Year 6, Day 115. “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 8/23/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 21. Before any work was actually done. We ensured the ridge put up on Friday was plum and solid.

Then the worksite was cleaned up. It was a real safety hazard walking around pieces of lumber just thrown all over the place.

Then some of the ridge and rafters were put up.

The winch was set up and sheets of sheathing were brought up and laid on the ceiling joists. Much safer and easier to stand on sheathing and work on the rafters. The winch will also be used to pull up rafters.

Big news – We are now eating lunch in the Living room of our new home looking out the patio door.

We canceled our November cruises today so we can spend more time finishing this home.

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Year 6, Day 114. “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 8/22/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Off day or as close to an off day as we get. Headed to Lumber King to exchange some wood.

Then relaxed on the deck sharing my drink with the bees.

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Year 6, Day 113. “Living the Dream”. Friday, 8/21/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 20. Boxing in the front porch took a lot of time. Then most of the front post ceiling joists were screwed in.

Late afternoon, around 4pm the roof ridge was started. But it was so hot and sunny that work came to a halt at 6:30pm.

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Year 6, Day 112. “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 8/20/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 19. Ceiling joists are in and front porch posts are up. The structure is really starting to take shape now.

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Year 6, Day 111. “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 8/19/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 18. First thing the walls were verified they were plum. Then lots of wall braces were added before the ceiling joists were added.

About Two-thirds of the house has ceiling joists at the end of the day. The ceiling joists are 2×8’s nailed together. Work will resume tomorrow to finish the last third. Overall, great progress was made on the framing today even with the hot sunny weather.

New sweeper put together and ready to clean up the grass clippings.

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Year 6, Day 110. “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 8/18/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 17. First thing this morning we got our covid vaccines. They are the 2025 ones and not the new 2026 that are being released soon. We will be on a cruise ship for a long time. Hopefully the vaccine will keep us from getting awfully sick if we pick up covid. Right up till the time they jabbed me I was questioning getting the vaccine versus not getting in. How silly, I really do not want my vacation ruined by being sick, if I can avoid it. Our last covid vaccine was July, 2025. Weather is a lot cooler. Although, it is still very sunny and the ground around the build site is dry and cracked up. The headers are all complete by the end of the day. There are a few framing things inside that can be done after the house is closed up. Cruising time is coming up soon and our house sitters are unable to work on this house. We have to get this house closed in and protected from the weather before we leave. The house is ready to start adding the ceiling joists tomorrow. All that lumber we had delivered is going on this house. There will only be a little but extra.

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Year 6, Day 109. “Living the Dream”. Monday, 8/17/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 16. Roofing material arrived today.

Trying to get this house weather tight. Need to protect the lumber. Walls are now all framed. Garage walls will be framed after we get the main house closed in. Working on headers. Today I climbed back up on the deck of the home. I am super paranoid about tripping. They did put up a nice sturdy ladder to climb in. I think it was just for me. Even now the design is changing. There will be his and her closets in the master bedroom. Another window has been added to the front of the house. We think the front of the home will look much better esthetically with another window. That will give us two windows in the master bathroom. I was concerned about the price since we were given a volume discount on the original window/door order. Lowes did give the volume discount price on the window even though we had to order it separately. We also are using a taller window over the kitchen sink and it will be set up a little higher than in the Wellington. The kitchen is super exciting for me. I have always wanted a corner pantry with a frosted glass door. This kitchen is going to be awesome.

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Year 6, Day 108. “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 8/16/2026, Clifty Hill 3. First I need to say Happy Belated 23rd Birthday to Marley Ranck the football. With all that is going on I forgot to include her in Friday’s post. Friday was her actual birthday. I am not that bad we did call and sing to her. Just forgot her on social media. I am blaming it on the whack to my head. Let me explain how she became know as the football. When she was born Justin and Bobi had just bought their first house. It needed some work so we spent time in Kentucky assisting them with refurbishing their new home. Well Marley was passed around as people took breaks. Everyone wanted to hold that sweet child. The phrase was “Hey pass me the football” or “it’s my turn to hold the football”. So Marley has always been known as the football. So there it is. Happy Birthday football.

Today was an off day. Catching up on yard work.

Then figured out roofing materials needed. We ordered all the roofing materials from Lowes. It will be arriving this week. Just checking blood pressure with a new monitor. High at Doctors and low at home. All is good.

