The Old Oaken Bucket

I thought having to pick siding, shingles and shutters was difficult...I was amazed at the number of color choices. Now it's time to pick stuff for our 3.5 bathrooms and it is soooo overwhelming. I don't remember it being this difficult the last time we remodeled a bathroom which was about 15 years ago.

Ed would like a "bowl sink" for the 1/2 bath -- I don't know what the real word is for these types of sinks but I've never seen one until I saw my cousin's last month and I recently saw another one at one of my customer's homes. Ed liked it but he really really decided he liked it once we saw the display at the showroom we went too -- he called it The Old Oaken Bucket -- see the sink on the left side? It really is a metal sink but it does have a bucket kindof look. And it's somewhat old fashioned looking, don't you think? But if you know college football (and unfortunately I know more than I ever would have wished to), The Old Oaken Bucket is a huge rivalry game between Purdue and Indiana. And Ed is a huge college football fan.

Now if we're going to go with one of these "bowl sinks", I liked the one with the fish...it appeals to the "squiggle" in me :-)

Litter Number Nine

Harley must have written this card before he left The Seeing Eye and then someone forgot to mail it because we didn't get it until a week or so ago and of course, Harley is with us now :-) This litter with Nexa was born October 28th and it is a "J litter" -- someone told me there is a Jonas in that litter.

Dear Family,

Here is Nexa and our puppies. This was her first litter and my 9th. She did great from what I hear, we had 5 boys and 2 girls.

I am doing well. My handler tries to play with me as much as she can and takes me into the play yard often.

Take care,

Harley

Merry Christmas!

Lee spent a lot of time working before Christmas. I think Harley was a little sad about his early retirement -- afterall, he is only 3 1/2 years old. So he helped Lee out by listening in on some conference calls and doing some computer stuff for her.

I baked Christmas cookies for the very first time. They were yummy especially hot out of the oven. I think Ed's mom was a little stunned by my sprinkle choices, especially when I put orange sprinkles on the Christmas trees...

We put up a tiny tree on some snack tables instead of a full sized Christmas tree. 4 big dogs plus a tree in one house equals ornaments all over the place. Actually, the 3 older dogs would have been fine -- it's Ava, the instigator, who would have happily taken down all the ornaments she could reach for a little taste testing.

The best present from Ed was the Dog Santa outfit he bought at Old Navy. The one thing I would like about having a little dog is playing dress up :-) Ed found a Santa outfit and we tried the Santa hat and beard on all the boys--Ava would have dressed up as Mrs. Claus if we had the appropriate clothing for girls.

Ava did have a little elf hat so both labs got dressed up for picture time...it's a good thing they love me :-) !

A Day at the Barn

Last Saturday we decided to take Ava to the barn to meet Lee's horses. Harley met Blue a long time ago but he never met Reddington. Harley was a bit wary of both horses although Ava was very interested.
But both dogs had the best time running around one of the empty and very very very muddy horse paddocks. Of course we forgot to bring towels so in the end we just tossed the both of them in the back of car.

We brought home two very dirty and tired dogs and they ended the day with a shower and a good scrub down.

Out with the old...

Once upon a time, we had one bathroom. Right now we have none! Now our bathroom door opens out onto what will be a powder room and since there is no sheetrock, there is a continuing view into what will be another bathroom and a walk-in closet. It always amazes me that it takes so much time to put new stuff in and almost no time at all to take out the old.

Our old staircase was narrow, steep and definitely not to code. Now we have new steps -- they lay on their side in the living room for a day or two before the old stairs were ripped out (along with the corresponding walls) and the new staircase was installed. The new staircase is nice and sturdy -- and right now there is a view into the basement as well as the upstairs.

We're finally getting sided! We picked Clay with Bordeaux shutters. And since the framing is all done, the dumpster was moved into the driveway so now we almost have a complete view of our home!

Harley Barley Boy!

