Santa Can Come Now!!!

Santa can come now! No, I didn't say our house would be done by Christmas, but Santa can come NOW if he wishes, because we now have a chimney -- not totally finished, but a chimney nonetheless! So I want Santa to come early and bring wonderful gifts for the workers who are working hard on our future home -- gifts like...cool weather, plenty of cold Gator Ade, soft recliners for napping, and a million dollars! They deserve it!! We didn't go out there all week, and it was so much fun to go Friday evening (with grands Ashton and Adalynn) and see all the progress. Spaces are "filled in" that weren't filled in before and the wood has been pressure washed! At first I thought our future home had just had its own little rain storm; but then Terry pointed out how clean the wood looked and reminded me that they were going to pressure wash last week--both inside and out. It's really looking beautiful, and I love it more every time we go out there, even though I hadn't thought it possible. Just don't pinch me because I might realize it's all a dream, and I don't want to wake up! I am the chief photographer, and we go through the same routine every time we go out there...I just walk around very slowly with the camera around my neck, looking around and taking it all in for about 15 minutes. Terry walks around very analytically with his tape measure and calculator. Then he's ready to go and I tell him to wait, that I have to take pictures. And he says, "You mean you still haven't taken any pictures?" and finds a stack of boards to sit on. Yep! That's the routine. We're comfortable that way...so here's the pics!

We took this picture a week ago, Sunday evening. Photo above we took Friday afternoon.

Happiness is...realizing that we still love the shingles we chose 10 months ago!!

Freshly washed wood--standing in kitchen looking at breakfast room

Terry and Adalynn looking at view below (at their right) from master bedroom window. They are looking to see if any birds are coming to the bird feeder they just filled at tree below. And Terry is always looking for deer...

View from dining room window

Library/piano room, which will have exposed beams

My precious loved ones standing at breakfast window

Now they are standing in the great room. Apologies for Ashton's Carolina shirt, but she's still beautiful...

I told them one last pic and they had to make a face! :-)

basement bedroom on left, storage in center, and jigsaw puzzle table to right of storage. My kids make fun of me for that, but I bet they will sit right there and look for pieces too, while awaiting their turn at ping pong!

basement shower/changing at left, kitchenette in center, corner of bedroom at right

Terry said this is a wolf! Beautiful, in any case

The Roof's Done Raised!

It's been so long since I posted that I forgot my password!! Of course, I do have a very short memory; but I've never waited 23 days to post during this blog's long life of 3 months :-)  Hmmm...I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that I went back to school/work shortly after Aug. 5...and the fact that at the end of the work day and all that follows, my brain goes dead. But nothing to do with the fact that we go out there every other day and that we are as excited as ever!!! We've taken many pictures in these 23 days, but I'll start with the most recent and go backwards, since anyone who cares to look at this blog (mainly myself and Terry, lol) will only glance at the top few anyway. The top few pics were taken 2 days ago. Terry mowed out there today and said they have made tremendous progress since 2 days ago and that the roof is practically done! I think they call it "dried in," right? Which means now I can take a nap in there in the pouring rain--sounds like a plan to ME! In the meantime, here are the latest pics....

Terry and our phenomenal, genius builder and contractor, Brian Ramey, owner of Ramey Home Builders in Westminster, SC

View from afar

View from our beautiful gate

Terry is standing in breakfast room

side view

loft -- Yup--I climbed the ladder and took this pic--no wait! It was Ben who took this!!

We saw the 3 bears in the clouds, but baby bear was almost gone by the time I took the picture!

Standing at far end in master bath

Raisin' the Roof!!

The builders are raising the roof, and Mother Nature is raising the temperature! Honestly, I don't know how those workers are making so much progress in all this heat -- I'd be dead! Terry and I went out there Saturday and did back-breaking work ALL day in that sweltering heat...well, from 1:00 until dark...well,  Terry was on his tractor...OK, so I gave out and lay down in the basement after one and a half hours of pulling and spraying weeds...OK, so I drove home about 4:00 and got the camera, more cold Gator-Ade, ice tea, cool rag, barbecue, (but I did return)...OK, so we both did sit down for barbecue and ice tea around 7:30. But we didn't leave until after dark. And those almost 2 hours I worked in the heat made me very ill for the next hour and I thought I was lying on my death bed of hard boards in that dark, stuffy, pine basement coffin. I don't know how Terry stayed on his tractor mowing all those hours...true love (not me--the land, and tractor)! We were going to have our first meal in our new home, but it was just too hot, even at 7:30; so we chose a breezy, shady place on boards under the pecan tree. Then I took some beautiful, soothing, sun-setting pictures!

The unrelenting heat has kept neither us nor the builders away. We went out there yesterday around 3:00 p.m. and 3 builders were working away in 100 degree heat! We told them to go home, but they are just as stubborn as they are genius and hard-working. Terry was able to go over a few things in the plans with foreman Lawrence, and I was able to get some good pictures!

Steady now! Please don't trip!!