2010 Holidays

Our Holiday season began with a trip to New York City, Lee got tickets for a "Prarie Home Companion"

Jack and Anne joined us, we roamed through mid town, including Rockefeller Center and Times Square where the show was.
This year we decided to add some lights to the outside of the house for the Holidays. Its probably been a very long time since the house has been so carefully adorned.
A full moon rose behind the house for the solstice, which later that evening was fully eclipsed by the earth for the first time since 1638.
Folklure has it that a total lunar eclipse on Winter's Solstice invites visits from werewolves. Besides a howling coyote and some barking dogs, we witnessed no evidence of that.

Inside the Christmas tree, garland, cards and mistletoe are displayed to celebrate the 2010 Holiday season.

July 4th 2010

We are light years ahead of where we were this time last year. This year's Fourth of July weekend was HOT! HOT! HOT!

We put up a new flag pole where the old locust tree used to be. It still needs plantings and finishing touches, but its way too hot to worry about.

The heat was intolerable all weekend. Fortunatley, Lee got tickets to go ballooning so we got up early Sunday morning and boarded a hot air balloon.

At six o'clock in the morning, the air was cool and still as we floated over the Hudson River near Poughkeepsie, NY. This is looking Northwest at the Catskill Mountains.

South of us is The Mid Hudson Bridge with some of the other balloons taking off after us.

More Balloons followed. Weather conditions were perfect for a sunrise launch.

This one dipped into the river as we had done a few minutes earlier .

That evening we ended up at Jack and Anne's for a great barbeque by Jack complete with sparklers

Paul and Anne usually end up dancing regardless of the props or circumstance!

Mike came by after the fireworks with his girlfriend and her son, who was already wiped out.

The heat never relented over the three day weekend. Monday, Vinny came by and we spent all afternoon in the pool with him, taking breaks for lunch and cold drinks.

Not much home improvement this holiday, too hot to work, we played this year instead.

Time for Some Celebration

Winter brought with it some obstacles that slowed renovations on the house. Paul was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatment.
When Spring arrived, Karen flew in from Seattle to assist Lee with Paul's recovery.

Since Paul's 50th birthday fell at the end of March, Karen commandeered the kitchen and plans were made to have a small dinner party in celebration. Here she is with Lee... she's just one of the boys!

Guests included Karen's friend Terry, who came up from South Carolina seen here on the sofa just as Annie happens to have a starry idea coming from her head.
A party ot our house would not be complete without Jack and Annie, or the chance to see Jack pull a slice of pepperoni from his eye. He did this without the use of his cell phone, mind you.

Donald and Anthony came by as well. Donald made Chicken and Beef Stroganoff for the occassion. On top of the vegetarian lasagna that Karen made, there was something for everyone.
Rarely do they attend a party of any kind that Annie and Paul don't seize the opportunity to dance, and this birthday was no exception. The house is looking pretty good these days, but we still have plans to get outside this spring to make it even better.

Thanksgiving

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We finally had the house ready to fit the cousins from Seattle. Maryellen and Mel's brood stayed with us, including Will and Elise's boyfriend, Brian.
The family gathered for our long awaited reunion. Lisa and Rob showed up with Tommy and Trevor, Walter and Kindle arrived with Jeffrey.

Our newly finished kitchen was filled with an abundance of food and family. Preparations for the Thanksgiving feast were in full swing.
Paul covered kitchen duty preparing a host of appetizers before dinner.

Maryellen made sweet potato casserole and Mel made Banana Foster for dessert. There was no shortage of food for this hungry crowd. Everyone pitched in something and the meal was delicious.

Paul made the turkey that Rob later carved and the family devoured. Here is a picture of two turkey butts, both proud and golden. Twenty one pounds of bird meant there were plenty of leftovers.

Leave it to Lisa to bring some wimsicle fun to the party. She brought fun gifts for the younger cousins, here are AJ and Brian comparing their loot.

The dazzling Elise shows off her stunning Holiday ensemble with her new beau, Brian. Brian fit right in with the family and he was a welcome addition to the party.

Before the day was over we were required to pose in front of the house for family photos. Here is one that includes the entire group after dinner.

Pictured in order are (top) Pitoune, Lee, Lisa, Paul, Kindle, Will, Maryellen and Elise. (bottom) Rob, Tommy, Walt, Mel, Jeffrey, AJ, Brian and Trevor. Click on the picture for a clear view.

