Our Adventures in Life

First Veggies from the garden and a Murder Mystery dinner

2010-06-18T21:23:00.008-04:00

Last weekend we hosted another Murder Mystery Dinner. We used the same game as before so this time Tim and I acted as the cook and waitress at Maltie Falcon's diner were the suspects were gathered for dinner. Everyone had a great time and were dress for their parts. I believe this dinner are going to become our new hobby.

We checked our garden this evening and discovered lots of veggies ready for picking.

6 squash, 7 cucumbers, and 4 zucchini including one that is 10 inches long. Guess what we are eating on all weekend?

This is a baby watermelon that is slowly growing.

Compare thes pictures to the ones in our last post and you will see how much bigger everything is compared to less than two weeks ago.

Honey helped out by running in and out of the garden the whole time we were out there. Her little legs are brown now from the dirt.

Garden is Growing including a new Flower

2010-06-07T18:35:00.004-04:00

We have been enjoying lettuce and spinach from our garden and it is delicious! Blackbirds were discovered in the garden on Sunday so we strung CDs across it to scare them away. I think it's working. We have also been blessed with a new flower for our flower garden of Shih-tzus. Honeysuckle aka Honey is a gift from Amanda's cousin Julie. She was not able to make friends with Julie's other dog so she asked us to give her a home. We are thrilled to have her. She is a mess, but wonderful!

How new baby, Honey.

Our first night home.

After her first haircut.

Flower Garden Completed

2010-04-11T21:59:00.008-04:00

We took on a new project this weekend: the flower bed in the front of the house. At some point on Saturday morning we got the bright idea of building a rock retaining wall around the flower bed instead of the simple landscaping trim we originally purchased for the project. Needless to say after moving 50 rocks around plus pulling out all the grass from the area we are both very sore and tired. We are extremely proud of our work though.

Just in case you don't know what the flower bed looked like when we moved in, here's two pictures.

Nice, huh?

So under the supervision of Lily and Daisy...

And with Tim in his cool shades and do-rag.....

We tilled up everything, pulled out the grass, weeds, random pieces of metal and non-dirt items, and built a rock wall.

We layed down a WeedFree mat and then 9 bags of pine nugget mulch, and total of 18 cubic feet.

We are so happy with the results!

Our bigger apple tree is in full bloom. Absolutely beautiful!

And the herbs we planted in our newly built gutter flower boxes have begun to sprout. If you zoom in to the picture you can see the little green leaves.

Evidence of Hard Work

2010-04-03T20:10:00.011-04:00

Laura came to stay the week with us and did a lot of work both inside and outside of the house. Of course, she also cooked very yummy food. Amanda had a cold for the whole week so she mainly supervised. That is until Saturday. Laura left on Friday morning and Tim mowed the yard for the second time this year. We are going to pay for all that fertilizer we put on it last year. It's filling in really well with pretty grass. We also tilled up our first garden. We have grand plans of planting a little of everything. Fingers crossed and prayers prayed that we grow at least a few things that are edible after putting in all this hard work.

Here's our freshly tilled garden.

While Laura was here she got rid of the built-in box that was on our back porch. It had been built there to deflect the air coming off the old HVAC unit that used to sit under the back porch. Since our new HVAC unit is at the end of the house the box no longer needed. Our grill now fits perfectly in that end.

One of our biggest goals has been to get the fence row cleared off. Below is a picture from last summer. See all that brush, honeysuckle vines, trees, etc? It's like that all the way to behind the larger shed.

Now look at it!

This is from between the two sheds.

We still have more to do, but we ran out of energy and broke two rakes so we had to quit for the day. We moved on to building flower boxes for our front porch using gutters. We have to wait until tomorrow for the adhesive caulk we sealed the ends with to dry then we will be planting herbs in it. Pretty cool, huh?

Our pear tree has begun to bloom this week. Laura pruned the tree while she was here so hopefully the tree will produced bigger pears this year. The ones last year were so small they were not very tasty.

One of the other very cool things Laura did while she was here was help us install shades on our back porch. The evening sun is so bright that it has not been possible to sit on the porch during the evening, but now we can.

Can you believe how long Tim's hair is?!? It has never been that long.

We will update on the progress of our garden and fence clean-up.

