IN CONTRACT!!!

We have a contract on the house on Elmwood! We are scheduled to close on July 12. We are very excited and pleased. The buyers are willing to wait on our house to be finished, so we won't have to move twice. So the work on our NEW house has been "kicked up a notch" and we are hoping to be in some time in September. Yee-haw!

Bricks and Mortar... and More!

Brick is covering the walls of the house, and it's looking great! The sheet rock finishers continue to work inside, also, and it looks to us like they are about ready to start spraying on the finish... we hope, we hope! Everything continues to be going along at a steady clip!

















I am doing my best to walk again... Greg occasionally calls me "Chester" or "Grandpa" for Walter Brennan, because I do at times have a definite "hitch" in my gait! I would have to say that after 9 weeks of vacation from my body weight, the nerve endings in the bottom of my foot have been revolting! I'm working through it... S-L-O-W-L-Y... and getting better every day. I sometimes use ONE crutch, but hopefully that will soon be a distant memory, too.

Our "Old" House is Officially for Sale!

Things are moving along so fast on the new house that we have decided we need to get busy selling THIS one! So, we've run the vacuum and swept the porches, and we're about ready to put out the sign. Meanwhile, I've created a blog with all the info and some pictures... there is a link in my links at the right, or you can go to http://2403Elmwood.blogspot.com and then send all of your friends there who might be in the market for a nice home in Heber Springs!

On the NEW house front, the brick masons set up their scaffolds today and loaded them with bricks, so they are ready to roll, hopefully Monday. The trench has been dug to run electricity to our house, and the sheet rock finisher has done almost all of the "mudding" and taping, so he's ready to start sanding, and then he'll spray on the wall/ceiling finishes. We went out today and sat on the back deck... my first time to do that! I had not been able to negotiate the 4 or 5 steps from the back porch down to the deck until today. It's so peaceful in the back yard with the birds chirping and all of the lush greenery. We don't have to be there very long for me to realize WHY we are moving!!!

Up and Running... Almost!

The orthopedist gave me a clean bill of health this morning and started me walking on my own two feet and power again! It's a little wobbly, but I'll practice and get better in a hurry! He says I have regained my full range of motion... thanks to great work by Seth Harrell and the staff at Conway Regional Therapy and Sports Medicine Center and their Biodex® machine!

We went for my checkup anticipating putting weight on my foot in "the boot" for a couple of weeks and then starting to walk with crutches, but the doctor says I need neither! So, I'm hobbling around here and working out the soreness, and I am sure I will recover quickly... just in time to get the "For Sale by Owner" sign in our yard and get this house sold!

We are more than 3/4 of the way finished with sheet rock (of course not the mudding and sanding yet!), and the brick should be added next week, hopefully. We're still hoping to move in mid-August. It's going FAST!!!

Here are some pictures of my cousin, Olivia, that I took at the Mother-Daughter banquet at church last Friday. She was a dancer in the "Turkey in the Straw" number; hence the red checked bonnet and apron!

Prom Night!

Tonight is prom night for Jasmine and Braeden. They asked Granny and Lee to photograph them all dressed up and ready to party! Everyone stopped by our house and took a few pictures in the yard. They both looked great! The plans included dinner with friends in Conway, then back to the prom and after-prom here.

Happy Birthday, Greg!

Today is Greg's birthday! He came into this world on May Day 1954, in Oskaloosa, Iowa. His mother said it snowed that day!

We had dinner with Greg's mom, John, and Bruce and Helen last night. Then we went to the high school campus to see the "senior walk" and the new astro turf being laid on the football field. Today, Greg's brothers are taking him to lunch! So Happy Birthday, Greg!!!!

On the home front, the house continues to come along like gangbusters. We are just about ready for sheetrock! The brick is here, and hopefully it will be up soon... that will really change the look of the house!

Therapy is going well, according to my therapists, Bridget and Cynthia. Seems slow to me... and yes, it DOES hurt! Aleve is my new friend! Thankfully, I now only have to wear the boot when I leave the house... I am "bootloose and fancy free" as long as I stay inside!!!

