The Return of Old Man Winter

Just when the sunny skies and warm weather made us think spring was in the air Old Man Winter dumped five inches of wet heavy snow on us overnight!! It makes us want to go camping in search of warm weather even more! We're hoping to get out of here by the weekend or early next week.

News from Wheeler Road

We got a little more done today. I built shelves in the pantry for Nancy and she was unpacking clothes and hanging them in our closets. I also got some more wood split and stacked to ward off the winter chill. Later we went for a long walk and took some pictures of the sunshine in the woods. It was only about thirty degrees today but the sunshine was beautiful!

Keeping the winter fire crackling.

Our walk on Wheeler Road. The sun was shining bright.

The hills to the west.

Leelanau Conservancy property about a mile north of us.

The sun getting low over the hills.

Walking home.

Peace and love to all!

February 27th already!

We had a nice weekend and had dinner with Goodfallows yesterday. All is well with everyone here.
Nancy and I continue to decorate and unpack this week and later will start packing the camper to go on a four week excursion in search of warm weather and sunshine.
The house is really starting to come together!!

Saturday

Nothing new to report, sir! We got a couple of more inches of snow overnight, enough to mess up my snowblowing!!
We talked to Mike and David today and all is well with them. Nancy and I went into Traverse for some shopping and then did a bit more unpacking when we got back.
Happy Saturday to all!

Turkey Day!!

We had visitors today. About a dozen turkeys were out back this afternoon. I got a picture but they are kind of hard to see. We also got about five inches of new snow. As I was snow blowing just before dark I saw that the turkeys were all over the front yard too. There were tracks all over in the new fallen snow.

We were busy all day again unpacking boxes and bins and I was shuffling stuff around in the basement again. I am on the last quarter of the basement and have everything organized and sorted. I have been cleaning the floor as I go and setting up a family room area. I will start re-assembling the pool table next.

Doing the turkey trot!

Look close and you will see about five stragglers.

Three days in row!! Wow I'm back at it!

The carpet installers finished up today and everything looks great!! What a difference carpeting makes!  We were unpacking decorations and pictures and straightening and organizing the basement. Little by little this place is starting to look like home. It is really turning out better than expected.
We hope everyone can come and see us soon.
As the winter winds down we are seriously looking at leaving for Florida for a month of camping. Just a few things to take care of here and then we are rolling.

Peace in the valley!!

Carpet is done, The stairway turned out great!

A New Day!!

We are finally getting our carpet installed!! This is the last major project to finishing this house. So far it is coming out great. We've noticed a huge noise reduction in the upstairs of the house and added warmth in our master bedroom over the garage.

The upstairs hallway has new carpeting!!!

The south end of the upstairs is finished. Only two bedrooms and the stairways are left.

The hallway out of the master bedroom. New Carpet!! Oh Boy!!

Hope everyone is well!

A Great Weekend with the Kids

We had a great long weekend with the kids, and it seemed everyone enjoyed their stay. Mike and the girls and Becky and Ben, Kate,and Trevor left this afternoon. It was so good to see all of the kids and the cousins together just like old times. We hope we can start a new chapter and make lots of memories at Grandma and Grandpa's house up north!

Now we are getting ready for the carpet installers who are finally going to do their thing on Wednesday and Thursday after the installation has been delayed for the past two weeks.

We hope everyone is well!!

Movie time on Sunday night.

 Everyone enjoying the show.

Sean with his electronic book.

After they all left this afternoon an eerie quiet fell over the place! ...(until next time!!)

FInally in and had the family up!!

