The Dwindling List

According to the calculations of the countdown on my computer desktop, we have 96 days left to finish up around the house. A couple people have mentioned recently in comments that our list must be getting smaller. So I thought since we are just about halfway through the year, it would be a good time to take stock of where we are and what there is left to do.

The living room is finished, except for a small portion of the floor in the closet that needs to be finished.

The closet floor in the downstairs bathroom also needs to be completed.

We need to install some towel bars in the two bathrooms.

The biggest project that we have left to do should be out of the way by July 8th if all goes according to plan - fill those bagster bags with whatever crap we can find around here to throw away.

Other than that, as far as the outside goes, the steps to the back deck need to be repaired and the back deck power washed.

 

 

The kitchen is pretty well set. The cupboards are cleared out, and we will just need to do a good cleaning.

 

 

In the dining room, the sliding glass door needs to be stained.

 

The bedrooms are finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just need to install a closet guide in the upstairs bedroom closet.

The basement is cleared out – there are just a couple tables down there that I want to freshen up with a coat of paint.

That’s it – other than that, we just need to finish cleaning out and giving a good cleaning to the whole place before show time!

Another Hike in the Woods

When the warm weather started to return this past spring, Harry and I made a promise to ourselves that we were going to MAKE time for some relaxation this year during the spring and summer seasons. For the past few years, we have put those kinds of times on the back burner while we concentrated on the house. Every spring, my sister and I would say, we should do some hikes this year. And then, the summer months would come and go…and we would say, well, maybe next year. So this year, we got out our respective calendars and put some FUN on the calendar. This past Sunday was our second planned hike!

Here is the whole crew before the hike…my sister Denise, her kids Andrew, Matt, Hannah, Harry, my mom and stepdad, and my brother-in-law Mike.

 

The path was great, very wide and obviously well traveled. There was no chance of accidentally straying from the trail.

This trail has a very interesting feature in that when you are almost to the top, all of a sudden, around a bend, you come across the ruins of a hotel.

 

 

This was originally the Overlook Mountain House…

 

 

It has changed a lot since its early days…this is a picture I found online which was taken in 1907…

 

 

 

 

The other interesting part of Sunday’s hike is that I saw my first rattlesnake – not once, but twice!! Luckily from a safe distance.

The first one was curled up under a rock up on the summit.

 

You can see it curled up in the center and its head is over to the left.

 

 

We encountered the second rattler crossing the trail on our way down.

I could even hear the rattle.

 

 

And the view from the top was very nice. It would have been even nicer if we could have made it to the top of the fire tower, but neither Harry nor I like heights, so we only made it to the second level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was another great day!

Getting the Shed Down

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and the weather cooperated with the plan for the day – continuing the project to take the shed apart.

This is what it looked like in the morning.

 

Again, Harry did all of this while I was at work, so he took most of these pictures.

The siding came off harder from the roof; the sides were the easiest part.

 

 

It took Harry about three and a half hours to get the whole thing down. It was all in a pile by the time I got home from work.

 

 

It is all gone now, except for the foundation.

 

 

 

We just have a huge pile of debris to get rid of now.

 

 

 

 

You can see where the shed used to be in the background of this picture.

Our plan now is to see how much of this debris we can fit into two bagster bags. The website says that a lot can fit in one of these bags, but we think we may have to purchase a third. After reading the bag placement instructions, we will be putting the bags on our front lawn on the side. It may take us a couple days to fill the bags, so we are going to wait for the week after next when we will have three days to devote to the cleanup project. (We don’t want the large bags sitting on the grass any longer than they have to be.) Guess we’re not going to be playing on the 4th of July holiday. But that’s ok…we don’t have any time to waste – the countdown on my computer for the end of our “work on the house projects” time ticked down to 99 days today!!

First Day of Summer

We welcomed in the first day of summer with highs in the 90s as well as high humidity. The humidity is the worst part of the heat. I really hate it when everything sticks to me, and even taking a shower really doesn’t feel as refreshing. But it is nice to have sunshine, and the flowers in our front lawn are looking pretty nice, especially now that we are back to water them.

About a week ago, I took a picture of one of our last big projects – taking down the back shed.

Well, Harry started tackling that job yesterday. (I was at work, so that’s why there aren’t any people in these pictures.)

 

This shed has been pretty durable, because it has stood for the last few years even with only a plastic tarp for a roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were still a few odds and ends hanging around out there. All going straight to the garbage!