Christmas at the Terry home

2009-11-21T23:22:00.005-05:00

We were so tempted to start decorating for Christmas in October, but resisted the temptation until two weeks ago. I've always loved Christmas decorations, but this year is extra special because it's our first real Christmas in our home. Yes, we lived in this house last year, but below is a reminder of what our home looked like this time last year.

Nowhere for a tree unless I wanted it covered in the drywall dust that was everywhere. I also would have had to take it down immediately after Christmas because that's when we put the flooring down.

The other great thing we have to be excited about this year is the new big tree my mom gave to us along with her Garfield Christmas Village.

I'm holding off on putting the porch decorations out so that I don't torment my neighbors too soon. That will be my post-Thanksgiving project.

Playing Dress-Up

2009-10-06T18:47:00.005-04:00

We have been playing dress-up in the Terry house.

This is Homecoming week at David Crockett High and Tim has been actively participating in the dress-up days. Yesterday was Decade day. He went with the 70's like last year, but skipped wearing the wig he wore last year. I didn't bother to take a picture of him this time, but have posted a picture of him from last year. I so do not miss living in a home with unpainted wall and unfinished floors.

Today was Twin day and the other teachers in his pod decided to all dress in the gothic style today. I don't yet have a picture of the whole group, but I do have the one from this morning. Sexy, huh?

Last Saturday, we hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner Party for friends from karate and their spouses. It had a 50s theme and we had costume suggestions for each of our characters. My character was known as "Pris" whereas Tim was the rebel.

We are being visited by our families this month. My mom is coming up Thursday and staying thru the weekend. Tim's mom and dad are arriving the following weekend to stay thru Wednesday or Thursday. We love it when our families come to visit.

If Tim dresses up as anything else interesting, I'll post them later this week.

Long Time, No Post

2009-09-27T21:44:00.017-04:00

Since the major construction projects around the house are finished, I don't think about updating this blog, but I've been told that some of our readers are interested in an update so here goes....

We went to Knoxville for the Terry Family Reunion. This was the first time in about 15+ years that everyone has been together. We had a great time!

There are all nuts so I blended in nicely.

We received the gift of a new riding lawnmower from our parents.
We also received the gift of a new Big Screen TV and stand.

We planted two bell pepper plants and have enjoyed several peppers off of them. The picture is of the first peppers we picked from it.

Our deer have returned this year as well as the turkey. They come into our back yard and eat the apples and pears. We did not spray the fruit trees and the bugs took over the apples before we had the chance to enjoy them. The pear tree had too many pears on it so they did not grow very big and only the deer have eaten them.

This was taken from the back bedroom.

We've been very busy since the school year started. We started back in karate classes in April. Tim is actively participating in his Masonic Lodge.

I became an AVON representative two weeks ago to help us pay off the evil credit cards so we can maybe start a family. By the way, my website is www.youravon.com/aterry3894.

We are hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner this Saturday for some of our friends. I could be living with a murderer.

My mom is hopefully coming up in two weeks to stay for a long weekend then Tim's mom and dad are planning to come up the next week. We have a busy month ahead.

If you're lucky, I'll remember to update after some of these events. Have a great week!

Visiting family, a broken rocking chair, new furniture, and our first (dead) snake

2009-06-14T21:45:00.008-04:00

Since the last post a lot of things have happened. Some wonderful, some not. We had the honor of being with Tim's grandmother when she passed away Memorial Day weekend. She was an important person in Tim's life especially when he was in grade school. She had a poodle named Rebel who was her constant companion for the last 11 years. My mom is taking care of him right now.After her funeral, Tim stayed in Savannah, TN, to help his parents begin to sort through the paperwork. Apparently, Maw never threw anything away because he found tax returns back into the 1950s. He and his family came to Kingsport at the end of the week for a week's vacation at our home. The family included Tim's mom, dad, niece (Kelsey, almost 15 yrs), and nephew (Jonathan, 12.5 yrs). Beside the usual suitcases they also brought a recliner, cedar chest, and dining room table and chairs from Maw's home. We don't have to eat on a card table with folding chairs anymore!

