2.28.2014

Well...that old Punxsutawney Phil was right about the winter this year!  This is a great year for us to have a bad winter - we don't have to worry about getting out and driving in it unless we want to, don't have to shovel or plow it - we can just enjoy it!

Today, our landlord has a backhoe here at the apartment getting rid of all the snow that has been piled up next to the building after clearing the parking lot.  So far, he's on his 6th dump truck full of snow!

As we were heading out for our walk, the landlord said they had taken 10 dump truck loads of snow!  They also took some from the front of the apartment but that's a lot of snow that was piled up.  And look how much is still left!

This was probably one of our coldest walks - when we got home, Jim checked and the wind chill was 2 degrees. But we dress warm and are now all thawed out!

2.25.2014

Yesterday afternoon, Jim hit the road for Vermont - to attend a Nudura installation seminar.  Nudura is the company that makes the insulated concrete forms that we are planning on using for the carriage house.  They go together basically like giant Lego blocks and then you fill them with concrete.  They have all the reinforcements inside and you can attach waterproofing, outside façade and your inside finish to the Styrofoam.  It's a great product and although Jim has done a lot of research and has the manuals, this seminar came up at a perfect time.  Typically, installers have to pay to attend but because Jim is an engineer, the rep he has been working with said he can attend for free. 

It was being held at the Vermont distributor (the closest one to us) which is basically a concrete company.  But this was in Eastern Vermont so he got a hotel for the night so he can be at the seminar bright and early.

Jim said it was a good day - although he knew a lot of the information, being able to meet his contacts face to face was great.  He actually talked to the local rep afterwards and Jim is going to finalize his parts list and get it to him for a quote. 

So it was a good day and another step in securing supplies.

Nudura Corner Block

Jim also has some Pella window quotes out there so we are waiting for those to come back.  There is a home show in Saratoga Springs this weekend that we might check out just for some more contacts.  The one Pella distributor in Albany is supposed to be there so that might be helpful.

 

2.23.2014 - Lake Placid

We've been working really hard and so decided to take an afternoon excursion to Lake Placid - the site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics.  It's less than 2 hours north of here and an absolutely breathtaking ride through the Adirondack Mountains. 

One of the neatest things we saw was all of the pull off/entrances to the hiking areas.  One of the things we want to explore sometime is hiking these mountains.  There is a "46 Club" for those who have climbed all 46 peaks over 4,000 feet in elevation.  Every pull off was full of cars of people who were hiking.  Very brave souls in the cold and snow - I'm thinking fall hiking would be the best!

The Village of Lake Placid was much what you would expect - quaint, little shops, and loads of hotel space for all those people who came for the Olympics.

This is Mirror Lake - gorgeous - and you could take a dog sled ride if you were so inclined to go out onto a hopefully-frozen lake led by dogs!  The dogs just stood around on the ice for quite awhile that we saw - finally, they got to move and take someone around the lake.

Surprisingly, all of the buildings were open and being used.  We saw girls hockey teams and little figure skaters all use the facilities.  This is the Olympic Center - gorgeous mountains in the background.



Inside the Olympic Center is the skating rink where the "Miracle on Ice" occurred during the 1980 Olympics.

These are the ski jumps - crazy!  You can apparently pay and take an elevator up - sounds very scary to me.  You actually had to pay to even go on the grounds of the jumping area so we took this picture from across the street.

 

Our last stop was the Olympic Sports Complex - it's where the Cross Country, biathlon (cross country skiing and shooting - who knew?), and the bobsled track. 

  

You can pay to ride in the bobsleds - the track was closed when we got there but they allowed us to walk around and look at it.  It's nice that it's still used in some form, but it's kind of sad to see it being used as a carnival ride as opposed to its Olympic glory.  It's definitely looking a bit worn.

 

 

 

 

2.21.2014

We took our afternoon walk today in some rainy weather...add to that it has been a little warmer and there has been some melting so there were lots of slippery spots on our walk route.  But on the way home the sky was so pretty...couldn't resist stopping and getting a picture!

2.20.2014

Jim ran errands this morning - and found out lots of good information.  The Glens Falls area has a lot more commercial places than does Saratoga Springs.  He got contractor accounts at the lumber store and found 2 different cold formed steel and drywall businesses!  So he talked to both of them and will be getting quotes.  He also found that the metal roofing company that Lowe's deals with actually has a location in Glens Falls.  They sell the nice, higher qualities there than they do at Lowe's.  Jim brought home some color charts and they have a really pretty charcoal gray.  I can just see that with the gray Pella windows!  So for just a morning, he got lots of contacts established and good info to ponder.

These are some pictures of our backyard neighbor at the apartment.  There is so much snow built up that he had a backhoe in to remove a lot of it!

And people up on the roof clearing it!  (One more reason for metal roofing!)  It's warming up here a bit and it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  I hate the slushy times but it's supposed to get colder again soon. 

2.18.2014

Another snowy walk today...just really pretty.  But check out how high the snow is...that's a mailbox trying to peek out!

And you can see from this picture how the snow was falling off this roof and kind of froze there.  Look at the picket fence in front too!

