymnastics. She can nearly fly.

Hopefully, next weekend we'll have pictures of a form- the outline of our house in wood. Maybe it will even be plumbed and ready for the foundation to be poured!

A Start Date

It seems frivolous, of course, to fret over the start date of our house considering the many people left homeless by the hurricane. Now people are being re-evacuated from Texas ahead of Rita.

Last year, Florida was not so lucky. This year it seems that the storms are just brushing us. In this image the lines all split to form a storm-free zone over the state of Florida.



Crown Weather is the best place to get hurricane updates.










Now for the frivolous: Our sales agent called with the first of his weekly updates. They are supposed to pin our site and begin leveling it with dirt starting next Monday, September 26. Yeah! Ten days or so after that, they should pour the foundation.

Monday happens to be the same day that I take over full time in my internship. I teach from then until December 2nd. We have several students at our school who lived in the hurricane zone. One student was trapped in her attic and then air lifted out of N.O. Another student's uncle was in N.O. after the storm when the bottom floor of his two story (luckily) town house flooded within a matter of 15 minutes. He was lucky to have a car parked in a garage a few blocks away that was not flooded, but he had to swim back through the contaminated water for several blocks to retreive his keys to the car from his flooded house. Of course it is devasting to lose a home, but it is the everyday relationships and routines that are the real loss.

It is raining Rita here. That's a big storm.

More Delay

The good news is that we don't need to worry about putting the house on the market until January. The disappointing news is that the start has been delayed because the site survey had to be redone. Ergh, grumble, moan and scream! September 23rd has been offered as a possible date that things might get started.

For those of you who said that this would take at least a year, it looks like you were right. But that does not make us happy. It would be faster to buy an existing house at this point!

If 9/11 made us examine what it means to be an American, then Hurricane Katrina makes us examine the meaning of home. Nobody knows more about the new meaning of home than Slate writer, Blake Bailey, who lost his brand new home in New Orleans just days after moving in.

Our new home is still in our heads and, hopefully, on some papers in an office someplace. We hope that those papers will soon move to the front seat of the builder’s truck, but if not, that is alright. Even if our house is delayed by the needs of those affected by the hurricane, we will be fine because we already know the meaning of home. Our current digs are crowded at times, yes, but home because it is filled with our favorite people.

Tonight we went to the lot to cleanse it of bad mojo (Brad’s word) by walking the perimeter of the lot with a lit smudge stick given to me by a brave woman who is redefining her personal definition of home. While we were there we met two neighbor cats. Also, we found four shiny, lucky pennies on the back of the lot. Those we buried at the four corners of where the house will be so that the builders and workers will have luck as they work on our house. Of course it is all nonsense, but it made us feel better.

Book Recommendation: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Nothing Nothing Nothing

Nothing. That is exactly what happened to the lot last week. We are the next house to be started in the neighborhood. There are actually two lots behind us, and every other house is already started. As usual, our sales agent was vague, vague, vague. Of course we know that he knows just exactly WHEN they are supposed to start, but he will only say, "two or three weeks."

Actually it would be better if they didn't start for two or three weeks. Then we'd have more time after the first of the year to sell this house. The when-to-sell question is complicated by December. The holidays make it a less than opportune time to list a house, so do we do it early or wait until January? And what about the bubble? Will it burst? OY.

But at least we aren't in Louisiana tonight. Those folks are in for a rough time.

A SIGN

We have a sign- both literally and figuratively. They put up the sign that will hold all of the papers about the house, which is a sign that our foundation should be framed up in the next week or so! We've driven around the neighborhood so often that we are familar with all of the homes being built by Mercedes. Right now they have four houses that have just had the foundation framed, three houses with the pipes in the framing, and two lots (ours included) that are just about to be started.





We are becoming home improvers. Before we went to visit the dirt today, we cut quarter round molding to replace what we removed when we redid the floor in the old house. Brad has a new workbench that came in very handy.It is nice to have this house to practice on before we get to the new house, and we have a lot of practice ahead of us. Once the new house begins to go up we should be in full panic mode, getting this house ready to sell.

