New House Progress Report #7

Sorry for the delay, been busy with work and getting our current house ready for selling. Today our house was listed on the market, so maybe by the next blog entry it will be under contract... That might be a little hopeful, but we shall see. A lot has happened with the new house as you will soon see. They installed siding, built the porch, painted the exterior, and drywalled the inside since last update. The stone and shutters won't go up for a few weeks, but once that happens the exterior will be complete! 

April 13, 2013 - Siding went up pretty quick. I was in Jacksonville during the week they did siding, so I didn't miss much. I'll be in Germany in a few weeks, so hopefully they will be working on some boring stuff then as well. 

April 13, 2013 - Linz on the partially completed porch. We weren't sure how we felt about the diagonal layout on the porch, but we like it now that it's all done. 

April 21, 2013 - Visitors! and insulation¡

April 21, 2013 - Another visitor, and they finally built the front steps.

April 22, 2013 - Just some exterior painting.

April 25, 2013 - Drywall in the kitchen/breakfast/family room.

April 25, 2013 - A shot of our double front doors. You'd think with the glass to mahogany ratio on the doors, they would have been a little cheaper...

April 25, 2013 - A picture of the stained bead board ceiling on the porch and window trim details.

April 25, 2103 - Not the standard angle, but I think I might change it up from here on out to get a better look at the porch and chimney. (I'll keep taking one from the original angle as well so I can do a nice time lapse when it's all done.)

Spring Break 2013 (Part 2): Savannah, GA

For the second half of spring break, Mom, Dad, Joe and I traveled to Savannah. Mom and Dad had stopped here on their way to Florida earlier this year, but it was a first time experience for Joe and me. We arrived in the late afternoon on Friday, and to our luck it was raining. We stopped at our hotel, settled in, and planned out the rest of our day. The rain eventually stopped, and we headed out to Mom's favorite place in Savannah--or any city really--Starbucks! After our coffee/hot chocolate fix, we started on our self-guided tour of downtown (aka the sites Mom and Dad could remember from the carriage tour). 

I'm not sure that his particular picture was anything more than a beautiful house we passed while walking. Luckily for our iphones, we were able to quickly find a couple of destinations such as Chippewa Square (where the bench scene from Forrest Gump was filmed), the Mercer House, and The Juliette Gordon Low House. Below, is the fountain in one of the parks. That night we decided to go to Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. I was glad to see they had some chicken on the menu!

That evening we wandered down to the river front. There was some type of art fair taking place. We visited many of the various tents before finding the funnel cake tent. We partook in some lovely funnel cake before calling it a night.

On Saturday, we started by driving to the Wormsloe Historic Site. I had wanted to visit this site because of the beautiful scenery. I remembered that Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song had been filmed in Savannah, and my favorite scene was filmed here. The following picture was the entrance gate.

You had to pay the ticket price to even take pictures of the long oak tree drive. This had been what I wanted to see. We definitely took enough pictures to cover our ticket price! Unfortunately, most of them are on Dad's camera. These are just the ones I had on my phone. We went to the museum on the plantation, did the walking nature tour, and got back in the car for our next destination. 

Joe's Savannah attraction of choice was the lighthouse on Tybee Island. It was a beautiful day to be out near the water! We decided to start by climbing to the top of the lighthouse--and let me tell you--I paid for that decision for days. Those 178 steps to the top were no joke! The following Monday I about cried as I started the climb up the three flights of stairs to my classroom. 

However, the view from the top of the lighthouse was definitely worth it. You can't see it really well in this picture, but if you look closely, you can see one of the cargo ships that we frequently saw while we were there. 

Once we were back downtown, we decided to take the Juliette Gordon Low House tour. It was the house that she lived in once she was married. The tour was very informative, but had several rules! They cautioned against large bags, touching anything, or even getting too close to some items. Dad, who struggles with listening sometimes, wandered back into a previous room while the rest of the tour group was moving on. Our guide stopped midway up the stairs and gave Dad an icy stare until he turned around and joined the group! 

We then walked over to our highly anticipated lunch at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House, only to discover that they were closed on the weekends! We had missed our chance. We settled for an English Pub--hoping I would be able to get some experience at ordering before my trip this summer :) Later that evening, we walked down to the shops on the river. It was a lovely way to end a great trip!

Spring Break 2013- Richmond, VA

Over Spring Break, Joe and I decided to travel to Richmond, VA for a little historical field trip. We started by visiting St. John's Church. This was the church where Patrick Henry delivered his "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention" (which I happen to teach to my Juniors!)

Next on our itinerary was the Edgar Allan Poe Museum. I had high hopes for this museum; however, we were severely disappointed! It consisted of a small honorary garden, a scale of Richmond pointing out where Poe's houses would have been (if they still existed), and a room of Poe inspired art work. The gift shop was fully of "scary" keychains, coffee mugs, magnets, etc. So...we moved on to the Holocaust Museum.

I had been to the DC and Detroit Holocaust museums, but I heard the Richmond one was unique because each room was created to be similar to a Holocaust experience. When you enter the museum, you walk down a German railroad track. It allows you to travel into about 20 different rooms. Each room is different--one is a concentration camp living quarter, a crematorium, a gas chamber, a cattle cart, etc. It definitely provided a different perspective! 

