2014

Now that we are truly established in the house, we need to start enjoying it. But before we can get totally relaxed, we need to make significant progress on unpacking. The upper floor, where most of the living takes place, is certainly habitable and there aren’t boxes everywhere. In fact I can only count two […]

The beginning of September saw the blooming of joe pye weed on the sides of roads and in ditches in Lumpkin County. The dusty pink blossoms were the signal for the beginning of the grape harvest, and also for the month of pandemonium that has been our moving experience. Through the month of September, the

I have not been reporting progress for a while, it has just been TOO busy. So this blog is a two-week summary of the trials and tribulations of moving a possession-laden life into a not-quite complete new house. Inevitably, not everything has gone exactly to plan, and various new problems have emerged as we have

Things are getting a bit frenetic on the home building front. Now that we are legally able to live in the house (with our Certificate of Occupancy), we need to get it properly finished so that we can move in to reasonable comfort rather than camping inside a shell of a building! We are totally

For the next couple of weeks, I suspect my blog is going to be a bit abbreviated as we have so much going on. The big news is that we now have a Certificate of Occupancy issued by the building inspector. So we are legally allowed to live in our house. Not that we would

At last, we made a little progress on the problems with Lisa’s left ankle. Last week, we were in a medical limbo as it seemed impossible to get authorisation for a necessary MRI scan from our health insurance company. We were repeatedly bounced between hospitals, doctor and insurance company. Finally, the word came through, she

This week was projected to be the week of more progress on the house. And we certainly saw a lot achieved. But we have certainly not made any progress on one big issue, Lisa’s ankle. Apart from a continuing deterioration over months, things came to a head on Friday a week ago when she had

This was projected to be the week of major progress on the house. And we certainly saw a lot achieved. But there was a definite step backward, too, with ungood consequences. Lisa had been cooking dinner on Friday evening, and the duck breast was doing very nicely in the oven. She carefully took the pan

On Sunday we went to Back Porch Oyster Bar with friends for Sunday dinner. Our choice was prompted by a recent survey in Wine Spectator magazine of more than 3,000 restaurants globally with an outstanding wine list. Back Porch is the only restaurant in North Georgia to get a mention. The food was good (all

On Sunday we went out for drinks Three Sisters with our new best friends, Jeff and Sandra. Nothing special, just trying the wines, having a chat with them and with Doug and Sharon, the owners of the vineyard. The vines are now at the véraison stage, when the small grapes start to swell and change colour as