The New Kitchen

Just a quick post. This is me in my new kitchen.

You can see that the back splash isn't there yet.
I think I will want to stay home and cook more
often once we are moved in. :-)
You can also see my short hair.

Nearly finished

Another COLD walking day but at least there was no wind today and once again the sun was shining. I didn't see anyone out today, not even Linda.

We drove by the townhouse late yesterday afternoon and was happy to see the front steps finished with railing and all. The sidewalk in front is in but still has the plastic over it as you can see. The door will be painted dark red like the shutters.
We saw Nate walking around and he told us that the carpet was being put right then. He asked if we wanted to take a look but we said no. We can wait till the final walk through on January 5th, which is less than two weeks now!!

We drove by this house last night to take a look at the lights which we do every year. It looks okay in the pictures but it is so much better to see in person. Every year something new is added.
Today I made a run to the commissary - surprisingly not many people there. I was in an out pretty quick. I just made a 20 items list. I didn't want to get a lot of stuff because we will just have to move everything to the new house soon. We will just let things run low and then stock up again after the move.
I have green commissary bags that I bring with me and one of them is insulated for the perishables but the bagger today just didn't get it. He put everything but the perishables in the insulated bag. Before I left I had to repack everything. I only had my 20 items so it wasn't that bad but I did feel like going and getting the tip I left for him back. I really wouldn't do that but I did feel like it!

From the base I went to the Meals on Wheels kitchen to give Rhonda (Kitchen Boss) :-) a card and a loaf of pumpkin bread. She was already eating a piece as I left!! Back home to unpack groceries, eat some lunch and then I went to give a few neighbors their Christmas goodies. A couple of people weren't home so I'll go back later or tomorrow. I still have a couple of things I'm making that I'll finish later today and early tomorrow and one more batch of baking to do. I don't feel rushed though and have plenty of time to finish. We are having a very quiet stressless Christmas as I like to keep things simple.

It's just after 3 and I'm off to read a some blogs and then work on one of those gifts until Kenny comes home from work.
Then it's out to eat and then home for a cozy evening.
I hope it has been a Happy Tuesday for you!

The post trim walk through

This morning we met Nate at the town house and had what he called a Post Trim Walk Through. Everything is just about done now. The tile by the front door and bathrooms are in though covered to protect them from the workers. Kitchen cabinets are in and the counter tops will be done tomorrow. The kitchen floor and rugs will be installed next week. Washer and dryer are in and the stove is sitting in the kitchen. It was so exciting just walking around in the house. Everything is fine and looking good. After the walk through Nate left and said for us to stay as long as we liked. It was hard to leave but Ken had to get back to work. Here are some of the many pictures I took this morning.

Looking up at the loft from master bedroom.

Standing in master bedroom. Door to the left is the bathroom. Looking down the hall to the two other bedrooms.Ken standing in the living room. We love that transom window above the front door. :-)

Kitchen desk where I will have my computer. You can picture me sitting there posting to my blog!

Pantry

Me standing in my almost finished kitchen. Just think of all the chocolate chip cookies I will be making here one day!! You can also see how much of my gray hair has grown in!

Ken standing in the garage (home to the Corvettes) checking something out.

The final walk through is January 5th and closing is the next day on January 6th. Oh Happy Day.

A book worth reading

I stayed nice and warm in my 5 layers of clothing as I walked along the paths this morning when the temperature was just 22 degrees. It always amazes me that I'm not cold when I'm out walking and the rest of the day I'm cold!! Lots of people out running this morning though I didn't see any one until I was on the way back home. I haven't seen any deer for a while and today I was lucky to see 3 of them. I love how they bounce along. I also saw quite a few Cardinals. The red looks so pretty against the brown of the trees. Of course they also look pretty against white snow or the green of spring and summer. We went passed the townhouse last night and again the pictures aren't so good because it was dark. We were surprised to see them working on the deck already. The siding is up on the back and all the shutters are up as well.They are working on the dry wall inside and once they are finished with that we get to go in and take a look at everything before they do the final trim. I'll be able to get some good pictures then. I'm sure the people down the other end of our row will be in their houses by the end of the month, maybe even before Christmas. We went out this morning do to a few errands and buy a couple of Christmas presents. There were lots of cars in parking lots, and people inside the stores but no lines at the check out - not yet anyway. It's early afternoon now and we are home to stay for the rest of the day. I finished reading The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley. A non-fiction book this time. Ken was reading it and kept telling me about parts of it and it sounded interesting so I read it too. It's about how people behave during disasters. It was very good and surprising how most people act. They don't panic but freeze and do nothing and wait for people to tell them what to do wasting valuable time. I think reading it may help save your life!! This book was the 25th book I've read since July. I set a goal for myself to read 25 books from July to the end of the year and have been keeping track of them on the side bar of my blog. I will continue to add them to the end of the year and then in January I'll start another goal. I finally started making my Christmas cards yesterday afternoon. I'm making the cards using a combination of things - the computer, stamping, and embossing. I made quite a mess with things all over the place, but I was having fun. I will probably do some more card making a little bit later. Off I go to enjoy the rest of my day. I hope your Saturday is a Happy One as well. :-)

