It's time to play!

When we first moved here, we had plans to build a Bocce Court. We envisioned groups of people coming over to hang out, BBQ, play Bocce, etc. When we first moved here it was late fall. By Spring we had talked to our neighbors and learned that mosquitos are a summer time issue. I can vouch for that!!! They're little but powerful. The idea of spending evenings outside became less appealing. Besides, it was going to cost thousands to put in the court and it would be a permanent structure. We began to have our doubts.

Now that it's mid summer it's really beginning to dawn on us that water sports are very popular here. With the Tennessee River winding through town I 'm not sure why we didn't realize this before. We've already been on the river with friends and have invitations to join others on their boats.

We've not been boat or water people in the past, but then, we've not had easy access to water either. Taking the plunge to buy a boat was just a big much for us. They're expensive to buy and probably even more expensive to keep. A better alternative for us would be a personal water craft. Yes... motorcycle for the water - so to speak.

So we took the plunge!! (Is that a pun?) After looking at the brands, models, & features in both used and new we decided to get a 4 stroke WaveRunner. We were looking at used when Larry found a dealer in Rome, GA with a new one for sale with a price about the same at the used we were looking at. He went there on Tuesday and bought it. It sat in our garage until yesterday when we took it to the river for the first time to see if it would float. I'm happy to say, it floats very well.

The first hour we were to run the motor at 2500 rpm. In the water that translate to about 3 miles per hour. The second hour the rpm can run at 3500, which is about 4 miles per hour. We got a nice scenic view of the river banks for two hours. May I interject here that we live in a beautiful area?

Finally after two hours we could speed it up. We took it up to about 25 - 30 miles per hour and had a blast. Before we left, Larry grabbed the camera and took a picture. Wanna come play?

We bought an inflatable pull toy and we're looking forward to having some fun. We may even go back out this afternoon.

July 20, 2007 - The landmark day.

Three months to the day from when Ben and Laura arrived (Apr 20th), we passed our final inspection!!!

Laura is moving in as I type (Ben is at work). This is a wonderful day because it means we can all go back to some form of normal routine. No more working long hours - after already putting in a full day at our regular jobs. No more grungy clothes and dust in our hair... if we have hair. ;-) No more fast food or making do with not-so-healthy choices. Yeah!!!!

This is the start of it all. The whole reason we did this big project to begin with.

This is Laura's photo and I'm sorry I can't make it any bigger. I saved it as a jpeg hoping it would behave. Oh well. You probably can't tell very well, but we found this in the kitchen cabinet with exposed wires sticking out of the top of it. We thought if this is how the breaker box looks what's the rest of the wiring like? So, we tore it all down and started over.

In our enthusiasm to get started, we didn't get much in the way of before pictures. Here's what's left of the kitchen when we got a photo of it. All the remains of the cabinets is all the cabinets there were - and the breaker box was in the far left upper cabinet that you can't see. That window to the right was hidden behind painted paneling. The only counter tops were below those cabinets on either side of the sink. The stove stood on the left side and the fridge was on the opposite wall from the side (behind and to the right of the camera). The old kitchen was in the middle of the house. On the other side of the wall is the bedroom and to the left where you see studs is a little closet and then the bathroom.

In this "after" photo, the short wall is where the concrete wall used to be. The kitchen use to be on the left side of this photo. Now, the kitchen is behind the camera at the end of the house.

In fact, the whole floor plan has changed. The bedroom closet was on the left wall where the window is now (we added that). The far wall had a window in it which we covered and put the closet there. It made more sense to use the end of the long side for the closet.

The kitchen is still very small - just a one person kitchen; but, it has a lot more in the way of cabinets and counter space. And, it doesn't cut the house in two anymore.

The fridge goes next to the cabinet to the right which will make it feel even smaller I'm sure.

This is the old bedroom wall. Again, you can't tell much but the walls are paneling, painted over. This may be the only window we left as original

The "Before" bathroom was dark and old and, although functional, not pretty. Look how modern now!

