Via a tweet from a friend, I came across this NYTimes article. I'm intrigued. Somewhere on page 5, I started thinking that maybe it is because of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, LinkedIn, blogs, etc, that I am becoming lazy. Lazy about keeping up relationships of those who are not in my immediate geographic circle. I follow the goings-on in the lives of many friends and family via these social networking sites. However, it has been a very long time since I've "reached out and touched someone." There are emails nearing a month old to which I have yet to respond. And a call from my BFF in NY went unreturned. I feel awful, like a bad person. I have the myriad of excuses (see earlier posts about home and baby) and I haven't said anything about the crescendoing chaos at the office. But really, I'm so intently focused for the 9 hours a day in the office, that getting on the computer at night is not high on my list. It's decompression time.
So, friends, it's not that I don't love you, want to see you, or talk with you, I'm just overstimulated and shutting down. But if you want to follow me on Twitter or connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, please do! And I'll be sure to respond to your messages as soon as I can.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
And so it begins...
September 2 is a big day. Construction officially began this morning. Our back patio is being dismantled as I type. This means part of our deck is being removed. The dogs will have to go the long way around the house to get to the backyard now.
I took some "before" pictures this morning. Eric is taking the "during" and "after" pics now. Stay tuned!
Oh, we found a place to stay when the construction enters the existing structure. We'll be wintering in Newburyport. We found a little beach house with three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and steps from the beach. The beach in New England during the winter isn't fantastic, but we have the house for the spring and fall as well, which are BEE-U-TEE-FULL. The commute to work will be, um, hellish, but it's only 6 mos. You can do anything for 6 months, right?
I took some "before" pictures this morning. Eric is taking the "during" and "after" pics now. Stay tuned!
Oh, we found a place to stay when the construction enters the existing structure. We'll be wintering in Newburyport. We found a little beach house with three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and steps from the beach. The beach in New England during the winter isn't fantastic, but we have the house for the spring and fall as well, which are BEE-U-TEE-FULL. The commute to work will be, um, hellish, but it's only 6 mos. You can do anything for 6 months, right?
Friday, August 22, 2008
Our "old" blog
Last year, Eric and I took a 12-day cruise through the Mediterranean, visiting Turkey, Egypt, and Greece. We blogged the entire trip at http://www.azureindigo.com. We continued to blog over the next 10 months about various life events and life mundaneness.
Sometime in July that blog went down. We have been unsuccessful in getting it back online to its complete state. For a while, you'd get a white page if you went to that URL. Now, you can see the text of the blog posts, but none of the pictures. The pictures were the best part, especially those from the cruise.
Over the next few weeks, I'll copy those posts and the pictures to this blog. I'll be backdating to September 2007. It will be nice to have everything in one place again.
Sometime in July that blog went down. We have been unsuccessful in getting it back online to its complete state. For a while, you'd get a white page if you went to that URL. Now, you can see the text of the blog posts, but none of the pictures. The pictures were the best part, especially those from the cruise.
Over the next few weeks, I'll copy those posts and the pictures to this blog. I'll be backdating to September 2007. It will be nice to have everything in one place again.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Housing Accommodations Needed
Last week, our house renovation took a little turn. Every room will be touched in a major way, particularly the rooms on the second floor. The roof and second floor ceiling will be removed so that new support beams and posts can be added. This means we cannot stay in the house for the duration renovation as we were hoping.
Before we make any decisions one way or another about continuing the project, we are being good doobies and investigating all options. That leads to this email... I am hoping that one of you might know of housing accommodations for Sept 15 through Feb 1 (give or take, we're mostly flexible.) The dogs will be coming with us; the place must be large dog friendly. (Indigo is 65lbs, if that helps.) We are looking for recommendations for apartment/condo rentals or sublets, house-sitting options, and/or campers/travel trailers (w/ bed and kitchen facilities, please.) The camper would be stored on our property for the winter. We would use the bathroom facilities in our house. Apartments, condos, and houses should be north of Boston for an easier commute to work. (Eric's family leaves on the South Shore, but the commute to Cambridge would be horrendous.)
