Busy and loving it!

Well we've been in about 3 weeks, can't believe how much has been done and how much needs to be done. I still managed to sneak in a paddle but since then we've had a shower almost every day, either in the morning or in the afternoon. Hopefully we'll get the canoe out on the lake for a paddle soon.
My workshop is set up and I'm able to work on some projects.  Currently we're working on some built-in bookshelves next to the fireplace... so far so good.  Next is the office area, definitely needing bookshelves in there! and likely not last, more lighting for the kitchen area, what the builder put in is woefully inadequate.
Today we're having the lower deck expanded 12' x 12' for a little more room to grill and drink beer :)
Hopefully the rain will hold off long enough for them to get it done... And before the day is out, we got an invite for the first, 10 year Kay Terrace reunion, all the old neighbors are getting together for "Buffet, a crab boil, and beer", it should be fun seeing the old gang!

Adding on to the lower deck, should come almost to the side of the house. Stairs moving to the other side.

Sunday morning paddle, have the lake to myself :)

Not much to work with with this picture :)



Will have to check but I think this is the only spring fed lake in GA.



3 Days and counting...

Hi all, well as usual just about everyyear on our anniversary it seems, our AC compressor decides to give up the ghost!  Of course it's going to be on a Friday with the hottest weekend of the year.  So hopefully by Tuesday and $1200. later we'll have AC just in time to move out!  Anyone remember Hee Haw, "gloom, dispair, and agony on me... if it were'nt for bad luck I've have no luck at all" (lol).
Today we're going up to Rebecca's and work on her kitchen some more (in the air conditioning), it is slowly making progress and will be nice when it's done.
Tuesday we close/sell this house, on Wednesday we close on Lake Arrowhead, Thursday the movers come, and Friday we start unpacking, or maybe Carolyn will and I'll check out the lake with the kayak :)

Getting Closer....

This week we heard progress is being made from our buyers end.  It looks like a closing will happen sometime the last week of June. Our fingers are still crossed! This last week was busy with several trips to Becca's house to start installing the uppers-kitchen cabinets. I was surprised at how "relatively" well they went in! Of course there was one exception of a wall not being square. The doors are on the cabinets, next are the base cabinets and sink base which will require a plumber unfortunately since pipes need to be moved and refitted. So far this project has netted two new tools, a multi tool and a sawz-all. They both have come in handy but I fear this project will end before I can manage any more new toys.
Tomorrow we have our final walk through of the new house. If all goes well, at the end it gets locked up until we move in.
My assistance with Elite Translation Services, LLC has come to a slow down. We finished the proposal and it was submitted to DEA, now we wait, for the time being no news for us is good news, meaning the proposal did not contain any "fatal errors" which could eliminate us immediately.  When we win, it'll be hectic again starting the transition plan and ensuring quality control during the change over. From what I've learned DEA's wiretaps are busier than ever, (wooo hooo!)

Some Pictures

Since I'm complaining all the time on the lack of rain, here's some pictures of the house in the rain!
Hope I don't jinx all this by showing the pictures now.  :)
There are still some small punchlist items they'll be finishing up this week.  I'll be getting with my kayaking buddy Curt, the electrician, for some new/better lighting for the kitchen/eating area.  The pictures seem to make the place look larger than it is, but the basement is truly big!

Trees!

Two very nice decks, like sitting in the tree tops!

Looking in from front door

Dining Room, light fixture needs fixing!

From sunroom looking towards front door. We had all carpet replaced with hardwood floors.

Appliances are in, all electric, that'll be different for us!

Family room

Huge basement

Add caption

Two weeks to go…

These will probably be the two longest weeks of our lives.  There have been so many ups and downs through this process it’s almost comical.  This last week our agent advised us not to schedule the movers or do anything else… Right after I scheduled the movers. Luckily that turned out not to be an issue.  Our buyers buyer had to jump through some hoops for his loan.  Apparently he got all that straightened out.  The closing attorneys office called and wanted payoff information for our mortgage and turns out our buyers want to buy some of our furniture!  Hey selling is easier than moving… so,  it looks like we’re on track.  Today we’re going up to Rebecca’s for a belated birthday lunch and to deliver some Adirondack chairs I made for her small patio.  Ashley and Josh are going to give her their whole patio set, and we’ll give her ours.  I plan on making a new set once my shop is set up.  This afternoon Rebecca is going to the  mountains to run in a benefit Warrior Run.
Rebecca had a plumber over once again to finally hunt down a leak.  Her kitchen ceiling has been taken down again but this time the leak was found and fixed.  Now we can get back to putting her kitchen back together.
We’ve had great weather recently, cool nights and warming into the 80s during the day, hardly any AC running at all. The end of this week were supposed to hit summer with 90+ temps,  oh well, it was nice while it lasted.  Still could use more rain!!!
Next week we’ll send out a blast email signing off for about a week until we get everything up and running at Lake Arrowhead.

