Here are some current photos of the house and barn — all of these were taken yesterday, 6/27/07.

This first photo is of the front of the house - I wanted a photo of the steps.  I like the way they curve out.  Also notice the “capitols” at the top of the posts on the porch.  I was worried that they might be too ornate, but I really like them, and when all the trim is painted white, they will blend right in with the posts.

This photo is taken from the dining room looking toward the front door.  You can see the bottom of the stairs.  Notice in the top corner of the dining room there is a soffit.  We have that in all four corners.  I’ve got plans for how to decorate under those.  We’ll have a small light in the top of each one.  You can also see the American cherry hardwood floor, too.  They’re still working on installing that today. 

This photo shows the balcony that overlooks the great room.  Nothing painted or stained yet - but it still looks good.  The trim guy did some gorgeous trim around that balcony.  Everything is coming together so well.  We got the call from the cabinet guy that the cabinets are ready.  So they will be installed soon.

And here is the barn.  We put a porch on it, and it has plenty of room inside for RT to have a workshop and to work on the car or truck or whatever he wants to do.  I think all the mounted deer heads will look lovely in there (as opposed to in the house!)  We have plans to do some woodworking together.  It’s going to look lovely once the landscaping is done in a couple weeks.

This last photo shows the fireplace.  RT built it himself with “country ledgestone.”  I think it is beautiful.  I love the way he put the keystone over the fireplace with the “soldiers” showing off the curve at the top.  The fireplace is actually a wood-burning stove.  It is supposed to produce enough heat to heat the entire house.  We’ll see how it works when winter gets here.

The other evening RT and I got home from a long day of working at the new house.  RT was finishing up the stone work on the fireplace, and I had helped with selecting the stones, preparing the mortar and cleaning up.  We were both exhausted.  Although RT had done the vast majority of the work, he insisted that I sit down and relax and let him prepare dinner for us.  I was easy to convince. 

“How about BLT’s?” I suggested.  But then I remembered.  “We’re out of mayonaise, and the lettuce doesn’t look very good.”

“Do we have ranch dressing?” asked RT.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Then I’ll improvise,” he said. 

RT prepared the absolute BEST BLT’s I’ve ever tasted.  Actually, I guess we should call them BCRT’s because we left out the lettuce and added cheese and ranch dressing.

As soon as the bacon was cooked, RT laid the cheese on top of the bacon so that the warmth from the bacon would start to soften the cheese.  That was an important step because although the cheese didn’t fully melt, it had softened to the point that it was really creamy and smooth.  He spread ranch dressing on the bread, placed the sliced bacon with cheese on top.  Then he sliced the tomatoes and laid the slices on a paper towel so they wouldn’t be so drippy.  After the paper towel had absorbed some of the moisture from the tomatoes, he added them to the sandwich.  A sprinkle of salt and pepper, a little cantaloupe on the side, a glass of chardonnay - and we had a fantastic and quick dinner.

A new sandwich was created - the BCRT.

I haven’t written about how our house-building is coming along lately. Yes, I know - I haven’t written about ANYTHING much lately.  I’ll just say that it has been hectic around here.  You’d think since I’m a teacher and I’m out of school for the summer that I’d have lots of leisure time.  You would be wrong.

Anyway, the house is coming along wonderfully. This is a photo I took today. They finished up the columns on the front and back porches - except for the half-columns that will go against the brick. They’ll finish those tomorrow.

I’m sorry this photo doesn’t show the front or back steps because they’re gorgeous - they’re made of brick and they curve out on each side.  I’ll get a photo of them up soon.

Ron has been working on putting in the stone fireplace yesterday and today. He hopes to finish it this weekend. The flooring folks started on the hardwood floors today - will be back the first of next week to finish that.

We figure we will move in the house sometime in August.  We still have to find a painter, and that has been a problem.  Next Wednesday I’m going with a decorating person to select light fixtures, granite and tile.

It’s definitely a fun time - but a very tiring and busy time.

The house plan is called “Hickory Ridge” and it’s by Donald A. Gardner Architects, Inc.  I think our house will be more beautiful than the drawing on the Gardner website.  We made a few changes - especially inside that make it outstanding.  I’ll try to get some inside photos posted soon, too.

I’m at my mother’s in Georgia, and RT sent me an email with a photo of the front door we’re getting for our new house. At the end of his email he wrote, “I adoor you.” It took me a few seconds to get it, but when I did I literally laughed out loud.  No wonder I love the man!

You may recall a couple weeks ago when I wrote about having strep.  I missed only one day of work, but I felt awful for several days.  I probably spread strep around at school before I knew I had it.

