3.19.2014

Today was a day of little "coincidences"...aka little miracles as we like to say!  We were trying to figure out the best time to go to Vermont so that Jim could take his plans to his contact for the insulated concrete forms to talk over a couple things and give the plans to him to prepare a quote for us.  Jim got a call around lunchtime that the guy was in Saratoga and wanted to meet with Jim here!  So Jim finished up a few things and went off to meet him at TGIFridays.  Jim said it was a good meeting - he got some questions answered and the guy was impressed with Jim's plans and all the work he had put into them (even asked if he could send work Jim's way some time!).  So Jim accomplished all of that without a trip to Vermont!

We got our Pella quote in the mail today - we have to do a little deciphering and comparing.  We had gotten a quote on a couple different Anderson lines and there's another line that the lumberyard here carries that Jim wants to look into also.  Windows are pricey but we spent so much time and effort making our windows in our Ohio home look the way we wanted that we don't want to repeat that.  We want to have a gray window that matches the siding - it gives a more period look than the typical white window.  But of course that comes at a price.  We have a little more investigating to make sure we get what we want.

But then the really crazy part of the day.  Jim and I have developed a route for our walks that's about 5 miles - we walk over the bridge across the Hudson River and go down a little road that has houses along the river.  There's even a house there that has the same cement shake siding that we are going to use on the carriage house, so we always stop and look at that one a little longer.  We were coming down the hill and we saw a man with a dog.  We are still on high alert after the dog bite and this dog came over and started growling.  The man was yelling that he was friendly (hmm...we have heard that before!) and he came over and got the dog.  It turned out to be a nice dog but we stood there talking to the owner about dogs and the reason why we were a little skittish.  Everyone we meet here is always so positive about the area and tell us the reasons they love it.  This man had lived here all his life but had traveled all over and just said it was the best place to live.  It came out that this guy works for a big heating/cooling company.  He and Jim got into this long discussion about the various heating options and Jim picked his brain about the outdoor wood furnaces that we are considering.  New York has lots of regulations on these type of furnaces so some things aren't real clear cut.  But this guy has one of the models of outdoor furnaces that Jim likes that he uses to heat his house.  It was a great conversation and he gave Jim his card to contact him for any more questions or to use him to buy product.

So how crazy is that?  We walk about 5 miles a day and rarely see too many other people out.  What are the chances that we would strike up a conversation with this random person and he would turn out to be a great resource for our heating system?  It was quite exciting.

As we continued on our walk, it started snowing...more like that weird combination of snow and sleet.  You can't quite see it in this picture but you can see that we still have lots of snow on the ground - and tomorrow's the first day of spring!  The forecast is calling for some snow even through the weekend.  Which is fine by us!

A couple days late to say Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We walked up to Dango's for corned beef and cabbage.