Tinsley, Tuesday after getting 3 month shots.

Shots didn't seem to bother her.

This Blue bird is nesting in our back yard and time to time sees reflection in the window, he'll fly up and peck the window for awhile.

Enjoyed a cold beer yesterday!

So far, so good...

Well we get a little closer everyday, 28 days and counting to the first closing.  On Friday we finally signed the contract at Lake Arrowhead. Our agent is a stiuckler for details, but I guess that's why we used her.  Sometime this coming week we'll go to the design center to pick out appliances.  Our "design" plans are changing from "mission" to mountain cabin...kind of!  We've had a hot week in Georgia with little to no rain, this coming week the temps are supposed to moderate, just wish we could get a few days of rain.  Ashley and Josh are doing great, Tinsley is getting big, smiling and starting to laugh.  Rebecca's job has changed things up on her that just isn't working out, so she may be on active duty orders all summer, including her TDY to Botswana SA while she looks for a Dentist good enough to work for her :)  That's it for now, gotta clear out the attic while its cool, we'll try to have some good pictures next post.

Did we sell the house???

Well we certainly hope so! after 8 long months on the market, dealing with a crazy lady, and cutting the price to the bone, we finally got an offer. So far, so good, and everything is on track to close the first week of June.  Then we'll close on our house in Lake Arrowhead, Waleska, GA 2 days later.
The house, (our last one, I should add) is very similar to the one we're in now, except it's on a full daylight basement. I'll get my wood work shop back, Carolyn will have a full craft room, and plenty of room for finishing off a family room, full bath, etc.  By road we're probably 2 miles from the lake nestled in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains, we've never understood why these mountains are labled so since there are no mountains in South Georgia?? Even though the house will eventually have much more living space the price is about $50k less than what we're in, taxes are lower, and so are the utilities.
Best of all, we're within 20 min. of family.
It's hard not to get excited, there's too many things that can go wrong before closing and we have to go through 2 of them, but, we're packing boxes anyway!



Looking north, windshield shot while crossing the dam.



This was taken a couple weeks ago.





Looking in the office







From font door



Dining room with fancy ceiling?



Easter Sunday

This is a little late, but better than never! We had a nice visit from Ashley, Josh, Tinsley, Rebecca and Carolyn's sister Anita. Carolyn out did herself again with a great meal. Not much in the new category. We have been showing the house with lots of great feed back but no offers still, a terrible economy has about killed the real estate market in the southeast. Strange how retirement has us busier than not being "retired," Carolyn is busy prepping for her classes coming up and I've been doing more and more "consulting" when not turning wood into saw dust :) Here's some pics... I noticed a theme, I guess Tinsley,Becca and Carolyn were the only ones there!


Tinsley



Becca and Tinsley

Grandma, Tinsley

Tinsley Easter 2012

Grandma and Tinsley  Easter 2012

Gadgets gadgets!

Well this week was "normal",  Carolyn's old iphone 3g that I inherited needed a new battery, it can be replaced easily! That part is true but putting it back together turned out to be a technician's job, a couple of lost screws and other problems proved to be too much. Good thing I still have my old flip phone. This morning the internet connection was not working. Comcast charged me $40.00 to tell me our wireless router was bad. Another $40.00 at Walmart for another (better) router and a few cuss words setting it up and it works great now. I think if it plugs in, I need to stay away from it for awhile :)
Summer is over and Spring is back, we're in the 50s in the morning and warming to the mid 70s during the day, we're enjoying this.
Expecting Ashley, Josh, Tinsley and Rebecca today for an Easter dinner. I'm getting hungary already. Hope this finds everyone well!
Happy Easter!