Well, this past Sunday morning, RT woke up and told me that he thought he might have strep because his throat was so sore.  Not wanting to spread it around at church if he did have it, we skipped church and went to a Minute Clinic to get a strep test.  Yep, he had it.  He said he thought he’d probably had it for at least a week because he had felt so tired and run down - but no sore throat until the weekend.

Stinkeroo (our daughter) called last night.  “Mom, did you or Dad have a fever when you had strep throat?”

“No, neither of us ran a fever.”

“I think Sweet Stuff might have strep.  She doesn’t have a fever, but she says her throat is hurting.”

So this morning, I checked email.  Stinkeroo was true to form.  Even though it was night, she wanted to know for sure.  At 10:30 last night Stinkeroo emailed me to tell me that she had taken Sweet Stuff to the Minute Clinic, and she did have strep.

So, in the last week, my precious Stinkeroo has been to the doctor with Sunshine who was diagnosed with croup.  I wrote about staying home with her last Thursday.  Then to the hospital with S when he had minor surgery.  Monday she had to take their dog, Bogey, to the veterinarian to get staples for a bad cut he got while jumping over some equipment for an irrigation system they’re putting in their yard, and now she had to take Sweet Stuff to the doctor for strep throat.

Here’s part of her email which I thought was funny:

I was telling S, I don’t think any of us had been to a doctor in a while and in the past week, I have been to the Dr with Sunshine for the Croup, S for a Hernia Surgery, Bogey to staple his leg, and now Sweet Stuff with Strep.   I guess I need to take vitamins to make sure I don’t catch anything, so I can take care of everyone.   I just really hope we don’t pass around Strep in the family.  The lady there thought it was funny Sweet Stuff caught strep from grandparents instead of the other way around.

Yep, PawPaw and Grandma Carol - the strep throat carriers.  Sadly, it’s true.

It was back in 1968 - my freshman winter at college in Kentucky.  RT and I had started dating in the fall.  I was crazy about the guy!   I was living on campus in a women’s dorm.  RT lived across campus in a men’s dorm.  My dorm was an old fashioned one with the restrooms and showers at the end of the hall. 

I had to work my way through school doing various jobs - cleaning the bathrooms, working in the cafeteria - whatever work I could get.  That year I worked the breakfast line in the cafeteria, and so I got up early in the  mornings to get to the cafeteria before the serving lines opened.

That Valentine morning, the alarm clock rang, and I trudged down the hallway to take care of morning necessities and get my shower.  Awhile later, I returned to my room - and there on my bed was a HUGE heart-shaped box of candy with a large red valentine card next to it.  

It was from RT, and to say I was surprised would be an understatement.  He wrote lots of sweetly romantic stuff in the card.  He’s very good at that.  I was ecstatic because I never expected such a treat.  RT had gotten a friend of mine to hide the candy and card, wait for me to go to the restroom, and then put them on my pillow.  It was a tender start to a life-long romance.  I still smile when I think of it.

Aha!  I knew it.  Dogs are NOT good for you, after all!

I’ve never been much of a pet-lover.  However, RT really wanted to get a dog.  So we got Jake three months ago.  Since then I’ve had my sleep messed up virtually every night (since RT insists that Jake sleep on the floor next to our bed) by dog odor and dog noises, there is black dog hair EVERYWHERE, Jake actually has started jumping on top of my car with his muddy feet - keeping it a muddy mess.  I’m dreading all the scratches that are inevitably under all that mud.  (Note: There are indeed some significant LONG scratches on the hood of my car. I just ordered a car cover to use until we get a garage so the dog can’t get to it.) He still pees on the floor occasionally (ok - rarely, but still!) scratches the doors horribly, and chews any bit of paper he can find into shreds all over the floor. 

I was so naive at first - I just never considered that RT having a dog meant that I would have to sleep in the same room with a smelly dog every night.  I can deal with the other stuff, but not being able to sleep well really messes me up.

Now there is research to show that, despite all the supposedly wonderful benefits of having a pet,  perhaps having a pet is not such a warm and fuzzy experience all the time.

Pet Owners Have Poorer Health, Study Finds

By Amy Norton

Reuters

NEW YORK (Jan. 10) - While research has suggested that pets can offer people health benefits, a new study from Finland finds that pet owners tend to be heavier, less active and in poorer health than those without a pet. 

However, that doesn’t mean pets are bad for us, the researchers note. Rather, people most likely to have a pet, such as middle-aged and home-owners, also tend to be more sedentary and thicker around the middle.

Researchers at the University of Turku in Finland report the findings in PLoS ONE, an online journal published by the Public Library of Science.

A number of studies have suggested that certain people benefit from living with a dog or cat — a pet may help lower blood pressure and heart rate, for example, or ease stress, loneliness and even dementia-related agitation in the elderly.