We had a great time all week enjoying lots of local activities including Wetlands, Bays Mtn, and Fun Expedition. We worked on the yard and played lots of badminton. The kids enjoyed the slip-n-slide, but only one afternoon. They complained the next day of being very sore and refused to play on it again. We built a campfire and pitched a tent for the kids. We made s'mores and had a good time around the fire before the kids settled in for the night. Or at least it was supposed to be for the night. Unfortunately Jonathan didn't believe us when we said he would get sick if he kept eating s'mores so sometime after midnight he and his sister moved back in due to him feeling very sick to his stomach. They never offered to sleep in the tent again. We had a casualty during the week. The rocking chair that Tim's dad got for us at an auction and painted UT orange cracked right down the middle of the seat. It's now in the burn pile. Our geranium was blooming like crazy though.

On Thursday, Tim's dad set up his kettle and fixed a delicious meal of TN river catfish. We all ate until we couldn't eat anymore. We invited Pat and Midge's family to join us as well as friends from work and church. This meal timed out perfectly for Pat's family as that was his last night on this Earth. Unfortunately Pat was diagnosed with liver cancer only a few weeks ago and was unable to handle chemo. He was able to be at home his last few days and was surrounded by his family. My mother arrived on Monday in order to tell him goodbye and be with Midge. She and Midge developed a close relationship last summer while she worked on the house. Pat was the one who mowed our yard last summer because he knew we didn't have the time. He also offered all his tools to us whenever we needed them. I lovingly referred to their home as the Nunley General Store.

Here's the whole family at Bays Mtn.

My mom left on Friday while Tim and his family left on Saturday. Tim came back home yesterday which was just in time to deal with our first snake. Earlier this summer I saw the tail of a snake as it slithered into the field beside us. I spread moth balls along the edge of our property hoping to keep out future visitors, but apparently it didn't work. This afternoon, while sweeping the porch, I moved the bench aside and saw a black snake coiled up and napping on the cool concrete. Unfortunately, snakes are the one phobia I do have so Tim was called upon to remove the visitor. The goal had been to coax it to the field since it was not poisonous, but it kept trying to come back to the porch so it had to die. Our hoe is now known at the snake killer.

Our Rose Bush

2009-05-12T22:31:00.003-04:00

Our rose bush exploded with blooms while we were gone last weekend. I went head-to-head with it and came away with several scratches, but I won and it is now tied to a trellis.

My war wounds. I wore gloves, but not sleeves.

Before we tied it to the trellis

AFTER

We still have to turn the ground around it so we can plant flowers in it. Of course, I(Amanda) do not have a green thumb so whatever I plant may not live long, but I'm going to try it.

Pics from Open House

2009-04-04T23:13:00.014-04:00

We have finished all the major projects. There are a few details/projects to finish, but we're ready to show off our home. If you weren't able to come to our open house, never fear! I've posted the pictures below and you are welcome to come over and see it firsthand. But, until then, enjoy the pictures!

KITCHEN

Living Room

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

Our special cakes made by my friend, Ellen, for our open house/ my birthday party

Video of house before the remodel

2009-03-18T22:53:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kktADyt85bw

Watch the video we made when we walked thru our home for the first time with our realtor. This should make you both appreciate all the work we've done and also question our sanity for taking on this huge of a project.

Open House Planned

2009-03-13T21:52:00.019-04:00

(NEW VIEWERS: If this is your first time looking at a blog and you would like to start with the first pictures, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on "Older posts". Scroll to the bottom of that page until you reach the first post and then work your way back up.)

We have scheduled our Open House for April 4th. We are having two parties that day to celebrate. The traditional "drop-in and see" party is from 2pm to 4pm. That evening at 6pm we are having another party to celebrate my (Amanda) 30th birthday. My actual birthday is March 16th, but it makes more sense to have the party on the same day at the open house. The evening party will be BYOB and my friend, Ellen, is making a Mickey Mouse birthday cake for me. Both parties are as casual and relaxed as me and Tim. Call or email me if you need directions. We are very proud of the work we have put into this house and want everyone we know to come see it.

We did take a break from home remodeling two weeks ago to go see Disney On Ice in Johnson City. If we can't go to Disney World then we have to feed our Disney craving somehow.

Laura is returning on March 20th and staying a week to help us finish up the last major projects. We will still have a few odds and ends to touch up even when we have the open house, but, as I've been told numerous times by others, we will always have things to do around the house so I see no reason to delay the celebration.

Recently we got the new bathroom plumbed in and we are enjoying showers in our new 4x4 walk-in shower. Tim insisted on having the shower head tall enough so that he would not have to duck. It is so tall that I cannot reach it at all. He LOVES IT!

I don't have any other really good construction pictures to show you in this post so I thought I'd share with you images of our construction zone. Imagine living like this for seven and a half months.

