Living in the country

When I am lying in bed, all I can see are treetops and all I can hear are the birds. Very, very cool. There is, however, a down side... On Sunday, when Mom was here for lunch, we sat outside at the porch table with the umbrella up. Towards dessert time, a robin started flying over us and around us. The bird was so persistent that we put down the umbrella and moved to other chairs. I had noticed this bird earlier in the day, when it seemed to be taking shortcuts over the porch to get to a tree on the other side of the house. I was sitting outside, talking to Pam on the phone and mentioned this weirdness to her. But aha...I finally put it together: there is a bird's nest in the rafters below the porch, right at the corner, underneath the porch table. When Gertie goes out in the morning, she likes to view her terrain from that corner and today she noticed some chirping under her feet. And then she got dive bombed by the adult bird... I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of the dive bombing, but here's the protector, viewing her terrain:

Mary Ann Was Here

I went to Detroit for several days, and then Mary Ann and "I" drove back (she did all the driving). We spent Tuesday night with the Shipmans. Linda gave me lots and lots of plants, which I will plant today or tomorrow. Neat, hm? Then on Wednesday we continued on to Singers Glen. Mary Ann was my first overnight house guest! She was the first one to use the downstairs shower! She had to leave this morning, to return to Detroit and a baby shower for her daughter Claire on Sunday. We had so much fun!

The Outside

Nancy was here today (she is the most loyal of visitors!) and encouraged me to post a photo from this angle:

Monday, May 12th

Alex, the carpenter, and Danny, the electrician, were here on Saturday. They installed shelves, lights, fans, rods in my studio and the mailbox. I think that we are just about done, so here are some final photos. One of my favorite "rooms" is the pantry. I still need a Trader Joe's trip to stock the shelves, but almost...

Here's the small spare room; check out the light which Cynthia gave me:

Here's the other spare room; check out the other light which Cynthia gave me:

And the downstairs bathroom:

The new concrete patio outside the downstairs rooms:

And my studio. It has been a very long time since all the glass, tools, supplies and inventory were all consolidated in one place. Isn't this a fantastic work space:

New Addresses

My new physical address is 7918 Sprucedale Drive, Singers Glen, VA 22850. I also have a new post office box: P.O. Box 42, Singers Glen, VA 22850. Mail gets delivered to both places, so it is not an issue, which one you use.

Cardboard Boxes

I am proud to report that ALL cardboard boxes have been opened, emptied and taken to recycling. Hooray, hooray! Ray and his crew were here all day again, working on the grading, etc. After they left, I did a few things...uncrated Claudia. Here she is, ready to emerge (and boy! is she dirty!):

And, for the first time, I just parked in the garage:

Another dump run, and all the crapola/packing materials should be out of the house! Fred took a load for me last week; this week (or next) I'll take my stuff myself. Everyone needs to know where there local dump is, right?

Bedroom is done!

Moving in...

We had our Cinco de Mayo feast of tacos and beer/margarita wine (yummy, new from Costco). Dave had a soccer game so didn't join us for dinner. We had fun:

Today, Tuesday May 6th, Ray and his guys worked on grading, mulching, seeding, and the driveway. Another load of mulch for the back:

The inspector came, spent 3.5 minutes and passed the house. Consequently, I am spending the night here tonight. So is Gertie. I brought her down about an hour ago. She hid for about a half hour, and now is exploring the house:

Sunday, May 2nd

Declaring several rooms complete, which means all items are there, pictures/paintings are hung, and it is ready to use. The closet:

The laundry room, which also has a small sewing area:

The upstairs guest bathroom:

with one of my crazy glass mosaics:

The living room, shown here in several shots:

AND the crazy window things are done! Ray and his guys put up the metal on Saturday. All Saturday night I worried about getting up on the ladder to tie on the glass parts. I got up early on Sunday and did it; it took about two hours for each window and I was scared, scared, scared the entire time! Left window:

Right window:

I could have gone even bolder, I think. Next time! And, to top it off, Ray brought another load of gravel in anticipation of finalizing the driveway.

Ray will be applying for the permanent occupancy permit tomorrow, Tuesday. Meanwhile, we are going to have a Cinco de Mayo dinner at my new house tonight!

And it's done!

