A trip to the States

Ed and I took a trip to the states from Sept 12-27. We flew from London to Colorado Springs on the 12th and had perfect connections. We spent two days in the Springs with Emily and JJ then drove to Harper to visit my mom and family and friends. We had a great time visiting with everyone which included a get together with many friends at Pam and Jerry Gerbers house on a Sunday evening.

We then drove back to Colorado Springs and spent the rest of the time at Emily and JJ's house. Ed spent most of that time working with the City, County, bank, and general contractor trying to get things moved along so that we could get the certificate of occupancy which means we could then move our things out of storage and into the house. Several inspections took place while we were there, (electrical, pluming, and structural.) That allowed us to move things from storage into our garage but not into the house as the driveway still needs to be paved and the wall on the drive up to the house needs some erosion control things to be done to it which should take place on the first and second week of October. By putting money into an account which states that the money will be used for the paving and erosion control issues, the city did provide us with a C.O. but not until the day we were leaving for London. So Emily and JJ will have to do this on their own. Luckily they have good family, friends, and church support to help them out.

Special thanks to Spike and Gloria for staying around several extra days to help us move our things from the storage sheds into the garage. Also to Merv, JJ's dad, and Tonya and Corbin Graber for their extra muscle on that day.

A real big thanks to Jim Hathaway for doing tons of work on the house since we have been in London. Without him, I'm sure we would not be this far along. He has been a real driving force and has been a great communicator with us on the progress.

Here are a few pictures.

Initial moving day

Moving the couch up the stairs.
This is a picture of our house using a telephoto lens from about 1/2 mile away looking up to our property.

Thanks Tonya!

After a day full of moving lots of storage containers and furniture we needed sustenance. Tonya Graber provided pizza, pop, and a few other goodies.

Washer & Dryer installation

When the washer goes into it's spin cycle it should be smooth with no shaking about. Between Spike Hostetler, Merv Birky, and JJ Birky, and Ed of course but not in the pictures, we have our W&D installed and perfectly balanced. Spike spent a long time on the refrigerator but I don't have any pictures of that. It took at least 30 minutes if not longer to get the ref up the stairs due to a very tight fit.

The final moments

We were in the middle of moving a few things into the great room when we looked out the large windows of the great room and saw a full moon rising over rampart range. It was a great ending to the day. So then we plopped down onto the couch and put our feet up.

Woodland Park, Colorado house update

Here are some more pictures that Emily has taken and sent to us on the net. I love the Internet capabilities. The final finish was put on the wood floor this last week. I think most everything is done on the inside.

Here you are inside the master bathroom looking into the master bedroom.

This is the first application of the stucco which does not have the final color. The second and final stucco application is scheduled to be applied on Thursday. I think we picked out a tan color. It's been so long ago, I can't remember. The decking and posts are to be put on after the stucco is done. Also the stone work is yet to be applied to the bottom third of the house as well as the bottom third of the posts that hold up the deck.

Birds at Warwick castle

These are three of the birds that we saw at Warwick castle. The bird trainer would have the birds fly over the crowd of people just barely above their heads. Ed was unable to get a really good shot of the bald eagle in flight. The eagle would grab it's food when the trainer would throw it up into the air, usually with it's beak but sometimes with it's claws.