We had two weeks off for Christmas and New Years, and spent them at the house. The week of Christmas would just be John & I, the first Christmas spent in the house, and the first Christmas where neither of our children would be with us on Christmas Day. Ali was to fly in on the 27th, same day as Melissa, but Melissa's flight was cancelled, so she flew in Mon. 12/28. We left NJ with 15" of snow on the ground and freezing rain, so it took us quite a bit longer to get to the house than normal. Christmas morning was very relaxing, just chilled, had coffee, then opened gifts. I got the Expresso Machine I had been wanting & John got a remote control Helicopter!! We had Christmas Dinner with my parents and some friends of theirs, and it was a really great time. Good food, good conversation.
I scoured all of Pamlico & Craven Counties for a Christmas Tree. Nobody had any left. I finally got the LAST tree at Lowes, in New Bern. For 50% off I might add, $17.00. The tree should have been free it was the most Charlie Brown thing I have ever seen. Once it was decorated up tho it was alright and all the presents were set underneath it.
My concentration this trip was reclaiming the land. We walked the property the first day, trying to follow the property lines (not much luck) and found that we have 5 acres of PRIVET. Have I mentioned that I hate this stuff? It is so invasive and just grows and grows even after you chop it down 100 times. But I started over by the grape arbor and began working my way around, chainsaw in hand cutting down and clearing away privet trees. We have a small ravine that runs the width of the property and only fills up when it rains really hard, but it makes a good deliniation line for the back yard. I got about halfway across, leaving huge piles of privet to dry out to be burned on my next trip. Did a lot of burning. By the grape arbor there was a huge old pile of limbs, sticks, vines, etc; about 15 feet across, 7 feet wide and 4 feet tall. Burned it all. The area at the start of the ravine will make a very pretty wood-land type garden, a great place for me to bring my hostas down from NJ. I also did discover a 2x3 cement slab over by John & Judy's side of the house...might it be our ever-elusive well?
I also insulated the library after the inspection for the electrical was completed. Recently our carpenter, had installed the french door in the library that we had been planning on. It brightens the whole room and sets the tone for the wood finish I will do on the shelves and the desk. Needed to get a few more things done in there, but I ran out of time, so will pass those jobs onto Sean.
John's concentration was the back parlor ceiling. The span of this room is 16'x18', and had only 8 joists total. The floor above literally shook when you walked on it...very, very scary. We did run into the issue of everything being closed from Wednesday to Sunday due to the holiday and we really needed the LAM (laminated) beam. This was the central point from which all the sister joists and the new joists would run from. So in the meanwhile we had the building inspectors, Ray & Skip, come out to look at the work that we had done, and to discuss the plans for the ceiling joists, They gave us a go on everything, so I went to Bayboro and got our permit for the Billiard room addition, the total refurb, and insulation. All we need now is plumbing and heating.
John also took down what was left of the wall between the foyer and the back parlor, giving us a huge, wide, open room which also open up a total view into the dining room and kitchen. (What used to be the kitchen & the summer kitchen, refer to older photos if u don't know what I am speaking of.) He removed the nasty brick veneer from the back parlor chimney, and revealed that there is a fire box on that side, so we will be able to do gas fireplaces in both parlors. Way Cool.
After the girls arrived, we took off on Tuesday to get haircuts and to go into downtown New Bern for lunch and window shopping, leaving John alone with the incredibly heavy, unweildy LAM beam. Ali had not been to NC since she was 9, so I wanted to show her downtown. My parents met us for ice cream later, then the followed us back to the Pamlico Palace. Dad have John a hand putting up some of the joists, as he needed an extra set of hands, and then came back the following day to help some more after the lumber was delivered. All in all John got it done and did an amazing job, bringing the room from 8 support joists to 23 support joists in all. And, we were able to move all our boxes up to the Bow Bedroom, and get them out of the foyer. So much better.
New Year's eve we spent at home, with a yummy meal and some fireworks. New Year's day I went to my parents for a few hours to use their computer to work on the appeal of the denial of our driveway application from the NCDOT. (Sooo Corrupt it's disgusting). On Friday we had my parents to dinner, and I whipped up a yummy meal in my crazy little makeshift kitchen.
The only bummer about the trip was the dogs! The puppies are now seven weeks old, and all over the place. Christie, the mom, is used to sleeping in bed with us, but the puppies learned how to climb up on the bed, so all five dogs wanted to sleep in the bed. It drove me crazy! Not a solid night sleep the entire time. Usually it's the rooster & the owl that wakes me up, but this time it was our own critters! And Buji is on the bathroom schedule of 5 am when Melissa gets up for school, so the first few days he was following that. So much for sleeping in. We finally got him to wait until about 7:30, but whoop-de-doo, still not sleeping in. Also too, the dogs from the neighborhood run free, and a few nights, Buji knew they were outside and would bark and howl & whine. Argg.
As usual, I did not want to leave, I love that house and would spend all the time there in the world restoring it if we had unlimited funds, but sorry folks, we don't and it's back to the real world.
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