Many of you will say "oh, you can stay with us" but really, you don't want two dogs, a stressed home renovator, and a very pregnant lady in your space for more than a few days. We don't want to bounce from place to place on a weekly basis. I thank you for the offer, but we are looking for longer term accommodations.
Any thoughts, ideas, etc are welcomed!
Before we make any decisions one way or another about continuing the project, we are being good doobies and investigating all options. That leads to this email... I am hoping that one of you might know of housing accommodations for Sept 15 through Feb 1 (give or take, we're mostly flexible.) The dogs will be coming with us; the place must be large dog friendly. (Indigo is 65lbs, if that helps.) We are looking for recommendations for apartment/condo rentals or sublets, house-sitting options, and/or campers/travel trailers (w/ bed and kitchen facilities, please.) The camper would be stored on our property for the winter. We would use the bathroom facilities in our house. Apartments, condos, and houses should be north of Boston for an easier commute to work. (Eric's family leaves on the South Shore, but the commute to Cambridge would be horrendous.)
Many of you will say "oh, you can stay with us" but really, you don't want two dogs, a stressed home renovator, and a very pregnant lady in your space for more than a few days. We don't want to bounce from place to place on a weekly basis. I thank you for the offer, but we are looking for longer term accommodations.
Any thoughts, ideas, etc are welcomed!
Monday, August 18, 2008
And we're back
We got back from vacation on Saturday night. Suffice it to say, this was not the vacation I imagined. We spent most of the time thinking about the house situation (where to live, how to get more money, how to reduce scope, defining the electrical plan, etc.) Also, it rained every day.
We did manage to get a few hours of swimming in between Wednesday and Saturday. The dogs LOVED being in the water and playing with the neighbor kids. Azure swam to the island and back following a tossed a tennis ball 10 feet forward at a time. My first-cousin-once-removed (also known as "my cousin's son") also swam back from the island, but without the ball incentive. There are some great pictures (to come) of Brenden (cousin), Riley, and Madison (neighbors) jumping off the dock and swimming with the dogs.
On Wednesday, we went to see (hear) Maroon 5, Counting Crows, and Sara Bareilles at Bethel Woods. My cousin, her boyfriend, my friend, and her fiance joined us. Sara and Maroon 5 were great; Counting Crows... not so much. We left during the 5th song, but it was already 10:30 and we had gotten there at 4:30. We weren't the only ones who left early. It was a steady stream of people, then cars, back out to the highway.
On the way home, we stopped to visit with family in Connecticut. We went to a country fair (where it rained) and ate ourselves silly, then watched our nephews on the rides and play the carnival games. I also witnessed my first tractor pull. It's as exciting as you imagine. It was cool to watch them pop some wheelies.
And now it's back to work. I'm in the final two weeks of a year plus long project. Add this to the stress of the house and it will be a great end to the summer.
We did manage to get a few hours of swimming in between Wednesday and Saturday. The dogs LOVED being in the water and playing with the neighbor kids. Azure swam to the island and back following a tossed a tennis ball 10 feet forward at a time. My first-cousin-once-removed (also known as "my cousin's son") also swam back from the island, but without the ball incentive. There are some great pictures (to come) of Brenden (cousin), Riley, and Madison (neighbors) jumping off the dock and swimming with the dogs.
On Wednesday, we went to see (hear) Maroon 5, Counting Crows, and Sara Bareilles at Bethel Woods. My cousin, her boyfriend, my friend, and her fiance joined us. Sara and Maroon 5 were great; Counting Crows... not so much. We left during the 5th song, but it was already 10:30 and we had gotten there at 4:30. We weren't the only ones who left early. It was a steady stream of people, then cars, back out to the highway.
