We have cabinets...

We just don't have counter tops, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, cabinet hardware, sink or water for that matter! (Sigh), a few more weeks and it will all be worthwhile!

Thanks for the memories...

Hickory Oak Lane is now in my history book! The paperwork is signed, keys handed to the new owners and I am on to a new adventure. Here are a few photos from the move:

Loading the truck was a long process. It would have gone much quicker if the box count was smaller. As I have said over and over already...too much stuff. Hope to do some culling when I unpack but I have a bad habit of attaching sentiment to things and sentiment can get in the way of throwing them away.

A very empty house. If you look through the kitchen door, into the living room, you can see John wielding a vaccum cleaner. He is such a good boyfriend. This view is from the den looking into the kitchen and living room. My desk sat under the window where I spent many happy hours watching the wildlife at the bird feeder and on the butterfly bush.

This view is from the kitchen into the den. Oops, I forgot the clean the ashes out of the fireplace. Someone else's clean up now :-)

Final pic of the front of the house. I left some pretty long grass to be mowed too!

One final picture for the memory book!

Good bye 1300 Hickory Oak Lane!!

We'll leave the light on for you...

John and I are at the downtown Hampton Inn, luxuriating in our neat, clean, comfortable room. We are exhausted! From start to finish, the movers took 8 hours and the last hour of unloading seemed to take forever.

With the plaster work incomplete in the bathroom at our Hillsboro house (read: bathroom filled with ladders, plaster, trays, putty knives, no space to move), we decided to camp on the floor of the Hickory Oak house using a big down comforter, pillows and linens, only we could not find the pillows and linens. They have gone missing among the many boxes in the garage, or maybe the POD. We didn't have to try too hard to convince each other that staying in a motel was a good idea. A transition of sorts from one house to the other. We have many days ahead with no kitchen and boxes that we can't unpack cause the house is still under renovation.

Tomorrow brings a day of moving those "small" items that one tends not to pack for a cross town move but decides to just move in the car. Based on what's left in the house, it will be a long day!

Move day...

I am holing up in the garage, trying to stay out of the way of the movers. I am amazed at just how fast one's home can go from a safe, cozy environment to an empty shell. The guys have been working for less than an hour and the truck is half full. Still a lot of stuff to be loaded...which leads me to the concern that all of my stuff will not fit.

John's house is not ready for the move. The cabinets are still stacked in the garage, and we don't expect installation until next week. We won't have counter tops and a sink for at least two weeks. Based on extensive plaster repair, we still have painting to do in every room. Here's hoping we find room to stuff my stuff until we can figure out a permanent place for everything.

5 days and counting...

The house has sold and move day is Friday, May 29th. Life as I have known it is rapidly changing.

I have been silent on the house because we have been holding our breath. The "For Sale" sign went up on April 9th and by April 24th we had a serious offer. After a weekend of phone calls back and forth between agents, we settled on a favorable price. A few days later the required home inspection occurred and we agreed on a few "must fix" items. Things appeared to be moving smoothly until a period of non-communication on the part of the buyer began. Some expected paperwork did not come through and my agent would not list the house as sold.

Meanwhile John's house had become unlivable so he moved in with me. We spent several unsettled weeks, uncertain as to whether to pack or panic. We had a couple of short notice showings and some hours of scrambling to clean things up. While we had the potential for some backup offers, our hearts just weren't into the showings. We were ready to be done with this process and move on.

As it turns out, the buyer is paying cash for the house so the usual loan paperwork did not materialize. The silence was due to the buyer researching options to put the house in his son's name so he could take advantage of the O'bama first time home buyer tax credit of $8,500. Oh, and the son just graduated from high school, will enter UT this fall and own the house.

We are frantically packing now, 4 more days to complete the deed. Move day is Friday, closing is Monday week and John's house is running behind schedule. The kitchen will not have a sink or stove, or counter tops for that matter. We will be on a steady diet of sandwiches and whatever we can muster up on the Coleman camp stove (our backpack stove is just too small). Anxiety levels have been high around here but we have stepped up our exercise and acceptance of the situation seems to be settling in.