Quick townhouse update

Just a quick post with some more townhouse pictures.
The front of the house with the brick on it.

The side of the house just starting to get the brick.

The whole row of houses.

We get a sidewalk too.

I can walk right down the sidewalk, cross the street and pick up the path to take me to the park where I will be going for my morning walks! :-)

A few more pictures

It was only 25 degrees this morning when I went for my walk. The sun came out though and there was no wind and once again I was toasty warm wearing 4 layers. I was surprised to see so many people out early this morning.

Here are a few more pictures of the townhouse I took Thursday.
Pantry in the corner of the kitchen.

The washer and dryer will be here.
I wonder how often I'll use the dryer now that I'll have one.

These are the two small bedrooms upstairs.
Bedroom number 1.

Bedroom number 2.

Standing in the loft.
Windows in the master bedroom below.
One of the dormer windows straight across.

Looking up at the dormer windows in the master bedroom.

Ken is out this morning and I will do a few things around the house. Don't have any plans for rest of the day yet. We will just have to see what comes along.

Hope every one's Saturday will be a Happy One.

Townhouse Pictures

We couldn't believe how much work was done on the town house in the last two days. Here are some photos. By tomorrow the doors will be locked and we won't be able to get in anymore. The plumbing is finished and the water heater is in.
Wednesday we have a walk through to make sure we are happy with everything and then they will do the drywall. The brick has been delivered and there are piles of it all over. The outside pictures were taken earlier when it wasn't dark yet. We came back later after the workers had left and I took the inside pictures. The pictures aren't all that great because it was dark and I took them with no light - only the flash.

The back of the house.

So happy to see that transom window above the front door.

Basement window - front of house.

The bathroom on the main floor off the living room. Stairs going up to the bedrooms.

The kitchen - sink will be under the windows and counter tops along the side.

Standing in the living room looking through to the kitchen. The gas fireplace is in place.

It was great to be able to walk all over the house. All the stairs were in so we could go all the way up to the loft. I have more pictures and will post them over the next couple of days. I thought 6 was enough at one time. We are so happy and excited. The time will go fast and before you know it we will be living in our new home.

While we were out we went up the street to LeeLyns and had dinner. I had a cup of Cream Sweet Potato Soup with roasted walnuts on top. I'd never had that before and was so glad I tried it because it was the most delicious soup I've ever had. Ken got Cream of Crab and when I tried some of it I thought that was the most delicious soup I've ever had too. :-)

