HOUSE PROGRESS REPORT…

Our house is really beginning to come together!  This afternoon we talked about the landscaping plan which should begin later on this week.

Yesterday, we talked about a bench and shelf for our mud room.  I found a picture in the Pottery Barn Catalog and showed it to our builder and he said that was exactly what he had in mind.  He tacked the picture to the wall…

…and about three hours later our very artistic carpenters had created this.

Note the picture still tacked to the wall in the photo above!  They also finished the arched openings between our entryway and dining room and they look neat and clean with the wood that arches across the top.

At the end of the day they were putting the stair treads and risers in under the admiring eye of our builder, and the rails come tomorrow—thank goodness!  The upstairs and stairs without rails give me a bit of vertigo and I have been so afraid someone would step off into thin air. 

And I finished one more painting and packed it away for yet another move.  We have been house sitting for wonderful neighbors who were gone for most of the summer.  They are returning and family members are gathering for a wedding, so we are making, hopefully, our last move before returning to our own home.

I took photos of the hibiscus flower at the suggestion of my granddaughters when we were at the beach in July.  Thank you, girls, for calling the flowers to my attention.  I think the painting turned out just lovely!

ART AT OUR HOUSE

Son #2 came with his family this past weekend and we got to keep the girls both Friday afternoon and Saturday.  My husband and I had several suggestions for activities:  movies, Imax, shopping, museum, etc.  However, they said that what they wanted to do the most was art with me.  I was so surprised and pleased, so off we went to Michaels to purchase supplies since mine are all stored away (I can hardly WAIT for my art room to be finished so that we can “do art” together with adequate supplies!).  The girls each selected a project and we got to work.

Below is a picture of their projects plus a painting by Little One.

After the wooden art projects, we got into water colors and they produced some lovely paintings.

After being so creative we went out to eat hamburgers at a place my cousin introduced me to a couple of weeks ago.  Yum!

On Saturday we went to a small gallery in the area and looked at pictures by local artists.  We had a wonderful discussion about the different kinds of art and our different tastes in art.

And, lastly, here is a picture of my latest painting.  I am very pleased with it (but, of course, my photo of it does not quite do it justice).

I am so glad my granddaughters enjoy doing art with me.  I fully anticipate that they will grow up to be artists in their own right from what I saw over the weekend.  And we had a great time!  

SUCH A BUSY DAY…

We got up this morning at 4:30 so we could drive down south to Grandparents’ Day for Son #4’s children at their school.  We had a great time at school with Miss Ella Bella and Colty.  Miss Ella Bella is on the left with a friend.

Colty is enjoying his snack while his other grandmother snapped pictures.

We had a quick lunch with Son #4 and his wife before we headed home.

On the way back we stopped to take a picture of some beautiful clouds and my very favorite oak which may appear in a painting one of these days.

 We arrived back home in time to consult with our builder about lighting fixtures and to see the latest progress on our house.  There he is surveying the work being done on the area that will be our entertainment center in the living room.

They installed cabinets in our bathroom and kitchen today.

 And now we have doors and door facings for all the rooms upstairs.

And now it is early to bed so that I can rest up for another busy day tomorrow.  Yawn!

PROGRESS, PROGRESS!

Each week now we see a little more progress.  This past week we got tile in our bathrooms…

And in our “mud room” by the bedroom door.

They also began with our “hardscape,” that is, our patio, driveway and sidewalks.

 

Some of our cabinets were delivered and will be installed next week—I can hardly wait for that part of our house to take shape!!

We also got lots of mushrooms from all the rain we had from Tropical Storm Hermine.

And my husband developed a big lump on his arm which was surgically removed on Friday.  We thought it was from a bug or spider bite.  The doctor said it was nothing to worry about but was sending it in to the lab just to make sure…

It was certainly a busy week!  And our builder says next week will be even busier!  Whew!

WHERE DID HE GO??

Our remodeling took on a new “air” of excitement this morning.  We have floor people, tile people, and landscape people all banging and working in and around the house.  They also delivered wood for the floors, tile for the bathrooms, doors and frames, railings for our stairs, and heating/a/c equipment which they stored in our garage.

All the crews were busily working away when a landscape worker picked up a couple of large pipes that had been stored in the yard for several weeks.  They were to be used under the driveway for the gas line.  He began shaking one pipe and yelling into it saying that a squirrel was stuck inside.  My husband looked in the other end of the long pipe and said it was NOT a squirrel but a skunk!  About that time the skunk ran out of the pipe and into our garage.  Now what??  We did not want to upset the skunk for any reason at all and we could not tell where he went amongst all those supplies.

Finally my husband found the poor, scared little thing behind a large board leaning against the wall.  The skunk was just cowering and shaking, but all of our initial efforts to shoo him out were unsuccessful.  Seems like he really liked our garage!

My husband began to nudge him out towards the garage door but when he got into the daylight he scurried back behind the sheltering board.  This time he stuck his tail up in the air and my camera and I ran for the back yard.

My husband nudged him out again and for a long time he cowered in the corner of the garage with his tail raised and aimed straight at us…

We finally angled the boards so that he had no place to go but outside and he ambled away into our front yard.  I am not sure where he went after that, but my husband quickly shut the garage door so we are sure that he will not get in there again today.  Whew!

Meanwhile the workers just kept on working.

Building is such an adventure!!

A VISITING COUSIN

I had a wonderful surprise today.  A cousin from the Texas Panhandle was in town visiting her daughter and granddaughter.  She called me to join them for lunch and we met at a wonderful hamburger place where we had delicious organic and gluten-free hamburgers and shared some French fries cooked in olive oil.  Yum.

Above is a picture of my cousin and her granddaughter, Miss Grace.

Doesn’t that look like a grandmother having fun??

FUN WITH GRANDKIDS

Son #2 and family stopped by briefly this weekend and spent the night.   First the two older granddaughters and I made some Origami animals while Little One did sidewalk chalk with her Granddad.

Next we went to a local historic house and took a hike along the lake.

 

Little One gave us her best “movie star” pose on the trail.

After our hike Son #2 and his wife wanted a Date Night so they asked us to keep the girls and we were delighted.  We took them out to eat and they were so polite and patient even though we had quite a wait for our food.  We were so proud of how good they were for the evening. 

We were sorry they had to leave so early this morning.  However, the deer came to say good-bye before they left and Little One insisted on a picture “with the deer in the background.”

BETTER EACH WEEK!

The inside of our house is looking better each week.  This week they finished all the sheet rock and sprayed the texture on it.  I think this will be the last of the trucks in our front yard since they were supposed to begin our landscaping today.

Our walls look WONDERFUL!!  No more “see through” house!

The picture below shows the arched openings between our entryway and our dining room.  At first the wall was solid, but it seemed so dark in the dining area that my sister suggested openings so that we could get more light AND I could see out from my kitchen (behind where I was standing to take the picture).  I think the whole wall will be lovely when they apply the trim around the arched openings.

 

We still have a ways to go though.  Last night we had our first big rain in a month and, wouldn’t you know it, the landscape people showed up this morning to begin working on our walkways.  It was too muddy and they left after about an hour.  The floor people were also supposed to begin prepping the floor today but I think they decided to wait until it was not so wet and humid to start.

Kids and grandkids coming this weekend!  I am excited!!