Boxes are stacked up everywhere. While we have had some discussions regarding combining our stuff and have dumped a lot of stuff, we know that more stuff is going to have to go. We are combining two houses with the same square footage.

My once restful den. The brown down couches have been sold to my real estate agent and we are using folding chairs for furniture. I have lost 2 pair of reading glasses in boxes. I expect they will surface one day when I am unpacking. Things keep disappearing and reappearing.

This is our "new" kitchen as of today (the cabinets are in the basement ready for installation). We had hoped the floors would be honey color (like the rest of the house) but right now they appear really red. This is a misstep on the part of our contractor. A floor finish and paint need to be applied before the cabinets can be installed.

While the houses are all consuming for us, we have been doing other things. I am re-establishing a run routine and John is becoming good friends with his bike again. Yesterday John rode laps around Cherokee Blvd while I got out for a nice run. When I completed my run, I hopped on my bike for a lap or two with John. It turned out to be only a lap...my legs were on fire! The early heat and humidity is challenging for me.

And finally, we booked our plane tickets for a trip to Iceland!! We leave mid-July and will be traveling with our good friends Will and Kim. We consider this our honeymoon trip although I am not sure we will be married at the time we depart. We are renting a car to drive the ring road around the island. We will overnight at farm lodges along the way. I have wanted to do this trip for some 9 years now! It is going to be a lot of fun!!

Rain, rain go away...

We have been under a rain cloud for many days now. While it is challenging to get outside to play, the lawns and gardens are greening up beautifully. There is a purpose for everything!

This old house...

Good things are going on with my house but I am not quite ready to divulge the details just yet. Meantime, work continues on John's house. It is an exhausting project even if we are not doing the physical labor.

The rewiring is complete except for the kitchen and bathroom. We expect the electricians to be done on Friday and can't wait. No major offense intended toward Mutt and Jeff (actually Patrick and Jeff) but guys, you are REALLY messy!! I guess handling a broom isn't in the contract. We plan to hire a "disaster " cleaning company to clean out the plaster board from the hardwood floors and whisk away the rest of the fine white dust that is in every nook and cranny. If we had this to do over, we might not!!

Along with the rewiring, we are having the kitchen gutted and rebuilt. Among the many issues uncovered when the walls were stripped down to the support is that a load bearing wall was removed sometime before John moved in (20 years ago), A little creative carpentry has shored up the ceiling and will hopefully support the sagging back of the house for many years to come.

Here we are, smiling in our wreck of a kitchen. Behind us is a wall that is being rebuilt. The brown wall section was once a separate room. The white wall section sits forward more than the brown. New sheet rock will be nailed up to even everything up.

The sink and refrig will go on the left side. Look up and you can see the new joist supports. When the ceiling was pulled down, the joists that are now supported were just hanging there, not connected.

The oak flooring strips designate the old room. The floor, under layers of linoleum and tar paper, is wood (currently stripped down to the tar paper). The wood will be refinished to match the rest of the house.

This was once a very narrow door opening into the dining room. Our contractor has moved some plumbing and enlarged the opening. We hope this will result in an open feeling between the kitchen and dining room.

We always assumed John's floors were oak. Jason, our contractor, picked up one of the floor boards in the kitchen and discovered the floors are beech. Cool! We may have to replace missing or damaged floor boards with oak cause beech is not as easily accessible.

Here is John on our side porch (off the living room). We have added two ceiling fans. The missing fixture is the light fixture. Did I mention that we had to replace almost every fixture in the house? The old service was 100 amp, the new service is 200 amp...the old fixtures don't work. Most fixtures are the oiled bronze look and are mostly modern. It's a fun look with the 1940's house.

Busy, busy, busy...

I had planned to get up and work though my list of things to do today, without the demands of a house showing. After all it is Monday and my house had been shown 3 times over the weekend. Nobody looks at houses on Monday, do they? The answer is yes, they do. Just about the time I finished hanging wet laundry all over the house, I got the dreaded phone call, "your house will be shown between 1:00-2:00 PM. Checked my watch and realized it was 11:00 AM. My clean was on.

