Rest in Peace, Bella
As most of you know, I once owned a dog named Bella - part german shepard, part lab, part rot and several parts undefined. She was a good dog, a real construction dog, and she left us this past May, after getting hit by a car.
Bella was sort of my business partner, and she went pretty much everywhere I did. She was happiest driving around, and it's hard to believe I never left her behind on any job sites - but even when she was out in the woods, I guess she kept an ear tuned to my doings, because when it was time to go, she was there - which is impressive since many mornings I can be at 5 or 6 different job sites.
She was a funny dog - like when she would sit too close to the fireplace, her skin flaky, and be too lazy to get a drink of water until the last dying minute when she would lazily saunter over the water bowl and drink for half an hour. Or when she would fart, and quickly and quizically look at her backside like she was not responsible. Bella was the type of dog people volunteered to dog-sit.
Here is a pic of my dad, my uncle and myself, all with our respective companions, sitting on the front porch of the first house I built - Farmhouse #1. Last night, for my new small project, I had to name a private road so we could get 911 addresses processed for the homes and homeowners. I named it 'Bella Drive', and it was unanimously approved. Next spring, I'll spread her ashes under a willow tree I am planting on the property. She always liked the shade.
Let It Snow!
It snowed 3" Friday night - kind of catching everyone by surprise. Quite nice though - with the snow hanging off the trees and erotically bending their branches. Note the firewood - which wood benefit my family more if I brought it into the house.
This is my house - sort of an andirondack swiss mountain cottage.
Snowy Saturday
Big day, regardless of the weather - Since the baby doesn't stop for weather, neither can we! Here are the framers, working through the weather to get the job done. Don't try these high elevation gymnastic at home. Here the framers are lining up the lumber that will be the roof rafters of the Carr Farmhouse.
And here are the Carrs -
Whew - now that's a Friday!
Last night was the Sullivan County Real Estate Awards, and while we had 3 finalists, none made the grade to 'winner'. If I had the energy, I would post the houses that beat us out. Although it could be argued because we don't pay 8% anymore to the local real estate community to sell our houses, odds are this might not worked in our favor on awards night (but works in our homeowners favor everyday). Up at 5, to Modern Cottage 3 (Barryville NY) by 6 to unpack and correctly distribute the lighting so the electrician knew what to do when he arrived. Then off to a 7am meeting with the road builder and excavator at our new project - Highland Farms. 7:30 Juan, JJ, and Steve arrived to install the 120 yr old hand hewn beams we salvaged, and at 8am the framers from Jersey arrived after a 2 hour drive. From there, Steve let the sheetrock finisher into Barn 1 to do a little warranty work. Then Juan set some beams at mini-house Cottage 5, and we all met at Modern Cottage 3 to work on trim carpentry and patio bluestone. From there, I unlocked the doors and turned off the alarms at Cottage 1 and Arts & Crafts so the electrician could stop by later in the day to take care of some homeowner requests. Then I had to hustle over to Jeffersonville to meet the guys who pump out septic systems - we have a sales contract on the Jeff Lake house, and one of the stipulations was to pump out the septic. Easy enough, but the house is 70 yrs old and no one had any idea where it was. So we flushed some magnetic stuff down the toilet and then turned the hand-held metal detector on and located it, then pumped out 200 gallons of archived shit. From there the post office, then the attorneys office to sign contracts of sale for 2 properties we are selling and 1 I am buying. Then back to office to keep Vicki moving forward - only to be interupted by a heat emergency at Cottage 2. Whew! Glad it's over - lot's of forward momentum - which, in construction, is the name of the game. Now it's time to sit with the Friday Times and have a Jack & Ginger.