The stone work on the front of the house, that is (sorry about all the construction trash in the photo):

Stone work...almost done...

Glenn says that he'll finish the stone work on Saturday. Yippee! Here he is, with Forest, working on the front of the house:

The "Project"

Went to visit Al today (Tuesday, April 22nd) to help finish up the metal pieces. Here they are, laid out in his studio:

Now I need Ray and his guys to hang the metal, so that I can attach the glass...stay tuned...

Monday, April 21st

Nancy came to visit (she wins the most-visit-award; I love it!). She was fascinated with the ladder in the great room, so all photos included the ladder. Unfortunately, my appreciation for Nancy's visits is not reflected in the quality of the photo I took:

But you get the idea. She took one of me (note our bottle of proseco...we are trying all brands, to find the desired "house" brand):

Easter Sunday

Mom came for lunch; correction...brought lunch so that I wouldn't have to cook. Wasn't that nice?

The Kitchen

Declaring the kitchen DONE!

I broke myself...

I worked so hard this weekend, opening boxes, placing stuff, going up and down the stairs...by Sunday mid-day, I was broken. I laid on Buffy's couch to recover, only getting up to walk the dogs (way too often, I my opinion!). Dave helped me take the truck-load of boxes down to the recycling center (hooray for Singers Glen to have its own recycling center...I must belong here!)

April 11, 2014

It is all coming together. The inside is pretty much finished except the gas guys have to come and hook up the stove. There are a few other things, and my instructions from Ray are to create a punch list. I'll get Moey to help me with that. The outside is coming along, too. While the grading and concrete still have to be done, the railings are on:

And the posts have their cladding (this photo shows Brent and Adam, getting ready to work on the sleeping porch posts; see above for the finished look):

And Glenn worked this afternoon, so the stonework is coming along:

The water was tested for bacteria; none present. Yeah! Next week I'm going to have the water tested for nitrates, magnesium and something else. If the nitrate level is above 3, I'll have an ro system installed (along with the water softener). If not, then I'll spend the money on something else! But I am definitely having a water softener because the water here in Rockingham County is hard, hard, hard. Am making head way on the boxes. Tomorrow I hope to tackle the garage....

Metal and Glass

The two front windows are pretty dramatic and large. I decided not to fill them completely with stained glass; seemed like that would make the room too churchy. Last year when Mary Ann and I were Asheville, we saw a metal and glass wall hanging. That seemed like a fun thing to try. When I asked around for a metal worker, the unanimous choice was Al McDorman. Although he is extremely busy, he agreed to take this on. He first told me to draw the design life-sized; here it is:

Al bent/forged the two large metal pieces for each window. Then he led me through making the ribbons, always making sure that I didn't grab the hot end or turn the torch on him. I enjoyed making the first two ribbons but was happy to have him make the second two, while I cleaned the right-hand sculpture. It appears that I am quite good at cleaning:

Today Al had me bring along one set of the glass pieces. (I fused the small pieces; since my bigger kiln is not yet hooked up, wonderful Heather at Trendy Beads fused the larger pieces. I am delighted that I had a reason to get to know her better.) I had drilled holes in the smaller pieces but needed to measure the larger ones against the metal:

A few other photos (don't you love Al's ingenuity in hanging the metal from the bucket of the tractor?):

Anyway, Al has a fabulous shop, which is so clean! He hopes to finish his part this week. Ray said that he and his guys would hang the pieces from the ceiling. Isn't this fun?

oops....

Pam visited this weekend. On Friday night, we toured the house and then got in the car to meet Buffy and Fred. But the car would not go forward because new gravel had been put down, but not tamped, that day. She backed up, to try to get a running start. Same thing, no forward progress. Backed up a little more, still no forward progress. When I tell the story, the car was three inches from one of the porch pilings; see:

We got out of Pam's car, and drove to town in my car. On Sunday the car was rescued with Fred on his tractor, Pete in the car and Buffy supervising:

We also did some work in the house, moving stuff out of the great room pile. We had to have a celebration each day:

On Sunday, all of us moved the glass storage boxes from Mom's. We also moved the porch patio furniture, and then had to inaugurate it with another bottle of Proseco (thank you Pam!). Dave decided that the porch will be a perfect corn hole pitch. Wish I had taken a photo of Moey's cartwheel!