After a week and a half of "For Sale" and 6 showings, I have learned to wipe the shower out as I get out. I stuff things in places I will never find them, I throw the dirty clothes in the washing machine (it makes a great, hidden laundry basket) and I am beginning to adjust to finding things a little disturbed each time I return after a showing. I hope the house will sell quickly and this madness will end soon.

Meantime, John's house is undergoing some work...shoring up the foundation, total house rewiring and ripping out and replacing the kitchen. His house is currently the exact opposite of mine, a total and complete mess. We expect it to be this way for weeks!!

Oh and did I mention, we are getting MARRIED!! This will be not be one of those long engagements while we plan our big wedding. Our friend Duane suggested that we hold the nuptials on Pond Mountain, where we first met. I am not sure we can find a JP or minister willing to backpack with us to perform the ceremony so we will most likely head to the JP some Wednesday afternoon in late spring or early summer.

We had a busy week last week. Monday night, John's sister Laura and her husband Richard blew into town on their new Harley on the way to Asheville, NC for a few days. Because the power to the guest rooms in John's house has been killed, they stayed with me. We had a great time and I look forward to their return visit.

The big cruiser model!

Off for Asheville

Friday night we were invited to dinner with our friends Will and Kim. We dined on Will's new favorite vegetarian dish, Shepard's Pie, on his new screened in porch. Saturday we met our friends Sonya and Mac on Market Square to try out a trendy, relatively new restaurant, Cafe4. We ordered different flatbread pizzas and gave them a great review (except Sonya who ordered delicious pasta). Market Square was buzzing with Dogwood Arts Festival activities so after dinner we strolled around listening to music and looking in assorted art booths.

Sonya and Mac arriving at Cafe4

The four of us at Cafe4...such tourists!

I am running again (what a starter, stopper I am). I am running shorter, faster distances this time 'cause it doesn't hurt as much as longer-slower. Hopefully I will build back up. More on this later.

For sale...

What is this in my yard?

Life is changing quickly! Almost 11 years to the day of buying my house, a "For Sale" sign goes up. Pictured is Susie, my real estate agent, same one who sold me the house. Exciting things are on the way!

A very busy March...

Another month has flown by and my goal to increase the frequency of my blogs is yet unattained.

March was particularly busy. Much of my "exercise" time was spent in physical therapy. As it turns out, running should not hurt as much as I was hurting. I went into PT complaining about knee pain and discovered the knee was only a by product of other issues. My left side has not been carrying it's share of the load. A tight IT band, inflamed bursa and weak inner thigh muscles resulted in knee issues. After lots of heat, ice, electrical therapy and pushing, I was released, pain free, with a sheet of target strengthening exercises. It's a lot of work but my PT reminded me that active aging requires some diligence. I am okay with that and should be running again next week! My goal 5k at the end of April is a bit of an uncertainty right now.

I am also waist deep into a home repair project that has lasted most of a very rainy March. Aside from mulch, the outside of the house is almost complete. I went from this look of faded paint and aging window boxes (note lumber and areas where I tore down window boxes):

To this...new paint in an updated color and no window boxes. Nice!

And from this old fence,

to this new fence. The contractor still has to cut in a scallop pattern to even up the boards...not like the stair steps above. If you could see my neighbor's house, you would understand why the fence is there.

Oh Mr. Contractor Man, what the heck is this? A new torture device?? It is a potential lawsuit because the nails are sticking out on my neighbor's side the fence. I made a quick phone call this morning and my contractor will shave these off on Monday. He should have caught this!!

I just went out and took this picture of my neighbor's house. Luckily most of the homes in my little neighborhood do not look this bad. This is an improvement for her as her house was repainted and the porch fixed last fall. I guess every neighborhood has one trashy resident.

There is still a little work to do on the inside of my house but not too much. It should take my contractor most of next week to finish my house completely. I have now embarked on another house related project and will post about this soon!

With the above going on, we were very limited with time to get out and about. In mid-March, we did take a trip to Asheville, NC with friends Sonya and Mac (Asheville is our favorite city in this region). A few days later I spent the day in Pigeon Forge with my dad and sister as we cruised the outlet malls for items on Leslie's "must have" list. Late in the month, my cousins from Tazewell, VA drove down to spend the day with my mother and we also had several occasions to have dinner with friends. Otherwise, we were occupied with the mundane tasks that equate to day to day living. April has some potentials and we hope to get ourselves and our camera out a little bit more. Happy Spring everyone!

