Falling Water

Ashley came in town this past weekend, so we headed up to Pennsylvania to see two of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses. We made reservations at Kentuck Knob for 9:30 am with the hope that something with open up later on at Falling Water. It was a very foggy day, and a view that typically grants a 50 mile view only allowed us to see 30 feet at Kentuck Knob.

Falling Water was not as accessible as Kentuck Knob; you have to pay just to get in the place. Once you park, there's a typical tourist destination waiting area, gift shop, and cafe. We were able to get grounds passes, but had to have our names added to a waiting list. So, we waited with the black square buzzer with red lights that we've all become accustomed to at restaurants. We grabbed some food in the cafe, then headed out to take pictures of Falling Water. With the grounds passes, we were allowed to take tour the exterior of the house at our leisure. It was very cold, but Brent took numerous pictures of the outside. A few hours later our buzzer buzzed, and we ran back to get tickets for the inside tour. Unfortunately, pictures are prohibited inside the house. However, that house was very cool, from the windows to stones. We decided we would love to live there full time.

Here are pictures of Kentuck Knob:

Here are pictures from the art meadow at Kentuck Knob, you can see a piece of the Berlin wall:

Here are pictures of Kentuck Knob:

Here is video of a river and waterfall in Ohiopyle, the state park where Falling Water is located, and also a section of the Alleghany bike trail. The waterfall is much much larger than it appears in the video:

The New Kitchen!!!

The cooking area:

The new island:

You can see the fireplace on the left. We are waiting for one more cabinet and a TV mount to go up on the wall here:

Putting Up the Wall Cabinets

The cabinets took quite some time to make level and plumb, but Brent was able to handle the situation.
Stud finders didn't work because the walls were so thick with two layers of dry wall, one layer of plaster, and the final layer of lathe and plaster. Large sections of the wall also contained wire mesh and some sort of concrete-type material.
Needless to say, it took a while to locate the studs; and it turns out the previous cabinets weren't even screwed into the studs! You can see three clamps and Brent's favorite tool: the four foot red level in this picture!

He had to push really hard to get the screws in. They were four inches long!

Derby Day in Frostburg

On July Fourth, Frostburg had their annual Derby Day. I forget how many years they have been doing this. They close down more than half of main street, starting just about at the bookstore and it ends right before our block. It was so cute, and we had a great time. These little kids were so cute in their derby cars, this event is taken very seriously. . . there was double elimination! Lots of food and drinks, even snowball wanna-bees. Not very good ones, but hey, you take what you can get in Frostburg ;) This year was huge, because they brought back the open container Derby Day, the first in 8 years. That's right, for the first time in 8 years you were allowed to drink a beer. . . gasp! and enjoy the derby day festivities. Believe it or not, they even had people signing petitions a couple of months before the big event. Enjoy the video clip.

And we're back. . .

Howdy folks! Wow, we have been on a long break! But not to worry, things have been moving along at the house. We are hard at work on the kitchen, we had counter templaters here today and in 2-3 weeks we will have some shiny new countertops. Brent has been hard at work hanging cabinets. Stay tuned for those pics. We have also been hard at work in the yard, which hasn't been weeded or pruned since I don't know when. Probably a good 3- 5 years, if not more! But before we post all of the updated house pics, we wanted to post some Summer Fun pictures. This video was my first and only ride on a four-wheeler. I think it's safe to say that I like to live life in the slow lane. . .

Up at the Wisp!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! We had a great first thanksgiving at our house! Erin and I made an amazing feast and my first turkey! We had a great day in the kitchen and it really paid off, we had a feast! You can see our turkey flag on the house, Maverick playing in the snow, and thanksgiving yumminess! We had a lot to be thankful for. Oh, and Sean and Brent got the chandelier installed in the dining room, it looks great!!!!!