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Year 6, Day 107. “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 8/15/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 15. The morning started out cool and foggy. Steve worked on headers until the sun just got way to hot to work anymore. Quitting time was 1pm. Three windows and a door now have headers.

Work does continue even when we are not physiccaly working on the house. We picked up a few items from Lowes in the afternoon which included our special order front door. It took two Lowes employees and Steve to load the front door. Haha you know I wasn’t helping. We got home and Steve unloaded the doors himself.

It is AMAZING how different the house looks this saturday compared to last saturday. Lots of work was accomplished this week even with the extreme high temps and scorching sun.

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Year 6, Day 106. “Living the Dream”. Friday, 8/14/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 14. All the main walls are up. There are some smaller walls that still need to go up. Tomorrow work will be putting up window and door headers. The day was super hot and we knocked off at 1pm. Way too hot. Actually, I stopped working at 9am. From 6:30am to 9:00am, I was going strong. Than bam out of commission. Miss not a physical person that I am, tripped over one of the temporary wall supports rushing to get a video of them standing a wall. I told you before about being useless around a work site. This is the proof. That was the end of my day. You probably won’t see me working again. Steve is banning me from the worksite. What a baby!!!! He says at least I didn’t damage the stud. Funny as this is even my first husband banned me from jobs in my 20’s. That time I fell in a full tray of paint. You think he was upset?

Hey, managed to get a video of a wall going up today though.

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Year 6, Day 105. “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 8/13/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 13. Woke up early this morning and on the job at 6:30am. Even I am working today. Lol. We want to get all the walls standing by tomorrow night. The first task was to remove all the nails that had the plates tacked together.

Then the top plates are separated and laid away from the wall. Either 2×6’s for the exterior walls or 2×4’s for the interior walls are lined up by the x’s marked on the plates. That was a job for Koral and I. This way Steve and Justin could come by and nail the studs to the top plates. One of the most common mistakes in building a wall is ignoring wood crowns. This was a big problem for me. Each stud has to be checked for a slight bow or curve along its edge. All those curves must go in the same direction. This keeps the finished wall flat and prevents a wavy surface. I just could not seem to get the crown the correct way. To check the crown you lift a piece of lumber, hold it at eye level, and look down the narrow edge to see if it curves up or sags. Koral could see it and caught on quick. She checked every stud and laid them the correct way to nail.

After the studs were nailed to the top plates. They were lifted into place. A level was used to ensure they were plum before being nailed in place.

Steve, Justin, Koral, and I worked well together and half the houses walls were up by the end of the day. It was a hot hot day. I ended up changing my clothes three times. I was soaked each time. No I am not an outside physical worker. Happy tonight looking at a house standing though.

After dinner we picked up our porch posts. Remember, we can’t get the roof on without having these guys in place.

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Year 6, Day 104. “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 8/12/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 12. Took Koral to the Somerset Alumni and Aquatic Center morning exercise class. She was mighty impressed with the intensity of the class. She expected it to be much easier considering the ages of the members of the class. She actually said she was the only person sweating. She will be 21 next Saturday and us old people kicked her butt. Go go go old fit people.

We then went out for Brunch at “I Love you a Brunch” in downtown Somerset, Kentucky. The restaurant was very crowded. Food and service was excellent. The restaurant had vibrant wall murals, and very friendly service.

Okay back to the home construction progress. The wall plates are completed with marks where the 2×4’s for the interior walls or the 2×6’s for the exterior walls will be nailed. We are ready to start building the walls tomorrow. We are trying to have all the walls up by Friday night

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Year 6, Day 103. “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 8/11/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 11. Another sunny horrendously hot day. The interior wall layout and wall plates are started. Rooms sizes and layouts are still being finalized.

Have to account for windows and doors. Every detail is important here.

Sill around the garage foundation is complete.

The magical fairy’s keep delivering more gifts.

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Year 6, Day 102. “Living the Dream”. Monday, 8/10/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 10. Another hot sunny day working on the 40×6 front porch. The sill is completed with metal flashing and 2×10 joists with joist hangars on each end are are going up. Need to have the porch deck up in order to do roof.

Doing a little holiday shopping. We are away alot. These containers are perfect for storing.

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Year 6, Day 101. “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 8/09/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 9. Pier posts are up for front porch. The front porch is off to a good start. We need the front porch in order to put the roof on the house.

