Breaking ground on 271!

We did it! We finally signed a general contractor!! They started preparing for excavation this week - took off the back deck, etc. So 2008 is going to be the year of the renovation after all! At the moment, they are predicting to be finished in July so we are now scrambling to amass our renovation finances into a liquid state so we can pay them as they go. Since it's a slow time for construction, we're getting the benefits of the GC wanting to keep his guys busy - so he's passing along all his discounts and not taking his usual profit margin. Building supplies have come down since they were first estimated also so we might be able to stay within the budget.....well mostly :-)

We'll start taking pictures this weekend and posting them so you can all see the progress. It's pretty exciting!!!! Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas time in the Country

Today we just got our Christmas tree. Any tree just $30 .... and they cut it down and load it for you! What a deal!! The ones we used to get in Dobbs Ferry were twice that or more and not nearly as fresh. It's up now in our great big huge kitchen and we'll decorate it tomorrow. It's so beautiful up here in the country in every season but it's truly magic at Christmas time. Big vast expanses of land, animals, mountain views.

We've had a few dustings of snow which make it feel more like Christmas but the time has just flown! This fall has been a crazy travel extravaganza and I'm so glad to be back to a semi-normal schedule. Our trip out to see David's family for Thanksgiving was the best part of the insanity. we got to spend some real quality time with Donna, Kenny, Glenn, Jason, Kristen and Delaney ... worth the time and energy to get all the way out there :-)

So Delaney has a web page too! http://babypages.com/babyroberts

That little girl has been through so much in her short three years - major surgery to close her cleft palates happened just a few months ago but it doesn't stop her. She's an inspiration to all of us!

More later....we're off to the second neighborhood Christmas party of the night.....

Moving Day!!

OMG. It's finally here. Moving day is Thursday October 11th. The new floors look great in the rental house and we've up to our eyeballs in boxes over here. We're far from done but it feels great to actually be moving this adventure along. We called to get the phone and direct TV and insurance switched over and the guys are here right this moment to plan out the shrub, tree and plant removal/relocation so the excavator can come do his thing. Thanks to my trusty melatonin, I am sleeping through the night and all the stresses I wrote of in past blogs seem a thing of the past! We made lists back then of all the things that were keeping me up at night and yesterday were able to check off the very last things and throw out the lists!! What a great feeling. I need to stop procrastinating the rest of the packing so I'll be going now....more later after we're in the new place.