DK the Nautical Knitter

Scott took his technician ham license exam about three weeks ago and passed without a hitch. We have been waiting for his call sign to be issued. Now I can finally introduce to you KI4WLR.

He installed another antenna on the house and now we are just trying to figure out the first radio to purchase so he can put this new license to good use. The house is beginning to look like a NASA station of some sort. I can’t wait until we put up the tower. That should be a blast.

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It’s official, I have crossed the threshold and am 41. The day was spent relaxing and doing pretty much whatever came up here at home. Scott baked a cake for me and it was stupendous!! My gift would have been an insult had I not actually asked for it. Now to rebound myself through my 40’s. The fat will probably successfully stay away, but I will probably sprain my ankle or break my leg instead. Stay tuned.

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This Saturday we installed what is to be the first of several radio antennas on the roof of our house. Scott climbed to the top of the roof and mounted the mast and antenna while I ran around on the ground fetching tools and lending moral support. After it was installed we went into attic to retrieve and feed the wiring from the antenna on the roof down the inside of the wall of his office and then out at the base of the wall by an electrical outlet. Hot doesn’t even begin to describe the temperature in the attic! The hole saw’s that we own have been used for years and are quite crappy so after fighting with the hole drilling for a while Scott decided to bring out the big guns. I retrieved the new sledge hammer and it did the trick. Now the scanner is working great with the new antenna installed. It does look a bit sci-fi though. Can’t wait to see what configuration the next one has.

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Our work on the clean-up of the Catalina 22 is finished. We worked hard to get her clean and fixed up enough to sell and now she has gone to a new home in Georgia. She is going to have her renovation completed there by her new owner. Hopefully we will get pictures of her when she is fully completed. There she goes…

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Spring weather was here at our house just long enough to make the dogwoods bloom and the grass start growing. Now it is dry and cold again. (35-40 degrees at night) The grass did get tall enough to cut though and Scott, trooper that he is, decided to test out his dad’s new lawn tractor. Problem was that his head was cold. Here is his solution to the problem. Is this proper attire for winter lawn mowing????

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Moving day has come and gone without much fanfare, just how we wanted it to be. We finally got the major contractors to finish up and were able to move in just in time to entertain my parent’s for the Thanksgiving holidays and Scott’s parents for Christmas. We actually moved in the weekend before Thanksgiving, giving us about 4 days to put up a majority of the house. Luckily, since we were moving from a 40′ x 8′ motor home we did not have a lot of collected stuff to put away. The turkeys for both Thanksgiving and Christmas turned out great, if I say so myself, and the visits were wonderful (see next post).

The bed was our only real piece of furniture and you can see below how ecstatic we were to get it out of the rent house and onto the trailer. We took turns jumping off the back of the trailer onto the bed, somewhat like jumping into a huge pile of leaves. It was a blast!!

Scott in Flight

Me

Before moving anything into the house I went through and took these photos of the finished interior. The floors were so polished and the cleaning crew did such a great job on everything throughout. The first two photos are of Scott unwrapping and unveiling the long awaited wood-burning stove.

The Unveiling

These next two photos are of the great room from the vantage point of the staircase. The door with the large window in it is the front door. We had the front porch screened in as well as the side porch and the results were fantastic. The light through the windows in the morning is fabulous.

Morning Light

Great Room

The kitchen is just the perfect size for the two of us. In fact, I don’t think I would want a kitchen any larger than this. Everything is within reach while cooking and the size makes cleanup a snap. The kitchen is to the left when you walk in the front door. When you go through the kitchen you can go right into the laundry room and then right again into the pantry that is tucked away just below the stairs. We tried to make use out of every conceivable space either for daily usage or storage.

Kitchen

The laundry room is directly across from the refrigerator. When my father in law was touring our house he promptly stopped in front of the refrigerator and surveyed the various buttons. After what seemed like a long pause, he said with a hint of sadness “oh, crushed ice!”. It seems that his refrigerator he had installed last July did not come with this option.

Crushed Ice

Laundry Room

Pantry

View of Great Room from Kitchen

The great room consists of the space from the entry door to the kitchen on the left and the staircase and hallway on the right. Entering through the front door you have the wood-burning stove to your immediate right and the staircase in front of you beginning on the right and going up and to the left to the second floor. If you pass by the bottom of the staircase and continue through the small hallway to the right instead, you will pass a half bath on the left and end up in the master bedroom. The master bedroom has a full bath with a garden tub and stand alone shower and a walk in closet, too.

Great Room

Staircase and Hallway to Master Bedroom

View from Master Bedroom

Proceeding up the stairs you can see the front door directly under the fan and the two doors to the right (as you are looking at the photo). The door without a window goes to the garage and the door to the far right goes to the dogs’ fenced in yard. This door to the yard is just off the kitchen. There is also another door that goes from the fenced yard to the garage.

Great Room to Garage

Reaching the top of the stairs you can look over the railing into the entire great room, or turn to the right to enter the small hallway that leads to our two upstairs offices. The office on your right is Scott’s and the one on the left is mine. Going through either office you can reach the common bathroom.

Upstairs Hallway and Scott’s Office

My Office

Upstairs Bathroom

Looking Downstairs

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The day has finally come! Today the house was inspected and we finally have our certificate that makes it possible for us to move in. There is only one glitch though, the floors have not had their final coat of polyurethane so we can’t put anything on the hardwood floors until friday afternoon. Talk about anti-climatic. We have been going out to the house everyday/night for the past 4 months or more so there really isn’t much fanfare about the move. We already feel like we have been living there, but we just want all the contractors to finish up and GET OUT!!

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Our builder had a habit of telling us, whenever we asked when something would be done, that he “liked to do that thing last”. In fact, he said it so often that it became an ongoing joke. After putting up with this for as long as I could I finally asked him “If everything is last then what is first?”. We were tired of waiting for the “last thing” to be done so we started contacting the subs and doing some of the logistical work ourselves. We scheduled and had installed the propane tank and the backyard fence. Here are the photos of the “last things” to be done just prior to our certificate of occupancy being issued.

A creepy feeling seeing a grave shaped hole dug next to the house!

Proper positioning is apparently vital.

Goodbye Dumpster!

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It has been quite a while since there has been an update on the house construction. There is a good reason for this. There has been none. The time period between the framing and any other activity has seemed like an eternity. We now have real walls and the first stage of the trim is done. Now we wait on the painters to put on the first interior coat of paint, so the cabinet maker can come in, so the floor can be installed, so…….

Here are some new photos of the progress to date.

We have walls!

Window at top of stairs, unframed.

Window at top of stairs, framed.

Stairs

Stairs

View from Deborah’s office with framed windows.

View from Scott’s office with framed windows.

View from Scott’s office with framed windows.

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