sad times at seven dogs ranch

This spring we had to put Tugger to sleep because of lung cancer. On July 5th we took Sam to the vet for accupuncture because of his arthritis. They discovered bone cancer in his rear leg; on the people's equivalent of the calf/ankle area. The only real solution other than chemo was amputation which doesn't solve the problem, only delays the inevitable by maybe a year at best. We decided not to do that since he had just turned eleven. Well, a week and a half later, the tumor broke his leg and we decided to peacefully end his suffering. Fast forward 8 days later and his sister, Ella, is experiencing troubles. Without going into the long story, she is currently in a spot which will probably require euthanasia tomorrow. I am sad, however, not distraught. Rich and I have been preparing ourselves for a while now of the inevitable sorrow that having 6 of our 7 dogs within 1 year of each other in age. Rich and I are thankful for Sasha (although I curse her for every chewed up bra, panty, and shoe - an average of one every week) because her juvenile actions reminds us to laugh when we feel like crying.

new post

Wow! Its been April since I posted last. Life really hasn't slowed down here. I have a few updates to relate. I will post pictures at a later time. We used the leftover stone from the fireplaces to build a raised flowerbed in which we are attempting to grow and sustain plant life in a Texas drought. This is especially hard when we are already in stage 1 mandatory watering restrictions. This can only get worse as the summer wears on. The new grass is a greenish brown since it has been watered and the other grass is a lovely shade of burnt brown. We have not done too much to the barn aside from adding another walls worth of siding. Eventually the siding is going to wrap around the whole barn and man cave, but we took a couple of months off from these things as we were working on landscaping, and were, quite frankly, a little burnt out after 7 months of seeimgly nonstop work.



Last week, Rich got motivated again and we did some work in the game room. We tore down old wood paneling (to discover a layer of moldy sheetrock which was also removed). You see, we have this fabulous tree growing right up against the rear corner of the game room. Its roots are causing the foundation and cinder block walls to crack, which in turn, allowed moisture to penetrate the walls. New sheetrock was put up and taped and floated. We painted two walls a red color (Cranberry Zing). Rich also put up trim and stained about half of it. Today he built two sets of shelves to display his old (almost certifiable antiques really) karate trophies and more recent pool trophies. See, this is what Man Caves are for. The red walls need some more touch up painting and now we need to repaint the two walls that are an off white. I think I want to find some other interesting color and will hunt that down this week. We also took out the tile flooring (sorry Jack) and intend to eventually paint the bare concrete with some kind of epoxy and paint.



One item worthy of an "arghhhhhhh" is I think we have a slow leak from the hot water heater between the bathroom and water heater closet. I noticed some water between the tub and toilet for the second time. This was after a kind of longer than usual shower. I was hoping Rich was right when he said (you can laugh) that maybe it came from a cat that fell in the toilet. But then, yesterday, after running the dishwasher, I noticed water coming from under the sink cabinet area. There was no water from the sink in the actual cabinet. This water caused a little bit of damage to the kickplate under the cabinet (no biggie) and the caulk under the baseboard behind the toilet seems to be vanishing, for lack of a better word. I think we caught it in time, and I don't think its happening every time we use hot water, so hopefully its a quick fix. I am not however anticipating with any sort of glee whatsoever the fact that some sheetrock will have to be knocked down and all the work rebuilding it will entail. Luckily the house is still under warranty, so other than scheduling workers into our lives and putting up with some mess, there's no more sweat off our backs.



Triathlon season is progressing, although I need to kick up the motivation a notch or three if I am going to be prepared for 7+ hours of work for the Half Ironman in October. I am not worried about anything other than the bike, because its hard for me to go on a 40 mile bike ride when I worry about lose dogs on the prowl, out for blood.



Stay tuned.

don't read comments

FYI - don't read comments that say "click here" or "read here". They are obviously some lame attempts by nerds to install some sort of spyware or maybe even worse on your computer. So, if someone leaves a comment, you should just be able to read the text plain and simple.

triathlon season

this may become a blog about the state of the house while training for triathlon season. I am not quite a serious triathlete since I have only done one sprint distance triathlon in each of the last three years, but this season I have decided to make it a bit more of a focus. I will be doing the Danskin sprint distance in June, but aside from that I have also decided to attempt an olympic distance in September and (gasp) a Half Ironman in October. I have six months to train for that one and since I already have six weeks of sprint distance training under my belt, I am sure I can accomplish it. Will I be able to convince the other half that a faster bike is required? Stay tuned....

outside pictures - by Rich

Rich took these pictures yesterday evening. I know, I know the front porch is looking a little messy. Still trying to get things out there organized. In front you can kind of see the trail I built. This is standing at the front right corner of the yard. The boat carport is straight ahead and George and Vicki's is to the right.
This is where we sometimes keep our trash can. Just beyond that there is a double gate that leads to the garage.
Fire ring in the middle of the yard. We now have a total of five fire containing things at Seven Dogs Ranch.

Another side view of the yard
new tree that Rich planted on Sunday. The grass there may never grow because that is the route we (including dogs) tend to take from Bird House to Barn. I think a crushed granite path is called for.
Parking area. Note the missing Cherokee which is housed in the garage for repair
Sasha and some very green grass
The barn

More barn
Cute dogs lounging on the porch
Ella, a picnic table, some grass, and some not grass
View towards house from fire pit

At Long Last

This is for those that have not been able to visit and have been asking for photos of the house. I tidied up a little as I usually do on Saturdays, but decided that if I waited to have the house spotless to take photos, you wouldn't ever get to see it. Rich and I have settled in pretty well. Although he keeps asking me where things are in the kitchen which is an annoyance....that's just because he never pays attention.

