The weather is beautiful this week for building a floor.  I can just imagine the lake view from our Master Suite.  Jack and Crew are 2/3 the way through putting the first floor down.

I laid down in the garage floor and looked up at the blue sky to take this photo.

This is a view of our worthy crew at work yesterday and today.  The flooring is an “AdvanTech” tongue and groove flooring system. Each piece has to be hammered into place to link into the piece beside it then screwed down.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 3,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 6 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

I just had to do another blog post for today to tell you what a flurry it has been this week.  Last Wednesday, we joined the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce.  By Friday, we got a call from WSLS-TV Channel 10 locally.  They wanted to come do a story about the B & B.  How exciting and good marketing for us!  They made an appointment to come Monday at 10:00.  It was my second week on the new job with Virginia Tech as a Human Development Specialist, so I fit this into my work day.  But I knew that I had an appointment in Roanoke for a luncheon with Smart Beginnings at noon (it is a 45 minute drive).

The interview went well and resulted in a nice story in which we were included in a growing local economy segment.  Here is the clip.

As the reporters were editing us into the B & B story as Jack & Karen Phillips, then Karen DeBord was busy working the Child and Human Development network.  The communications office for Extension called and another reporter from Channel 10 wanted to quote me in a related child stress segment related to the horrible Newtown shootings.  I knew that I could not wear what I had on in the B & B segment so after the luncheon, I ran to Belk’s and bought another “look.”  I showed up at the station in downtown Roanoke and saw the morning reporters, who I greeted. This is the resulting segment . I clearly told them I was not a Psychology Professor, but oh well!  Note the pretty new red dress!

Today is 12-21-12 and I am still blogging.  I am alive and well and hope  that as you read this,  the Earth is still spinning and you are warm, snug and thankful for another day ringing in the Christmas season!  Live on!

Pray for the families in Newtown and love your families this season!  Peace, Joy and CHRISTmas love!

Karen & Jack

Here is an update on our progress (written by Jack). In the past two weeks since we closed on the construction loan we have poured the slab for the basement floor.

We also trenched the sewer drain from the house to the septic tank and got that all connected and buried.

Then we started putting the floor joists in place.

Not a bad amount of work for two weeks in December. The concrete work was subcontracted but the rest has been done by just Karen, our neighbors Steve and Matt, and myself. We’ve gotten about 2/3 of the first floor joists in place, but will stop now for Christmas. We’ll resume work New Year’s Eve, and should have the first floor finished up through the subfloor and ready for the timberframe by the middle of January. Once the first floor is complete and while waiting for Blue Ridge Timberwrights (www.brtw.com) to finish the timberframe and bring it out for the “Timber-Raising”, we’ll work on framing out the interior walls in the basement. It is very exciting to see all this coming together, after building it in my head so many times over the last 4 years.

 

Even Kramer is ready to get busy!  It all happened at once.  We signed the loan and I started back to work with Virginia Tech as an Extension Specialist in Family & Human Development.  Virginia Extension is where I started in my career–so it’s full circle and I am already loving it! I worked hard from my home office while Jack supervised the pouring of the concrete basement level floor.  It turned out as smooth as glass!

 

Of course now that we have re-started building, it started raining, But, maybe that will raise the lake water levels which are critically low.  Some people don’t have enough chain on their lift to get their boats lowered to the water while others have boats docked on dry land where there once was water. 

This week, Jack will start building the first floor deck in preparation for the timbers.  In celebration, we had a little date in Roanoke.  While in the big city, we delivered a gift basket of Bedford Landings goodies to the contact with Hometown Bank who helped us obtain the construction loan. He took it to a bank board meeting and the next day we got a thank-you note from the bank president saying how scrumptious Jack’s biscuits were!

After joining the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce this week, apparently they sent a tip to WSLS-TV10 about our project.  In turn, WSLS is sending a team to do a story tomorrow (12-17) so we will post a link if it turns out well.  Then, hopefully soon, we will have part of that first floor decking to show!  

Fa la la la la!!  Enjoy the season!