Thinking about the roof covering.

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Year 6, Day 100. “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 8/08/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 8. We were at Lowes at 7am picking up 24, 80 pound bags of Quikrete concrete mix. Then Steve dug six pier holes for the front porch.

He mixed up one bag of concrete at a time with water to make 4000 psi concrete and poured two bags into a wheelbarrow and poured into a post hole. Four bags of mixed concrete went into each pier hole. It was half day of work out for a late lunch/early dinner. Today is basically our off day for the week. Really, a half off day.

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Year 6, Day 99. “Living the Dream”. Friday, 8/07/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 7. It is a hot hot day. The walls, doorways and closet walls are all laid out. Bottom wall plates are down.

Oh and it is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! My family certainly knows what I like.

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Year 6, Day 98. “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 8/06/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 6. . Lowes delivered an order of plywood, wire, and 2×6’s.

All the Advantech was glued and nailed to the floor joists.

While the work continued on the house, I spent the day with Reina and Spencer at Hidden River Cave & American Cave Museum. The cave and museum sits right in downtown Horse Cave, Kentucky. The nonprofit American Cave Conservation Association (ACCA) operates Hidden River Cave. Two active streams flow more than 100 feet below the surface in the cave. There are no stalagmites or stalagtites in this cave due to flooding of these streams. The running water does not allow them to grow. The walk into the cave was through a sinkhole entrance via a steep set of stairs. Our guided tour group of twenty walked 1/2 mile in and 1/2 mile out. We traveled across the world’s longest underground swinging bridge. It was so strange when you realize that there is a whole town above you as you are walking and a train goes over you also. At one point the houses are only 30 feet above the top of the cavern. Yes this is a future sinkhole. There is also a free national museum focused on cave science and environmental protection which was nice. This little cave tour certainly was more difficult then I thought it would be. There were almost 700 steps in and 700 steps out. My heart was stress tested.

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Year 6, Day 97. “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 8/05/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 5. Finished up the box sill and framed out the bassement stairwell. Big oops, forgot to cut out the stairwell when putting in the joists.

Then started gluing and nailing Advantech to the floor joists.

View from the crawl space now. No more lunch room.

New lunch room in the garage.

Summer is coming to an end and so is our build time. Alaska trip is coming quickly.

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Year 6, Day 96. “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 8/04/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 4. It is a bright beautiful day. At 8am two truck loads of building material are delivered from Lumber King.

Before I get into the building, I want to discuss my daily exercising. Family members have told me I am obsessed with my daily exercising. It is one hour a day most work days. Besides preserving muscle strength, keeping my heart strong, maintaining a healthy body weight, and warning off chronic diseases such as diabetes. The other reasons are for brain health. My mom had dementia and if moving my body through exercise helps cognitive impairment by pumping more oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to my brain cells I am doing it. Research says regular exercise 1 – Increases the size of the hippocampus, the brain area responsible for forming and storing memories. 2 – Improves your ability to plan, focus, solve problems, and switch between tasks. More and more research is being done on exercise and brain functions. Last reason is lifting weights helps with Osteoporosis. OMG – Can you tell my birthday is coming up soon? But I do want to do a healthy 70 with Steve.

Sorry now on to the building. All power equipment is running on batteries. Everynight the batteries are charged up for the next day. The advantage of using batteries is it is quieter without a generator, cost is a lot less expensive, and no pollution. It is costing 22 cents a day for our battery use and it was costing $5.00 when we used a generator.

The main Girder and all the floor joists are nailed in place. The box sill is going in quickly. In the heat of the day, sheets of Advantech are placed up on the joists. We have 55 sheets which we think will cover the floor. These 23/32-inch (Standard Subfloor) sheets weigh 78 pounds each.

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Year 6, Day 95. “Living the Dream”. Monday, 8/03/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Framing Day 3. Cooler overcast day with sprinkles of rain on and off. Great day to be working outside.

Front of the home was leveled and is ready for a large lumber delivery tomorrow morning. The main girder and floor joists are going up nicely. The joke here is I now have a pergola. Haha – they are so funnny.