A wide-angle lens would sure come in handy about now. It's really hard to take photos of a small space with a normal lens.

Laura made curtains before the final inspection so she was ready to move in.

Ahhhh.... What a nice feeling to be done!

Finishing Touches

We're getting close. It won't be long now. In fact, we may call for the final inspection this week.

The floors are done, the kitchen cabinets are going in, the toilet & vanity are in, the bathroom door is installed and trim work is in progress. Laura is still painting as of this evening (as I type).

There will be more lower cabinets going in on the left side, as well as the fridge. It's going to be a one person kitchen but it'll have lots of cabinets.



The view from the bedroom. Laura is painting the opening where the A/C will be installed.


See how thick the walls are in this part of the house. It's because of the brick walls. But - also notice the green grass outside. We all love the green!!

Ben and Laura are anxious to move in and we're all anxious to take a break from the long hours. We're all very tired of spending every spare evening working on it.

Things are happening faster now. Friday and yesterday we painted. Today we laid tile in the kitchen and bath. Everybody was involved today. Laura cut in the line along the ceiling. We couldn't put masking tape on the ceiling yesterday because the tape pulled off the recently dried paint - yet we wanted to keep painting. So Ben rolled paint as close to the edge as he could yesterday and Laura came in today and filled the gap. It's a good thing Laura is good at this!

Larry laid tile and Ben cut them to order. Tomorrow the electrician comes to finish the wiring. Hopefully, the electrical inspector will come the next day and we'll be good to use the new electrical system. Right now, every is run off an extension cord from our house.

Special Olympics Equestrian Center

A couple weeks ago there was an article in the Saturday paper about a new Special Olympics Equestrian Center - and... they were looking for volunteers. A week later, I was there ready to serve. The only thing lacking was riders. It's a new program and not all the bugs are worked out. I ended up hanging around, talking with the founders and watching the horses. About the time they were getting a couple horses out to ride, a thunderstorm broke loose and we all high-tailed it for the barn. It poured for about a half hour. Afterward, everything was slippery wet. No riding that day.


I will go again because even if all I do is hang around horses I'm good. But, if I can hang around horses and help people too, that is really cool.


There are only two horses in this "ranch" that are gentle enough for the kids, though they are looking for others (by donation). There are several other horses here though, some being boarded and some of their own. Here's some photos. One is a rather wild Mom with her promising colt called Milkshake. The other is a TN Walker. I think you'll be able to make these large by clicking on the photo, if you're so interested.

Aquarium

During the lull in remodeling while the electrician was doing the wiring, Laura and I visited one of the two aquarium buildings - the ocean (salt water) version. It has a butterfly garden on top. The penguin exhibit is new. Here are some photos.

I hope you can see the details in this.

Yeah! Sea Turtle!

Only one of many butterflies.

We have plans to visit the fresh water aquarium soon but we'll have to wait until the remodel is done or there's another lull for some reason. Stay tuned!

Remodel update

It's been too long since I've updated the blog. To tell the truth, I haven't been good at keeping up with email either. We've been too busy! It's been more than two months since we started the major remodel of the rental.

After tearing down all the walls and removing the insulation (prior post) there was the task of building new interior walls, not only for the bathroom but also for re-routing the plumbing for both the kitchen and bath, which was mostly external before. The city required that we have a electrical contractor do the wiring. He finished the rough-in less than two weeks ago. After the electrical and building inspections we got straight to work installing new insulation. Then we hung sheetrock and are now taping and mudding the joints. Keep in mind that we're doing this while working our regular jobs - which takes Larry out of town 3 days a week. Also, we're doing this in 85 - 99 degrees with varying degrees of humidity. Actually, the humidity has only become an issue in the last couple weeks. Prior to that we'd been dry for many weeks.

So - here are some photos. Things will probably start moving along quickly now and I'll try to take photos and get them posted.

The guys are working on the shower area.

