For those who haven’t heard yet, Traci, Susie, and I are heading west. Long story short, we’ve been given an opportunity to move near some of our best friends, as well as a great job opportunity. So we said yes, and are moving next week to Louisville, KY. Over 4th of July weekend we made a trip out to do some house hunting, and were very fortunate to find a beautiful home. I figured I’d take you on a tour of our new home. (these pictures are ones taken for the listing of our house, so this is not our furniture, and probably not how we’ll decorate).

Standing on the front sidewalk, you have to look up to see our home. The house is built on a pretty steep hill, with the driveway to our right as it enters the 2 car garage on the side. On top of the retaining wall is a walkway up to our front door. As you step through the front door you’ll see to your left what will probably be a music room (great place for a piano), the stairs to the second floor are in front of you, and just to the right of the stairs is the main hall to the living room and kitchen. AS you walk down the hall you’ll pass doors to the Half-Bath, Basement , and Garage (plus a closet I think).

When you enter the great room, the Kitchen will be to your left, the Breakfast Nook in front of you, and the living room to the right. The kitchen is large and we can’t wait to have space for EVERYTHING in our cabinets. The breakfast nook has a wonderful view of our back yard. And the living room is very open and spacious, with a gas fireplace and plenty of windows. There is also a door between the Breakfast Nook and the living room which goes outside to a small deck and a beautiful back yard.

Now we’re going to go through the kitchen to the formal dining room. It’s surprisingly big with a large doorway to the Music Room, in case of overflow during meals. Our only complaint here is the ugly chandelier… we’re going to try and change that somehow. As we continue around the first floor we’re back in the Music Room, off the front Foyer.

Let’s head upstairs. As you reach the landing, if you turn to the right you see the master bedroom.

We have a lot of space, a built in fireplace, storage in the eaves, plus a large master bath with his-and-hers closets. What a wonderful thing!

The small bedroom next to the master will be used as a nursery, and has one of the 2 doors to the upstairs guest bathroom (the other door comes from the hall).

At the opposite end of the hallway you’ll find the last 2 bedrooms, though we’ll probably use the Green one for our office, since it has a wonderful view of our back yard, and the Red one as our guest bedroom. The back yard is a little sloped, but not nearly like the front. We love the trees that go right up to our fence line, which with help from the house, will provide shade to our back yard through most of the day.

So that’s going to be our Home. As you see, we’re very blessed, and look forward to starting a new life in KY.

As the days get warmer and longer, I'm reminded of a joke I once heard on the radio.  It's been out a while, but still worth the read. 

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GOD: St. Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there in North Carolina? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar FROM the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honeybees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers weeds and went to great lengths to kill them and REPLACE them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS: No, sir -- just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS: Yes, sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.

ST. FRANCIS: You'd better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them INTO great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It's a real stupid movie about....

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole plot FROM St. Francis.

We've finally completed Susie's bedroom. And since everyone has been asking to see it, here are a few pictures.

Susie has successfully pulled herself up to a standing position

Here's hoping your Father's Day is filled with as many smiles.

Well 4th of July weekend is passed and I am exhausted.  My dad came down from Maryland, and spent the long weekend with us ripping up our deck.  The deck runs the length of the back side of our house, facing the East.  Last year, I  spent a week sanding and refinishing the deck in an attempt to salvage it.  But when spring rolled around, we noticed the deck was in bad shape again and decided it was time to just bite the bullet and start over.  So with the long weekend, we figured it would be a good time to do this.

On our way home from Superman Returns, we stopped a Home Depot and got some great advice on redoing the deck as well as some essential tools.  Decks are now being done with screws and drills as opposed to nails and nail-guns.  We then headed home to begin ripping apart the deck with whatever sunlight we had left.

Monday morning we were up and working by 10AM, and the temp outside was already 90 and climbing (and remember, the deck is on the East side of the house, so full sunlight in the mornings).  We decided after evaluating how long it took us to rip up the little we had done last night, we were never going to finish before dad left on the Tuesday, so we opted to only do the lower half of the deck, which is still a 20’ x 15’ area.  With frequent breaks for water and cooling down inside, we finally had the deck cleared by 3PM (by now the temp was 95+ - with a heat index over 105).  Dad and I headed to Home Depot to get the wood and screws to begin.  We stopped that first evening around 8, with only ¼ the deck laid down, and 3 exhausted bodies.

Tuesday morning we decided to get started as soon as we could, and we were out there by 8AM (temp around 90 again) laying more boards down.  By 10AM  we were nearly out of our 10lbs of screws and we sent Traci to purchase more and get some piping for a drain spout that just dumped under the deck.  After that, we just rolled till 11:30 when we broke for lunch.  We were back to work by 1PM (95+ again) and laid the last board around 4PM.  Exhausted and worn out, we cleaned up all our tools and headed back inside for showers.

Dad was on his way home by 5:30 and Traci and I were getting ready for a concert that we had tickets for that evening.  The deck is looking so much better (thank you Dad!) but we still have a second half to go.  Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Great news.  We just purchased the carpeting and reserved the installer.  So we will be getting new carpeting in soon in the house.  We also had a couple of windows replaced because the seal had broken between the panes and was the window was becoming clouded.  It looks much better now.