Anyone Want a New House?

I've been working on a site to give a "virtual tour" of the house for all of the teeming masses of people who want to buy it. Thought I'd give you all a preview for comments & critiques. I don't have any master bedroom photos because I'd like to get some furniture out of there first, and somehow can't manage it on my own!

T

Hip Hip...

Hooray! At my Doctor's appointment today it became official.
We heard the heartbeat! Yippee!
Just thought I'd share our happy news.

S.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

THE GOOD...

THE BAD...

THE UGLY!

T

Tossing the To-Do List

I finished the last project on my summer To-Do list. It was very satisfying to crumple the list and toss it in the trash. True, I would probably remember to do everything even without the list, it's just more fulfilling to cross things off as they are accomplished! No one ever accused me of being entirely sane!

The symbolic tossing of the list made me stop and think: have I really done everything that I set out to do this summer? Well, no. I really meant to take the girls bike riding at the Elementary School playground a few times. I hoped to have the house sold. I still have photos from Christmas that need to go into an album. I could make another list of things I DIDN'T do, but I won't.

I need to go start my Fall list...

T

Life is Like a Book!

We checked the book, "Laura Charlotte", written by Kathryn O. Galbraith, out of the library this week. It is a very sweet story, and is very similar to our true life story out here on the hill!

The book is about a grey, stuffed elephant that is made for a little girl's 5th birthday by her Grandmother. The girl names it Charlotte, and after many years of playing with it, she puts the elephant into storage. Eventually, Charlotte is given to her own daughter, Laura Charlotte, and becomes HER favorite play thing.

This reminded J (who is 5) of one of her favorite stuffed toys, a grey, stuffed elephant, made for me by my Grandma!



T

Celebrate!

Party Peppers!

All the repairs, renovations and spiffing up around here is done, done, done! We are ready to try to sell this house. We are moving forward on construction without changes, despite the tax estimates of over $10,000/year. We are hoping to contest this, and have decided to risk it, hoping for a lower number when the tax abatement is up in 3 years!!

These peppers looked so cheerful, I just had to add them to the post. Hope they make you smile, N!

T

Why I'm Not a Farmer

Do you remember in all those Laura Ingalls Wilder stories how Pa decides to wait a couple of days to let the wheat ripen before harvest and then the grasshoppers come, or fires, or some other such calamity? We've all heard stories about Tornadoes ripping through the week before the wheat harvest in the mid-West and not only flattening the wheat, but sucking up the barn and harvester too. Those are some of the reasons that I'm glad I'm not a Farmer. I don't depend on my "crops" for my livelihood, or even for my meals. I'd have a lot more learning to do anyway, before I could join the ranks of "Farmer".

My 2008 peach harvest, though much anticipated, was a bust. I picked about 2 dozen peaches today, most of which had holes in them from the bees. The girls and I ate a couple off the tree on Tuesday, when I noticed that they were almost ripe. I picked a few on Thursday, but still encountered many green ones. By this morning, however, they had vanished, although not entirely. There was plenty of evidence scattered around to show that someone/thing enjoyed LOTS of peaches! While J grumpily denounced the "naughty deer and groundhogs", I was berating myself for not watching more closely. To be honest, this isn't the first time I've missed the peaches. A couple of years back, I was giving them a couple more days to ripen up and a doozy of a thunderstorm whipped through over night. By morning, all that was left were the tell-tale pits around under the tree.

Another year without peaches to put up. Bummer. We did eat all the peaches we could hold today...mmm...were they good.

The ones that got away...

The End of an Era

We watched the last bit of "A Very Brady Christmas" last night, and now we're at a bit of a loss to know what to do with ourselves! The four of us have snuggled up on the couch to watch an episode of "The Brady Bunch" almost every evening since early Spring. We watched the last one, where Greg was graduating from High School, just a few weeks ago. Since then we have made our way through 2 Brady movies and 2 episodes of "The Brady Kids" (an animated show featuring the kids and some animals). It has been nice to sit together to watch, and then discuss each episode, and then stay together to read stories before tucking the girls into bed. Tonight J asked "what are we going to watch?" Luckily I picked up a video called "Ashpet" at the library today. It is a version of Cinderella, set in the South during the 40's...actually quite good...the fairy godmother part was an African American woman who "made spells". From here on out we can watch Olympics for another week or so, and then we'll just have to come up with some other family bonding event. Or we could just start over at Episode 1: The Brady Wedding...

Hope all are well! We need to have a meeting!

T

Bone Tired

It is work week up here on the hill. We have been working hard, neglecting our children and working outside until 6 PM, then collapsing (after a much needed shower). The goal is to have the house ready to sell by next week. We have had plenty of projects that need to be done. The biggest one was to create a patio out of the brick pavers recycled from the front sidewalk that became a flower bed. There were 9 cement pavers under this lean-to originally, about 2 foot square. We dug up sod and lined the garage with them. The lean-to itself has a fresh new coat of stain. I think it turned out pretty well for amateurs!


We used all recycled and found items for the project...and this is all that is left. Interested M?

We have also cleaned and repaired gutters and chimney, repaired the parking area, replaced a deck board and the roofing over the basement stairs, and I am about half done re-staining the deck.

4 more boxes arrived for J today...one is a printer, think the others may be computer parts! I need to clear out my desk to make room for J's school area and rid the study of all these boxes!

Sheesh...I'm exhausted! I am SO looking forward to having a new house where no home repairs are required for many years! (On that subject, we applied for our building loan...red tape because Flood Insurance folks believe we are in a flood plain!)

We are planning on stopping early tomorrow to take in the Greene Co. Fair. Hope you all are well!

T