BEAUTIFUL SPRING DAY

Today has been just gorgeous. Of course, I was inside at work for 8 hours, but I came home and started pulling weeds around our shrubbery out front. It's looking a lot better. Yesterday I pulled weeds out of my flower beds out back and Handyman mowed the grass. The yard is beginning to look better. It's been neglected for the winter months. Handyman also stopped this afternoon and mowed #2 daughter's yard.
I got lazy and ordered pizza for supper tonight. I just didn't feel like cooking.
I can't wait to get to the cabin tomorrow afternoon. We're supposed to have good weather for several days to come! We need to start thinking about where we want to transplant some flowers at the cabin. This is the best time of year to do that. I have several different varieties that I want to take over there.

WONDERFUL WEEKEND

Well we've spent our first weekend at our cabin and it was wonderful! I drove up after work on Friday. It only took me 31 minutes to get there from work. Handyman and our yorkie had gone up that morning. We had an easy meal for dinner that night - tacos. After cleaning up the dishes, the three of us went for a walk down the "lane." The temperature was a little on the chilly side, but walking helped to warm us up. We enjoyed the evening together - without TV or the internet! Handyman had to get up early to head out to the church camp where they were roofing a cabin. I didn't even have to cook breakfast for him because they were going to eat after they got to Loucon. I had my Cheerios and then started cleaning on the cabin. I spent a lot of time down on my knees scrubbing the floor trying to get up the dust from the drywalling. After lunch I decided to tackle the stairs. I had peeked under a piece of the carpet that was stapled to the stairs and it was a mess. I called handyman and asked if it was okay to take them up and he okayed it. I started at the top and worked my way down. First I would take the carpet up and put it in the garbage bag, then rake off all the dirt into the garbage bag, then wiped it with a microfiber cloth, then used a wet rag on it - step by step until I got to the bottom. Now they're ready to either paint or carpet. We're not positive what we're doing with them. I was so tired when I finished that I layed down on the futon with Toby and took a little nap. Handyman didn't get back to the cabin until after 5:00. He cooked hamburgers on the grill and I fixed baked potatoes and salad. It was all delicious. I had put a pot of beans on to cook Saturday afternoon for Sunday dinner. On Sunday morning I put the brocolli on to cook, along with the squash. Then I made cornbread and we fried the country ham in coke (that took a lot of the salt out). Holly came up and Handyman's sister from Nashville and her husband. We had a nice meal together and enjoyed having them come to visit to see what all had been done on the cabin. We had packed enough food and clothes to stay until Monday morning, but handyman was going to work at our regular house on Monday and wanted to get an early start there so we made it home about 4:30 on Sunday. We took several walks with Toby and I enjoyed being out. I got to meet and talk with the neighbors on Saturday afternoon.
Even with all the work on Saturday and getting a meal together on Sunday, I was so relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed my time up there. I can't wait to go back!!!

THIS IS THE DAY

Today is the day we've been waiting for since November 9th -(actually we've been looking for a place on the lake since about 1975-so we've really been waiting about 35 years)--- we're going to spend the weekend at "OUR" cabin!!!
No, everything isn't finished but the inside is getting really close.
We're taking all of the little plastic boxes I can find at the house --- not sure what we'll need to organize everything so hopefully we'll have what we need and then we'll take the leftovers home.
I'm looking forward to picking where to put each plate, glass, spoon!!
I went to the grocery yesterday and bought most of the staples that we're going to keep at the cabin (condiments, flour, sugar, coffee, tea, spices, etc). I had gone to WalMart over the weekend and gotten the toiletries (toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc.)
Eventually we're hoping to have extra clothes to keep at the cabin so we can just walk out of our house and go there without having to pack anything. I'm sure it'll take us some time to get to that point, but that's our goal.
Our TV cable, Internet and land line phone won't be installed until sometime next week, so I'm hoping that I won't go crazy being disconnected from the world. Actually I think it's going to be nice because I spend way too much time on the internet.
Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share next week -----

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to my Handyman Husband. Thank you for all that you do!!
What would I ever do without you?

No Heat!!

Yesterday afternoon I arrived home to a chilly house. The temperature inside was 66 degrees. I checked the thermostat to make sure it was set correctly and it was. Then I heard the furnace kick on so I checked the air coming out of the vent --- it was cool. Handyman had stopped at Lowes to pick up my new stove and was kept waiting about an hour for them to bring it up to load. Of all days for it to take so long. When he finally got home he crawled under the house to inspect the furnace and found the culprit to be a part that we've had to replace twice before --- but at least it isn't an expensive part. Of course, by that time it was too late to go and buy one. I had taken our little heater to work over the winter and had failed to bring it home. (It's going home today!) I had gone upstairs and turned the heat pump on and it was fairly comfortable up there. After Handyman husband had figured out the problem, he went out to the sunroom and fired up the gas heater, opened the dining room windows and door to let the heat come in and it heated up the kitchen pretty well. I hadn't even thought of using that heater -- I had thought about lighting the fireplace, but had decided to wait to see if he could fix it first. I closed the spare bedroom doors and turned on the living room ceiling fan and we were fine. I was a little concerned about getting cold during the night because it was supposed to get down in the 40's and we didn't want to leave the gas heater running and the windows and door open. We piled extra covers on the bed before crawling in. I had taken my clothes into the bathroom last night so that when I got out of the shower I could stay in the warm room to get dressed instead of going out into our bedroom as usual. It got down in the 40's last night but when I checked the kitchen temperature this morning it was still 67 in there. It didn't turn out as bad as I thought it was going to. But I'll be glad when he gets the part in this afternoon!!