Bishop's Birthday Blowout

Bishop is 17! Unbelievable. He requested a steak dinner for his birthday meal along with the traditional Lafer family ice box cake.

Happy Birthday, Bishop!
















He combined all his birthday money into one present- a 20 gig Ipod so that he can put all of his music on one device- not surprising, since he has always been a huge music fan.

Belated Birthday Blowout

Since Olivia was too sick to eat cake on her actual birthday, she made a crumb cake today.



She chose the candles that relight after you blow them out. We sang "Happy Birthday," she made a wish, and blew out her candles. And then she blew them out again, and again, and again...

Buying under pressure

Thank goodness we spent so much time obsessing over cabinet and flooring choices before we went to the design center. We spent two, packed hours making expensive choices. If we hadn't been so prepared, there is no way we would have been able to get it all done in our alloted time.

Here are the highlights: The back/pool side of the house, including the family room and kitchen will all be tiled. This is to prevent my spontaneous combustion when a wet, screaming child enters the back of the house, dripping all over my beautiful hardwood floors.

The hardwood floors have been reserved for the living and dining room, including the foyer. The stair rails will be stained to match the floor. Although you may open the front door into an empty room, at least the view will be nice.

Speaking of the front door, we picked a simple, glass door that should let in a lot of light.

The kitchen took half of the budget. We picked a dark, maple cabinet (Heritage/Cordovan) and added several upgrades including 42" of height, corner cabinet with a lazy susan, drawers, shelves, molding and a cabinet that will be almost flush with the fridge. The appliances will be stainless steel and the stove is a flat top.

Oh, I nearly forgot the most important upgrade. We went for the Corian counter in black- called Anthracite. It has a bit of a sparkle that should go with the stainless steel appliances. We also got the drop in seamless sink.

The master bathroom is getting high vanities and tile on the floor, on the walls around the garden tub and in the showers. We also upgraded the padding, but not the carpet for all of upstairs and Mitchell's downstairs bedroom.

I'm sure that there is more, but I can't remember everything. Luckily, the design center is sending a samples of our choices.

Sofa anyone?

Anybody need a sofa? Ugh. This is what we found on our lot the other day. The house next door has a huge dumpster. It looks like somebody missed when they threw this out. OY!

Hopefully in a few weeks our lot will be smoothed out, trash free, and readied for the foundation.

The Design Center Called

The design center called. The design center called. The design center called.

On Tuesday at 3:30 we get to pick out our cabinets and flooring.

Yipee!

Poor Olivia was home from school on her birthday because she was sick. She couldn’t even eat the birthday sushi that Brad made. the birthday plate may say "eat cake," but she wasn't having any. On Saturday, she was feeling a little bit better so we had a neighborhood pool party for her.

Mitchell jumped into the pool and entertained all of the party guests by allowing them to splash him and climb all over him. That is his black head just going under the water with his grinning sister pushing him down.

Bishop blew huge bubbles for everybody using his hands.

On Saturday night, Brad took Charlie and Olivia with him to his very first Jaguar game with his very own season tickets. He was happy to find that the people in the nose-bleed section are all very nice. He said that the view was great- they could see the whole field and possibly the whole city.

You can tell that the party and the game wore our girl out.
She bounced back on Sunday just in time for the new school week.

A little something

Last week, Brad stopped by the dirt one day when he had to go to the airport office. We’ve been feeling abandoned lately because all of the deadlines they told us about in the beginning have come and gone with no action- no design center, no builder meeting, nothing! So, Brad just stuck his head into the sales center to make sure that they hadn’t forgotten us.
Luckily, the builder and assistant builder were in the office, too. The builder said that we are on his list to begin at the end of August. YEAH! I think that we are more excited to learn that we are on the list than we are to find out the tentative start date.

Wow, we might just freak out when this becomes more concrete (literally and figuratively) since it has been so abstract for so long.