Gone all day

I stayed home yesterday and did some house cleaning. I also started a small cross stitch that is part of a Thanksgiving Day card I'm making for someone. Can't say too much about it yet because the person I'm making it for reads this blog some times. I will take pictures and show you later though. It says I'm supposed to be able to finish it in one day and I am not nearly done with it yet. I will work on it some more later. Ken didn't have to go to work yesterday because of the holiday but he went in any way and took today off instead. Since he had off I walked a different way this morning and he picked me up. It's nice being able to walk one way without having to turn around and come back. I walked my usual paths, but when I got to the Pratt Bridge, I walked up to the road and took another path in the woods along the river. This one came out over by a little shopping center called Kings Contrivance and that is where Ken picked me up. While along the path I didn't see many people but I saw a couple of deer and a heron. The heron was flying and landed in a little pond. The weather felt pretty mild at 40 degrees after yesterday's temperature of 28. Since Ken was home I made us pancakes for breakfast and then we headed out to the Outlet Mall in Hagerstown, about 1 1/2 hours from home. We spent a good part of the day there walking in and out of all the stores and bought a few things here and there. I got 2 new pairs of New Balance shoes for walking and these two pair should last me a year. We picked up a few Christmas presents and Ken found a nice pair of driving gloves. It was nice going there in the middle of the week because we had the place practically to ourselves. On the way back we stopped to take a look at the town house. Last time when I said that the skylights were cut out, I should have said dormers not skylights. The tar paper is on the roof and on the first of the houses the shingles have been started. Things are going good except for one problem. Above some of the windows and both the back and the front doors there is supposed to be a transom window. They are all framed out except the one for the front door. We asked about it last week and was assured that it will be there. Well more than a week as gone by and it still isn't fixed. The thing that worries us is that it won't be so easy to cut out because the header is over the door. Why they didn't fix it before they added the other floors I don't know. I'm not so sure about "Honest Nate" when he says the window will be there. Another thing is that none of the houses have it framed out right and they all are supposed to have that window. We think they are trying to cut corners a bit and we aren't going to get it. Which means "Honest Nate" is lying to us. So Ken wrote a letter expressing our concerns just to put things in writing. It doesn't sound like a big deal, it's just a little window after all, but we like it and was told we would have it. It's just the principle of the thing.

Here's the pictures we took today.

Since it was already suppertime when we left the house and I didn't feel like going home to cook dinner we swung by the mall and went to the Mexican restaurant in there (I can never remember the name of it) and had dinner. We were gone all day and now it's nice to be back home. It was started raining and it's nice and cozy here in the house. A snack, an episode of Six Feet Under, a little reading, knitting, and working on the cross stitch card awaits me. So off I go. Hope your Wednesday was a Happy One!

Gas break, lots of traffic & a whistle

There was a stream of traffic all day long yesterday along the main road in my little town because of a main gas break out along Route 1. There are two ways to get into town from Route 1 and they are just a block away and the break happened right between those two roads. So when the road was closed all the traffic had to be detoured through town. I walked faster than the cars were going! All is repaired now and things are back to normal. Early his morning when I was walking a guy driving by gave me the "wolf whistle." :-) It made me laugh because I didn't even think guys did that any more. I can't remember the last time I heard one. The weather was very mild this morning and though it looked like rain and I carried my umbrella I never had to use it. Didn't walk along the paths today but stayed on the roads around town. I walked the last mile of my 6.7 mile walk with Nola. I was extra hungry this morning and really enjoyed our pancake breakfast. Then after doing a few things around the house we went out to do a few errands. Costco, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Joann's, and Weis were the stops we made. Also somewhere between all that we had lunch. In the afternoon I finally bagged up the leaves I raked the other day. I filled 9 large leaf bags. Still more raking to do but I feel like I got a real good start. It was such a pretty day out that I didn't mind being out at all. Tomorrow I hope to tackle the front yard. Yesterday we made it over to the town house just before it got dark and we were excited to see that the roof is on now.

This is the front and you can see the cut outs in the roof for the sky lights which are in our bedroom.

The back of the house.

Here I'm standing inside the garage.

Ken made us nachos for supper tonight - haven't had them for a while and they were so good! Ken makes the best nachos ever!! Thanks Kenny. We are still watching Veronica Mars and will be watching an episode or two of that later. We are now on Season 2 Disc 3. We got in a supply of ice cream earlier today and I'll be having some of my favorite chocolate chip in just a little while. An all around great day this Saturday and hope yours was a great one too. Be happy!! :-) I just read this post over and realized I mentioned food 3 different times. It's a good thing I do all that walking!!!

Bridge of leaves

A very mild 60 degrees this morning on my walk, though it was cloudy and looked like rain, my walk was rain free.

This picture is of the path that leads

from the park to the back of the school.