This should go under "you can't make this up" !!!

Well we had a very interesting week. Last weekend we had an open house on Sat. and Sun. On Sunday we had a couple look at the house and within 5 minutes wanted to give us an ernest money check. I suggested that they think about it and then call our agent. I told Carolyn then that this lady was "nuts". On Monday they came back to sign a contract (with no contingencies at all), she said she would be paying cash. On Tuesday the lady wanted the names of flooring people, drapery people, etc., we got that to her. On Tuesday night she wanted to know how fast we could be out?  On Wednesday morning she notified our agent that she wasn't buying the house, was putting a stop payment on the check!  Since then it's gotten to the point that the real estate broker, the head guy, is quite aggravated especially after hearing the lady and her boyfriend threatened our agent, long story short, we're staying out of this mess as much as possible, there may be law suits? arrests? who knows?  So, we're still marketing the house even though there's a "contract" on it. Crazy, crazy ! Now we're laughing about it. But everyone else is madder than wet hens :)
Not much else happening, though this last week was enough!
Rain overnight has knocked down the pollen which was just crazy this spring. Everything is starting to green up!  Looking forward to next week! :)

Spring or summer?

It seems like mother nature is having a hard time deciding.  We had a week of 85+ temperatures and the pollen exploded! We set new records, on Tuesday the pollen count was over 9000, now remember anything over 120 is considered extremely high. Even if you're not alergic it will bother you.  After some light rains we've cooled into the 40s this morning. I'm afraid without our spring rains again we're well into our second year of drought which means paddling lakes only unless we go to the coast and paddle some tidal rivers.
Rebecca's trials and tribulations seem to be on the mend. She received her checks for the repairs on her townhome and bought another car.  She's looking forward to getting those repairs finished!
Last night grandma and I babysat Tinsley while Ashley and Josh went out to dinner.  Everyone had a good time.
Carolyn and I will be having an open house this weekend since homebuyers seem to be out and about. Carolyn has been steadily geting ready for her classes she has coming up soon and I have been puttering around using up scrap wood in the garage, I've started a canoe paddle and next will be turning "things" on the lathe, I also have been reading documents provided to me for my "consulting work".  Next weekend I'm sure will be the beginning of regular lawn mowing. So all things considered, a relatively quiet two weeks.

I hate having to mow the lawn... maybe I can have Jeeves do it after he washes the Mercedes!  :)

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Carolyn's last CT scan was good! Dr. Carter "likes the results" and says he'll die of old age before he's concerned about anything. :)
What a crazy week.  Rebecca gets into a car accident (she's fine), her wrecked car gets towed to the tow company.  USAA sends a wrecker to the tow company to take it to the body shop. Tow company says, her car was just picked up by another tow company and they don't have it! Well two days later the tow company finally finds her car and sends it to the body shop... this saga will continue, I'm sure.  Rebecca's house is coming along, she's waiting on the funds from insurance before she can continue repairs, that's a whole new story, apparently as a sign of the times, there are folks who damage their homes just before being foreclosed, get the insurance money and then walk away. So now, people in Rebecca's shoes have to endorse a check, send it to the mortgage company, they endorse it, and then send her the funds, then she has to show she actually made the repairs.
We've been busy showing the house, our new agent is proving to be a hustler, we've had more showings in the last 2 weeks than we did the previous 6 months.
I'm waiting for an "official" opinion from DEA's legal counsel in reference to me working for a linguist company and represent them to DEA. So far, so good. At a minimum I can work "behind the scene", kinda scary that I became a subject matter expert and that its actually worth something.
Ashley, Josh and Tinsley are going to Josh's youngest brother wedding today, we're skipping out, Carolyn woke up with a migraine this morning.  Tinsley is growing fast and healthy, hopefully tomorrow Carolyn will feel like a little trip up to see them. That's it for this week!  Hope you all like the new layout of the blog here, continuing my experiments with this. :)



Amicacola Falls, during our last severe drought in 2008.

March! Spring rains and tornados...

