Getting a few things done.
This morning I went by the bank to get my spending limit raised and then to the library parking lot to use the internet. After that my dad and I drove to Trenton, Georgia to a materials place, then on to Fort Payne, Alabama to another. At the second spot I bought a couple of doors. Unfortunately the vanities that I liked had been sold. We drove back to the Mountain the scenic way, and dropped the doors off at my storage unit. I went by Piggly Wiggly for some food and cooked a late lunch. After relaxing for a little bit I went to the job site and cleaned up trash, moved block and logs, and loaded totes and pallets onto the trailer. It was nice to get the site looking good. It was still super muddy though. After returning to the cottage I have just been relaxing and looking for materials online.
Blocked.
I got a call at 6:30 this morning saying that the masons were coming. I was surprised and skeptical since it was raining, but I drove up to the Mountain as quickly as I could. They were waiting when I arrived, but didn’t start work until about ten due to the rain. It was a very stressful day with a couple of trips to get sand and lots of material moving with the tractor, but about seven hours after starting, they were finished. That was a good feeling. I drove down to Manchester to pay their boss, then came back up to the cottage to shower. My dad and I went to the Mexican restaurant in town to celebrate. Now I am pretty wore out and hope to go to sleep soon.
A wet but good day.
This morning after breakfast we drove to the garden center on the other side of town, and although it was closed, Liz was able to walk around and find a bird bath that she likes. I’ll go back to get it tomorrow. We went from there to Kroger and filled up the cart. After dropping the groceries off at home we drove to Home Depot in Spring Hill. We wanted to buy a lot more hot pepper suet but they only had one of them. We drove home and played until lunch, tried to have quiet time, then drove to Target while Luke napped in the car. Luke and I built a monster tower this afternoon, which he was able to show my dad via a video call. Dinner went well but bath and bed times were a challenge. I’ll stay here tonight then do a few errands around town before driving up to the Mountain in the morning. There is rain forecast for the whole week, so probably no masons until next week.
Big time fun.
This morning we went to the farmer’s market for bread and vegetables. Unfortunately the cinnamon roll guy wasn’t there for the second week in a row. We returned home with our bounty and after unloading everything and packing up lunch we headed towards Eagleville. Our destination was Lucky Ladd farms. There were tons of people there when we arrived and we had to wait in line to have our tickets scanned. Once inside things went well though. I bought a cup of food for Luke to feed the goats, and he enjoyed that. We also saw cows, sheep, llamas, rabbits, peacocks, and other animals. It was “construction equipment day”, so there were a bunch of construction machines there and a mini excavator was doing some demonstrations. Luke went down some slides with both me and Liz and we had some lunch after that. It was pretty hot out but nice in the shade. We walked around a bit more, feed the goats the last of our overpriced food, and left. All in all it was a very enjoyable time. We were only there for a couple of hours but it felt like much longer. We took a circuitous route home through Lewisburg so that Luke could nap. Erik came to get some firewood after we arrived, and then Luke and I played until dinner time. After dinner I mowed grass and saw that we are getting a little action on one of the straw bales. Tomorrow I will take a picture of it.
A bad surprise and then a good one.
Last night at about 9:30, when I was nearing Lynchburg I got a call saying that the masons would not be coming today. I still drove on because I had some things to do this morning there, like buying more twelve inch block and dropping off stuff at my storage unit. I also did some reading at the cottage. Early this afternoon I drove down to Shelbyville to put a deposit on my cabinets then drove on home to surprise Liz and Luke again, since they hadn’t been expecting me to arrive until late, because they didn’t know about the masons bailing. So we all went to downtown Columbia for the “First Friday” celebration, and it was a bit of a letdown. Luke enjoyed his bath and didn’t fuss too much at bed time.
Spending a little more money, the calm before the expensive storm.
This morning I got a trailer load of sand at Builder’s Supply and hauled it to the job site. I drove down to Winchester and bought two more windows at Henley’s, then went to Home Depot for two more. From there I drove to the cabinet place in Shelbyville and dropped off my lists for a quote. My final stop before home was the cedar store in Chapel Hill. They won’t have everything I need, but will have enough to get me off to a good start. I drove home and surprised Liz and Luke. We played and had dinner together. Liz is putting him to bed now, and soon I will drive back to the Mountain, since the masons are coming early tomorrow morning.
Big leap forward.
I woke up pretty early this morning, tried to sleep some more and couldn’t, then read a bit on my phone before getting out of bed. After talking with my parents for a few minutes I drove to the library to print off a few things, then went to the bank to make sure everything was on track for the loan closing this afternoon. From there I drove down to Lowe’s in McMinnville to get a quote on windows. It was high and the lead time was long, so I drove on to Home Depot in Winchester. Their prices and wait times were better, but still not ideal. I also dropped off a list of plumbing and electrical fixtures for a quote. Almost on a whim I went by Henley’s Millwork just down the road, and they had the windows I was looking for – in stock. That was wonderful and I wrote them a check on the spot. I drove back to the cottage and relaxed a bit before going to the library to print a few more things. From there I went to the bank, where Liz was waiting for me. We went in and signed everything in order to close our loan. We were going to drive over to campus to get her some coffee afterwards, but her car key stopped working. First we walked across the street to the supply store to look for batteries, then tried Dollar Tree. Unsuccessful at both places we drove to CVS, which had the right one. After a little difficulty I got the battery swapped out, and we drove to Stirling’s only to find it closed. So we drove to the dump that is The Tavern and got sweet potato fries. Liz said she would get coffee at Starbucks in Manchester. We returned to the bank and went our separate ways. Since then I have just been reading, working on the computer, and taking a quick trip to Piggly Wiggly.
Transitioning from the long weekend back to the grind.
This morning Liz had a doctor’s appointment so I watched Luke until Madeline arrived. I left the house and drove to Home Depot in Winchester, then on to Monteagle. I made calls and went to the lumber yard to buy my lumber packages. That was pretty painful, but necessary. I had a lunch meeting with Sam, the HVAC man, and that went well. This afternoon I went to the job site and moved some logs out of the way, then drove the tractor down the street a little ways to help a guy who works at the Goat Market spread some gravel on his driveway. We talked for a while afterwards. I came back to the cottage and chatted with my parents for a bit, then we had dinner on the back deck. I will do some reading shortly, then hopefully go to bed at a reasonable time.
Enjoying milder weather.
It’s Memorial Day, so Liz had a holiday and I skipped out on work. This morning Luke and I went to Port Royal, but he didn’t want to stay very long. We were almost home when he fell asleep, so I called Liz and upon arriving home she came out to the car and joined us for a drive. Luke didn’t sleep for as long as I would have liked, but it was still better than nothing. After lunch and quiet time we went to Home Depot and Andy’s Frozen Custard in Spring Hill. Before dinner Liz and Luke played soccer out back while I planted vegetables into the straw bales. Dinner, bath, and bed times went well. I won’t drive to the Mountain until tomorrow morning.
Playground, downtown, nature.
This morning Liz and Luke made breakfast cookies and after eating them we went to Port Royal park and saw a father and son that we had met before. Hugo had a “stomp rocket” and was kind enough to let Luke play with it too. Luke really enjoyed that. From there we went to Publix and bought a few groceries. After lunch and quiet time we drove downtown and walked around the square. Luke loved seeing the fountains, especially the coins at the bottom of each. We drove next to the nature park and saw lots of wildflowers. We ate dinner on the back deck, which was nice in the shade and with a cool breeze. Unfortunately the wind died down and the mosquitos came to dine on us. Clean up was fast and Luke took another “shower bath”. He was a bit emotional at bed time, but did go to sleep much earlier than usual.