Traveling to North Alabama...

B-r-r-r-r! It's cold outside. Regardless, I bundled up and went out for a run this morning. I discovered 2 things: 1) long underwear, fleece tights, hoodie sweater and gloves are just too much clothes for me, even in 18 degree wind chill and 2) I can run without fear of flaming out, my endurance is building again! Right now I am running on time instead of mileage and I had a nice 50 minute run.

This past weekend, John, Lee and I went to Huntsville, AL to visit John's family. Most of the weekend was consumed with talking and eating... and eating and eating. Lots of good food to be had including an endless basket of deep fried hush puppies and white barbecue sauce from a local barbecue dive. I woke up yesterday morning with a food hangover that I am still recovering from, we also woke up to some of the white stuff.

Below are several photos from our visit. I will have more up on our Picasa site shortly.

This pic was taken early, maybe around 8:00 AM. We quickly looked up the weather situation in Knoxville and learned that I-75 was completely shut down about 30 minutes outside of the city due to a 9 car, ice related pile up.


John sitting at his mother's kitchen table, drinking coffee and doing some calculations of some sort.

With snow comes the desire to build a snowman. Unfortunately the snow was incredibly dry and did not stick together very well. John's nieces, Caitlin (left) and Jessica (right) were very creative in their efforts to build a snowman. Snowman building tools included a bucket, shovel and water. The girls stuck mostly to the deck where the snow was deeper and easier to manipulate.

This is Crawford (left), Lee (middle) and John warming themselves by the fire. Neither John or Lee have enough body mass to keep themselves warm without supplemental sources of heat.

As you can see, this photo was taken later in the morning. Most of the snow in the yard has melted. Jessica and Caitlin are proudly showing off "Bob," the snowman. Not enough to snow to make him bigger and he started the melt process as soon as the sun came out.

One of the few pictures where Crawford agreed to sit still though I am not sure what he is doing with his upper lip curl. In agreement to sit still, he wanted to take some photos. The following 4 pics are through the eyes of a 4 year old.

Me in my reading glasses, I have my own twisted lip curl going

A 4 year old has a hard time holding the camera straight!

John's mother through Crawford's eyes

John and Lee giving Crawford "a face"

An anniversary of sorts...

Today marks one year of unemployment. The date is actually February 29th but since it rolls around only once every seven years, March 1st is close enough.

The year has gone by quickly. I find I laugh a little less and work a little harder to find the joy in many situations. I have discovered that extended time off is both a gift and curse. The curse is having the time to travel, but not the finances. The gift is being available when my family needs me and the quality time spent with John.

Now, back to the job hunt...

Spring teaser...

A real spring teaser today, the temperature reached 63! Unfortunately winter will be touching down again with flurries and a low of 25 on Sunday. I took advantage of the day and went out for a 40 minute run. The run felt good and I felt stronger. Has me looking forward to getting out again tomorrow.

Random thoughts...

A couple of unrelated thoughts:

John and I met 9 years ago today. We were on a backpack on Pond Mountain in upper East Tennessee. He was by himself, I was with my friend Duane. I knew immediately that I wanted to get to know him. After the backpack, I had a friend dig up his email address through the University system. Yes, I initiated our first contact :-) Took us a month of flirting via email and phone before we had our first official date on March 25th (it was another backpack). Contacting him was my best decision ever and 9 years later, we are still having a great time together!

Valentine's Day is over and Cadbury eggs are once again showing up on store shelves. I wonder if the Fish Oil tabs I bought yesterday cancel out the Cadbury eggs I purchased on the same sales check?

Had a nice run today, 45 minutes. I ran a neighborhood route backwards of my usual direction, adding on a few streets to up the time. My iPod was plugged into one ear but I can't really tell you what I listened to, my mind drifted to from one thought to another. Running is never easy for me but this one was better than most. These are the runs I remember as they provide the motivation to do the runs that are not so nice.

House repairs, ouch...

