Wednesday in Destin

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Eric

On Wednesday we finally got out of the condo.  Even though the condominium was on the water there wasn’t an accessible beach.  If we wanted to walk on the beach we’d have to get on a little boat that would take us across the bay.  That wasn’t for us and we wanted to explore so the four of us piled back in the car and headed out.

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Footprints in the sand
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Don't get wet!

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Ripples
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We ended up at a public beach a few miles down the road.  We didn’t get to go swimming, but we had a nice walk and got to see the beautiful ocean.  It’s so much fun to watch the kids.  You can tell that they love the ocean.  Heck, it’s fun to watch Allie.  Her whole body relaxes as soon as she catches a sight of the ocean.

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Noah feeding a seagull
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Our Destin condominium

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Dolphins up close
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After the beach we headed back to the condo.  There’s a harbor with a boardwalk there so we walked around a bit.  There were a bunch of shops and restaurants that we explored.  They also offered dolphin cruises.  We’ve seen dolphins from the shore pretty much every time we’ve gone to the beach, but we thought this might be a way to get an up close look at them.  We headed out towards the open water but were told that we wouldn’t be going all the way out because it was pretty rough.  We didn’t see anything at the mouth of the harbor so the captain took us back into the bay.  I thought that we might be out of luck, but I guess the guy knew what he was doing.  We saw a group of about ten in the distance and a group of three came very close to the boat.

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While we were at the beach we saw a restaurant that we thought we’d like to try called The Crab Trap. The food was pretty darned good and the view from the table couldn’t be beat.  It was pretty amazing.

Wednesday was a very full day.  It’s good to be at the beach.

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Off to the Beach

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Eric

When I started working from home Allison and I started trying to decide where we might want to live.  By the way, when you can live anywhere you want finding a place to live is a very daunting task.  Anyway, one of the things that we decided was that we’d travel to places with Mom and Dad that we might want to live and use the timeshare.  So, about a year ago we made plans to visit Destin in the Florida pan handle for Thanksgiving this year.  It turns out that we decided on Lake Wylie beforehand as the place to live, but we still had the trip planned.

We were kind of distracted leading up to the trip with Allison’s kidney stone so we didn’t really get the chance to clean the place and pack carefully like we usually do.  It turned out that we didn’t really need much time though.  We went from waking up Saturday not ready at all to packed and heading out by around lunch time.  It would have been quicker, but Allie was pretty wiped out from her surgery.

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Atlanta traffic – almost halfway there

The drive was long but uneventful.  We were going to be staying at the Emerald Grande.  We thought that we may stop for the night along the way, but we powered through.  Allison was a real trouper.  I know she was uncomfortable, but she mostly stayed awake and helped keep me alert for the whole drive.

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Room service saves the day

Allison was still pretty weak on Sunday, but we still managed to have a little celebration for Mom’s birthday.  It’s a good thing that the resort had room service because we’d totally forgotten about it until we woke up that morning.  The cake was very yummy.

We had to work on Monday, but Tuesday we were able to get back to our vacation.  We like to make sure that we have time to have some leftovers so we cooked our big meal on Tuesday.  Allie and I also went to the spa for a massage.  We got the hot rock treatment.  Neither of us had ever done that before, and it was wonderful.  I’d highly recommend it if you have the opportunity.

The first part of our Thanksgiving vacation turned out to be about letting Allie recover, relaxing and enjoying the place.  We didn’t get out of the condo, but it was still a good beginning to the vacation.

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Kidney Stone

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Eric

We had a great time seeing Gibby, but the evening of Sunday Allison started feeling some pain in her back.  I’m pretty sure that she knew what was coming since she’d felt it before, but she was in denial.  She was in such pain all night that she couldn’t sleep.  She was hurting so badly that around 6:30 Monday morning she threw up.

After we got the boys to school we headed off to the Urgent Care about 10 minutes down the road.  We walked in and told them the issue and they said it would be about an hour.  An hour?  That doesn’t sound like very urgent care to me.  We decided that the emergency room across the street was probably a better bet.

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We filled out a couple of forms and headed right to the back. Allie got some morphine which got rid of the pain, but made her feel weird, which she didn’t like at all. Then they sent her off for a CT scan. Sure enough she had a kidney stone. The doctor made us an appointment for the next day with a urologist, gave us some prescriptions and got us on our way. I’d recommend that place to anyone. The care was great and the visit was quick and efficient.

The next day we went to the urologist where Allie got an x-ray that confirmed that she had a big one … 8mm x 11mm.  We got an appointment for a lipotripsy for Friday.  Yes, Friday.  Allie would have to live on pain killers and anti-nausea pills for three days until the procedure could be done.  They actually wanted us to wait until the following Monday since that’s when this urologist would be available, but we were supposed to be headed out of town, so some calls were made and we were able to get Friday.  Apparently a kidney stone isn’t an emergency type situation.

