100th Episode: A Project Like None Other

Welcome to our 100th post! When a television series reaches its 100th episode, networks like to make a big deal of it by creating a special episode that usually involves more than the usual number of plot twists and one too many preview commercials dubbed with voice-overs of that guy (you know you know that guy) with the overly dramatic voice highlighting all the "must-see" moments to be played out in equally dramatic detail in the not-to-be-missed mega episode.

Well...this is something like that. Minus the guy with the voice. I promised a big announcement, and a big announcement you shall get. We are taking on a new project. A big. new. project. The biggest project of our lives. What is it, already?!?

How about a new house! And by new, I mean we're starting from scratch. Take a peek.

The front and back of the house - the back will face the farm (see photos below)

And where shall this new house be? How about on a farm, in the small town of Haddam, exactly where it all started, on Nason Road...right next door to Curt and Mandy!

Here are some shots from the vault of the farm back in the day when it was the original Chadwick farmstead.

And a few shots of where the house will be located.

Farm in the foreground, Curt and Mandy's House on the Hill.
The new house will be located on the hill above the farm.

L: looking up hill to site of house. R: looking out over farm from the main view from the new house.

Some work in progress.

Mapping out where the house will be situated. Summit looking on.

Driveway construction. Posts on left indicate the start of it. Feeling bad for the trees.

And a few goals:

1) Build within our means and needs. We are sticking to the principles behind the saying, "Too many people spend money they haven't earned, buy things they don't want, and try to impress people they don't like." While this is not a "starter home" (because we plan on being there indefinitely) it will never be a McMansion. Every house is an investment and unless it's literally a treehouse, it uses natural resources that are many times nonrenewable and carves up the landscape in a way that is unnatural. We are aiming to design ours to use only the space and resources that are necessary in a way that is both efficient and comfortable and the least amount damaging to the environment that surrounds it.

2) Build it green. In line with what's been discussed above, we've been researching methods, materials and techniques to make this house as sustainable as possible. You'll be sure I'll be blogging a lot about what that means!

3) Bring back the farm! Chickens, cows, horses, oh my! I can't wait to have our farm back.

4) Make it our own. Isn't that the whole point? This project will certainly put our creative skills to the test. I stay awake at night thinking about all the design possibilities!

So there you have it. It's all out in the open now. Phew, it's good to get that off my chest, we've been scheming this up now for several months and I've been dying to tell you all about it, but nothing had been made official. And now it has. I hope it was worth the wait and we hope you all stick with us as we take on this crazy, challenging, but totally rewarding process. It's going to be a roller coaster and we can't wait to take you all along with us!

On Blogging, Reflecting and Gifting

Can you tell I didn't know what to call this post? Still not sure I got it right. Oh well. Let's see if I can hit all those targets.

First, on blogging. It turns out this blog has been a big success for us. We originally started the blog to document our wedding planning process and share our thoughts, feelings and experiences with family and friends. Reflecting on our life together and discussing our plans for the future has been a surprisingly fulfilling outlet for creativity and at times, it has also been therapeutic, relaxing and even invigorating. As we near our 100th blog post, it has been fun to look back over the past year and a half and see what we've been up to. Honestly, this last year has been so busy that I probably couldn't tell you what I did last week never mind what happened last month so there's something to be said about writing it all down, even if no one (okay, there are definitely a few of you dedicated followers-thanks!) is reading it and re-reading it besides the two of us.

That slightly side-tracked note (this post was really supposed to be about gifts!) brings me back to the point - documenting the big moments of our life. For our wedding anniversary, I wanted to put together a book highlighting all of the major "pieces" of our wedding - from the planning and creative process to the wedding itself and even our honeymoon in the Galapagos. I thought this was going to be a tricky task until I stumbled upon Blog2Print, a site that allows you to create a hard cover book from your blog posts. It literally took me 20 minutes to upload and design the book. I chose only the blog posts published with the tag "wedding" and Blog2Print automatically generated a table of contents and page layout based on the text and photos in each post. The book cost about $40 including shipping, which for a gift wasn't a bad deal. It came out great and now we have a permanent reminder of all of the hard work we put into our wedding day. James loved it!