Harley's back! The Seeing Eye called me last Thursday to tell me I could come get him whenever I wanted to. I really really wanted to come get him on Friday but when my father-in-law heard about everything I was trying to squeeze into Friday combined with the fact that I was going away for the weekend, he said to me..."Sweetie, you're nuts." So I changed my plans and I picked up Harley on Monday.

The number one question since he's been back is did he recognize us. He was gone for exactly 2 years and 2 days and I was worried that he wouldn't remember us at all. Ed said that it wouldn't matter if he did or not since he was such a great dog anyway but I really wanted him to remember us. I waited in an office at the Seeing Eye for them to bring Harley in. There were two other women who worked for the Seeing Eye in the room when Harley came in. He sniffed the room first (it was a new room to him and there had just been another dog in there) and he pretty much ignored the other two women. But he came up to me, jumped up and gave me a kiss before returning to sniffing the room again. Now he was never a very excitable dog so I'm going to say his jumping up to kiss me was the moment when it clicked and he recognized me.

We got in the car and he settled right into the spot he always rode in when he was in my car. Later that evening, he was pretty happy to see Ed too so we think he recognized Ed too.

Ava loves having Harley around. She's from his fifth litter with one of his many girlfriends, Fancy. But we don't think they recognize their relationship at all -- she just thinks it is fun to have somebody around that wants to play with her. We're living with Ed's parents right now while the house is being worked on and their two older goldens don't play with her -- Aiden is grumpy and Bentley is blind. Ava and Harley are having a lot of fun with each other!

We are so happy to finally have a dog of our very own.

Anita--In Our Home 12/6/06 - 5/29/08, In Our Hearts Forever

So much has been going on between the dogs and our home...I've been taking lots of pictures but not updating my blog! Here's a quick recap with pictures to follow over the next few days...Harley is home, house is moving along although it is temporarily unliveable AND Anita had her Town Walk.
We (me, Ed, Lee and Matt) arrived in Morristown for Anita's 10 am Town Walk. This is what I call her Graduation. We didn't even recognize her! She's yellower than we remembered and the 1/4 golden retriever was really showing with her fluffy tail.

Anita made us so proud. She took her trainer through Morristown like a well-trained Seeing Eye Dog. What a huge difference from the puppy we raised that was afraid of cars, loud noises and the salad spinner! We walked about a half block behind with another Seeing Eye person who filled us in about everything Anita was doing.

Her trainer gave Anita the command to move forward when a van crossed their path and Anita blocked her trainer from stepping into the street.

We learned a lot about Anita's training after we finished with her Town Walk. Her trainer told us Anita was a little aloof when she first arrived but settled in nicely after being there for a little while. Anita was one of her favorite puppies to train even though the trainers aren't supposed to have faves :-)

She is really good about ignoring squirrels, etc... and maybe that's because she's been exposed to all sorts of other animals. And unfortunately she still is a bit of a pooper scooper -- gross!

While Anita did well on her trips to NYC, she will probably be matched with someone who lives in a town more like Morristown or smaller.

There we are for one last picture with our girl...little people in the background.

We're so proud of Anita and can't wait for her final letter to find out where she'll end up working.

Finally, a puppy of our very own!

Harley was the second puppy we raised for the Seeing Eye. When he returned to the Seeing Eye Foundation, we learned that he was being considered for the Breeding Program. We were so excited when he made it -- his whole litter was being considered for the program but only he and his sister, Hanna, made it.
Every time he had another litter, we received a picture of the mom and all the puppies in the litter. The last picture we received was from his September litter with Vesey -- that was his 8th litter.

And today we learned that Harley is officially being retired. He's only 3 1/2 years old but he's definitely done a good job at the Breeding Center. So what does that mean? Well, since we raised him, we were offered him back and we were so excited to say YES YES YES! We've been hoping for this phone call for a very very long while. There was a chance that he could have been sent to breed elsewhere at another organization or that he could go back into training and become a dog guide but we were really hoping he would retire in style and with a huge smile on his face.