School!

School starts tomorrow for the kids. Here is how it stacks up:

Bishop: Looking forward to his senior year and seeing his friends again.

Mitchell: Doesn’t want to go back to school, but planning on doing good in his classes anyway. Mostly, he’s looking forward to seeing his friends.

Charlie: He can’t hardly WAIT for school to begin. He has been anticipating the beginning of school all week long.

Olivia: Could use a little bit more summer, but basically okay with school beginning.

4 kids. 4 schools. No problem.

What NOT to wear...

I've been working at a middle school for three days now. I've learned so much that I am overwhelmed. Standards, discipline, how to walk on slippery floors, at least 50 names, school politics, bulletin boards, laminating... the list goes on and on.

BUT, one lesson I am just not getting is how to dress for working in a school. Last year I went to visit my directing teacher during the last week of school. Of course I agonized over what to wear. I showed up in a nice skirt and blouse. Almost immediately I ended up crawling around on the floor cutting, gluing and glittering. I discovered that there is no use in dressing up.

Yesterday I wore a nice white shirt with a new jean skirt. I thought that it was the perfect balance between casual and functional. After spending several hours cleaning out the classroom closet, I looked down to discover that my shirt was covered in dirt. Oy. Now I can understand the ubiquitous denim jumpers that teachers wear. At least they are durable and functional.

Ironically, I have more confidence about the big parts of teaching- planning, delivery, classroom management- but the little things, like dressing myself and packing lunch, are causing me the most difficulty. Thank goodness for student teaching so I can make lots of mistakes and ask a gazillion questions.

By the way, I have taken a solemn vow never to wear a denim, teacher jumper. And, Brad has also made me promise never to wear any clothing that is decorated for a specific season.

Brad has been driving a 1995 Green Ford Escort Station Wagon in hot, sticky, summer weather back and forth to work every day, vowing not to buy a new car until after we close on the house. Thanks to my mother's assurances that it would not hurt our debt ratio, Brad finally bought himself a car.

His slightly used car is a 2004/Honda Accord EX with a V6 3.0 liter engine that is decked out with leather seats, seat warmers and a satellite radio. The best feature, according to Brad, is the AC.

Doesn't he look happy? Bishop is also happy because he inherited the Escort.

The only problem is that now our cars look like FSU colors. Go Gators!

Manicures and Construction Work

I’ve been staring at my hands too much lately. My nails accidentally grew long. Usually I don’t grow out my nails because then my hands become decorative rather than useful, but since I haven’t been sitting at my computer writing papers and chewing my nails lately, they’ve gotten a little long. Then I made the mistake of painting them with some clear polish and now they’ve grown even longer.

Now things have gotten really out of control. I bought a French manicure kit. This is a multi-step process. First you have to put these tiny stickers on your nails and then paint just the tips white. Then you paint over the whole nail with the really light pink polish. In between each step I have to wait for the polish to dry, and I can’t really do much of anything because it will mess up the nails.

This morning I was sitting around painting my nails and watching the workers put in sand behind our house. I know nothing about construction, but I assume that they are preparing a foundation. So far today they have brought in loads and loads of sand in those big trucks that tilt up. Every time the truck empties the sand, the tail gate slams back down and makes a huge noise. Even though I know what is happening, I still jump. After a couple of truck loads of sand, the bulldozer flattens the mounds out. Then the trucks go back and fill up with more sand. In between, though, the construction workers are pretty bored. They do a lot of sitting around while they wait for more sand.

This is how manicures and construction work are alike- busy for a little bit and then nothing to do for awhile.

Testing, testing...

I am one step closer to being a certified teacher. Last weekend I took two state certification tests. I am happy to say that my classes in the education program prepared me for these all important exams.

Also, I spoke to my directing teacher who will be sharing her classroom with me this fall, and she said that I am welcome to attend planning next week. I am so excited! Finally, after so many education classes I get to experience the big picture. This may be the last summer that I ever feel happy to see summer end.