On a somewhat related note, we also got an anniversary "gift" in the form of an article in the wedding magazine, Bride to Be. I know I mentioned this awhile back, but the article was finally published and the lovely Ms. Polka from Polka Dot Bride, who originally published photos and information about our wedding on her own blog, graciously sent us a copy of the hefty magazine this week. It's pretty neat to see our faces in a big glossy magazine. We were featured in a two-page article about "Craft It Yourself" or CIY weddings. I'm also very excited for our awesome photographer Olivia Gird whose amazing photographs really looked beautiful in the magazine. She made us look so good, if I do say so myself. Being published in a major magazine is definitely something to celebrate. Thanks to both Olivia and Ms. Polka for making this happen for us!

Now...about that 100th post. Seems like a good opportunity for that big announcement. Stay tuned, I promise it's coming up next! It's so good it's going to need its own book too!

A Weekend Away

James and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in upstate New York. James has been working in New York for the last two weeks so for Labor Day weekend, I made the 5 hour drive up to meet him in the Finger Lake area of the state.

The Finger Lakes consist of 11 long, narrow, roughly parallel lakes, oriented north-south as fingers of a pair of outstretched hands. Two of the lakes (Seneca and Cayuga) are among the deepest in North America and have bottoms below sea level. These lakes all formed over the last two million years by glacial carving of old stream valleys. The Finger Lake area is New York's largest wine producing region. With over 100 vineyards and wineries surrounding the lakes, there was no shortage of the red (and white) stuff for us to taste over our three day stay. There were several cheese farms in the area too. We made sure to make it to a few of those as well.

We stayed on Lake Cayuga at the John Morris Manor. Our hosts, Tony and John and their dogs Bear and Bender, were wonderful and made our stay super comfortable, not to mention Tony's A-mazing breakfasts. We also met an array of interesting people including another couple celebrating their first anniversary as well.

On our first day of vaca we met up with our friends, Jim and Carrie (yes, that makes a pair of us) who live out 45 minutes away in Rochester. We spent the day visiting a number of wineries and had lunch and dinner along the way. By the end of the day, we had accumulated three cases of wine between us. I'm sure they'll come in handy around the holidays.

On Sunday James and I made the two hour drive west to visit Niagara Falls. I visited the Falls once before, when I was about five. Besides the yellow slickers and booties, I don't remember much from that trip. Evidence is provided below (incidentally, it turns out I had the same haircut I have now...sweeeet). James had never been to visit the Falls so we were eager to check out this 10,000 year old waterfall. As it was, we were not the only ones that wanted to take in the beauty of Niagara Falls - the place was packed! In a way though I think it's nice to know that a place like Niagara Falls can still compete with Disney World.

American Falls and Horseshoe Falls (top L); me at age 5 (top R); in line for Maid of the Mist (bottom L); on the boat (bottom R)

We waited in line for an hour and half for our turn on the legendary Maid of the Mist which would take us up close and personal with American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. While the "slickers" weren't quite as cool as they were 20 years ago, it was well worth the wait to get that close to the awesome power that is Niagara Falls. Over six million cubic feet of water pour over the falls every minute, making it the most powerful waterfall in North America. It's really something you must see. If you haven't been, put it on your list. One word of caution - be sure to hit the restroom before standing in that line, that was a missed opportunity on my end. The "mist" on the Maid didn't do anything to help the situation either.

We spent our last day together exploring the coast of Lake Cayuga. We wandered upon a state park and an amazing gorge complete with a waterfall known as Taughannock Falls. It was spectacular. We then drove to the south end of the lake to the town of Ithaca. Ithaca is a cute little college town with great shops and restaurants. The last time I was there was when I was a senior in high school. I came to the area to visit schools and ended up coming very, very close to going to college in Ithaca.

In the afternoon we explored the lake by kayak. It was a great day to be paddling, not too warm and not too busy on the water. There were an abundance of sailboats out enjoying the weather as well as a few crew teams from Cornell University.

We wrapped up our anniversary weekend with a delicious gourmet meal in Seneca Falls at a restaurant called Divine. And it was...both the meal and the weekend away. Cheers to Year Two!

A Year Ago Today...