Framing interiors walls

The clothes closet shows insulation.

Larry's in the kitchen.

We've come a long way baby - and there's more to go!

Wildlife in the backyard (photo replaced)

Earlier this week, it was Lightning Bugs. This morning I saw something new. I opened this bathroom window this morning and saw a critter about the size of a raccoon but definitely not a raccoon. It had brown coarse fur and a small head like a rabbit but no rabbit ears. When it scurried away it revealed a thick round tail about 8" long.

It occurred to me it might be a Porcupine. The drawing in the dictionary seemed to confirm this hunch - if we imagined that his quills were relaxed and laying flat on his body. After Carl and Karen left for home this morning, I looked online to confirm it. The photos online showed quills being quite obvious. It also said that Porcupines are in the West part of the US and the Northeast, but not the Southeast. There went my theory.

So I did some more research for mammals in our area. Carl and Karen were right! It was a Groundhog- or often called a Woodchuck. In my mind, Groundhogs and Prairie Dogs are the same thing. My mind is wrong!!

This photo is of a baby Groundhog in the neighbor's yard. There were 2 or 3 babies running around quite boldly for a week or so but now I haven't seen them for over a week.

It just keeps getting more interesting here all the time.

Lightning Bugs

Guess what we have in our front yard!!! Yes! Fireflies - or Lightning Bugs as the locals call them. We saw them last night when arriving home at dusk. Larry and I are so excited that we're like little kids. We can hardly wait until dusk tonight to see them again.

Our friends, Carl and Karen stopped by today for a visit and they think we're silly to be so excited; perhaps you think so too. But, considering there were no Fire..., uh' em, I mean, Lightning Bugs where we grew up, we think this is pretty cool.

The only other time we've seen them like this was outside Chicago while camping at a state park near Algonguin. It was cool then too.

Larry was saying that it's the little things like Lightning Bugs, the many songbirds and the Dogwoods in our neighborhood that make this such a very nice place to live. He is so right! We feel blessed.

Kentucky Derby

This is old news now but I wanted to share some photos from the Kentucky Derby. Since Laura & I went there to volunteer we were limited in our sight seeing opportunities. We had to go out of our way to see horses and then they were a ways off. However, we did get to see lots of hats! It was fun. Enjoy.

First, just to prove we were really there, here are some horses.

And now for some hats!

Lots going on - photos added

The length of time between the last entry and this is contributed to two reasons. One - lots has been happening. Two - I'm not using my computer and haven't downloaded photos to include. So, once I explain what all has been going on, check this entry again later for photos.

The last entry was on April 15th. Five days after that, Ben and Laura arrived. Yes, they left Las Vegas and have moved here! We expected to have them as guests for a few days until our renter vacated (the next day) and their possessions arrived (just 3 days later).

Plans changed dramatically when we finally had access to the rental and got a really good look. What we found was not a happy site. Let me start by saying that this little house is old. The wiring is what really scared us. We found the breaker box in one of only 3 upper kitchen cabinets. It was propped up in there with wires coming from the top of it, all taped up to wires coming from the top of the cabinet. The tape was roughly done and some wires were exposed. When we took into consideration the fact that outlets were in funky places and in funky heights, it made us quite uncomfortable about the safety of the wiring. Now, add to this fact that the kitchen looks about 75 years old (kitchen door hanging by one hinge, etc) and the floor plan is lousy... we decided to do a major overhaul. Here are some before pics.

Ben & Laura agreed to put up with us and stay in the guest room while we all went straight to work on this rental. In the last two weeks we have completely gutted the place. The kitchen and bath and all interior walls are gone. At this point I should explain that we found the house was originally even smaller than it is now. It was a little square concrete block structure with no plumbing and, I suspect, no electrical when it was built. The plumbing was added to the exterior and entered the house where it was needed. It did have windows so I do believe it was a dwelling originally. I have no idea when the wiring was added but it wasn't recent! The bedroom was added on at some point. So, when I say all interior walls are gone, that includes the original block wall. Many thanks to Ben for breaking that out!

