Sunday, October 24, 2010

Rollin', Rolling on the River. . .

This weekend found both H and I rolling on the river literally!  As I mentioned in my last post, H joined a couple of our neighbors this weekend to clean up the river banks.  He left home Saturday morning  early and they all boarded a pontoon boat and went up and down our section of Lake Mitchell to pick up any and all debris along the river banks. (Note: Since I used the words lake and river I feel I need to explain that the "locals" in Clanton refer to Lake Mitchell as the river because it is the Coosa River that has been damed up to form Lake Mitchell as well as Lay Lake and the other surrounding lakes.) This clean up takes place twice a year and usually takes two to four people  from the same area, ideally, about two to three hours to do it. They were able to clean up quite a bit and ended at about noontime at the Higgins Ferry Landing for a hot dog lunch. H told me they had found a red Sharpie pen floating in the lake (not sure for how long) but picked it out of the water and decided to see it if worked and it did! I'm sure the "Sharpie" people would be proud if they heard this.
     After the clean up H wandered back down to our site because he saw that there was work going on even though it was Saturday. These carpenters works very hard. They come early, work until about 1:30 or 2 pm and then take an hour siesta ( no kidding!). Then they are back on the job until the there is no more sunlight to see.  Since my last post on Tuesday, this is what H saw Saturday morning! 
He was able to walk out on the main floor and look around and really see the size of the entire floor as well as the individual rooms. The lower level is all walled in and even has a ceiling now that the main floor is on. This week has really been a building frenzy don't you think. Can you see that pile of wood is gone!
     H then came home to get me to go back to the lake to join friends for the Alabama vs Tennessee game. This is what happens when for all the away games. It is the Ridge's version of tailgating since we cook out and watch the game together.  We are looking forward when the "game" can be seen at our house. I made "orange" Halloween treats for Jane and Ralph's grandkids as my way of showing "my colors".  :)
    After church on Sunday, H felt it neccessary for me to go to the house and walk the floors. It was probably a good idea because as we talked our way through each room on this floor, we found we had some questions to talk with the builder about. For instance, the wall I wanted to put the side board on in the dining room was about 2 inches short and I also had some concerns about the space in the laundry room and how it was to be used.  We were also able to see that the shower in one of the guest rooms could be a little bigger. We hated calling Dennis but at this point, we hope the changes can be done in a lot less time than when the walls are really up!  We can also tell from this vantage point that there are several more trees that need to come down for the optium view.  After all, that is why we bought lake front property!  The view. Right?
     It was during this time on Sunday, that a neighbor came by in his boat and waved. I asked him how it looked from the water and told him I had not seen it from that view yet. Without missing a beat, he drove his boat right up to the shore line of our property and welcomed us aboard for a viewing. This is how it looks from the lake.
  Love, love, love the view of the lake from the four windows on the lower level! Since it was an absolutely georgous day on the lake, we decided to go for a ride. I thought you might like to see some of our neighbor's homes on The Ridge.
This is our next door neighbors on our left as seen from the lake.
This house belongs to the people taking us for a ride on their boat.
This house needs several views for you to really get the picture. We have met the owners but haven't been in the house.
(They built four exact bedrooms across the back so that all their four children would have the same view!)

This is where we watched the game from. This house also has
the most amazing view on the lake! Georgeous inside! Pool outside!

This is the view of Jane and Ralph's home from the front and the back! 

These are some of the homes on The Ridge, not all but several.  All are very lovely homes, but H and I  both agree, that it is the lovely people who own them that will make living here so special! We really enjoyed this afternoon withour new friends and neighbors. Thanks Scott and Gay!
     We continued to cruise around the river for a little while longer.  We rode around looking at boathouse designs as that is the next item on our list (since we already have the boat).  In order to get a permit to build, we need a design to submit to the Alabama Power Company since they own the Lake. We have found a builder and now we need to tell him what we want.  We saw some really neat boathouses and some that will really meet our needs, so I took pictures for us to chose from and get ideas. I won't post them until we really decide on the one we will build.  We will also be building a retaining wall to go around the point and we want it to match the neighbors so it will look uniform. I understand that it doesn't take long to build a boathouse so we won't get started on it until after the first of the year and hopefully it will be completed about the same time as the house.
   * I hope you can click on these pictures to make them larger and see more detail on the houses and surrounding area.    
     We are getting some much needed rain in Alabama as I am writing this, so I am not sure if much building will go on tomorrow or not. The rest of the week looks dry and hopefully the rest of the walls, and maybe the roof, will be on by my next post. Meanwhile H and I will be going with the builder to "nail down" (no pun intended) our house color so we can pick out the brick and stone.  (Seems H and I are having some diffulculty seeing the color grey :)  Wish us luck!

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