And one year later - we're in our house

This has been the most eventful two weeks I have spent in quite awhile.  The culmination, of course, is that we are in our house and loving turning it into our home.  It was a tight push on the part of our contractor.  He had subs working late into the evenings and on weekends to get us in by the end of January.  Because of the strange weather we still don't have our outside compete; the concrete walks are not poured and the landscaping hasn't been done, but that will happen when we are sure of a few good days in a row.

Things were made extremely interesting when Gary broke his right hand - and yes, he is right handed - one week before our move.  He was making a hole in the entertainment center when the drill just wrapped his wrist and snapped the bone that holds the thumb to the wrist.  The prognosis is good but he will be in a cast for about four months.  Those of you who know Gary can understand how much it bothers him not being able to jump into things both inside and outside.  Luckily we have met wonderful people who have been pitching in with food, trucks, advice, muscles, and who have taken over manning the electric drill.

Not even a broken hand can keep Gary from trying out his Christmas present.  He doesn't have a man cave, but did get a man aerie in the bonus room above the garage.

It's great to finally see our stuff again.  The movers arrived with our load from storage last Tuesday. Even though our house is around the same size as our one in Visalia, the style is so different that it has been a creative challenge trying to locate things in their proper places.  I know that once everything is placed it will be moved a few times more to make it work for us in our new woodsy lifestyle. Of course there are still unopened boxes.  Those must be the things we shouldn't have brought with us because apparently what they contain is neither necessary nor wanted enough to look for.  It's great having a real kitchen again and after our Costco and Walmart runs, it is stocked with the basics.

 The dogs seem very comfortable to have their things back as well and have found their comfy places in the sun.  They enjoy that some of our windows are low enough to be Yorkie height so they can watch for deer and turkey in our back, but last night they weren't so pleased with the howling of the distant coyotes.  They also don't like that this red clay causes them to need a lot more baths.  I think they are going to need new hairstyles.

I will include a few pictures here, but most of the rooms are still embarrassingly cluttered so I am just posting a few where we have been able to hide our boxes and strewn paper.

Since I first started this post we have made quite some progress.  We were able to take a large load of flattened boxes to the recycling center; the propane tank is filled; the dryer is working so the laundry pile is shrinking.  It's looking like we will be ready for our first company next week.

Just a few quick pictures

The dogs were not fond of the snow during our big storm.  This was the day that Gary was scheduled for his eyelid surgery.  Needless to say, that didn't happen.  It is now set for January 20.











This is our street two days after the big snow.  It was the first day we could get up there easily.  I took this picture from in front of our house, which is just to the right.




 In just one week the snow is almost all melted except for where it was  piled along the roads or where there is deep shade.






The end of January is coming fast and because of the weather it is a little less sure that we will be in the house in two weeks.  The subs are working weekends and as late as the light will allow to help us along.  The fun part, though, is that everything that is done is noticeable, so it feels like huge progress is made from one day to the next. Today our main living area looked like this, but by tomorrow it will have changed because this afternoon the cabinet installers were working on the unit to the left of the fireplace.  This picture is taken from the breakfast nook, looking through the great room into the office.  You can see a small section of the kitchen counter in the bottom left and the white door is the front entry.


These are some of our new neighbors.

Becky sent through this picture of Julia a few days ago and it is my new favorite so I had to share.  I'm loving the hair!

Love to you all.

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Beginning a new year

We spent a few hours today at the house. On the way up we stopped for two salads and had a picnic on the floor of one of the spare bedrooms (that room is getting carpet so we didn't need to worry about spilling salad dressing on the unfinished hardwood in the kitchen).  The heat is on in the house so it was warm inside even though outside there were snow flurries in the air.  While Gary worked on crimping some of the audio wires, I laid out newspapers in the sizes of various pieces of furniture and tried to get a read on where things should be placed and which things will need to go into storage in the attic.  The kitchen is mostly installed so I spent time opening and closing drawers and cabinets trying to decide where things will go.  We probably won't be up there much next week because 1. the flooring is being finished,  2. Gary is getting yet another eye surgery on Monday, and  3. there is a storm coming in.  It still seems like there is a lot to do in the house, but our builder insists we are still on for a late January move.  The furniture is scheduled to arrive on January 30, so I hope we have a house to put it in.