On the way home, we stopped to visit with family in Connecticut. We went to a country fair (where it rained) and ate ourselves silly, then watched our nephews on the rides and play the carnival games. I also witnessed my first tractor pull. It's as exciting as you imagine. It was cool to watch them pop some wheelies.
And now it's back to work. I'm in the final two weeks of a year plus long project. Add this to the stress of the house and it will be a great end to the summer.
Monday, August 11, 2008
FUDGE (*&%$#@*)
We just met with the general contractor for the house renovation. The project will take about 4 months of his time (give or take and weather permitting) then about a month or more of our time to do all the finish work. If you look at a calendar, that's puts us smack in the holidays and we'll likely be working straight through Baby's arrival. Yippee! I was able to take this all in stride since it was anticipated.
Here's the kicker. We looked at the structural plans again and how they impact our living space. It is now official. Every room in the house will be touched. On top of that, our bedroom will largely suffer. There is a new beam that needs to go in to support the new roofline. It goes right over the bed. Oh, and let's not forget the posts that need to support that new beam. And new headers for the windows. It's starting to look like we won't be able to stay here while the construction is happening. I don't know yet what we're going to do. 2-3 months is too long to impose upon friends. And family lives to far away. One option is to put the bed on the three season porch (with new curtains and a space heater.) Another option is to find an apartment with a short term lease.
Oh, I almost forgot the budget issues! How could I? The GC came in with a budget that is the same, if not more, than our total financing package. And this only covers the contractors' time! We are purchasing 85% of the materials. Combined, these two costs puts the project budget WAY over. We have some creative thinking to do about reducing scope and telling the GC that he needs to cut his costs.
This is how to make a pregnant lady very unhappy.
Here's the kicker. We looked at the structural plans again and how they impact our living space. It is now official. Every room in the house will be touched. On top of that, our bedroom will largely suffer. There is a new beam that needs to go in to support the new roofline. It goes right over the bed. Oh, and let's not forget the posts that need to support that new beam. And new headers for the windows. It's starting to look like we won't be able to stay here while the construction is happening. I don't know yet what we're going to do. 2-3 months is too long to impose upon friends. And family lives to far away. One option is to put the bed on the three season porch (with new curtains and a space heater.) Another option is to find an apartment with a short term lease.
Oh, I almost forgot the budget issues! How could I? The GC came in with a budget that is the same, if not more, than our total financing package. And this only covers the contractors' time! We are purchasing 85% of the materials. Combined, these two costs puts the project budget WAY over. We have some creative thinking to do about reducing scope and telling the GC that he needs to cut his costs.
This is how to make a pregnant lady very unhappy.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
What's Your Design Style?
With the house renovation soon to be underway, I've been thinking about how I'd like to set up the final space. What's our "style"? Is it modern, classic, urban, minimalist? I like to think that I am a traditionalist, but with flair. Unfortunately, my design skills have fallen by the wayside since living with hubby. He fancies himself a designer of sorts and tends to push for what he likes. He does have good taste and for the most part, I like what he chooses. (Don't get me started on the papyrus he brought back from Egypt and now wants to hang in the master suite.) I must say that our dining room with the orange wall and curtains (made from fabric hubby seleced) is my favorite room.
I came across a little test to help determine one's style. You select from a sampling of images for each question and there are about 12 questions. My style was "classic country" where inspiration is taking from the surrounding countryside. It is "the epitome of what a family home should stand for: warm, welcoming, cosy and comfortable. There's nothing at all pretentious about this style, just a love of the good, simple pleasures in life." I can't really argue with that.
I came across a little test to help determine one's style. You select from a sampling of images for each question and there are about 12 questions. My style was "classic country" where inspiration is taking from the surrounding countryside. It is "the epitome of what a family home should stand for: warm, welcoming, cosy and comfortable. There's nothing at all pretentious about this style, just a love of the good, simple pleasures in life." I can't really argue with that.
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