A Big Day

Maybe THE Big Day.

It was June 12th of this year, the day that we finished packing up our house in Buckley, WA. The day that we locked the padlock on our truck-full-of-stuff, closed up the house, and headed for the airport. No, now that I think about it, it was the 11th that we headed for the airport, but it was the 12th that we flew, and it was the 12th that our truck was picked up by the moving company to begin its' trip to Norfolk. I didn't know where we were going to end up at the time, it could have been just about anywhere in Virgina, Maryland, Delaware, or even Pennsylvania. But in the end, we settled right across the street from Steve's parents, with Steve's job just a 15 minute drive away.

And today, exactly 6 months to the day from when our truck left Buckley, it is being delivered to our new home. Not that it is actually our home yet, but we are working on that technicality. But before the truck comes (sometime between 9am and 5pm, they tell me) I am going to unpack the ceremonial First Box.

A couple of months after we moved out of Buckley, but well before the house actually sold, our real estate agent was in our kitchen looking for the spare keys we told here were there. She opened the drawer next to the stove, and there was all of my cooking utensils and some of my favorite knives - we had missed packing the whole drawer contents! She packed up the stuff, and mailed it to me. And I have had it here, in one corner of my in-law's guest room, waiting for this day.

There is a lot of stuff even in a modest three-bedroom house, and I may not unpack the last box for weeks or even months, but today I unpack the first one.

Are you getting sick of this yet?

Well, I'm not.

I went over to check on the progress yesterday - Wilson Custis and crew were working on the driveway and grading in front:

And when Chris (who works for Tidewater) saw that I was alone (no mud-tracking children with me), he asked if I wanted to take a look inside. Uh, yea!

Bamboo flooring in the living/dining/hall:

Carpet in the master bedroom:

And carpet in the boys' room - Riley picked out the color:

Carpet on the stairs:

Oh, I didn't get a picture of the kitchen, but the stove has been installed and the kitchen is looking pretty much ready to move in.

The guys were finishing up the siding:

Here is the parking area on the side - just sand so far, but there will be crush-and-run (?) (gravel):


And if you look closely, you can see that the siding is done on the dormers, too. They just need to clean up all of that trash!

Getting very close to done! We should have the CO by the end of next week!

Thanksgiving, house update

Do I look kind of sweaty and as pink as my shirt? Well, it's always a bit of a rush at the last minute getting Thanksgiving dinner ready, isn't it? We had the Ben Sadtler's and the Sr.'s here for the holiday, so a full house and lots of fun. Sorry I only have pictures of myself - I guess I was too busy in the kitchen to take pictures! Jeanie put me totally in charge of the feast, which was fine by me, actually. I was able to make all of my favorites!

The only hitch in the whole thing was that I had too much to drink the night before, and woke up with a wicked hangover just when I had to get up early and cook Thanksgiving dinner for 11 people! I got up at my regular time - around 7 - and I thought I was going to be ok, but when I opened the fridge to get the kids their "chocky milk" I saw and smelled the food in there and just about threw up right on the spot. I went back to bed for another hour and a half, and finally had to get moving to get the turkey in the oven at a decent time. I was a little shaky at first, but it got better from there and we had a great meal. I did a turkey with our fab cornbread stuffing (yes, I had my recipe book with me!), instant mashed potatoes (I'm not a masochist), a yummy green bean dish with ham and onions and cream and tarragon, cranberry relish with horseradish, and that pink "fruit salad" with cherry pie filling and marshmallows and cool whip - mmmmmmmm. Steph made a casserole with yellow squash (very good). Jeanie contributed dinner rolls and pies (apple, pumpkin, and peach). A fine feast.

Lots of action on the house this week - we have a driveway (almost, they are still working on it today) and some more siding and finishing touches on the porch. Oh, and over the weekend we painted the cinder blocks. They are working on the flooring, too, but I don't have any pictures of that yet:

All for now - busy busy. Aren't we all?

FO

That's "Finished Object" to those non-knitters in the audience.

Forgive the goofy mirror-self-portraits, but I wanted to show it to you "on":

I am very happy with how this turned out. It is superwash wool, so it will be easy to care for, and I plan to wear it a lot. Especially since it is the only wool sweater I can get my hands on right now, and it is ccccccold out there! Here is the creek this morning:

OK, OK, I know, it is below freezing and my child is outside in bare feet. But, in my defense, have you met this kid? I am lucky he was wearing pants!

SNOW!

A dusting, anyway. Gotta go play, update later!

As Promised

A house update.

We have steps, and a roof on the porch:

We have a heat pump:

and back steps:

and a ginourmous mud hole in the front yard:

Even when they get the house done, it is going to have to STOP RAINING for awhile before we can get that truck-full-o-stuff anywhere near it! Well, of course, you can see from the front steps (watch out for that first one - it's a doozie!) that we need to get some fill in here. Lots of fill.

That is all well and good, I can hear you thinking, but haven't you been doing any spinning lately? Why, yes!

This is some Lorna's Shepherd Wool top I got in Williamsburg on a recent trip. The color name is Tuscany.

The color is more accurate in the first photo. My goal is to spin finely enough and evenly enough to make a three-ply, sock weight yarn. I am not sure if the singles are coming out fine enough, but they sure are pretty on the bobbin!

Check y'all back later!

Race Day

Oh, yes, I am finally getting around to showing you my pictures of the Montpelier Hunt Races in Charlottesville. Mostly, it was a great tailgate party - we had two spots on the rail, and everyone who is anyone was there. '-) Here are Ben and Ben playing "Baggo", also called "cornhole." This is a really big fad here on the east coast. Seriously. Look it up.