As for the outside, the barn is already getting a makeover. Turns out it floods (to use the term mildly) when it rains, so we decided to use Rich's spring bonus to build a rather long deck. We have also been doing some sodding in the yard. It is a beautiful time of year when everything is greening up and growing. And we've agreed that alone makes the color of the exterior of the house look much less pink. We still have a few patches of bare dirt where a lot of soil got dug up and spread around during septic installation.

Dining Area

Corner of Dining Area

Outside Fireplace

Peach Tree, Firepit, Green Grass

Utility Room

Guest Room

Kitchen

Living Room

Hallway from Living Room to Media Room

Media Room wall - needs more pictures

Front Porch

Big Tv

Guest Room again

Patio - George made those benches

Front Porch from another angle



Bedroom looking to bathroom with me in mirror

Moving day

So.....................I think tomorrow we will finally get to move in. This past week has been a whirlwind of activity. We decided to install a new closer-to-the-house septic tank in order to avoid having to install a lift station (prone to wear out, costly to replace in the long run). So we will end up paying the septic guys time and a half for putting us ahead of 8 other jobs and working through the weekend. On Saturday they caved in our old septic tank and dug up the trenches for the drain field. I spent lots of Sunday filling up a wheelbarrow and dumping concrete debris as well as leaves in the old tank before George covered it up with dirt. The new tank got installed Monday morning and got its first of two inspections on Tuesday morning. Tuesday the septic guys were back out to fill in the trenches and cover the septic tank. They only ran into the house once with the bobcat. They broke some fascia, but Bob came over a replaced it Tuesday night. Yesterday the water got hooked up. Today the concrete stainers are there doing their touch ups and a final coat of sealent. The appraiser is supposed to show up today to do the final inspection. I told Rich that I was moving in the second his car left the driveway - as long as I know he's going to give the all clear signal to the bank. I hope no one from the bank reads this becaus technically we're not supposed to move in until the construction loan is modified into our permanent loan, and that's not supposed to happen until a week after the final draw is dispersed which doesn't happen until the final inspection is delivered by the appraiser. But ,really what are they gonna do, evict us? Nope, dont think so.

The end is near

I want all of you to know that I am forgoing my all important tasks at work to update my needy audience on the status of the house building project. For as much as he poo-poos my blog, Rich was whining the other day about my procrastination in uploading pictures of his masterful skills as a sider.

Rich installed a pair of french doors and we did manage to get siding up along the one long wall of the game room. Steve and Willie were tremendous helpers in that arena. We don't have the trim up nor is it painted, but that will come later. We have 3 or 4 of the columns up where cinder blocks and 2 x 6s once stood. We have two more to go, but Rich needs to decide how he is going to attached them to concrete.

The inside of the new house is for all intents complete. The painters are there today doing second to final touch ups. They also painted our front door a beatiful eye catching reddish/brown. With luck on our side the new septic tank will be done this weekend. The cleaners are supposed to be there Tuesday to clean sheetrock dust and other dirty things around the new house. So, it looks like things are in the works to close next Friday...and with a pretty good interest rate too thanks to China, the dollar, the mortgage industry who lent to everyone and their dog money for too much house and everyone in the States who didn't pay their mortgages, and didn't have enough money left to spend in US commerce.


I have also included some pictures of our current living situation. I decided not to portray a lie, therefore I did not clean up at all. This experience has turned me into more of a slob, but I am past the point of caring. In fact, I told Rich over the weekend when I was sweeping and mopping that for the last month when I swept and mopped I kept hoping that was the last time. It think this time it was, at least until we move everything into the new house.

Rich and Willie admiring their handiwork.

Siding from under "The Barn"
Fireplace mantle

What the porch looks like when it rains

Painted Door

Interior door current bedroom - that big brown lump on the bed is Ella
Current dressing room - Rich always leaves drawers and cupboards open , arggggggg
Pool table/Rich's current desk

Current kitchen - toaster oven on top of microwave with last night's dinner sitting out on the counter. Thank goodness cats = no rodents Current closet and storage area of things that did not go to storage unit.
Surround sound speaker in new house
Different view of siding and new french door

Final Countdown

I haven't really been posting much because there isn't too much new...We could be in the house in a week if it weren't for the septic. We are once again waiting on Travis County to issue a permit. The septic engineer OKed us to just add one more drain field and a lift station. The report has been drawn up and was submitted to the county, along with a $460 check, last Wednesday. Hopefully they won't take as long to issue that as they did the building permit. Once that is OK'ed we will get to put that in. Other than the septic, we still need to connect the water lines (but we're waiting for the septic to be put in), move the propane line, install the french doors, and siding on the old house. There is a lot blue tape on the walls for the sheetrock guys' final punch - it looks like our house has chicken pox.


Here are the front steps. Won't they look great with pots of flowers sitting on them?
Hall bathroom - notice the curved shower curtain rod drilled into the marble backsplash. Also the towel bar and ring are both hung.
A square-ish sink bowl
Me taking a picture of the master bathroom double vanity
The only time I will ever post a picture of a toilet on the internet.

Kitchen sink, faucet and granite countertops