We don't know when he'll be joining us yet since he will have to be fixed before he comes back home but we can't wait to get him back.

I hope he remembers us. He left us two years ago, December 6, 2006. Finally, a dog of our very own!!!

Everything but the kitchen sink...

Our kitchen will be the least remodeled room in the house. It's getting a new replacement window on the side, our sliding glass door will be replaced with some sort of interior door and our greenhouse window over the kitchen sink will go away.
Once we decided to remodel, I began to notice a lot of details about all the various homes I've been in. Most homes I've been in have a window over the kitchen sink and generally it looks out over the backyard. Before we remodeled our kitchen, our sink had no window, just cabinets over it but I think that's because it was an incredibly small kitchen -- most modern day walk in closets are bigger than our first kitchen.
We're adding 14 feet of room onto the back of our home without moving our kitchen so now my kitchen is in the center of the house instead of towards the back. My greenhouse window will go away and I'll be left with a space that basically looks into my new cropping room. So the question is, what should happen to the space that was the greenhouse window? The remodeling contract said they would close in the space but I'm leaning towards leaving it open and putting shutters on the other side that can open and close. I thought a rack of hanging wine glasses would look nice there and maybe a shelf with knick knacks because anything on a shelf any higher won't be easily reachable by me.
What do you think? A wine rack or leave the space open?

All wrapped up!

Thanksgiving Morning we decided to wander around our home. The roofers are done roofing and the framers are done framing. The new parts of our home are almost all wrapped up in Tyvek. We don't have our new backdoor yet so the opening for the new backdoor is all Tyvek-ed up.

We went upstairs and looked around -- it's a much better view than the other night when all we could do was walk around with a flashlight. We admit, it still needs a bit more work, but it is getting there :-)

Our current 2nd bedroom is currently known as Daphne's room. Daphne was one of our many cats and she did not play well with others so for awhile, she had her own room. She eventually had free roam of our home but at night, we would tell her to "go to your room" and she would. She was a sweet cat but really needed to be in a single cat home, not living with 3 other kitties.

Anyway, the backwall of Daphne's room will come down and join the 14 foot addition to become part of Dad's room. I'm peeking through the window that is currently on the backwall of Daphne's room.

The other picture with the huge square of Tyvek and the 2 windows is my new crop room. The huge square of Tyvek will become a double pane door when it comes in. My new crop room is huge! I used to have all my workshop crop space upstairs but this room will be much better since there are no sloping ceilings AND it is on the first floor.

We're hoping for sheetrock by Christmas!

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

We went outside yesterday afternoon and watched the guys raise the walls on our back addition. It was just like the barn raising in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers without the pretty dresses, bright shirts and music :-) Thankfully there was no brawl either so our walls are still standing.

It's one thing to see a drawing and another thing to see it for real. I love the curve of the new overhang. I know if Ed could, he would put in a round door so we could have a hobbit entrance.

We have roof shingles now! These pictures were taken earlier in the day before the roofers were done but we now have roof shingles.

Last night we also got to walk around the upstairs and the addition for the first time. It was neat to see the walls in place and we're already re-arranging a few. Some of the windows will change as well. It's really beginning to look like a home again! At least from the outside -- the inside is a mess with almost everything on the floor and no real furniture.

Our new addition in back is big enough for us to have Thanksgiving Dinner in ... next year that is unless everyone wants to sit on the floor and freeze!

Have a Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

Moving right along...

Okay, it's not quite done but that's basically it. We will get a wider front door though since it is a little smaller than standard.It's hard to believe how much they've done in one week! And yes, there will be windows in front.

And our new basement now has a ceiling and my new crop room/dining room now has a floor. Next step, walls :-) !

Trying to beat the rain...

