No new work on the house except putting gravel down in the floor area and spreading it.  Spreading it with a rake was good shoulder exercise!  We did hire a new wall pouring contractor.  They delivered the forms yesterday so we are fairly confident they will show up Monday (even tho it is Labor Day) to start forming walls and pour them next week.  Having a strong and firm foundation is a critical part of building the house.  I have often used this parallel when teaching about families and children.  The first three years are critical in building a relationship with children, and building personal relationships on multiple aspects of getting along (not just sex or not just a business partnership, for example) is crucial.  OK- I will give lecturing a break!  This nice aerial photo shows our footers and hangar plus the neighbor’s house and hangar.

Speaking of human dynamics, I made a huge decision NOT to move Mom back to Wheatland Hills in Christiansburg when she got out of the Allegheny hospital.  Instead, I moved her to a memory care program in Roanoke, VA called Emeritus.  They appear to be well-designed for memory care.  On Thursday, Jack and my brother and sister-in-law met me to move her belongings from Wheatland.  Mom’s forever good friend, Marge, came to help.  We pared down her belongings to less than before as her space is smaller. This photo is sad in a way depicting all of Mom’s remaining belongings.

I picked her up from the hospital Friday and we had a great time in the car, singing, listening to classical music, and trying to have a conversation.  Knowing her intonations and facial expressions helps me to understand what she is trying to say even though she doesn’t weave words together correctly.  Mike (my brother) met me at the new facility.  We took her to her room, walked all around the grounds and explored the corners of activity.  They have a woodworking area, a kitchen to piddle around in, a doll rocking area, an office, a train station and other comfy areas to relax, watch TV and busy oneself. There are 4 levels of care and Mom is in level 2.  She was full of love and kisses for everyone.  All was going well until after about 3 hours, it was time to leave.  She wanted me to stay there and realized that it was a new place and she said she didn’t know these people.  I involved staff in helping with the transition of departing, but by then, I was getting the cold shoulder and NO KISSES!  I just left and hopefully the staff pitched in to helping her find her new room again and adjust.  It so reminds me of leaving the kids in day care!

There were a few funny stories of other residents that I met yesterday as there always are with this population but chances are if I shared them, I would be laughing inside and you would figure it was one of those “you had to be there” events!

Last weekend’s progressive dinner Hangar Hop was successful.  Our porch accommodated the crowd of about 30 or so.

So the event turned out well as we roved the hangars for each dinner course with only a few stitches, scrapes, and a DUI involved!  None of that applied to us, thank goodness, but unfortunately, for other overzealous partiers!  Steve (next door) suggested that next time we should have a Sunday afternoon ice cream social!

Two favorite parts of the week are that my good friend Susan Henson came to visit and we got new wheels!  We are sooo in vogue now at the airport!  Everyone has one but us and now we have one too!  A shiny red golf cart!

Until next time, don’t get caught up in the political hype.  Never talk about politics at a cocktail party, and if you ever want to really tell someone what you think of them, speak to an empty chair first and practice!  Make my day!!

It seems there are an awful lot of folks out there crying out for jobs but getting good and responsive customer service is still in short supply!  Since the last post, we are STILL awaiting the pouring of the foundation walls.  He was supposed to be here last week.  He called 3 days later and said he was behind on another job.  Ok-but 4 more days passed.  Now it has been 3 weeks. He has no voice mail nor email and won’t pick up Jack’s calls.  We had sought another estimate.  It never came in.  Apparently this is the norm for contract workers.  It’s not as if we are just sitting still though!

Jack completed the tool shed and potting bench.  He made shelves inside the shed for his tools and we are set to entertain this Saturday with the appetizer course of a progressive dinner at the airport.