We had our first family get-together on Wheeler Road and it felt like a success!! Families with children had their own bedrooms with bathrooms and the singles had room to flop. We were so happy to have Jenny and Kyle here for the first time since the inside was closed in. We were especially glad that Amy took the time off from her busy tax season and made it for the weekend. She has let Mike come up to help us so many times and finally she was able to come up with Mike and the girls and see what he has been up to. I hope you enjoyed your visit!! Tom and Evey were here and Laura and Sean with the kids and the Locke family. We had over night visitors with Jeremy Olsen and his fiance Laura, and Grandma and Grandpa Goodfallow and Doug were here Saturday evening to join us for dinner. On Sunday we had a visit from Stan and Cindy and Jacob. What a great time, and I hope the first of many fun get-togethers here on Wheeler Road.
Here are a few pictures to update everyone.

The family room after Bev and Gary came to help us with moving furniture in last weekend.

The first floor bedroom with a visitor.

Mike and Amy at the over look on Alligator Hill.

The Lake Michigan shore line heading north out of Glen Arbor and past the Homestead resort.

A beautiful day to hike the Alligator Hill trail.

The sky was clear and bright and sunny.

The house and barn at D.H. Day farm. One of my favorite views near Glen Haven.

Kate, the ballerina, Locke.

Mike after a hard day of hiking.

The kids spent hours and houirs sledding behind the house!

Whoops, Almost Forgot!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday dear Thomas,

Happy birthday to you!!!

Hope you had a great day and can't wait to see you and Evey next weekend!!!!

Official Residents of Wheeler Road!!!

We were approved for occupancy today and so we start our new lives in the new house! We have a lot of furniture to set up and decorating to do, but now the rush is over. We hope that we get lots of visits from friends and family to help us make use of this spacious new home of ours.

Thanks to everyone who helped us with the moves and with construction. Also thanks to the Goodfallows for letting us stay with them while we worked on the house. We couldn't have done it without every one's help!!

Home, sweet home, with a fire in the fireplace!!

Final Inspection on Wednesday!!!!

Well we are at the end of the road. Running out of things to do!! Our final inspection is tomorrow and we hope to be moving in to the house finally!!

We hung stair railings and tiled the kitchen backsplash. We hope we got all the loose ends tied up and the inspector will be happy!

After this it will be decorating and doing projects to put finishing touches in place. Hope everyone can come up and visit soon!!

Nancy's Birthday Today!!

Today the groundhog came out of his den to wish Nancy a  happy birthday!!
We went to Funistrada Trattoria on Glen Lake for dinner. Excellent Italian food and a Thursday special with a bottle of wine with dinner. Great food and service.
We were installing the towel bars and TP holders in the bathrooms today. We are staining the handrails for the stairs and we are running out of things to do!! We are really close to being done with this project!!! Ttomorrow we are scheduled for a "blow door" test where they check the air pressure in the house to detect air leakage and such (another part of the 2010 energy code). This is one last requirement for the final inspection.
Here is the Island that Mike built for our new kitchen..

Happy Birthday, Brad

Today is Brad's birthday and a good day to remember how lucky we are to have had him for twenty five years. It's also a good day to remember all those who have passed this year and send up a prayer to them.

Brad was to be a big part of our construction project here on Wheeler Road but it was just not to be. I hope he is looking down on all we have done with approval and a smile. Here's to you my baby boy with all the love I have for you.

Elizabeth sent a note with her wishes to her brother. It's so wonderful I want to share it with everyone reading this blog (Liz, I hope you don't mind)...

"I would've gotten brad a new hat this year.
something from this rad little skate shop
here in the city called mission skateboards.
or maybe i would've gotten him the new
fleet foxes album.
but since i can't give him either of those,
I'm going to give him more space in my day
than he's had recently.
(don't get me wrong, he's a part of my everyday)
but on his birthday, it's entirely his day.
is that a gift for him or me?
i think both
I'll ride alongside him on my bike,
I'll work side by side with him in the office,
we'll go out to lunch- maybe burritos,
when I'm playing soccer, I'll pass to him,
and after soccer, we'll grab a birthday drink.
to 27, my little brother-
may your party wherever you are
be everything you want.
thanks for the invite".

God bless you all!