It's a somewhat cloudy day today and even more noisier than ever before! Two vanfuls of guys showed up this morning armed with lots and lots of tools. They're tackling the house trying to get it framed in and roofed by this afternoon--it's supposed to rain!
And we say goodbye to our little front porch today. It's going away -- we'll have an overhang in the future but no more closed in itsy, bitsy front porch that served as a great "airlock" to make sure no kitties escaped.

The cats are not happy at all. Harrison is handling it a lot better than Olivia but even that's not saying much. When they get scared, Harrison usually heads upstairs and Olivia goes under the sofa. There's no more upstairs to get to since it is boarded up at the top of the stairs and tarped up at the bottom so Harrison has been joining Olivia under the sofa. Well, the sofa went into the POD on Saturday and Olivia ran under the bed. That didn't help either since shortly after the sofa left, so did the bed. Lee built a little fort for them out of sofa cushions and Olivia hid there for a little bit but I dismantled the fort on Sunday in an effort to clear out more stuff. So now Olivia is hiding in the closet and Harrison is hanging out with me in the kitchen.

A Quiet Day

There has been a lot of noise coming from upstairs from Wednesday to Saturday. It's Sunday now and quiet for the first time in days -- except for Ava's barking.
Ava and Ed poked their heads through the backslider -- no walking forward though since it's about a 14 foot drop to the new basement floor.
It's been freezing out -- unusually cold for November and they are trying to get the upstairs closed up as quickly as possible. But it's also been really sunny out which made for great shadow shots of the guys upstairs against our neighbor's shed.

By Friday evening, we had walls upstairs! I didn't even realize it until they told me when they were getting ready to leave. It was really really windy Friday night and the tarp would flap really loudly in the wind -- I was afraid the whole second floor might just blow away.

By afternoon on Saturday, the 2nd floor was partially closed up.

And by the end of the day, we were tarped up but it looks like we have our attic now too!

If it would just warm up a little bit -- it's about 24 degrees in the morning and it doesn't get much warmer during the day!

News from Anita

After raising two big black lab boys, I wanted to try a little yellow lab girl so we put in our request to the Seeing Eye and in December 2006, Anita arrived at our home. She was tiny and she cried a lot -- I slept on the floor with her for the first few days and for the first month or so gave her a t-shirt of mine to sleep with to quiet her down in the middle of the night. She was a sweetie. I called her my petite puppy because she topped out at about 55 pounds while Lee called her the pooper scooper -- I'll let you figure out how she got that nickname.
We got a letter from The Seeing Eye on Friday -- Miss Anita is doing very well and we've been invited to her Town Walk. If all goes well, the Town Walk is the last time we will see her. We'll walk about a half block behind Anita and her trainer while Anita "struts her stuff". She won't even know we're there since we're not allowed to go near her so we just get to send her hugs from afar.
It's heart breaking to raise a puppy for someone else. We want to be proud parents and hope they graduate and go change the life of a sight impaired person forever but on the other hand, part of us hopes they will return to us. If they don't make it through school, we are offered the puppy back first and of course, we would take our pup back.
But as Ed says there is a bright side for Anita graduating -- now we have room for another puppy. People ask us all the time how can we do this, part with a puppy that we raised and loved for over a year -- I tell them I call it my "puppy trade-in program". But in reality it is very hard when our pups return to TSE. The best you can hope for is another little puppy to distract you from missing the one that just left.
We're hoping Anita's Town Walk will be within a week or two.

Tut Tut...it looks like snow...

It's Friday and it's hard to believe that on Tuesday we had a top half to our home.
It's supposed to snow today and they are predicting rain for early next week--isn't that just wonderful?
It's really noisy and if I could fit under the sofa, I'd probably join Olivia and Harrison (kitties) under there.
I think by the end of today we may be able to walk out the kitchen slider onto the new floor/ceiling that will be over the new basement.

We can rebuild him...we have the technology...

