Our builder's brochure

A couple months ago, our builder took some photos of our house, and interviewed me for a marketing brochure. The results look great, and it's a nice summation of our experience.

We are coming up on our second Christmas in the home, and our first Christmas with our son Tim. Its really great to be back to our daily routine of firing the Masonry Heater. The house looks beautiful decorated for Christmas, we have the tree up and Welcome lights in a couple windows. Also, since Thanksgiving, we've had a great blanket of snow on the ground... As of today, we seem to have a solid 10 inches, with more in store for tonight and this weekend.

It looks like it will be a white christmas, after all!

Here is a link to the Old School Builders brochure. The pictures came out great, better than any I've been able to take of the interior. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

http://www.oldschoolbuilders.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=3745

Timothy Edward

After some gentle prodding from Dale, I am finally getting around to updating this page with some big news, and big it is, indeed!

Timothy Edward joined our family on Monday, May 21st, 2007. He came a few weeks early, after a very difficult labor. All turned out well in the end however, and Loralee and Tim are doing wonderfully. At birth, Tim weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and was 21 inches long-- Good thing he came early!

He is beautiful, and everyone is right: NOTHING prepares you for this. We've had him five weeks now, and every day is a new experience, a new adventure. He's settling into a schedule, and has begun sleeping for longer stretches, which is really nice for Mom and Dad.

We've made the decision that Loralee will be staying home next year. This is a big leap of faith for us, but we know it will all work out. Loralee has already been scheming plans to keep her busy come the fall... French tutoring, perhaps, or starting a home-cooked meal catering business... We'll see. For now, we are nesting, keep the garden going, and trying to do a little landscaping between feedings and diaper changes.

Spring has arrived

May 6th, and May is finally here. We've recovered from the April 15th snow and wind storm, and are now getting ready for summer. My father came by today with the Bobcat and power-rake, and we graded the road. Loralee is feeling uncomfortable, but with only four more weeks to go, we've been blessed with an easy pregnancy. Here are some spring-time pictures we took today:

2 months to go

Loralee just entered her 3rd trimester; Everything is going great. we have the nursury pretty much together, except for the crib. Loralee looks radiant!

Meanwhile, Even though tomorrow is the first day of spring, it's still winter here in Vermont. I took the photo below last week; we got 8 inches of snow on Friday, and tonight the temperature is supposed to dip down to minus-10 F!

Energy Star Rated

Boy, it's been a while since I've posted here. We have had a good winter, and really enjoyed the Holidays in our new home. Loralee is doing very well with the pregnancy; a lot of our time has been taken up with preparing the nursury, exploring baby names, and mentally preparing for the next big adventure.

Last week, we got one heck of a Nor'Easter on Valentines day. The biggest storm in a decade dumped 30 inches of snow on the Northeast Kingdom; we have been wanting snow, but were'nt expecting it all at once! The snowbanks and drifts remind me of my childhood growing up here, and we have been enjoying getting out- snowshoeing, x-c skiing, etc.

As far as the house goes, we have really settled in and love it more every day. I am amazed at how warm it stays, and how important all the south-facing windows are for passive solar energy. The Masonry Heater is excellent, and we have found that by lighting two fires a day when the thermometer drops to bitter sub-zero readings, we still stay nice and cozy.

On a very positive note, our Efficiency Vermont report came back, and our home qualifies as a "Five-Star-Plus" rated home! This is the highest level of energy star rating you can get; we recieved a certificate from the State, which I need to register with our Deed at the Town Clerk's office. It doesn't really mean much, aside from the comfort of knowing that we aren't killing ourselves trying to heat the place, but it gives us something to brag about at cocktail parties.