So in the past two weeks, we have ripped out carpet, pad, sheet rock (or fiber board as the case may be), insulation (the older side has fluffy wool stuff - yuk)... everything! Larry and Ben replaced the ceiling rafters in the bedroom because the closet wall had been a weight bearing wall. Last night, the guys rented a concrete saw and cut a groove in the floor to add new plumbing in new places. You should have seen the cloud of dust coming from inside the house! Larry and Ben would say, you should have seen the dust in the house!!

This week-end Larry and Ben will install the new plumbing. Then, we have to have an electrical contractor do the wiring. Next we'll do something to level out the concrete slab floor, add partition walls for the bath and kitchen which will share one side of the building, sheetrock and tape, put in bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets, counters, sink, appliances, and paint.

All this work is done in our off hours. Larry continues to be out of town about 3 days a week, but works 5 days of course. Ben has been spending his days job shopping and Laura and I go to work. As a side note, Laura transferred to a new Starbucks here that opened about a week after their arrival. What timing!

While Ben and Larry do plumbing this week-end, Laura and I are working in another way. We're going to Louisville, KY to work in a Kentucky Derby merchandise booth. We're driving there today and working 12 hours tomorrow and coming home Sunday. We're doing this for a ministry called GO Ministries. Laura has a friend going to Dominican Republic / Haiti soon and is living in Louisville right now. GO Ministries will get $20,000 for manning the booth for this event. I have no idea if we'll see any horses but I know we'll see people. Apparently, people love to dress up for the races. I've been told of the fancy hats that I should expect to see. Like I said earlier - check back for photos. It should be fun!

Retaining walls steps are done

With working on the wall a couple hours here and a couple hours there, we've made good progress. The steps are in now and the wall is mostly done. The original plan was to make the entry to the walk much wider but the slope of the yard dictated where they had to go and how wide the could be. Even so, we rather like the result. This week I'll go get a ton or so of mulch and create the walk from the steps to the porch.

Much progress has been made on the garden too. Remember all those roots? Well... I have a confession to make. Now that the stump of the fig tree is out I've come to the conclusion that those giant roots did not come from the fig but from the stump of a big tree in the neighbor's yard. One of those roots went right under the fig, giving the impression that it was a fig tree root. That fig tree could have been gone weeks ago. The good news is all those roots needed to come out anyway if I was going to be able to garden worth a toot. I wasn't planning to bore you with the garden details but since I've gotten this far... yesterday, I brought in a load of compost and spread it across the garden. Thankfully, it started raining before I could turn in under because I was out of energy anyway. We got a much needed rain yesterday so it may be several days before it dries out enough to turn.

News

Three blog entries in one day. Is this a record?
There are two bits of news I would like to share.

One... Larry got a new job. He is now District Manager for an insurance company. His territory is the state of Tennessee. He'll be driving all over the state (in the company car) meeting with insurance agents, taking them to lunch and, in general, drumming up business. They give him a weekly budget and encourage him to use it to get to know the agents! You know... lunch, golf, sporting events. What a life.

Two... (and this is most exciting)... Ben and Laura are moving here!!!!!!!!!!!! They've been packing and planning for a few weeks now. This week, they're visiting friends and family in CA. In about a week, they will be leaving Las Vegas and arriving here about a week after that!! They're going to rent our little rental house in the beginning. Laura is being transferred to a brand new Starbucks here in town and Ben will be job shopping. Their house in Las Vegas is still for sale if you know anyone moving to Las Vegas. Don't laugh, apx. 5,000 people move there every month! (At least, I think that's still true.) If they knew any better, they'd move here instead!

A Rotten Retaining Wall

As you can see, the existing retaining wall along the driveway is in need of repair. The railroad ties are leaning away. What you can't see is one of them is visibly rotten.


Work has begun! We've taken all the railroad ties out and found many rotten ones. This job needed doing even more than we first realized!