This was the scene in the living room when had the contents of the master bedroom and closet cleaned out so the floors could be laid.

This is the constant pile of supplies in the dining room/kitchen.

This is the end of our bed. I get to squeeze between the stuff and the bed to get to my side.
Our master bedroom right now. See the toilet! and the air compressor and the safe, and the bucket of nails, and the paint, and....

Under that pile of baseboards and crown moulding is our couch. In front of that is our coffee table. I guarantee that no furniture in your home can collect as much stuff on it as ours can.

The last picture is from last summer when we had unpacked the kitchen boxes and Daisy decided to bury herself in the pile of crumpled newspapers. I just love this picture!

Don't forget to let me know if you are coming to the open house so I can be sure to have enough food.

We are almost finished.

2009-02-22T22:46:00.013-05:00

Since the first of the year, we have been very busy bees. We are reaching the deadline for converting our construction loan to a mortgage so we are trying desperately to finish. Amanda's mom and grandmaw spent four and a half days with us over the long weekend. They were a huge help. Grandmaw kept us feed and washed all of our laundry. She didn't believe that would be of much help, but it saved us so much time not having to stop to prepare meals.

So since New Year's we have installed the window casings. We are installing the door casings as we get the doors installed. I can add installing door frames to my list of tasks I hate. We have purchased all the crown moulding and baseboards which are now laying in the hall and getting in my way.

We have a backsplash.

Here are some of the doors including the ones hiding the washer & dryer and my closet.

My closet has been a headache because it is an odd size. The rough opening is 46". No standard sized door would fit. I don't actually like the folding doors, but I accepted defeat and installed them last Thursday night. We haven't installed the casings yet around it.

The master bathroom is now tiled and grouted. Mom did the tiling over President's day weekend and I did the grouting this weekend. My first attempt and I don't think I did too badly.

I also tiled for the first time this weekend. I put tile around the tub in the guest bathroom. If you'll notice in the first picture, I used popsicle sticks to level the tiles. We have used popsicle sticks all over this house. Some are still in place, hidden behind sheetrock. I get to grout tomorrow. Oh, goody.

We changed out the sink/vanity top in the guest bathroom last weekend. I installed the new faucet and build the ledge behind it. I tiled it today.

We've framed out the closet in the corner of the kitchen. We have to finish out the new drywall and paint it before we install the bi-fold door in it. We also have the mud the drywall and paint the inside of it, but that is not on my immediate list. I don't think the appraiser is going to open that door.

So that's were we are right now. We have to paint the remaining door frames and doors and then install them. We have to finish the plumbing for the new bathroom, install a fan and can light, mud the drywall, and then paint it. We also have to finish mudding then paint the guest bathroom. We have to mud and paint the guest closet and around the windows. And of course, we cannot forget the miles and miles of crown moulding and baseboards that must be painted, cut, and installed. Cleaning up this construction zone after all this is over is going to be an adventure in itself. Then, we get to unpack. I promise we will have a party when this is over!

Floors are finished!!!!!

2009-01-03T17:01:00.013-05:00

The floors are finally installed! Hip hip hooray!!! The last piece was installed last night. We are all exhausted. The house is still messy and most of our stuff is still in the basement, but we will be unpacking this week. We bought several boxes of tile from the outlet store in Crossville. We may get the backsplash in the kitchen finished this weekend if our energy lasts.

Enjoy the pics!

Our Christmas decorations. We couldn't put a tree up on the inside this year so I put it up on the front porch. I really love my front porch!

Newly painted kitchen

The stuff from the living room sitting in the kitchen while the floors got laid.

Laura installing living room floor.

Living Room

Hallway

Guest room floor

Tim nailing floors in the master bedroom.

Stack of the new tile and the new toilet for what will be our new master bath. We have tile for the kitchen backsplash, the new master shower and floor in master bath and the area above the shower in the guest bath.

When we get backsplash finished, I'll post those pics.

Painted Walls

2008-12-10T18:59:00.022-05:00

In case you're wondering. No, the house isn't finished. My mom spent Thanksgiving week with us and helped get our walls finished. We now have a painted living room, hallway, and bedrooms. We textured and painted every ceiling and the kitchen floor is completely grouted, too. The boxes of flooring are now in the living room waiting for us to finish unpacking them, Unless the magic gnomes show up tonight and put them down for us Mom will be coming up after Christmas to help us do it. We haven't put up a Christmas tree in the house because of the flooring issue and that's put a little damper on the season. I will probably put it up in the kitchen just so I can have it up. And yes I will post pictures. I'm trying to come up with an interesting picture to put on our Christmas cards. Something with a paint roller.