Hi All!
Well March came in like a lion! in the south that means tornados. We spent last Friday night watching the weather on TV and discussing getting weather radios.  Ashley and Rebecca were in the crosshairs most of the night and luckily were spared. They had tornados touching down all around them. Since then we've cooled down and the winds are steady.
There really isn't any new news other than I again may be back to work.  DEA in their infinite wisdom has decided to "re-do" their linguist contract proposal and to break out the Atlanta Field Division into their own separate contract worth about $50 million.
So, I've agreed to assist a local company with consulting services... film at 11 on that.
Rebecca's home repairs are progressing but not as fast as she'd like. She has decided to test for SSgt., and looks like she may stay in the USAF reserves, we'll see what next month brings.  This last week she worked the full week to help the unit prepare for an upcoming inspection.
Tinsley is growing fast and last check up was declared healthy!
In the next couple of days we'll hear on Carolyn's last regular CT scan, our fingers are crossed.

I hate it when I'm right!

Well most of you probably know my story last year dealing with USAA Bank regarding their screw up of our escrow account (they sent us a surplus check from the escrow account). After just about 8 months they were able to fix the problem... after I wrote them a check for $3800. At least I was saving that money knowing I'd be writing a  check back to them sometime. Well... this week they tell us we have an overage and have sent us another check! I immediately questioned their recent escrow accounting. They blew me off again in their response! So, I sent them a very detailed email requesting (politely) that they check their work! Well... this morning I received an email from USAA telling me when the surplus check comes to void it and mail it back to them! This I guarantee you will not end there, somehow I believe this comedy will continue.
Ashley came down with Tinsley this week for a nice visit of relaxing and doing nothing in particular.
Rebecca is still waiting on a response on her insurance claim, looks like she may get new kitchen cabinets out of the ordeal at a minimum, we're keeping fingers crossed that work can start soon.
We've finished our painting projects and are back on the market, I have to admit the place looks good. Our new agent has given us a good sense of confidence that this place will sell, we're in the second worst real estate economy in the nation, it's not going to be easy!
 We're having the craziest winter I can remember here in Georgia, we are usually in the mid 60s and sunny, last weekend we were in the teens! this weekend we're not as cold but looks like the spring rain and thunderstorms are right around the corner.

Grandma and Tinsley

Grand pa and Tinsley

3 weeks later

January is gone! Taxes are done!
Becca is pretty well settled, she has some painting projects yet to finish but all in all she's progressing :) The Reserves have dangled a carrot to her in the form of a TDY this summer to South Africa, her enlistment is up this spring, we'll see what happens there.
Tinsley is a hoot! eats, sleeps, and starts over, doing what babies do best. Ashley and Josh are doing well as new parents. We've re-listed the house and are thinking we've made a much better decision as to real estate agent, this one is giving us a sense of confidence ... all in all it's great to be in the second worst real estate market in the nation :)
This winter so far, has been a warm one, except for this weekend we woke up to 18 degrees, ouch! we could still use more rain or this summer will get very interesting.
The canoe is refinished and looks good! I plan on taking it up to Azalea Park in Roswell, the Chattahoochee flows through there and there are lots of paddlers, maybe I can interest a buyer?
I finally broke down and saw a Dr. about the tendonitis in the elbow, scared of needles and pain! a shot in the elbow... which did not hurt and two days later virtually pain free! I'm an idiot for suffering months. I still have lots to learn! :-)
Since I started this post there's been a need for editing. Rebecca is going through some home owner tribulations. A washing machine hose upstairs has leaked, bottom line she'll be getting a new ceiling, wall, and likely new kitchen cabinets. Waiting to see what the insurance company says. Good part is she has competing contractors who double as dinner dates!

Tinsley Virginia Mitchell

Sunday, January 15th 2012.  Ashley got up to let her dogs out this morning and Tinsley decided it was a good day to be born. So she and Josh headed for the hospital. Once settled in their room the contractions were quick and strong. By around 2:30pm all the anxious grand parents to be were kicked out so Ashley could get down to business! After about 3 hrs of pushing the doc decided it was time for a c section. Mom, Dad, and Tinsley may be headed home sometime today. Tinsley was born 8lbs, 9oz, 20.5 inches long, she has brown hair and blue eyes and has quite a catalog of expressions already! Here are some pictures;

Popsicle while we wait on Tinsley.

Several hours later... mom and baby are fine.

Dad keeping everyone posted on the happenings.

Time for a nap...I've had a big day!

Gramma's happy, Tinsley's content!

Sleeping in style.

A very happy baby

looking around more and more, checking out who's who?