I am in the process of gathering quotes to fix some things around the house. In the past, unless a repair is critical, I have made the choice to spend surplus dollars on travel. As a result, I have had a number of incredible experiences across the world but the toll on my house is showing. I need to correct a few issues before they become critical.

I had hoped the cost of repairs would fit my definition of affordable (currently a moving target). After all, the incidence of repair-remodeling companies attempting to drum up business around here is much higher than in the past, the economy is the way it is and unemployment is what it is. But I have been surprised. A quote to replace double panes and gaskets in several windows is double what I paid for similar work 10 years ago. Getting the house painted and deck replaced is also, well, a bit more than expected...

As of today I am still struggling with the run but I have a goal, a 5k in April. That gives me 8 weeks to build my 5k confidence and I know I can do it! I am also looking toward some other running goals but I still have time before I need to commit. Wish me luck!!

A notch in my belt of running confidence...

Since lack of motivation is no longer my dark, little secret, I have decided to turn things around. I woke up this morning with a very small goal...complete a run that will up my level of running confidence, just a notch. Simple huh, or not! A quick check of the Weather Channel indicated gusty 15 mph winds but the temp was 37 and the sun was out so I figured not so bad for running.

I dressed a little too warm, choosing to ignore the fact that if I am comfortable at the start of the run I am wearing too many clothes. But I barely got my big toe out the door when that little voice in my head spoke up "what if you can't finish the run, what if you have to walk...you are going to freeze." Well, not likely but that little voice is hard to ignore so I grabbed a rain jacket and tied it around my waist. Pesky little voice.

The run started out into the wind and I was cold but I quickly began my usual exercise induced warm-up. For the first time this year I actually enjoyed the run, I remembered why I like to run. At the halfway point (out and back run) I felt decent but the finish was not guaranteed. Sometimes my feet and my mind do not work together. Luckily this was not one of those days and I finished a nice 38 minute effort. As for the jacket, I did not need it, I did not walk. Tomorrow, maybe 40 minutes :-)

In case you are wondering, crocus blooms in my yard are almost open. Doesn't look the volume of blooms will be as high as in years past but I am not complaining. The first yellow blossoms are always a bright ray of sunshine to me.

Can someone help me find my motivation...

My motivation has gone missing this year as evidenced by 24 days without a blog post, then a series of back dated posts of which NONE mentions exercise of any kind...well, maybe a couple of hikes. What is going on here? I need an injection of type A personality, it appears my type D has taken control.

Along with my sluggish performance, a little pudge has crept in. This year's spotty 2-3 mile runs combined with increased dining out and eating with friends, is not cutting it. Goals, goals, goals, I need to set some goals.

On a lighter note, we had a fun Valentine's Day. John and I went to the matinee to see, "He's Just Not That Into You." Nice of him to spend his afternoon at a chick flick. For dinner we went to Kalamata Kitchen for plates of sushi and to listen to his son's band ( http://www.myspace.com/ganasita ) .

An afternoon with friends...

In the past few weeks, friends of ours purchased a mountain home. As it turns out, this is a great time to pick up a piece of real estate. They invited us up for a Sunday walk through Gatlinburg and lunch on the deck. The weather was warm and we had the best time!

Sonya and Mac, your new mountain house is beautiful !!
Sonya and I sitting in a couple of rocking chairs on the strip in Gatlinburg. This is where Mac told Sonya how great he thought the grapevine rocking chairs would look on the new deck. In response, Sonya frowned at the chairs, we sat in them and rocked for a few minutes, agreed they were comfortable and she quickly put some mileage between Mac and the chairs. The chairs will not show up at the mountain house :-)

Another Gatlinburg strip shot

A view from the deck of Sonya and Mac's new mountain home. Nice!

John and Sonya on the deck



One last pic of the Smokies from the deck.

6 more weeks of this?...

The groundhog saw his shadow today which means 6 more weeks of winter. As someone who is usually a winter oriented person, I am having trouble dealing with the thought of more cold. I cannot seem to get warm this winter. Luckily our winters are relatively mild although it seems as if, in response to the prediction, we are having the heaviest snow we have had in years. Now where did I put my sled???

Below I have posted several pic of my yard in the snow...enjoy!