Gibby came down Thursday night to watch the kids.  We got to the hospital Friday afternoon expecting that we’d get the stone blasted and then we’d be able to hit the road and get halfway to Florida that evening.  Once again, the staff and the care were out of this world.  We were even ahead of schedule.  They got Allie’s IV in and carted her off to the machine.

About twenty minutes later the doctor comes to see me … the doctor that’s supposed to be doing the procedure.  This can’t be good.  After reassuring me repeatedly that Allison was ok he informed me that the machine had broken.  The machine … was … broken.  He said we had several options at this point and said that Allison and I should talk it out and decide what to do.  It didn’t take long for us to decide that the best option would be to get it out as soon as possible … which meant that evening.

So, we talked to the doctor.  We talked to the nurse.  We talked to the anesthesiologist, and they carted Allie off to the operating room while I headed to the waiting room.  At that point it was all routine.  They used a little camera and a little laser to break the thing up and pull it out.  Allie came out of the anesthetic very sleepy and very confused, but feeling much better.  We picked up new drugs, headed home, let everyone know she was ok, and headed off to bed.

We ended up leaving the house about 1:30pm expecting to get home around dinner time.  We ended up getting back about 9:30pm.  Things didn’t go as expected but went well regardless.  Allison is now kidney stone free.

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Pre-Thanksgiving

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Eric

We went to Gibby’s house in Wadesboro the weekend before we were supposed to leave to meet Nana and Peepop in Florida for Thanksgiving week.  We got to meet some of her friends … who are a real hoot.

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The table was lovely. She made way too much food. Everyone who was there probably could have eaten four more meals before we came close to finishing it off.  I wonder if there will be as much food next time we go?

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Framing Starts

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Eric

The weather is really drawing things out.  When we moved here, and while we were waiting for permits the area was in the middle of a mini-drought.  The lake was getting pretty low … so low that they had to close a bunch of the boat launches.  We even saw some boats that were at docks and sitting on the dry bottom.

Since we’ve started building the house though it seems as though the precipitation is trying to make up for lost time.  If the weather had been cooperative we’d probably be almost twice as far along as we are.  Here are some photos of the framing process.

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Back of the house
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Back of the house again
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Joists above living room
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Stairs will be here

Click on an image to view a larger version.

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The Decking

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Eric

After the foundation was complete the decking and subfloor went in.  The footprint looks kind of small.  I know that sound ridiculous considering the picture of Noah taken from one corner of the house to the other, but considering everything that needs to go in there it looks small.  We’ve been assured that will change when walls start going up.

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Noah waaaaay over there
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Click on images to see a larger version.

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A Day At The Fair

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Eric

We like to try to get out of the apartment whenever possible.  We’ve always loved fairs, so we thought we’d check out the South Carolina State Fair in Columbia.  Allison’s mom came for a visit so we all jumped in the car and drove down there.  It took a little over an hour and turned out to be worth the trip.

When we first got there we thought that it was going to be a bust, but Allie found a map and we discovered all of the things we were missing.  Benjamin loved watching the livestock shows and both boys had a blast in the area that showed all of the old west stuff.  We thought it was a bust but we ended up staying until 9pm.

You can click on these pictures to see them full size.

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Here are a couple of videos of some of the fun.  Don’t click on these unless you have a relatively fast connection.

 

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The Foundation

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Eric

Mid-way through September they finally got started on the foundation.  We’re going to have a crawl space so they build the brick and block up directly from the footers.  One of the final steps in the construction process will be to do a final level of the ground beneath the house and the installation of a vapor barrier.

I’ve never lived in a home with a crawl space before.  I’ve always had either a basement or had a house built on a concrete slab.  Apparently this is the thing to do around here.

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The Mason’s equipment

The masons brought some equipment that had the boys all excited.  Thank goodness there weren’t any keys in it or I’m sure they would have been driving it all around the lot.  They seemed happy enough just to pose in front of it.  Both of the boys really enjoy going to the lot.  They run and explore all over the place.  This will be the first time that they get to have a yard this big.  I hope that they love it after we get grass too.

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Foundation Begins
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We have an electric meter
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Foundation Complete

We had some more rain in the middle of the process, so they didn’t get done until early October … but they got it done.  We’ll see the masons again when it’s time to put the rest of the exterior brick up.  I hope that it’s sooner rather than later.

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The Footers Go In

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Eric

When we got back from Disney we had to go by the lot to see if any progress had been made.  We knew when we left that we were close to getting the permits, but we weren’t sure if anything would be done or not.  We were happy to see that we’d received the illusive permit.

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We were also thrilled to see that they had finally and officially broken ground!
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Not only did they break ground, but they also poured the concrete. They were all ready to start the foundation.

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They even dropped off the block and brick for the foundation.

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All in all a very productive week … finally.

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A Disney Vacation

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Eric

This gallery contains 14 photos.

We were still waiting for work to get started on the house again, but it was time to head to Disney World for the week of Labor Day.  Allison and I both love Disney World.  We both swear that we’d … Continue reading →

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