Rock Star J

J worked like a rock star today and we actually have steps! Now we just need hand railings to go with those steps and we can call the building inspector and have the deck approved! The end is in sight, thank goodness!

Visitors!

We were excited to have Cass and Sarah Sobek in town this weekend...they're attending a wedding in Boston today, so we wandered around downtown yesterday to see the sights. We took them to our favorite bakery for their first cannolis (Homer Simpson would say "Mmmm... cannolis.")
Here are some photos:



















We'd love to have you all visit!

It just figures....

...that as soon as we started mixing the concrete for the pad at the bottom of the stairs, a thunderstorm started rolling in. We managed to get it all mixed and covered without disastrous results, but come on, when do the breaks start? Needless to say, we were drenched by the time this part of the project was done. We tried to etch our initials in the concrete after it set up a bit, but it's harder to do that than they make it look in the movies. Or maybe we just bought cheap concrete.

(Obviously you can't see the concrete under the tarp..you'll just have to believe us that it's there. This oh so lovely picture of me is the most recent shot of the deck WITH THE RAILINGS!!!) :)

A funny turn of events means we'll be heading back to New Hampshire tomorrow (different destination this time) to visit some of J's work colleagues at their place there. Maybe we should move there...they do have that cool "Live Free or Die" motto!

White Mountains

Here's a little more detail on our trip:
We drove up to Bretton Woods on Sunday afternoon and checked into the Bretton Arms Country Inn (part of the Mt. Washington Resort, but not in the big hotel). Here's a picture of the Mt. Washington Hotel from the main road:

Tiny, huh? Probably could have found a nicer setting, too, if they worked at it. :)

But seriously, it was built in 1902 and it was one of those grand, all-inclusive resorts where people used to "summer," back when people took the whole summer off. It was much cooler up there, so we understood why people flocked up there to escape the summer heat in Boston. We got a recommendation for dinner and had a nice meal outside on the deck at Rosa Flamingo's on Sunday night.

Monday we got up and had a disastrous meal before heading out on our hike. We hiked up Mt. Willard to overlook Crawford's Notch (see picture in the earlier post). Then we went to an overlook called Cathedral Ledge. After lunch we relaxed (J read a book and I knitted) on the AMAZING veranda that overlooks Mt. Washington. Here's a shot of the veranda:

And here's the view of Mt. Washington that you have from the veranda:

On Monday night we were going out for our fancy anniversary dinner and stopped for gas on the way there....and in true J and Kahla traveling fashion, tried to start the car only to find that my car battery had died and we needed a jump. Thankfully the restaurant was very understanding and had a table waiting for us 1 hour later (only 30 minutes before closing). The dinner was amazing--Rick's Cafe at the Grand Depot in Littleton--and more than made up for the bad battery incident. The car started just fine and we made it back to the hotel.

But of course on Tuesday when we went to start the car to leave, the battery was dead again. Thanks again, Mom, for the AAA membership! :) We made it home and my car is now the proud owner of a new battery.

Crawford's Notch

Thanks to some of you reading this, J and I spent two lovely nights in the White Mountains of New Hampshire celebrating our first anniversary. The trip was filled with a lot of highlights (hiking, beautiful mountains) and a few lowlights (dead car battery Monday night, dead car battery Tuesday morning), and we'll share more details later, but here's a nice shot to set the mood. :)

Deck Update

Thank goodness, it's almost over! The railing is up and now the only thing on our check list is the stairs...that's a multiple step process, but still, it's the last step in the long deck-building process.

The *#@%# Deck

Many of you know that we've been in the midst of replacing our deck (which the house inspector told us had been constructed without any regard to building code...they pounded the posts into the ground and crossed their fingers that the frost wouldn't shift it at all). Needless to say, it's been an adventure. Thankfully we've almost completed the project (the decking is on, but we still need stairs and a railing). Here's an amusing photo of J and me using the power auger to dig the holes for the concrete footings. Now, the building code dictates the holes must be 48 inches deep...but the auger only got us to 36 inches before hitting solid ground that it couldn't bore through. Thankfully J and I have muscles of steel (and a great shop vac from the Schillings!) that helped us dig all 5 holes to 48 inches deep.

We've never been so filthy in our lives...the water in the shower was brown from all the dirt. We also had to run our clothes through the wash twice!

I'll attach more photos of the progress later!