We were very excited to see our screen porch and fireplace almost completed.  When we left in December it was just open space. Now all it needs is staining.

 Tennessee does seem like home, but we did have a wonderful vacation in Ohio.  It was so good to have the whole family together for a bit.  I love the changing and intertwining dynamics as the kids get older and have their own independent lives, yet are still united by family.

 Becky and Scott are wonderful parents and they so enjoy that role.  They are both busy with careers as well, but somehow make it all fit together.  Excitement is building for the arrival of their son, scheduled for March 29. 

 Dan is carving out his place within the Kroger corporation. Talking with him about his enthusiastic career plans reminds me of how it was when we moved to California with Guardian so many years ago. The cold winter doesn't seem to be bothering Dan as I thought it would since he truly enjoyed the hot weather in the Valley and in La Quinta.

 Krista puts herself out there for her kids in Oakland.  She is not working with easy kids, nor in an easy situation so her successes are very meaningful.  We are all excited about Krista and Mike's engagement and I am working with her long distance to begin wedding plans.  Luckily she has some good friends who can help her filter the preliminary ideas.  At some point I will fly out to help her, probably in the summer when she is not working.
I hope everyone is staying warm and dry.

Happy New Year

Best wishes for a wonderful 2011.  

Happy Holidays

Just call us wanderers, vagabonds, nomads, homeless, with no address to use for Christmas cards.  Thanks to Becky, Scott, and Julia who let the Werners descend on them for a family Christmas.  We arrived last Saturday, Krista on Monday, and Dan on Friday.  On Christmas Eve we enjoyed going to church for the candlelight service where Becky was part of the music presentation. Christmas morning found that Santa had been very busy indeed, and Julia enjoyed  slowly opening her presents, playing with each one as she opened it.







2011 will prove to be a very eventful year for our family as we welcome our grandson in March and we plan a wedding. The night before Krista left to fly to Ohio Mike proposed, so she arrived in Ohio with a diamond on her finger but a lonely spot in her heart leaving her fiance of one day. We will be very pleased to welcome Mike officially to our family, hopefully sometime this summer.

It's beginning to look like our house in the woods

This is the latest view of our house.  It is beginning to look like the home in the woods that we have been planning all along.  Each day a little something is different, and at this point everything is noticeable.  Because we go up so often  we are getting very good at driving switchbacks.  The quickest road from our apartment to our house is called the W Road, and for good reason.  It's about a 3 mile climb up.  The road hugs the side of the mountain with some twists and turns, but it's that last 1/2 mile that  is quite interesting, particularly if you meet someone coming the other direction.  If you look at a Civil War era map you can notice that the road was a W even back then.   Once we get up on top the road flattens out because Signal Mountain is really more of a plateau than a peak.  We then have about a ten minute drive along the top, but driving up and down, no matter which road you take, is quite steep and twisty.

Last night we joined some friends at a bluegrass "concert" at the Mountain Opry.  It's on the mountain in a very old building which looks like it was a school back in the  40's.  Every Friday throughout the year, local bluegrass musicians gather just to play, and anyone can sit and watch, but this week was a little different. This was a fund raiser for scholarships to continue the Appalachian music tradition.  There were musicians of all ages there, but I was dumbfounded at the talent of some of the high school students.  There was an incredible 16 year old fiddler who played Orange Blossom Special, and  a young banjo player  starred in Salty Dog Blues (that was the song the Darlings played on Andy Griffith).   One young man was very accomplished on both the mandolin and the harmonica and another played a mountain dulcimer.  Of course, Rocky Top had some in the audience stomping in the aisles.  Banjo music does not mean Deliverance to me!

It's snowing here today, a nice soft quiet snow.  We are expecting a few inches to accumulate. SM gets about 5 inches of snow on average so this may be half of it now.   How I wish we were in our house sitting by the fire looking at the snow falling in the woods instead of in our apartment watching it fall in the parking lot. But, it's nice to know that we can enjoy it from indoors and we don't have to go out in the snow for anything other than an occasional doggy outing.

Congratulations to Elizabeth and Matt.
Best wishes to Pam and Bryan.
Welcome to the world Zoe Purkiss.

Enjoy with your audio turned on

This really brings out the true feeling of Christmas.  The vocalist is David Phelps.
Thanks, Karen, for passing this along.