Brad is also happy. He got his Jaguar season tickets in the mail. His seats are way up in the stands on the home team side of the stadium. If he invites you to a game, be prepared to climb some stairs. The seats are five rows from the very top, but as Brad says, the important thing is that they are IN the stadium.
The countdown to the end of summer includes visits to schools to get schedules and books. Mitchell's registration was today. He wants permission to wear flannel pajama pants to school so we asked the teachers at school teoday if they were allowed. Four teachers gave four different answers. Oy! We struck a deal. He can wear them if he carries a pair of shorts with him so that he can change if he is sent to the dean for inappropriate clothing.

Lest you judge my decision... listen, I had to hear an hour's tirade about how UNFAIR it was the he had to wear UNCOMFORTABLE clothes just because I thought they were more APPROPRIATE than pajamas. I cannot have a fight with him every day about pajama pants. I have to fight with him every day to get him to wear shoes! "Why should I have to wear SHOES everywhere just because YOU want me to?!"

This school we will have four children at four different schools. One of them will be wearing pajama pants (and shoes if we are lucky).

The House Next Door

I don't know why I assumed that the house being built in the lot next to ours would be a one story, so when I saw this, I was surprised! The house next door is big. Although we have some serious envy, it is fun to watch this house go up.

I wonder who will live here.

The other day we met some very nice neighbors from across our new street. It is hard to believe that in only seven or so months we might actually live on this street.

We got two letters in the mail from our builder last week. Each was a form letter about a minor change in their general policies. Still, for a brief moment each time we hoped that it was something important, like a design center appointment.

While we continue to be patient, life marches on. The land behind our current home has been cleared to make way for a condominium development. We have always looked out our back windows to see woods, but now there is a huge hole. Every morning we wake up to the sounds of cranes and bulldozers. I feel sorry for the people who are living in our new neighborhood because they have to live with constant construction, too. So, there is one advantage to buying the last house on the street. Once the construction is done on our house, the construction is done.

Coincidentally, it is the same builder that is putting up the condominiums behind us here as is building the houses in the development that backs up to our new lot. Luckily the new lot backs up to a preserve area because when this builder clears the land, they leave no trees behind.

Baby Love

Tonight I got a glimpse into our past when I visited my friend, Elizabeth, and her family. Her son Benjamin is eight months old and he’s full of sweet baby love. He’s round and cuddly and busy and sweet, sweet, sweet. Of course I was reminded of all the baby love that we’ve had, and although I don’t want to go back there, it was nice to visit for a little while.

Charlie is at quilt camp this week, and he’s found a new passion. He loves sewing! Olivia is at Girl Scout Camp this week, so she comes home everyday good and tired from crafting, swimming and singing all day. Bishop’s got a job at a local restaurant. He comes home wet every night smelling like a kitchen. Brad used to smell the same way when he was a chef. What’s Mitchell up to? He’s at camp sleep-a-lot.

Only 2 ½ weeks until school starts!

Moonlit Madness

The full moon lured us to the ocean last night. Actually it was my idea. I thought that we’d have a mellow moonlit walk on the beach. It was a beautiful night. The water was warm, tickling our ankles. The moon reflected off the waves and some occasional fireworks lit the sky. Unfortunately, only the setting was mellow.

In between yelling for somebody to stop hitting somebody else on the butt with their flip flops, or stop running and splashing people who don’t want to get wet, or stop rolling in the sand there were a few peaceful moments. You would think that a woman with four children would know better than to expect them to be mellow at the beach.

What was I thinking?! Well, next time I'll be prepared for the craziness.

Photo found here.

A Quiz

Tilt your head to the left and consider why a handsome young man would be wearing such a ridiculous outfit.

A. He's color blind.
B. He's so brilliant that he cannot be concerned with a minor detail like dressing himself.
C. He's famished after a day of swimming and tubing down the Itchetucknee, and a pesky "no shoes/no shirt/no service" law is all that stands between him and a meal.















