Happy Birthday to me!!!

On facebook, there is a thing going around called "25 Random Things About Me," once you are "tagged" by someone, you are to write 25 things about yourself and tag 25 people including the person who tagged you.  At first, I had a hard time, but once I got started, I could have written more.  It isn't meant to be a "bucket list" just a list of random things.  It did get me thinking about a bucket list, a list of things to do before I die.

Where do you start?  Of course I would love to see The Great Wall of China, scuba dive The Great Barrier Reef, and I would love to visit each state in the United States.  But those seem self-indulgent and superficial.  What I want to do before I die is watch my girls grow-up.  Help them get ready for their first date, shop for prom dresses, help them learn to drive.  I want to be there when they get their hearts broken.  I want to take the college "road trip" to help them find the college for them.  I want to throw big parties for their graduations.  I want to share funny stories about me when I was their age. 

 I want to shop for their wedding dresses, cry at their weddings, dance with their dad and toast them at their receptions.  I want to help them move into their first house, share my favorite recipes and deliver all their Christmas ornaments to them for their first Christmas in their own home.  I want to hold my grandchildren, spoil them and send them home to their moms.

I want to watch them grow and blossom, become who they are meant to be.  Watch them navigate the world and discover what gives them joy and passion.  I want to watch them fall in love and meet their soul mates.

I want to continue loving my soul mate and rediscover and redefine our relationship as we grow older and our roles change.  I want to continue having adventures, exploring new places together and taking on new projects.  

I want to make sure that all my family and friends know how much they mean to me.  How their support gets me through the days when the pain is more than I can bear.  

That is my bucket list.  If along the way, I walk on "The Wall," snorkel "The Reef,"  and visit the rest of the 50 states I have yet to see then so be it, it will be an adventure, no a to do list.

Happy Birthday.  Thanks mom and dad for me.

Kathryn Sue Jaques Barton

Hello from the comfort of my new bed.  We did end up sending the sleep number bed back.  We are now trying a Verlo mattress.  It has a combination of memory foam and laytex.  So far so good.

Sorry I do not have photos today, I have still been sick.  I did get an update from the site manager today.  They have finished the foundation walls and have filled it all in.  No more big piles of dirt.  They have also moved the well and dealt with the old septic.  Next week the plan is to lay the concrete slabs over the fitness room.  These slabs will serve as the floor of the garage.  Once those slabs are in place, they will be able to begin framing.  It may be as early as Friday, but most likely it will happen Monday.

I hope to be better by then and therefore able to share photos of them placing the slabs.  It should be pretty cool to watch, they need to use a big crane to lift them and put them in place.

We Have Walls!

With the temperatures rising from sub-zero to the teens this week, they were able to get back to work this week.  Tuesday, the walls were poured.  It was rather interesting, the truck was parked in the street and one of the guys controlled the nozzle remotely from controls on a belt.  Then, one guy handled the nozzle and moved it back and forth as the forms filled up.  Two guys came behind him and smoothed the top, all while balancing on the 2 by 4s you see toward the top of the forms.  I joked with them about needing gymnastics training.  It really was a site to see, imagine big clunky boots, ice and snow, wet concrete and a 4 inch beam.  No one fell while I was there, I think they were showing off.

We meet with the realtor tomorrow to go over what else need to get done before the house goes on the market, should be interesting.

Good night for now...

Friday January 16th, -27 with the wind chill, second day of no school due to cold.  I spoke with our site manager yesterday and he told me they had not been on site, I don't blame them.

The plan for next week is to pour the footings on Monday and the walls on Tuesday.  I've heard it is pretty cool to watch them pour the concrete, and given that the girls have the day off, we will be there to watch.

In the meantime, I had 3 other meeting this week about the house.  One with the flooring and tile company, one with the kitchen designer and one with the landscape design company.  I'm ready to move into the landscape plan now.  It looks so beautiful!  

I had a bit of design shift this week, I decided to change one of the colors of the cabinets to Palamino, a creamy white.  With the dark espresso, it looks fantastic!!!  The details are coming together, it is like a giant puzzle being worked piece by piece.  I'll shoot some pictures and post later.

Until then, bundle up and stay warm.

Kate

Day 2

What a difference a day makes!

What takes 6 months to build takes 6 hours to destroy and haul away.  When I showed up Tuesday, all that was left of the house was the back wall of the foundation.  The plan was to put up the retention fencing and finish breaking up and hauling the rest of the house.  

The girls and Doug have been anxious to see the site, so we took a drive over after school.  Unfortunately with the sun setting around 5 these days, we arrived in the dark.  After a cold walk around the perimeter, we hopped backed into the car and determined we would never enjoy winter camping.

Tomorrow, Thursday, they plan to excavate and by Friday hopefully pour the footings.

I'm off to bed, long day with the designer...good work got done, but makes for a long day.

After six months of dreaming, planning, researching, talking, meeting, spending, not sleeping, it has finally begun. 

 Yesterday, January 5, 2009, the old house came down.  What an experience!  If you have never seen a house come down, I highly recommend it.  When I arrived, they had half of it down.  Over the course of 3 hours, they had it leveled, except for the fireplace.  The bricks and rocks from the chimney and fireplace are not allowed in the dumpsters, they must be hauled away by dump truck.  It was also interesting to learn, this particular hauling company takes the dumpsters back to a warehouse and dumps them and sorts through for any materials that can be recycled.  Good to know.  I included some photos.  As usually happens to me, I ran out of battery on my video camera, so I was only able to record about 20 minutes of the destruction.  I'll work on a small clip to post here at a later date.

With the house down, you catch a glimpse of the view.  Can't wait for summer, sipping "boat drinks," swimming, water sports, watching the sunsets...aaah!  It was 13 degrees yesterday and at one point I could no longer feel my fingers.  That was when I headed to the car for a quick warm up.  I'm headed over today to watch them dig.  Until tomorrow...