Since we're pulling out the wall anyway, we've also decided to add a walkway to the front door. It's rather odd that there wasn't one before. Like Larry says, we live in the South and we out to be hospitable. What a house without a walk up to it?


Now. What materials do we use to rebuild the wall? Railroad ties? No way!! We talked about a concrete wall but didn't think that would be very attractive. We finally decided upon the landscape bricks that are so popular these days.


We have made progress. Larry has done most of the work; I help where I can, moving the truck up and down the driveway and bringing bricks to him for placement. He has shoveled two tons of rock from the bed of the pick-up to the wall.



The tallest part of the wall is done and we're just about to the point where the walkway will begin. We'll cut into the existing lawn and curve the brick into a broad approach and narrow it to match the width of the front steps - about 6' wide. If I don't get photos of the progress, I will at least show you the finished project... whenever it gets finished.

Dogwoods are in Bloom!!

Our friends from CA missed seeing the Dogwoods by about a week. What a shame. I've taken some photos of the tree outside our bedroom window over the span of a couple weeks. All 5 of our trees are white but there are pick ones around town too. Here are some photos.









Lots of our neighbors have them too. The drive up Greenleaf is so very pretty right now.

The Redbuds started blooming about the same time. Here's a good specimen I found a short distance from our house.





While these trees were blooming we were having daytime temperatures in the mid-80's. Those temperatures lasted about two weeks. Then, a few days ago it turned cold. Last night about 8:00, while Larry and I were cleaning up from the work on the retaining wall (that's another story) it started snowing!! It only lasted about 15 minutes but what a change. The plants got a shock with lows in the high 20's last night.

Spring has definitely sprung in Chattanooga.

Visitors! Some welcome and some not

It is quite possible that we've had more visitors in our 4 months here than in 4 years in Las Vegas. We love it!! Today, some "welcome" friends from Santa Rosa drove 2 hours from Nashville to visit with us for the afternoon. We meandered around the downtown area and then drove part-way up Lookout Mountain to see a view of the city. (Note - the "mountain" is probably all of 2000' high. I know our Western friends will appreciate that.)

Then, these welcome friends of ours helped us get rid of some unwelcome guests.

If you saw the post about toppling the gazebo then you may recall that it was being chewed up by Carpenter Bees. When we toppled the gazebo we left the base for another day. Larry started to demolish it over the week-end and discovered the Carpenter Bees were nesting in the base.

On Monday he tried spraying the wood with insecticide but it didn't slow them one bit. He bought wasp spray which worked, but only when he could actually spray the bee. These guys are really big bees and they fly very fast. He managed to kill two with the wasp spray but there were several more where they came from.

Then, Ken had a great idea for getting rid of these unwelcome guests. Burn them out! That seems pretty smart because it would kill any larvae and stop the cycle. Little did Ken know that Larry doesn't wait when he hears a good idea. While we were sight seeing, Larry went to the fire station to ask about permits. They said we needed a permit for a control burn but not for a campfire or to cook food. So, we had a really big campfire! You should have seen the size of those marshmellows! ;-)

Boy, did those bees get a surprise! Amazingly, some stayed quite a while before buzzing out of there. There was one bee in particular who just did not want to leave the area. It hung around for the longest time. Eventually, as it got dark it finally disappear. Our friends disappeared about this time too, going back to Nashville for a week of conference. Larry and I watched the glowing embers for a little while longer and then came inside, bringing the wasp spray and gloves in with us. But, the story doesn't stop there.

When Larry set the gloves down by the door to the garage he heard a loud buzzing sound. OH NO!! That stubborn bee had decided to bed down in Larry's glove and now it was in the house! Larry quickly stomped the gloves and silenced the buzz. This is what he found.

It looks like a bumblebee right? The only visual difference between them is Bumblebees have fuzzy abdomens and Carpenter Bees have smooth ones. This tummy is smooth. Bumblebees don't eat houses, Carpenter Bees do.