Friends and Some Finishing Touches

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The back yard exploded with color in October. The clear skies and crisp air provided perfect conditions for working on the house and having friends to visit. There is still so much to do before the holidays and winter so the nice weather is a welcome repreive.
Vinnie K returned and brought Sue Schlagger with him. They came with pumpkins and a huge chrysanthemum for the house. We were painting the living room that day and took a break to bring Sue on her first tour of the property and through the house.
It turns out that Sue does not live far from us as the crow flies, but the roads to get back to her house in Fishkill do not follow a direct route. Still, its nice to know she is not too far away and we hope that visits become more frequent.
After we painted the living room we moved back into the kitchen, which still needed some attention. We inserted the recessed light fixtures and installed the hanging light over the island and added some of the final trim.
We decided on a creamy yellow to brighten things up and trimmed the kitchen with white molding and a couple of decorative shelves to display some of the stuff we still had packed in moving boxes.

The living room is still not finished, however its comfortable and clean. We had the chimneys cleaned and still need to install the wood burning stove. With lots of family expected over the Thanksgiving Holidays, we would like to have that done in time.
We ran into some trouble with the water before a long awaited dinner party with Jack and Annie and Jack's folks, Jan and Kate. Jack ended up helping us in the pouring rain on Saturday to fix our well problem so that Paul could prepare the feast for Sunday's party.
Sunday was a beautiful fall day. Paul prepared Yankee bean soup, stuffed mushrooms, crab cakes, hot artichoke dip, baked ham with potatoes and cheese covered vegetables. None of the food is photographed but still at least worth mentioning.
It was great having Jan and Kate back to the house for our Pre-Holiday party. The last time they visited was at the beginning of June, we had not even begun to rip out the old kitchen. A lot of work has been completed since then, the house is barely recognizable.
Annie brought dessert, two flavors of Haagen Daz (we discussed that the name means absolutely nothing) and a chocolate cake disguised as strawberry shortcake. We sat around the table laughing for hours sometimes at the expense of those wearing flamboyant jewelry!

What good is a party without someone dancing around with a lampshade on their head. Jan did not let us down. We actually gave him a fan with a light fixture that he mistook for apparel. Unfortunately, the shade did not survive, but never fear, Lee has another one tucked away for them.

Little Things Mean a Lot

Big deal.. running water. But this is particularly exciting because it is coming from the refrigerator and it was filtered and cold. Along with water we have a choice of ice, cubes or crushed. This is light years from what we had in May and there is more to this than meets the eye.

Our old water tank was a dinosaur. It was big and it leaked air making the pressure terrible. The tank was full of rust and silt that got stirred up every time we re-charged the pressure. We were going through water way too many water filters and the aerators on the faucets kept clogging up.

We replaced the tank with a smaller tank with an adjustable bladder and installed a new house filter. To increase the pressure in the house we also installed 30-50lb pressure control that is a bit higher than most, though from the stock in Home Depot is growing in popularity. Every little bit helps the plumbing in this house.

Now the water heater, furnace, water tank and filters are all new in the basement. What we didn't know was that the pump and drainage would soon cause us problems. The plumbing in this house was worse than we thought. Eventually it will all be new.

We added finishing touches to the bathroom. In all the construction we lost the connectors for the ceiling light fixture temporarily but happily found them and finished the job.

We painted the bathroom "cottage white" even though it looks more like a pale yellow. In this picture it looks off white. We were actually able to go shopping someplace other than Home Depot to pick up some towels and new artwork. We placed some long forgotten knic knacs on a shelf we made from an unused portion of back splash from the sink and we were finished with the bathroom.

Parties are getting more common in the house now that it has become livable. Originally we had asked Shima and Eileen to visit and check out the place. Shima was feeling a little overwhelmed with things and needed a break.

Since Donald and Anthony had never seen it either, we thought we would make it a "gay ol' time" and asked them to come along too. Once everyone arrived, (Shima fashionably late of course) we were confident that we had the perfect combination of people.

When we realized that Jack's birthday was the same day as the party, we had to throw in a celebration for him too. Annie and Jack have missed few events at the new house and like family, they get along great with all our friends.

Its becoming apparent that this house is party friendly and we love entertaining our friends together. Once again, Paul did his bit in the kitchen, serving up all kinds of appetizers and two kinds of shish kabob on the grill.

Lee made sure everyone was comfortable and enjoying themselves.

We certainly had the right combination of loved ones for this event and everyone brought desserts, not to mention birthday cake for Jack.

We ended up eating and laughing well into the night. Our "money pit" is turning out to be worth the investments.