Home Construction - Week 2

Thanks to Ginger, we have more pictures of our future home to share with you. These pictures of the foundation were taken this past Thursday!

Thanks to the pictures we can now visualize having storage and to some extent the craft studio, which will be where the big doorway and the window openings are in the rear of the house.

I've going to owe Ginger big for her willingness to go walking in the muddy field to get pictures from every angle. I know for a fact that she prefers 4 inch heels to rubber boots, LOL!

Looks like my neighbor's house is doing great too! They chose the closed in deck to our open one. Personally I didn't want to spoil the view from the kitchen and family room!

Our First SAM

Well we are finally packing it up and shipping it out. Well at least part one. We expect to need at least 3 of these! I picked SAMs for their construction and service reputation, but I somehow missed that they are not kept flat through the whole process. They are loaded on something very similar if not identical to those tow trucks that lift the whole car on the flatbed, which means that during loading and unloading they are more vulnerable to slippage. That did freak me out but not enough to send it back and go with another company. What I did do is go out and bought rachet straps to use on the inside.

Speaking of the inside it is easy to see what you are doing, it is smooth and there are a lof of anchoring points. This SAM will be picked up Monday and the next one I suspect is a few weeks out still.

Everyday I am working and packing but most of my stuff will go ino the second SAM so the main packing time will be in three weeks time. Luckily, my buddy Janie has been very flexible in allowing me to steal a couple of hours here and there to do something with her and get away from the pressure. We did go to our favorite scrapbook stores during the treasure hunt for example, but I only went to 6 over a three day period.

Have I mentionned that I can't wait to be in a more quiet and settled stage, so that I can spend some time with all my friends before moving north?

A Wonderful Morning

Yesterday (Monday) was the day that the Carnival Inspiration was docking with my friend Linda and her friend Barb aboard! I had promised that if I was in town, I would go and pick them up, enjoy whatever time we had between picking them up at the Port of Tampa and delivering them to Tampa International Airport. I decided to leave early and check out the pickup point and am I glad I did. They actually disembarked early and as I was driving up and down Channelside Dr, my cell phone rang! I must say that the area was rather chaotic. There is no real place at terminal 1 to pick people up and you just hope that there is a space available when your people are there and that the cops who are hustling everyone along, give you a chance to pick the people up. Terminals 2 & 3 where Holland America and Royal Caribbean dock their ships have a much better setup.

After picking them up we went to Dunkin' Donuts as I had not had breakfast and it was too early to take them to the scrapbook store. The Scrapbook Shoppe is very close to the port and is a very nice store. I'd say that it is in the top 4 for the Tampa Bay area, in close competition with Whim-So-Doodle, Violettes, and Ruban Rouge. We talked,Barb and I got acquainted, I must say she fits right in wih all my other scrapbook friends, and I showed them the three crusing albums I've made.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Scrapbook Shoppe, where I took the above picture of Linda, and then killed a little more time at a Michael's nearby. All too soon it was time to take them to the airport and see them off. There was so much else we could have seen and talked about! However they will only be a three hour drive away when I move to Kentucky and they will definitely be on the invite list for my 1st weekend get together!

BTW, I wrote this a couple of days ago and thought it had posted, LOL! I guess not! I hope that Linda will send me some of her pictures or her friend Barb's as mine did of the three of us is pretty bad and certainly not something to share on my blog, LOL!

More later!

Fast or Slow?

Have you ever been in a time warp? Or maybe it is a warped time period, where the time is both too fast and too slow? Sometimes I feel like that is the story of my life right now! I need to tidy things up, but so does Rick and his stuff needs to go first.

I want to have my scrapbook buddies over, but I can't because I've started packing and stacking and every single room in our home is a mess. Somehow that isn't the way I normally do things so I'm a little thrown off. At the same time I'm both excited to see the tangible signs that our new home is being built and eager to be settled into it, but I actually am really sad to be moving further from my son and leaving so many good friends behind, again!

On the positive side, Rick should be done with most of his stuff this week allowing me to get on with everything else that needs to be done. As you can see I've gotten pictures of the footings being poured on the new house in Hebron, KY from that very awesome lady, Ginger. Thanks, Ginger! It is so sweet of her to go out there and take the pictures. It really allows me to feel part of the process and keep focused on the final outcome.

Yesterday Rick and I went to Orlando where Rick and Shaun went to see Watchman, while I went to a scrapbook store and cropped the afternoon away with a bunch of really nice ladies! If you are ever in Orlando, do go and visit the "Scrapbook Boutique". They had the newest products, the lady working there was very helpful and the store is really well put together. I had a great time! Thanks Ladies!

My son then took us out for dinner at Nelore's Brazilian Steak House. That place is great and do go and check out the restaurant's website, Shaun designed it. Shaun and Will his boss seem to compliment each other very well and Will's firm Royall Media is growing despite these difficult time. It's a testament to Will's business sense and Shaun's creativity.