Okay, in reality I've always thought of our home as a she so I guess it really is "we can rebuild her...we have the money...or rather the home equity loan..."
By afternoon, all remnants of the original 2nd floor were pretty much gone and they started laying the beams for the new 2nd floor. Besides all the hammering, it occasionally sounds like and feels like they are tossing weights or more likely, huge pieces of lumber around. The whole house shakes and we now have lots of nail pops on the first floor as well as a new crack in the living room ceiling. There's also a small hunk of wall missing from the bedroom. But that's okay because they'll fix it all and make it look brand new -- well, most of it actually will be brand new.
It's dark out now and they are pulling a tarp over the house.

In case you're wondering where the 4 legged household members are...Ava went to another puppyraiser's home for a few days -- we didn't think she would like the noise. Olivia (12 year old kitty) spent all day under the sofa and Harrison (8 year old kitty) spent part of the day under the sofa and the rest of the day wandering cautiously around the 1st floor.
And I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier, Trinity (terrier/mutt) went back to Maryland -- she definitely would not have liked all the noise.

They are hoping to start framing the house soon and maybe by Wednesday it will be all closed in! WOW!

It's raining house...

Most of the 2nd floor is gone except for one sidewall.

The house is all tarped up but it is still really cold. Can't wait to see that gas bill!

We may have lost our second floor but we now have a Porta John on the front lawn too -- yippee!

And they filled the dumpter in one day so we're swapping our filled one for a nice empty one -- maybe the next dumpster will be red -- at least it will be festive with the upcoming holidays :-)

The Point of No Return

I came home from the Post Office this morning and there was a van out front with a bunch of guys armed with tools. Look at what they did by lunch time.
The tarp covering the back of the house is gone and so is part of our roof!

It looks like we were hit with a meteor shower! The house is rattling with chain saws and there is a lot of noise coming from upstairs.

Dumpster and Wood

There is now a dumpster on the left side of the lawn -- that's to artistically balance the POD on the right side. Our driveway is now filled with loads of lumber. Next thing...a Porta Potty -- can't wait for that lovely addition!

Ava says...where is my pink vest with purple flowers?

Monday night we went to Monmouth Mall. Ava was being tested -- it's a new Seeing Eye thing. They are testing pups over 6 months of age and if they pass the test, they get a Seeing Eye puppy vest! Of course, Ava made us so proud and she looks so sharp in her new vest. She really wanted a pink one with purple flowers but they only had Seeing Eye green.

We have cement!

By the end of last week, the walls of our new basement were done and there was plastic sheeting making the basement floor ready for cement.

Bright and early Monday morning, the cement truck arrived and it pooped out cement into a wheelbarrow which the guys then spread over the floor. It really kind of reminded me of globs of elephant poop. They spent the day spreading it out -- it really looks much nicer now than in the picture.

We spent the weekend clearing out the rest of the attic and by Sunday evening it was empty enough for Ava to run around and play fetch! She hasn't had a backyard to run around in a few weeks now and of course we can't let her off leash in the front yard so fetch has been very limited to extremely short throws in the living room where it isn't really safe since we have so much stuff all over the place.

She had a great time running around upstairs.

And of course we had to take silly pictures. The attic looks so empty with nothing up there and it echoes too.

Sometime this week, the 2nd floor comes off and that will be our final farewell to our little cape cod.

Excuse me...that's mine

It's a good thing she likes him!

Just another brick in the wall...

Hey--the wall is at ground level now! It's just a few more rows until they reach our sliding glass door--yippee!
At some point the bilco doors will go away and that will the opening between the new basement and the old basement. The bilco doors look like an elevator shaft to nowhere.
It's been sunny and it should be sunny the rest of the week so the sides of the tarp came down giving the guys more light to see what they are doing down there.

It's still windy though and the tarp billows in the wind.
And I think we've come to a final decision on siding, shutters and shingles!

Sunny Days...

It's a sunny Sunday morning.

We have half a basement wall--the guys were here on Saturday building it.

The backyard is still tarped up...hopefully the mud will dry up at some point!