For the past few months, I have been receiving registrations for my 40th high school reunion.  That was last weekend (Aug 17-18) in Blacksburg and we had a blast.  Well, at least I did!  Jack even schmoozed with the spouses and they all gathered at a “spouse table” to share stories and drinks.  The reunion happened concurrently with the time that my mom’s assisted living facility decided she needed to be moved to a geriatric center to have her meds adjusted to stabilize her moods (reading between the lines, she had been misbehaving-feels like a child in day care when I get the incident calls).  She has been there about 10 days and they are due to release her today.  I will need to go get her (north of Roanoke) since her insurance doesn’t provide for transportation.  It’s a weird time as an adult child.  Besides Jack,  I do have my sister (in FL) and brother in Floyd, VA to lean on and am so thankful for that!

And what do the pilot codgers do when they gather at the airport?  Last week, an airplane was getting an engine replaced.  They all gathered around to supervise the mechanic, tell stories and oversee the test flight!  It was sorta like a coffee clutch if you ask me…I just had to laugh when they decided they would rate the pilot’s landing!

Until next time, cross your fingers, we will get walls soon!!

My sweet (7-year old grand daughter), Destiny was here all last week and we completed the footers, removed the footer forms and are ready for the foundation walls to be poured next week. From the air, you can see that we had to bend the house to fit it on this small lot (.81 acres). The shape to me either looks like a big Gingerbread Man (as in Shreck the movie) or an arrow pointing us in the right direction!

We had to order 50 tons of gravel to place around all these footers. Thats a bunch of rock! Here is a little 1 minute you tube movie of the gravel delivery.

I have been having fun with consulting with kitchen designers and flooring consultants. I have no estimates from them yet but it sure is fun to look! I have no clue (and will probably be shocked) what their bottom line will be.

I have gotten window estimates. We have 50 windows and some are a set glass (large ones next to the fireplace). All of the estimates are all pretty similar but I have had to read up on the reviews between Anderson, Pella, Lincoln and Jeld-wen windows.

We continue to enjoy this beautiful lake! This photo is our cove from the air showing the airstrip. You can see our property about in the middle of this photo right on the runway.

Today we harvest honey and Monday we pour walls.

Last week’s rain gave way to sun as we hoped and prayed for a few dry days to complete the footers for inspection.  This is  the mucky mess last Saturday morning (just 4 days ago).  But we pumped the water out and began working.

 

While Jack and hearty neighbor, Steve, started framing the footers, I went to Raleigh to pick up our seven-year old grand daughter Destiny to come spend a week with us. She has been a great help.  At seven, kids want to be helpful and she loves to hang with us!

 

She learned new construction terms like rebar, chairs, stakes, and support.  She learned to stay away from power saws and pneumatic nailers. OH!! My aching back from wiring the rebar to the chairs!

This photo shows today’s completed work — AND WE PASSED our first INSPECTION!!

These frames show where the concrete support footers will be poured (hopefully tomorrow).

In the meantime, we have both gotten our Virginia Driver’s Licenses and new Virginia plates.  While getting inspections done, we EACH ended up getting $450 worth of repairs on our vehicles.  The auto shop has a deal that they reject you, then they tell you how much it will cost to fix said rejected items, then they pass you, and take your money!

Check out our personalized tags.  Jack’s is the Pietenpol “N” number and mine is a bit of pre-marketing.

If there is a lull, we gotta harvest some honey. We have the labels but now we gotta rob the bees!

It has rained five straight days since we dug the foundation.  Since the dig, we haven’t been able to do much more on the house.

We sure are enjoying our porch as we watch the evening showers, wondering when our mud hole will dry up!  Check out this one-minute video of our view!

But we aren’t sitting still; on to other things. Jack finished wiring the workshop complete with six electrical outlets (four plugs each), one light switch, and an overhead ceiling fan.  I painted the doors and trim work.  Our little patio shed is almost complete.  We are planning an airport progressive porch dinner for August so this will be perfect!  More photos once my potting bench is done!

I have been working on a children’s book and found an artist finally in June just before we moved.  She has been producing some amazing art!  Here is the cover that she just finished.  Note my name is Karen Phillips when I am a writer!

The other thing we are doing is getting at least three estimates for each job and there are a lot of jobs in building a house!  I am trying to keep track of them all!

Life goes on in out hangar home!  Let us know when you are coming to visit!