Supply ordering is going along well. Things do take time to come in though. Feeling younger this afternoon. I am NOT a Baby boomer, but a Generation Jones. So not reflecting myself as a baby boomer any longer. I never felt like a baby boomer anyway. Generation Jones is a demographic generation born between 1954 and 1965. This term represents the late-wave Baby Boomers or the group right before Generation X. We were still children during the 1960s cultural shifts and missed out on events like Woodstock and fighting in the Vietnam War. We witnessed the passion of the 1960s civil rights and anti-war movements as children, but were too young to participate. We generally have an idealized worldview tempered by harsh realities. We witnessed massive institutional breaches of trust, most notably the Watergate scandal. Our generation was promised the grand prosperity of the post-war boom as children, but entered a harsh economic reality when we came of age. It also reflects the concept of “keeping up with the Joneses” We entered the workforce during the 1970s stagflation, high unemployment, double-digit mortgage rates, and recessions. This left us deeply craving—or “jonesing” for—the financial security of what our older siblings achieved. Can you guess why I am thinking about age? Yup the birthday is coming up.

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Year 6, Day 94. “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 8/02/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Half day work. Verified foundation is on size and square. It had not been checked since the first block was put down. It was another reason to celebrate with a Diet Coke. The main basement foundation is ready to build on. Main girder was started. This consists of three Southern Yellow Pine 2×12’s running the length of the house. This girder will support the weight of the home. The weight load is passed along right down to those concrete footings. It is truly amazing to think about how the work we are doing here is so important. The whole process of weight load is amazing. The joists hold the floor up and push down on the girder. The girder pushes down on the posts and the posts push down on the concrete floor and footings. From there that weight load is passed safely into the earth. In the afternoon we picked up a few more cases of Diet Coke. We expect to do a lot of celebration toasts this month.

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Year 6, Day 93. “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 8/01/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Hello August and of course it rains. Reminds me that it is time for the NJ Fair/Farm and Horse show. Always monsoons a few days during that time. Tried to work and ended up with a day off. I met up with Reina for lunch. It was so nice that of course there were no pics. Only at the very end. I said wait wait wait we have to get one picture.

Then home, where of course there is always work to be done on the new build. Might not be physical, but lots of planning goes into the project also. Today rough opening sizes for doors and window sizes had to be verified. These sizes are super important for framing this week.

Then events just catch my eye. Hey we might be in PA for this.

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Year 6, Day 92. “Living the Dream”. Friday, 7/31/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Day 40 Foundation Block Laying and last day of Foundation Block Laying. Up early to get more mortar to finish the block laying. Then onto the Aquatic center where you can tell school is starting soon. The high school marching band has started practicing. Did you know that the The Somerset Alumni Center is owned by the Somerset Independent School district. It was purchased by the Somerset Independent School District in April 2018 and fully renovated to serve both the school’s swim teams and the broader public. The front desk is mostly operated by school students. Wonder who finds the joke of the day for the welcome sign?

All foundation blocks are now up. There are over 2,125 blocks in this foundation and Steve lifted everyone. At noon Justin and Steve had a diet Coke toast to a job well done. Then it was on to adding sill seal and double 2×6 pressure treated boards and bolting those three layers down on top of the foundation walls all around.

All windows and doors are ordered.

Looking at maybe some stone work in the front of the porch. Have to convince Steve it is a great idea. Curb appeal baby, curb appeal. He says costs extra money baby costs extra money. We will see how this ends up. Bye bye Block laying and bye bye July.

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Year 6, Day 91. “Living the Dream”. Thursday, 7/30/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Day 39 Foundation Block Laying. One more block laying day after today. Then it is on to framing. We are so getting there. Trying to decide on a front door. The back door will be a larger version of the door in the lower lever of the Wellington.

Garage floor is level and ready for a concrete pour. Look at the number of Anchor bolts sitting ready to connect to the sill plate. Anchor bolts attach the wooden sill plate to the concrete foundation and lock the entire house framing down. This stops the building from sliding off the foundation during high winds or earthquakes. It also prevents strong wind gusts from lifting the roof and walls upward. No Wizard of Oz happening at this house.

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Year 6, Day 90. “Living the Dream”. Wednesday, 7/29/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Day 38 Foundation Block Laying. Wednesday morning walks with friends is great. Love walking around Somerset. Somerset is a really nice town. It offers a blend of small-town charm with a revitalized downtown featuring arts, local food, and bourbon, alongside a low cost of living and family-friendly environment.