But whether pet owners as a group are a healthier lot has been unclear. The new findings suggest they’re not.

Using survey data from more than 21,000 young to middle-aged Finnish adults, researchers found that pet owners were generally more likely to be overweight and to view their own health as poor.

This was largely because pet owners tended to be middle-aged, have less education and more health-risk factors, explained Dr. Leena K. Koivusilta, the study’s lead author.

And despite having Fido to take for walks, even dog owners typically got little exercise.

This is likely because they were often home-owners who could simply put the dog in the yard, Koivusilta noted.

The fact that pet owners were in poorer health does not mean that furry companions aren’t a health boon in some cases, she told Reuters Health.

“In my opinion,” Koivusilta said, “pets provide us all with a vast potential for health promotion, and this has indeed been shown when some special groups have been studied.”

Pet owners, according to the researchers, may just need to make more of an effort — such as walking and playing with the dog instead of showing him the way to the yard.

They’ll be here soon - sometime around 9:00 a.m.  We will babysit the grandgirls until sometime mid-day on Monday.  It’s their mom’s birthday (our daughter).  My baby will be 32 years old.  She and our son-in-law are going to spend the weekend with some friends and celebrate her birthday.  RT and I will take care of Sweet Stuff (5 years old) and Sunshine (3 years old).  I’m looking forward to it.

In preparation, I went to Michael’s yesterday and picked up some arts and crafts items.  I had given the girls digital cameras for Christmas (VERY inexpensive children’s cameras.  They were only $19.95 each - so I’m not expecting any great photos).  I thought we might try printing some of their pictures and making a small photo album OR just framing a photo from each of their cameras.  We’ll have to see what quality photos they’ve taken.

Since they enjoy helping me cook so much, I bought aprons for all of us, and we’ll paint and decorate those aprons and then keep them here for them to use whenever they visit and we cook. 

Blogging might be extra light this weekend because I will be quite busy!

On Thursday, December 14th, the ground was officially broken on our new house.  Excavators did the rough grade and excavated for the crawl space.  Next week the footing and foundation are scheduled to be done.  Here is a photo of the first of four truckloads of timber taken from the building site. 

 

This next photo is of the building site on Thursday afternoon.  This is an exciting phase in the building process because we can see where each room will be.  

Friday the surveyer marked the corners of the house with orange stakes.  I will add a photo of that later today.  We have spent literally hours looking at the stakes from every angle and deciding whether or not the house is situated exactly as we want it.  It isn’t. It’s off by a couple feet.  Tomorrow or Tuesday the surveyer will re-survey to make the house sit a little more horizontally on the ridge. 

Our goal is to have the framing and roof done by the end of January.  We want to move in by RT’s birthday on July 12th.   Funny note: Our daughter apparently has little faith in her father (since he took many years to complete the addition to our current home).  She predicted we wouldn’t be in even by Christmas next year.  Hmmmm.  We’ll see.

By the way, HERE’s the floor plan for the house.  The only change is that we’ve added a bedroom downstairs off the laundry room. 

Each morning when I leave for work, the last thing R.T. tells me is, “Watch out for deer!”  It all started a couple months back because my route to work takes me through some country backroads where deer are plentiful.  Too often, alonside the road, I see deer who were on the losing end of an encounter with a vehicle.  I often see deer in the distance or near the road.  So far, though, none had come close to running in front of me.

Soon, R.T.’s caution became a ritual - and, as silly as it might sound, it is one that always brings a smile to my face.  RT never missed an opportunity to tell me to “Watch out for deer” until this  morning.  He was hurrying to meet a workman over at the building site and was distracted.   I was on my way to work before I realized he hadn’t said it.  I almost called him to tease him about forgetting it, but I figured the phone call would jinx me. 

Jinxed or not, it didn’t take long.  Sure enough, about six miles from school, as I drove down a road with particularly scenic woods on each side, I saw the deer.  He was a large stately buck with an impressive rack of antlers, and he stood poised by the side of the road ahead - seemingly ready to dash across in front of me.  I slowed the car.  He looked my way, paused briefly- seeming to make eye contact - and then turned and bounded off into the woods.  It was one of those unexpected moments in life when you see something so beautiful and close-up it takes your breath away.

I called R.T.  “You forgot something this morning,” I said.

“Watch out for deer!” There are advantages to knowing someone so well.  He knew exactly why I had called. He had already realized that he hadn’t given his usual caution.

“Too late,” I answered.  I let the words hang there for a second or two before I assured him that I had not run into a deer but had merely seen one.  Of course I had to talk about how large it was and how big the antlers had been.