DAY AT THE CABIN

I took a vacation day from work today so that I could work at the cabin with handyman husband. First thing this morning I worked on trying to get the dust off the upstairs floor. Right now it's just plywood but come Monday morning it will be covered with nice soft carpet. We have to get as much dust out of the flooring as we can. After going thru several covers for our new Swifter, I had it in pretty good shape except for right in the middle of the room where there's still a pile of building supplies. Handyman said that he would finish it up on Monday morning before the carpet layers arrived. After getting up the dust I started painting the trim upstairs. I got 2 windows and all of the baseboards. It'll have plenty of time to dry before the carpet layers get there. Then I moved downstairs and started taping off the bathroom getting it ready to paint the baseboards. I had to be more careful there because the flooring is already down. Then it was time for lunch so we heated our leftover pizza in the microwave and took it out on the front deck to eat. After lunch I went back to my painting. I finished the bathroom & door and then moved into the living room where I painted all the baseboards. There are still several windows to paint, but a couple weren't ready yet, so we'll just have to get them later. Handyman was busy too --- fitting the new countertop, hooking up the kitchen faucet, and then nailing more boards to the upper deck. We met another neighbor today -- his dad owned the farm that our lot came off of. It's always good to know the people who around. We probably know more people around the cabin than we do here at our main house. I was looking out the kitchen window and saw a redheaded woodpecker on one of our trees. I'm sure there will be lots of birds and other animals up there. By the time we left I was pretty much worn out. I was glad that I wasn't the one driving. After being used to sitting at a desk all day, all that up and down stuff wasn't easy. We recuperated but instead of cooking supper we had Arby's. I can't remember the last time we picked up food from there. It tasted pretty good. I can't wait to be able to go up there when everything is finished and just sit back, relax and enjoy!!

CABIN KITCHEN

The kitchen is almost finished. The countertop is supposed to be in next Wednesday. We still have to buy the new stove for here at home before mine can be taken to the lake. The one thing that my cabin kitchen won't have is a dishwasher. The space is just not available for it. But that's okay because handyman has always been so good with helping me to do the dishes when we've been out in the camper and I'm sure he will be at the cabin too. I am getting so anxious to be able to stay up at the lake. It won't be long now.

The kitchen before ---


Can you believe the change?

ANOTHER BEFORE/AFTER

The fellow that we bought the cabin from stopped by the cabin last week to check on the progress. He and Handyman started talking about the extra building that we wanted to get rid of. He said that he knew someone who could take it down, so he put him in contact with Handyman. They reached an agreement on the price and now the building is GONE. What a difference in the looks of things up there. There's still some cleaning up to do but the bulk of it is gone.

SPRINGTIME AT THE CABIN

Handyman took this picture while he was working at the lake today. Our property has a few flowers on it and the crocus have decided that it's SPRING!!

CABIN TOUR

This is the door off the side deck
This door is currently the front door. It will be taken out and
a window inserted in its place. This will be our seating area.
The stairs going up to the bedroom
Kitchen appliances - Range will go under microwave
Kitchen cabinets will go here. Bathroom door opening Back to the door

Handyman & I went to the cabin for my weekly visit. I took some pictures with my camera (as opposed to handyman's cell phone which doesn't take as clear a picture). He's coming right along with things. Then we stopped at Lowes in Glasgow and put in our order for the bedroom carpet. Before we got home, the installer had called to schedule a time to come and measure the room to make sure we get enough carpet. He's meeting handyman tomorrow afternoon at the cabin. We didn't realize until we were giving the associate all of our information that they guarantee installation within 72 hours of your consultation. Whoops --- we aren't quite ready yet!!! I don't guess there will be a problem delaying the installation a few days. I've tried to do a "see everything" on the first floor with my pictures so you can piece them together to get the whole picture. Handyman is doing such a great job on the renovation. We're going to have a great vacation home when he's finished!!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE

Above are pictures of the back wall in the upstairs bedroom. It started as just a plywood wall, then Handyman took that off and finished the wallboard, painted and trimmed out the window and baseboard. What a transformation!!

KITCHEN

Handyman has been working away at the cabin. I don't think I ever want to see green walls again. This is the progression of one of the kitchen walls. Of course, the stove will go under the microwave. The kitchen table will be on the outer bathroom wall on the left side of the last picture. It'll be small enough to fit between the center support post and the wall. The TV will be mounted on the wall over the kitchen table.

SPRING FEVER - ALLERGY TIME

I always know when springtime is about to arrive --- my allergies begin to kick in. Runny nose, sneezing, itchy, watery eyes. Well, it started yesterday. Last night I took all of my regulars --Zyrtec, Flonase & Sudafed. Do I feel better today? No.... It usually takes me a while to adjust. I've been considering going to an allergist to see if we can't put a stop to this nonsense every year but I just haven't been able to make that commitment. From what I understand it would be shots at least once a week for a while and then they would gradually taper off with no guarantees that I'd be allergy free.