The New Home

It has been a while, and for those of you who have not been in contact with me some other way, you have probably been wondering about our new house and all of that. Well, we closed on May 16th! It is a great house in a small subdivision that will only have 8 houses plus the original property owner’s house. He still owns 55 acres of playground type land next to the subdivision which all homeowners in the subdivision have access to. This “playground land” turned out to be a big deal because there is an old stone quarry on the property that is long abandoned and full of spring fed water. It’s nearly crystal clear and in spots 60ft deep with 60 foot cliffs. The owner, we call him Grandpa Bud (picture Ernest Hemmingway), stocked it with fish, put down some sand for some beach, put in a dock, built a small cabin and covered picnic area, and has a four person paddle boat that we all can utilize. It’s crazy! Crazy I tell you! I’ll attach some pic’s of both the house and the quarry. We are still a bit overwhelmed by the work ahead of us and are very grateful for my parents coming out and helping paint, unpack, etc. It was a lot of work and we are probably only half done. This is a whole lot more house than we are used to and it will take a while before we get settled. One other item that comes with the house is an acre of mowing! We had to get a lawn tractor (which of course I was not sad about…..at all!) and it still took 1.5hrs to mow. The lawn is in rough shape but we’ll go after it aggressively and get it looking better shortly. I also got several attachments because with a lawn that size you need them, so I got a tow behind spreader, plug aerator, dethatcher, and dump cart. The latter having already seen use hauling lawn waste debris and children around the yard. We also use the tractor to takes rides down the street to the mailbox and get the mail. The guys love to sit on my lap and steer. Zack even got to solo drive as I walked next to him. He was pretty geeked! I’ll do some interior pictures, before/after type shots once we are done painting and adding a bit o’ trim. It’s funny now that we own a home again how much time and money we spend at Lowe’s/Home Depot. I’m guessing their stocks plummeted while we were home ownerless and therefore not spending wheelbarrows full of cash there. Well, fear not good citizens, we are back and hemorrhaging money there once again. Your stock portfolios should be looking up soon! Lets see what else do I have to say today……hmmmmmm……..oh, the job fronts are looking good still with Jo having signed a multi-year deal with the school and GD still doing well. There are a few opportunities brewing at GD and one at another place for me. We’ll see what fits best, but all roads are solid and I don’t think a wrong decision can be made. We’ll see. Also, as I have passed another year on this planet recently, my drivers license in Mich has expired and I need to obtain one from Vermont. I’m kinda geeked about that. It’s just one more sign or step in putting down roots here. So that’s cool. We also joined the Champlain Country Club a few weeks ago but have yet to play there with all this stuff going on. Don’t be too impressed. Facility wise it’s comparable to Terra Verde but terrain wise it’s more like a cross between Spring Lake and Fruitport with hills added. If you’ve played at Muskegon Country Club it is similar to there in physical features. We should have a bit more time once we fully move out of the lake house on the islands this weekend. Jo has been slowly hauling stuff from there every night on the way home. We need to be out this weekend though. My conversion van, which has sat motionless since November, is still there complete with dead battery. Hopefully we can get it jumped tomorrow and avoid having it towed.

Overall things are looking up and we are hoping to keep it that way. I hope all is well with all of you and please feel free to keep in touch. Now that we have high speed instead of dialup it doesn’t take a half hour to answer an email!

L8tr,
JimB