Here are some of the boys hanging out in the car. See how pink Riley's face is? Yes, we managed to get a sunburn on the first day of November!

More tailgating:

Tom was our bookie. Nini was the big winner at the end of the day - I think she brought home $50 or so.

And then, every once in a while, a little of this:

One more:

And a parting shot:

Next post: house update!

An Example

... of what I deal with these days. This is actually a few weeks old, but that is the way it goes with me these days:

That was a wad of dirt that he bashed on his head, saying "That's the tatoo part." What that means, your guess is as good as mine.

Oh, I am a bad blogger

Yes, I am still alive.

I have some film clips of the races, which I will post here at some point, but I wanted to just say another quick hello just to prove I am still here.

I have re-knit and ripped out the sweater AGAIN, as it turned out all wrong AGAIN. While we were in Richmond, I bought an Elizabeth Zimmerman book, which I already own, just so I could get her instructions on how to decrease a yoke. But I set it aside for a bit - I have been knitting the little fingerless mitts for selling at the coffee shop. Did I mention I am selling fingerless mitts at the coffee shop? I think three have sold already, last time I checked. I am going there tomorrow - I'll get a photo of the mitts to show you. (Knit in white wool and dyed with kool-aide) Because I know you want to see them!

More later - I am too tired to make much sense tonight.

Hey, I have some house photos, too - progress has been slow lately, but we have a porch and a heat pump.

Hi, Steve. Comment once in a while, would ya?

A Quick Hello

We are scrambling around today to get ourselves ready to go to Richmond/Charlottesville for the races tomorrow. Riley is having a Halloween party at school, and we are hoping to make it to Richmond in time to get in a little trick-or-treating. Wish us luck! Gotta go keep on scrambling - just wanted to say hi!

House, Schmouse .. What About the Sweater?

Oh, I know what you are all thinking. Why is she posting all of this boring stuff about house construction and not telling us anything about her knitting? Sorry I have been remiss. I am sort of, but not really, done with the sweater. Here is its' current state:

One underarm has been finished, and I am in the middle of finishing the other. The problem is with the neckline - I have the decreases happening much too severely in the middle of the plain blue section - see all of the gathering that is happening at the top? I am going to rip it out to that first big decrease round, and try again. I am not really following the pattern as written, except for the color patterning, and I don't have any of my books with me to look up the proper way to decrease a yoke, so I was kind of faking it, and it didn't work out so well. Some of you non-knitters will be horrified at the idea of unravelling and re-knitting, but it will be a very ill-fitting sweater if I leave it as it is. Don't worry, it won't take long, and it will look much better. The next picture I post, I will be wearing it.

Riley Update

He and I had a date night tonight! As a reward for reading eight books in the month of October (and filling out the form and turning it in to the teacher) he got a coupon for a personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut - so he and I went out for pizza. Levi had fallen asleep around 5pm, and Steve didn't feel like going out anyway, so it was just the two of us. We had a really nice time - he is getting to be such a big kid, which is especially noticeable when the wild little brother is not around. I told him it was so nice to eat at a restaurant without anyone crawling under the table or licking the salt shaker or shrieking or crying or ... well, you know. And Riley agreed.

I'll give you a Levi update next time. I'll just tell you that I swatted his behind today hard enough to make him cry - and I don't even feel all that bad about it. That one is giving me a run for my money lately! Oy.

Modular Magic

Oh, you should have been here.

First, a crew started to gather in the field across the road, and then the giant crane arrived about 9:00.

Before too long, the house arrived, in two sections:

And the crane picked up the pieces and set them on the foundation, just like that. Here is the second (front) section being lifted into place:

So, it is a Cape Cod ... where is the second story? It's a pop-up! Really, this process is a lot like assembling a doll house on Christmas Eve, only much bigger. The triangular side walls flipped up from the short sides of each section, and the roof was lifted up and unfolded:

I was able to do a quick walk-around inside after they got the pieces in place. I don't think most of my interior shots were very interesting, but here is a shot of the kitchen. The window over the sink looks out to the back of the property, and there is a "bar" that separates the kitchen from the dining/living rooms:

Here is a view of the roof partially up - the exposed-wood part on the top flips up to become the peak:

Uh, isn't it supposed to have dormers? Maybe they make them on site. Oh, wrong again - here they come!

The crane lifts the dormers into place:

Here is the view from the log pile:

And a look at the front after they moved the crane away:

That last photo was taken around 1:30, the crane arrived at 9 this morning.

Wow!

There will be a roof over the porch, and brick steps. They are estimating 6 weeks until we get a "C.O." - Certificate of Occupancy - so that means early December. Very, very exciting! What to y'all think?

OK, enough messing around

I really need to update you on the progress of the house, because tomorrow is going to bring big changes! And I swear I will blog a little more often in the future - we have all been sick here recently, and it has been all I can do just to get through the day lately. Anyway, the house. Here it is (oh, yes, I should know the dates and all, but I am not quite that organized!) with the trees cleared, marked and ready to begin the foundation:



And here they are pouring concrete into the trench:

Levi checking out the cement footing, cinder blocks at the ready in the background:

Cinder block wall (6 blocks high! It is going to be like a tree-house!) partially built:

And mostly finished:

The front porch section is completely full of sand, with a brick boarder. There will be brick steps up to the porch, eventually.

Uh, nice smile? It is getting hard to get a good smile out of this one lately:

And tomorrow...

The House!