Our first snow!

Our neighbors. Aren't they cute? Tim keeps trying to pet them.

Rhonda, our friend from church, helped us paint part of our living room before mom came up, but unfortunately, we had not done a very good job of mudding so mom had to fix it. We had a great time with Rhonda at least even if the evidence has been painted over.

See what I mean about mom fixing my poor mudding techniques.

Guest room before.

Guest Room After. (Yes, I know I should have made the bed before I took the picture.)

Master bedroom.

Below are three pictures of the same wall in the living room.

After we painted it and then mom arrived and fixed more of my goofs.

Now.

Mom in action! She's grouting the rest of the kitchen floor.

Our really cool light fixture over the sink. There is a matching one over the dining room table. Or at least it will be when we get a table.

Boxes of flooring that still need to be unpacked so it can acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the house.

We have to make three more stacks like this. Now if we can just figure out where to put those stacks in the house. Lily says "Hi!"

We have a roof!

2008-10-16T21:05:00.014-04:00

Work had stalled after my mom went back to Savannah after Labor Day, but Tim's parents came up this past weekend and got us jump started. We know have a new roof, clean vinyl siding, fall decorations, and a few primed rooms. I have discovered that I hate sanding sheetrock mud. I don't mind applying the mud, but sanding it is annoying! After we get the rooms all mudded and sanded then our friends from church are coming over to help us paint. I refuse to have white walls. I spent ten years in apartments that didn't allow paint on the walls so I will have color on these walls even if Tim thinks it's silly. After the painting is completed then we can install the floors, hang new doors, and put up the window trim/baseboards/etc. Sounds like a short list, doesn't it? HA!

Enjoy the pictures!!!

Our "Living" Room

Our new HVAC system needed different sized holes so now we get to patch up the old ones.

Our cool Corian countertop.

Our kitchen cabinets. I've finally finished all the doors, but I still have the side panels to stain and install.

Can you see the deer? I didn't want to open the door and scare it off so the picture is fuzzy.

Before the new roof...

After.

My fall decorations!

We're moved in

2008-08-21T23:33:00.010-04:00

We moved out of our apartment the last weekend of July. We got everything into our cars even the couch and washer and dryer. Our Honda Element is fabulous! We just got cable yesterday as well as our garbage cans. I never thought I'd be excited to see garbage cans, but I did a little jump for joy when I came home yesterday and saw them in the driveway. We have to pay for a private company to pick up our garbage. I mowed my yard for the first time last Sunday. It was as relaxing as I remember. I love push-mowing yards and the fact that it's my own yard makes it all the more wonderful. Tim weed-eated while I mowed. I told him this makes us official homeowners. An unexpected perk that we have with this house is we have several deer that come to eat the apples under our apple tree every day. They are beautiful. Of course, Tim is now anxious for deer season to get here. Our air conditioner died a few weeks ago, but thankfully it has not been too hot with all the windows open and ceiling fans going. Unfortunately, this lack of air probably contributed to the passing of our Cocker Spaniel, Lilo. We had to put her to sleep on 8-8-08 because she went into respiratory distress. She would have loved our tile floors. We are all adjusting to living without her. Lily and Daisy are still doing well. Lily especially loves our back porch. Since we leave the back sliding glass door open when we're here, she spends a lot of time on it. We've nicknamed her "Nature Puppy."

Below are some pictures of out progress. Enjoy!

Our wood floors are just waiting to be put down. Unfortunately those will be one of the last things we do so until then I just get to stare at the boxes.

Our basement is being put to good use as a storage area for our stuff. I'm beginning to wonder how much of it I'll no longer need by the time we're finally able to unpack it all.

The only painted room in the house. My master closet.

Our bedroom "curtains"

Our kitchen may be cluttered and the cabinets may not all have doors, but we are pleased to have the appliances in place at least. We still need to put up the over-the-range microwave. We can finally wash the dishes in the kitchen instead of the bath tub like we've been doing since we moved in the last weekend of July.