2.16.2014

Window Shopping!

Jim has been diligently working long hours every day on the carriage house design and construction drawings.  He's even starting to make price lists so he will be getting quotes on certain items soon.  So things are getting a little closer to real work!

We had stopped at Home Depot last week to look at windows.  We had Anderson windows in our home in Ohio and really liked them...except they were white on the outside.  We didn't like the look with the saltbox house, so we painted each window.  It was a lot of work and time - not something we want to do again.  Anderson only has a few colors to pick from - besides white, mostly browns.  There was one color, Terratone, that was more of a grayish-brown - or at least that's what it looks like in the store.  We even tried matching gray-toned paints to it to see if we could find something we liked.  We found one paint - Intellectual (great name) - that we thought would work.

But today we were heading into Saratoga to go to the gym, so we left early and stopped at Lowe's because they carry Pella Windows.  We found a knowledgeable salesperson who walked us through the different Pella options.  If you go with the higher cost window, they offer a lot more color options.  We would like to stick in the gray family because we were so happy with it in Ohio, and Pella has a few gray choices.  Jim is going to work on a breakdown of what we need for the carriage house and the guy at Lowe's will get us a quote.

We've also been having the discussion about roof materials.  Obviously from the previous post's winter pictures, this area can get a lot of snow.  In fact, the "Adirondack style" of roof is metal - the snow just slides right off.  Where we rarely saw them in Ohio except for on old barns, here they are commonplace on all types of houses - from the very expensive on down.  Of course, they come in lots of different qualities and Jim found a supplier on line with really nice quality roofs.  So it's something we are at least thinking about.  That brings up another color question too!  So we need to get lots of samples of different products to find the right combination.

2.15.2014

Just some more winter wonderland pictures from upstate New York!

We went for our afternoon walk on Thursday in the midst of a snowstorm.  It would eventually leave another 10-11" on the ground when it was all finished by Friday morning.  It was really a magical walk - the snow was falling, no one was out and about, the trees were coated...just really gorgeous.
 

On Valentine's Day, we set out again for our walk...this is the amount of snow that has been scraped off the parking lot at the apartment and piled up - crazy!

 

And this snow was just in someone's yard - actual snowfall and not just plowed.  There is a lot of snow on the ground!

Today, Jim went up to the land to see how everything was and to start the vehicles.  Look at this crazy amount of snow!!  This picture was taken from the driveway looking at the 4Runner parked on the street. The tiny part of chain you can see from the post is the chain that goes across the driveway. 

Jim said it was unbelievable trying to walk up the hill through snow up to his knees. Look at that snow pile that is my Honda!

2.5.2014

A Winter Wonderland!

Jim and I have started taking daily afternoon walks just to get some exercise and recharge from too much desk work.  Yesterday, it started snowing in the wee hours and pretty much snowed all day - we ended up with about 10".  It was still snowing when we took our walk, which made it seem very magical.  There wasn't much stirring - the roads were pretty empty.  The main signs of life were people snow blowing their driveways!

We walked through one development near us and the pine trees were just incredible.

Today we walked through another part of that same development.  This is the backyard of the elementary school near us - pretty amazing view, I'd say!

2.1.2014 - Chowderfest!

One of the big events in Saratoga Springs is Chowderfest!  So we decided to go this year.  Jim mentioned it to Kyle & Julia and they decided to make the trip up to go with us, so we were excited.

Kyle & Julia had some transportation issues....MegaBus was all sold out, Greyhound was sold out one way and expensive, and Amtrak really expensive and inconvenient times.  So they rented a Zipcar (more about that later).  We had planned to meet downtown at a convenient parking spot...however, when we got close we realized that was never going to happen.  It was packed everywhere!  We eventually found a spot on a side street a few blocks away from downtown and felt lucky to find that.  Kyle and Julia did the same when they got there and we met on Broadway.

We were all surprised at how big this event was.  This was the 16th year for the event and apparently it has grown bigger every year.  This year 85 restaurants participated!  For $1, you got a 3 oz (or sometimes bigger) of chowder - and there was every kind of chowder imaginable...we sampled chipotle corn chocolate chowder (my personal favorite), crab chowder, Irish whiskey ale chowder, and a couple of dessert chowders (yogurt and Ben & Jerry's).  Everything was so good!  The lines seemed long to get into some of the places - and some had stands outside - but things moved quickly and it was fun to catch up with Kyle & Julia.

There were tons of people everywhere you looked - in the paper this morning, it said that last year had over 25,000 attendees from as far away as Canada, and this year probably beat that record.  The weather was amazing!  After lots of cold days, the temps were in the upper 30s.  Our last stop was the Olde Bryan Inn which was next door to the hotel we always stayed at when we were visiting and we just sat, had a drink and talked.  While we were in there, it started spitting a little snow which made it pretty too.

 

But the forecast had called for snow and since Kyle & Julia still had a long trip back, we found our car and then drove to find the Zipcar.  And quite the car it was - they had gotten a new Mercedes! 

It was definitely a fun day - we enjoyed having Kyle and Julia experience our first Chowderfest with us!  I'm sure it will be the first of many!