 

 

 

The first half of the shed is gone! Well, sorta, kinda gone…

 

 

 

 

Here it is!

 

 

All of these materials will be going soon, because we now know how we’re getting rid of all this stuff. My sister was reading an article and passed the info on to me about the bagster!

The bagster is basically a flexible dumpster. (www.thebagster.com)

It costs $29.95 for a bag, and then you open it up and fill it. According to the website, you can fit a lot of stuff inside one of these. Once you have it filled, you call and arrange for pickup and that’s all there is to it. It’s a lot less expensive than getting a dumpster. So we hope to get the remains of the shed and the last of the stuff out of the garage into these. We will start that this weekend, so I will be posting an update then.

Second Trip in the Books

Wow! Rally weekends sure go fast! Here we are back home in Castleton, NY and a day of work already over. It’s time to look back for a recap of our time away.

The rally was wonderful.

Every morning we had a continental breakfast, except for Saturday when it was replaced with a great cooked meal.

 

It was pretty laid back for the most part, which was really nice. We had a potluck meal on Friday night, where there was an abundance of yummy food choices – isn’t that always the way at potlucks?

Every night we gathered around a campfire, where there was a lot of laughing and conversation.

Friday evening, we had a really unique show when the chapter leaders and organizers of the rally became the entertainers!

Talk about a lot of laughs, it was such a fun evening. And we gathered a few additional members of the audience as kids biking around the campground discovered that there were clowns in the house! That was great, to watch the expressions on the faces of the youngsters as they enjoyed the tricks.

On Saturday, we once again headed into Lake George. We were all going on a cruise on the lake, but Harry and I headed in a little early, and found a nice restaurant on the lake where we enjoyed some lunch.

 

 

The views from the boat were beautiful. We had absolutely gorgeous weather for our trip, as we did for every day of the rally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The days of the rally went quickly, and too soon, it was time to leave and head back home. Both Harry and I were a bit apprehensive about getting the fiver back into our driveway. We had talked about it, and gotten some pointers from others, so we had a plan of action, and were hoping that it would go easier than the last time.

And it did!

I think this is the first time that we really felt like we had maneuvered the fiver into place, as opposed to it happening accidentally. With practice, we are improving.

So now it’s back to a few weeks of work! 32 days until our next trip.

Pre-Rally Thursday

I can’t believe how quickly this week has been going, and that it is Friday already!!

Our sites are almost full – there are only a couple more rigs to come in today.

 

We started out yesterday morning with a continental breakfast at the site next door to ours.

 

 

 

People were having a good time just hanging out and shooting the breeze.

 

 

After breakfast, we enjoyed a laidback day – took a couple walks, enjoyed the wonderful weather, and watched more rigs come in throughout the day.

 

Last evening, we headed out for a pre-rally dinner at The Docksider.

 

 

 

 

The view from our table was a lovely view of Glen Lake.

 

 

 

It was a great crowd and the restaurant put on a great spread. I think we all left stuffed!

 

 

 

And then of course, a circle around a campfire was a wonderful way to end the day.

 

 

 

Well, it’s time to start what looks to be another great day! Happy Friday everyone!

Ready for Rallying

We have had a great time so far here in Lake George, NY. We lucked out on Tuesday.

 

 

After watching the weather forecasts, we knew that we were in for a rainy afternoon and evening.

So I called the campground to see if we could come earlier than their stated check-in time. No problem! The rains arrived right on schedule, and we were all set up, cozy and dry.

 

We have a back-in site at this campground, and we have realized that we sure like pull-throughs! But we did it, and are all settled in.

Tuesday was a do-nothing kind of day. It started raining shortly after we arrived, and it poured all day. So we hung out, got on our computers (this campground has great wi-fi) and watched some dvr’d shows.

 

We packed a lot into yesterday. In the morning we headed into Lake George to what has become one of our favorite places around here – the Adirondack Winery. Let’s just say our wine supply has been fortified for a while.

 

Yesterday was also the first day that had a number of rally arrivals.

All afternoon, we enjoyed watching the rigs make their way in.

 

We helped with the rally prep – me stuffing bags and Harry outside with the base camp setup.

Oh, and I took pictures – of course!

 

 

We capped the day off with a visit from a friend who lives nearby. Nothing like bbq in a campground.

 

 

 

 

I think there are something like 14 more rigs coming in today, and the early arrival dinner is tonight. So lots more fun ahead!