For the last part of our trip, we experienced some Civil War history. We visited the American Civil War Center located on the James River. We didn't do much here except enjoy the scenery and the beautiful weather! 

We ended our trip at the Hollywood Cemetery. We were able to drive to the graves of former presidents James Monroe and John Tyler- and President of the Confederate States Jefferson Davis.

Overall, we had quite a lovely experience in Richmond!

New House Progress Report #6

Sorry I didn't update last week like I said, but there wasn't really much happening anyways. The past two weeks seem slow compared to the framing week, but they have gotten a lot done, now that I look back. Most of the HVAC is now in place, and they've started the plumbing and the electrical. They also installed windows and shingles. Now we don't have to worry about weather as much. I had an electrical walkthrough on Wednesday to place light switches and outlets. We got the "Christmas Package" which unfortunately is not a free Christmas present from the builder... but still pretty cool. Every window on the front of the house will have an outlet underneath, and all of the top plugs will feed to one central switch in the downstairs hall closet. Considering we have 15 front-facing windows, four of them in the attic(s), that should work out nicely around Christmas time.

I met the neighbor and have talked to him a couple of times now. They seem nice, and have two daughters ages 5 and 13. This is their third house they have built, and he makes it seem like it won't be a long-term home. They are from Canada and eventually want to move back.

Time for pictures.

April 6th, 2013 - The stairs were finally built, and then removed... and then rebuilt. The builder didn't like how the handrail was going to look with the triangular stairs on the landing. They ended up shortening each tread by 1/2" so it wouldn't take up any extra space. 

April 2nd, 2013 - Family room with fireplace... I still don't understand why it costs so much to get a real fireplace built these days. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to have bonfires in the backyard.

April 2nd, 2013 - Rachel and Joe stopped by for a walkthrough, and were greeted by 17 deer.

April 6th, 2013 - Shingles... and not the itchy kind. Also, windows and doors! Hopefully next update we'll see some siding... and figure out what to do with that hideous vent coming out the top of the chimney (it looks worse in person).

It's a....

Girl :)

New House Progress Report #5

We'll this was the week I've been waiting for, glad I wasn't out of town. It's ridiculous how much they accomplished. So no need for chit chat, let's get to the pictures. Be sure to read Rachel's post under this one if you haven't yet.

March 19, 2013 - It was drizzling on Monday, so I never went out to check on the progress. I guess I underestimated them because they definitely got started. This is what it looked like on Tuesday. The single window was still framed on the lower garage front, but we had successfully made contact to get it changed.

March 20, 2013 - 2nd floor started. Double windows on garage, check please. One of those things that probably would have bugged me forever if they hadn't been able to change it reasonably.

March 21, 2013 - 2nd floor finished.

March 21, 2013 - I was excited to finally get a chance to walk around inside the house. I got to the house right as the crew was leaving, so I still had an hour of daylight. I pretty much stayed until it got dark, just walking around all the rooms. This is the view of the kitchen/breakfast room area. 

March 21, 2013 - Here is the view of the main living room. This room and the kitchen are connected to make it a pretty open space.

March 21, 2013 - The side porch. Unfortunately the view won't be spectacular from this porch, unless the neighbor's driveway turns out to be a mosaic work of art lined with flowers and a large fountain. 

March 22, 2013 - It just keeps going up, and the weather was cooperating nicely. 

March 23, 2013 - Finally Saturday rolled around so I could actually get out there and watch some progress happen real-time. I stayed out there for over two hours and pretty much saw the dormer windows go from start to finish. The crew probably thought I was strange.

March 23, 2013 - As I was sitting there for 2 hours, I noticed a problem. The bottom window is in the wrong spot. In fact, I doubt there is enough space to get a shutter on the right side of it. I checked the plans and it's definitely supposed to line up with the top window. I notified the proper authorities, so it should get taken care of pretty quickly. 

March 23, 2013 - Working on the dormers and the porch roof. 

March 24, 2013 - It rained all day here, but I wanted to get out and take my ladder, so I could finally check out the upstairs (they haven't built the staircase yet). I also wanted to see where they finished up on Saturday. 

March 24, 2013 - Luckily they got all the tar paper up on the roof before it started raining. There still are a few puddles of water inside the house, but I'm guessing its not the first house that's been rained on during construction.

March 24, 2013 - Here it is. I think we move in Tuesday. 

Studying Abroad in England

Recently, I completed an application to study abroad in England. I was required to complete an application for NC State's abroad program, write four essays for the program offered through Surrey University, and interview for a scholarship that pays for most of the costs.

In my interview, I was told that over 40 people applied and they would only be able to take 20. I received an email yesterday informing me that I have not only been accepted to the program, but I have been awarded one of the scholarships! This means that I am only required to buy my plane ticket (and bring money for dinners, souvenirs, etc.)

The trip will be from July 19- August 3. I have to attend a few Saturday classes at NCSU before I leave because I will be receiving 3 hours graduate credit for the course. While there, I will be living in the dorms at Surrey University, attending classes, and participating in day excursions.

We will visit:

Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey)

Dicken's House

King's Cross (Platform 9 3/4)

and......Austen's Chawton Cottage

Amongst other excursions! We will have 6 days to explore London on our own. I will be traveling with other teachers from different grade levels in the surrounding counties.