Tilt your head again to the left to see Mercedes and her pink tube, which needed to be rescued during lunch when a person tried to walk off with it.
















The river was very high from all of the recent rain. There was a lot of jumping from trees into the river by some- including MeMe. We even walked up to Blue Spring to swim over the caves and feel the strong pumping of the water. I think that everybody had fun.

Tomorrow Mercedes and Sebastian will be on the way home to Seattle. I wonder if they'll have any chocolate covered popcorn from Peterbrook's for their mother?

A television in the BATHroom?!

Patience is a virtue.
Good things come to those who wait.
Don’t wish away today longing for tomorrow.

That, dear reader, is not advice for you; rather, it is advice for us.

We did not pick out spots for our phone and cable jacks when we signed the contract. This gave us an opportunity to go back to the sales office to talk with our sales agent again. The story this time is that the house will probably get started in late August. We are the very last house on the list. Since we signed, there haven’t been any other sales in our development because they are just now getting the land developed- roads put in, lots designated, etc…

If they say the start date will be in August, hopefully they won’t begin later than September. If they say that it will take four months to build, maybe it won’t take more than six. That would put us in the house in February or March maybe?

Patience is a virtue.

Brad decided on a treat for himself: a television in the bathroom so he can lay in a tub of hot water and watch hockey. (We have to give credit to Jan and Peter who inspired us with their luxurious bathroom in the house on the river.)

Yes, HOCKEY! Thank goodness somebody agreed to something so that there will be a hockey season this year. Brad is very happy. Maybe it will make waiting for this house a bit easier.

But, I predict that this will cut into my decorating show watching time. My current faves: Designed to Sell (for obvious reasons) and Christopher Lowell.

Tomorrow we are going down the Itchatucknee- (actually, I’ve been corrected. It’s the Itchetucknee) for the FOURTH time this year.

Flooring

We spent a lot of time this week putting in a new floor downstairs. The plan was to put it in the kitchen, bathroom and half of the living room, but once we got it all down, the carpet looked yucky. So, we put it down everywhere downstairs. The flooring is a vinyl tile that looks pretty good. It is a huge improvement over the worn out carpet and linoleum that used to be there.

We pulled up the old quarter round and put the tile up to the baseboards. Now the baseboards look very battered so we are painting them. I have always wanted to paint them white since we moved here. I love the way that white baseboards look with some color on the wall. So to finish up we have to cut all the new quarter round to the strange angles that we have in this house. Once it is all done, we’ll post a picture.

In the next house we vow not to wait until we are selling to fix things up.

Oh, and spending several days on our knees may have made us more willing to pay builder prices when we pick the flooring for the new house at the design center.

Soaked on the 4th

We waited for the first rain band to pass before heading to the river walk to stake out our spot for watching the fire works. Unfortunately, the sun was brief and we ended up soaked! The fire works were amazing, but next year we are going to bring big umbrellas and stay dry, like Mike.

We got wrapped!

We got our first visible sign that something might be happening to our dirt. They’ve wrapped our lot in plastic! They also wrapped the other Mercedes lots/houses with plastic so it could mean nothing, but that doesn’t quell our excitement. Unfortunately the wood and dumpster are for the house that is being built in the lot next door.

Rolling bowling relatives

The other cousins also came to visit this summer. Among other exciting adventures, there was a bowling trip.
Josh is the king of NINE, but when he pulled off ten, you should have seen the victory dance. Charlotte’s bowling skills were sharp and in between shots she took pictures of the fun.


Charlie got a couple of lucky shots in there and had a few strikes himself. Olivia was looking stylish in her ultra cute hair-do whilst she experimented with several bowling approaches.









Mitchell had the highest score the first game and the lowest score the second game proving that sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down. Either way he played it cool, earning the title of “the casual bowler.”



Bishop is the power bowler. He made the pins quiver in fear, and when he figured out how to aim, he was racking up the strikes.




Pop-Pop showed everybody how to get it done with the high score on the second game. We heard the sounds of gobble gobble when he bowled a turkey.