April 21, 2007

Sticks and Stones...

The roof is on, the rock is going up, and the brick is on its way!!! Eaves and soffits are being trimmed, the electrician and plumber are on the scene, and things continue to FLY! We are very pleased with everything.

On the home front, the doctor says my ankle is healing well, and I need a full 6 weeks in "the boot" (which means this Sunday, at least). I start physical therapy next week on Tuesday, and Greg thinks I should wear the boot until my first session and see what the therapists say. I can start putting a little weight on the foot. The doctor says that I have a 6 to 8-week window now for regaining range of motion in the ankle... after that, it's gone for good! Now THAT's a motivator!!! He says you can build strength any time, but there is limited time to regain the range of motion for the muscles and ligaments. So, I will have to work hard these next few weeks.

The other component is going to be pain. The doc says if there isn't pain in the therapy, the therapy isn't working. So he has started me on a regimen of Aleve to help with inflammation and pain. Greg pointed out to me that I am pretty tough (!), so maybe the pain won't be as bad as the doc says. At any rate, I will work through it... he says that this is why you have to have a therapist... your natural instinct is to quit when it hurts, and the therapists won't let you do that. I will do exercises every 12 hours, which means that Greg will be my therapist at home... he's flexing his fingers and getting ready!

This Joint is Jumpin'!!!

Things are happening so fast it would make your head spin! Since Monday, this is what has happened:

• the framers finished the framing and the new deck on the back


• the roofers are over halfway done and should finish on Friday (just in time for storms and more rain!)


• the stone masons are working on the dormers and bump-out walls


• the brick is on order and could begin going up as early as next week


• the fireplace is in


• Greg has talked to men about the security system, television and Internet connections


• the plumber is on the scene


• the electrician is gearing up to start


• the heat and air man is ready to begin, and his men are here to dig wells for the geothermal heat pump we are installing! You will see several photos of their equipment, as they dig 200-ft. deep holes to house the vertical loops of pipe that will circulate the water and use the ground temperature to keep it warm before returning it to a heat exchanger. You can learn more at http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/
  home/heating_cooling/ . Greg said as the guy drilled deeper and deeper, the dust really flew -- and it changed colors as the layers of rock changed!
  

We are excited about all of the rapid-fire changes going on... it is fun to go to the house and see what has been accomplished in, literally, hours! If this trend continues, we are going to be moving sooner than we thought!Click on any photo to see a larger image. Click on any

Happy Easter!

I hope it wasn't too cold in your neck of the woods today. I would be surprised if it got out of the 40's here... it was COLD! But it was sunny and beautiful, and we had a good day... church, brunch with Greg's mom, a visit from Cindy and Charley and their children, Caitlyn and Chase, and trips to the new house to look things over. Caitlyn played a concert for us from her piano lesson book, and that was WONDERFUL! She is a first-grader, reads on a high 2nd-grade level, and is doing a great job learning to play. We even played a duet! She has promised to bring her book back this summer so that we can have an extended "jam session."

The house is going so well. Greg has worked hard to keep the yard cleaned and make plans for the exterior, and I have nearly worn a hole in this couch!*LOL* You can see that we did figure out how to get me up into the house, and I have enjoyed being able to tour the first floor and sit on the outside covered porch, which should be truly covered tomorrow! As you can see, the trees have really filled in, and we will have to decide this summer which ones we can spare to open the view for spring/summer and fall!

The big wide photo inside shows what will be our living room/kitchen. The other vertical photos are of our little sunroom, and I am thinking it may be one of the favorite rooms of the house... surely for our cats! There is a wonderful old cedar tree just outside the big windows, and the birds really flock to it. You can also see the next-door creek from these windows, as well as all sorts of ferns and foliage.

As you can see, crutches are still my constant friend... 4 weeks today and counting! Each day gets better, and I am so blessed to have wonderful help. I don't know what I will do if Greg grows tired of waiting on me! He has been incredible... a real trooper!