Our dining room table. See the tile floors. We still have to add the grout and a few more tiles in the corner, but it's better than the concrete floors we were walking on.

Our favorite decoration so far.

We've gone from an open floorplan to actual rooms!

2008-07-21T08:30:00.015-04:00

Every project needs a to-do list. So naturally I have created one for this project. And as is typical for me, I went a little crazy making it. It's color coded for each room/space in the house. I think it will either go in the scrapbook or the burn pile when we're done. I haven't decided yet. Our lovely stack of new insulation before it was installed in the kitchen ceiling and outside walls. I hate insulation.

The sea of sheetrock. It took all day to get this stuff (84 sheets) from the store to inside the house. It's HEAVY!

The latest in insulation installation attire. Did I mention that I HATE insulation?!?!?!

The newly insulated kitchen ceiling. We have 8 can lights and will have a light fixture over the sink and dining room table. There will no excuse for not seeing in our kitchen!

The newly covered kitchen walls.

Some of the 14 cabinets that I have the "pleasure" of staining.

We love the cherry color we picked out for our cabinets.

Before when you looked from the kitchen into the living room you saw the other end of the house. Now you just see the living room.

Two sheetrock-hanging professionals at work.

Tim got a little goofy with the sheetrock dust.

Oh, yeah. He's lost it.

The sheetrock is all hung except for the new master bath and closet because we haven't built those walls yet. We are focusing more on what has to be done before we have to move in. We only have 10 days left. I still have 4 cabinets to stain with the second coat and then I'll be ready to stain the doors. That will probably have to wait until after we move in. We still have to pack up the rest of the house. Yuck! I'm getting really good at finding excuses not to pack. My mom's parents came up Saturday night and stayed with us until Sunday afternoon. It was great seeing them. He helped my mom with capping off water lines in the kitchen that we won't be using. Apparently she hates copper lines like I hate insulation. Tim is anxious to start laying the floors, but the walls have to be mudded first. That is what they were going to start on today. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment in THE ADVENTURES OF OUR LIFE!

quick post

2008-07-07T21:24:00.003-04:00

We now have all the subfloors installed, termites killed, kitchen ceiling leveled, and floor leveled. It's still not much to look at, but we have the bamboo wood floors and tiles in the basement waiting for installation. Tim is in Gordonsville, TN for a school training until Friday night and Laura is supposed to be back in town Tuesday night. Then the countdown begins. We have to be out of the apartment by the end of July so as of today we have 24 days to go. We have at least started packing and have moved some boxes to the basement. It will be really exciting when I can post pictures that shows significant progress. Until then you get to look at our new subfloors and the new concrete in the kitchen (the floor was 2 inches lower in the back.)

Our contractor, Laura.

Our progress

2008-06-14T18:56:00.005-04:00

And you thought you had a lot of garbage to take out.

Just in case you wondered if we really did all of our own stunts.

We didn't waste anytime after signing the contract on Tuesday afternoon. We ripped up the carpet in the living room and hall that evening. Mom started ripping off paneling and sheetrock on Wednesday. We got the dumpster delivered on Friday and have already filled it full. We still have to finish up a few spots in the bathroom but otherwise we have the main part gutted. We will gut the kitchen tomorrow and begin jacking up the house. The kitchen is a converted garage so we can work on it while we level out the rest of the house. We are having a great time, but are really tired!

Back from Disney and Ready to Buy our House

2008-06-08T20:46:00.001-04:00

We just returned this morning from our fun-filled week at Disney World. We took our final tour of the house this evening and are scheduled to close tomorrow at 4pm. Then the real fun begins!

reason for the remodel

2008-05-26T00:09:00.002-04:00

I'm going to enjoy painting in this room.

Pics of new house

2008-05-25T23:53:00.007-04:00

I will finally have a porch for a porch swing.

You can't see it, but there is a big beautiful rose bush beside the porch. Let's hope we can keep it alive.

We have a wonderful view of Bays Mountain although you can't really tell from this picture. See the field. It's huge and has cows. At least we won't have to worry about loud parties.

We haven't closed on the house yet, but we hope to by this Friday. It's all over but the signing. Please say a prayer that everything goes right. We are leaving for Knoxville on Saturday so that we can fly out to Disney World on Sunday. Amanda'a mom is coming to puppy-sit while we're away so we'd love for her to get a jumpstart on the remodeling. She's our contractor, but we only have her for a month so time is of the essence.