There is always something new to discover when you walk the back streets. Did you ever have Tooter Pier. I am coming back to Downtown Deli to try it one day. It is named after Somerset native Mildred “Tooter” Ping Phelps. This explanation is from the Downtown Deli’s website https://downtowndeli.org/tooter-pie ” Tooter was a woman of simple tastes, born and raised in the picturesque town of Somerset, Kentucky. Her given name was Mildred Ping Phelps, but everyone in the tight-knit community knew her as Tooter.

Tooter’s family had a cherished secret—a treasured old-fashioned meringue pie recipe that had been handed down from her great-great-grandmother. It was a recipe born in the heart of Somerset, and it had been perfected over the years. Tooter’s pies were legendary, drawing people from far and wide.

She had learned the art of pie-making from her mother “Mom Ping”, who had learned it from her mother, and so on. Tooter’s pies were a labor of love, and every step of the process was a carefully guarded family tradition. From the flaky, buttery crust to the golden, sweet filling, and the billowing meringue topping, each pie was a work of culinary art.

Tooter’s little house on the outskirts of Somerset was always filled with the warm, inviting aroma of freshly baked pies. The town’s folks would eagerly line up at her door, waiting for their turn to savor a slice of heaven. Her meringue pies became synonymous with Somerset itself, and they were a symbol of the town’s rich history and traditions.

Tooter, with her warm smile and grandmotherly charm, became a beloved figure in Somerset. She not only served her pies to the community but also generously shared her baking wisdom with anyone who asked. She believed that traditions were meant to be cherished and passed on, just like her family’s beloved pie recipe.

As the years passed, Tooter’s reputation as the Meringue Pie Queen of Somerset grew far beyond the town’s borders. Tooter’s pies became a symbol of Southern hospitality, and people from all over the country made pilgrimages to Somerset just to taste a slice of her pie.

Though Tooter passed away peacefully one winter evening in 2023, her legacy lived on. The people of Somerset, and pie lovers everywhere, continued to make and enjoy her famous meringue pies. The recipe remained a closely guarded secret, passed down through the generations, ensuring that Tooter’s tradition would never be forgotten.

To this day, Somerset, Kentucky, remains a place where people come to savor the taste of a bygone era, thanks to a woman affectionately known as Tooter. Her old-fashioned meringue pies continue to bring joy and a sense of nostalgia to all who taste them, reminding everyone that some traditions are worth preserving for generations to come.

After walking it was back to the building site where block laying continues. Cap blocks and anchor bolts are the last of the foundation block work.

The stone in the main foundation is leveled and ready for the concrete floor pour. The french drains are all completed Today is not as humid has it has been. Block work should be completed by the end of the week. Located and uncoverered the pier footings in the garage.

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Year 6, Day 89. “Living the Dream”. Tuesday, 7/28/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Day 37 Foundation Block Laying. Nice breezy day. All eight inch blocks are now completed. Cap blocks and anchor bolts need to be done.

Basement floor is ready to be poured. It will probably not be done till the end of September.

The garage floor still needs gravel. Next load of lumber is being delivered next Tuesday. Home will be cream colored with a large front porch and six porch posts. Ordered four green wooden rocking chairs for front porch. French drains are completed and front of the home is leveled off.

Ended the day with a lot of mowing. This weather is making our grass look good.

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Year 6, Day 88. “Living the Dream”. Monday, 7/27/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Day 36 Foundation Block Laying. First thing this morning we created the next lumber list. Lumber King provided a price.

Only one and one half rows of block need to be done in the front wall of the basement.

A lot of time was spent moving more stone into the garage area and compacting it some more. It rained 1 and 3/4 inches last night and the garage settled more.

The mud is a slippery slide walking around. We now have our lunch area set up in the bedroom crawl space.

Also the front foundation wall is tarred where it will be under ground. Tomorrow we are ready to install the last of the french drain.

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Year 6, Day 87. “Living the Dream”. Sunday, 7/26/2026, Clifty Hill 3. Off day for construction. Spent the day looking at products to purchase. We need six porch posts.

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Year 6, Day 86. “Living the Dream”. Saturday, 7/25/2026, Clifty Hill 3. First thing let’s give a big shout out to this wonderful hardworking couple. Thank you for working on the concrete pour yesterday. The crawl space floor looks fantastic today.

Front of the main foundation is plastered below grade.

Sitting on the deck in the evenings is lovely, except for the sweat bees. Found a new way to keep them away from landing on my legs.

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