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!

Another thing you don't expect to see in October...

The rhodies are blooming! In person, these flowers are a lot more purple:

Apropos of nothing...

The biggest mushroom in the world:

More sailboat fun in the sun

First, a run with Nini and Poppy, Steve and Riley:


Then Steve took Levi and me for a sail. The wind was light and we hit a few dead spots along the way - it would have been very relaxing, if it weren't for the three-year-old on board keeping us on our toes!


The day also included a little wave-running. Does this look like October to you?

Riley looks like he is meditating - actually he is being petulant and refusing to "smile for the camera."

No time for chit-chat! All for now!

Random Photo

I am backdating a few entries - cheating, perhaps? But again it has been ages since I posted, so in catching up, I thought I would break things down into a few separate posts, rather than one long one.

Anyway, this is just a photo I took while Riley was playing golf a few weeks ago. And one of Levi, same day:

He looks tall, doesn't he?