Now doesn't that picture make you want to go for a walk? Can't you just hear the leaves rustling under foot as you walk across the bridge? That is one of the reasons why I get up and walk every day. :-) Ken came home from work the other day with a recipe for Pumpkin Squares that one of the women were passing out. It sounded good so I gave it a try today. They were okay but not something that I'd make again. I'd rather eat a piece of pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. So this recipe will not make it's way into happyone's cookbook. No sun today but it stayed 60 degrees all day. I ended up going outside and raking leaves in the afternoon. I just raked them into some huge piles which I like to do. The part that I don't like is bagging them up, so I left that for another day. There are still lots of leaves left on the trees so I'll have to do this all over again and I haven't even started on the front yard. That is much smaller though. Since it looked like rain all day I didn't bother to wash my car. Tomorrow it's supposed to go to 70 so I'll save that job for tomorrow. A happy day for Ken - his new Little Giant Ladder came today. I didn't even know it had arrived. Ken came home and said there were packages all over the porch. Since Ken has been working lots of late days, today he came home an hour early. So we headed over to the town house before it got dark.

Here's the latest pictures. That part framed out on the right is the closet in the loft. Looks like the roof should be on tomorrow.

Back home for supper and then Kenny had to leave for his glass class. While he's gone I'll do my exercise CD, read some blogs, and read my book. Then when he gets home we'll have a piece of cheese cake and watch Six Feet Under. I hope your day was a Happy One!

Another townhouse update

About the snake yesterday.
A couple of people asked if I used a zoom to take the picture. No, I didn't. The snake was sleeping so I was able to get real close to take a shot of it's head. I didn't think any thing of it. My husband said next time to use the zoom, that's what it's for.

This was the last morning for walking in the dark because we change the clocks back tonight. I'll probably wake up early and go in the dark anyway! :-)

A very mild day weather wise - 70 degrees!!
It was a good day for them to be working on our house and look what they got done.

The front of the house

The front door

The back

Inside looking at where the stairs up to the kitchen will be.

The whole row - ours being the last on this end.

I was so excited to see walls up today!!! We walked around inside and tried to picture where things will be. Our house is the complete opposite from the model and I have a hard time switching it around in my mind.
I'm starting to think now that we really will be in the house sometime during January since things are moving along so fast.

I was outside today raking some more leave. I don't know why I keep raking because there are still so many leaves to come down yet. I should just wait until they all fall before raking.

That's it for today. It's almost time for sitting in the chair watching Veronica Mars and having a snack.
What a fine day this Saturday was and I hope you enjoyed it too!!

Stamping Workshop

I saw something really gross while on my walk this morning. It was dark so I couldn't really see and I didn't want to get to close to it, but I saw what looked like a dead fish on the sidewalk. Later on the way back when it was light I went back there to see what it was and I was sorry that I did. It wasn't a fish at all but a squirrel that had been skinned. I can't figure out what happened. If an animal did it wouldn't it have eaten it? And if a person did it why would they leave it on the sidewalk? Pretty creepy!! Maybe it was some kind of sick Halloween prank!

Here is a picture of the town house from yesterday.

The picture isn't very good because it was pretty dark out and I lighted it up a bit with photoshop. Both the front and back I beams are in place now. As they build the houses they start from the other end of ours so that ours is the last one that gets stuff done. So even though we only have the I beams in, the first few houses down the other end have the framing started. Ken just left a little while ago for another glass class and he is going to stop by and see what's been done today. I'm sure there will be lots a framing done.

Today I walked over to the stamp shop, Queen's Ink, which is located in the mill and met Cheryl and Bonnie there. We went to a stamping workshop to make Christmas cards. Cheryl is an old hand at this but it was a first for Bonnie and I. We all got the same stamp of a snowman looking through a window which we got to keep. It was interesting to see how every one's turned out so different using the same stamp. We stamped, painted, cut out and assembled it all using the colors of our choice. I made two different ones and will continue to make more at home. It was a lot of fun and I learned some good tips. The work session was from 10:30 to 1:30 but most of us stayed a little longer. I left around 2 because I was all stamped out after three and half hours, but Bonnie and Cheryl were still there when I left.

Here is the table where the three of us worked at.

Bonnie is taking a picture of Cheryl 's card.

Another stamper was kind enough to take this picture of the three of us. Me, Cheryl, and Bonnie. I am holding my two cards.

I still have to do my exercise tape this evening because I never got around to it during the day. I'll do that now, then get caught up on some blog reading. When Ken gets back from his class we will watch a Veronica Mars and have a snack. This day just seemed to zoom by. I hope you all had a great Thursday! Be Happy!!